10 September 2015, From an Old Notebook.

There has been construction on Main Street, so I take a different way into the office, using streets I usually take on the way home. Streets are different going north-south than south-north, just as rearranging words might change the inflection but not the meaning of a sentence.

The same holds true for east-west and west-east roads, one presumes. Detroit’s hub and spoke system? Laws of normal space-time do not apply.

Not My Predecessor.

I am no way related to Augustus Woodward, the man who “planned” downtown Detroit. I descend from the Ontario Woodwards — staunch believers in right angles and the English Crown. I’m as aggrieved and disoriented as you are when I’m downtown, but please send your urban planning complaints elsewhere.

NOTE: The third paragraph of the linked entry for Augustus Woodward on the Detroit Historical Society’s website states: “Woodward’s personality made him a lightening rod for criticism and he made powerful enemies.” While this may seem like an uncanny resemblance to me, please remember that A. Woodward died a bachelor in Florida.

God save the Queen.