Driving home the other day, we passed a structure right near the highway in Providence, an eye-catching cobalt blue building made of shipping containers. It was intriguing enough that I looked it up - it turns out to be a little office building, called The Box Office. Totally cunning, and according to NPR, it was about half the cost to build as an ordinary building would have been.Then, in today's paper, in one of those moments of synchronicity, there was an obituary for - wait for it - the inventor of the shipping container, one Keith Tantlinger. Given that yesterday I was rooting around on the intertubes trying to find the containerized office building, I felt compelled to read the obituary, all 1220 words of it. It was worth it, for this sentence alone:
Tens of millions of shipping containers roam the world today, filled with lumber, coal and hay, not to mention computers and cars.
Tell me, are you not now imagining a container bursting at the seams with hay, while you sing Low Bridge, Everybody Down?
So beautiful. And I love that sentence. I am an avid Times obituary reader on Sundays. I like discovering people's odd accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteWhat does Spotify offer over Pandora, btw?
Interesting. I've driven through Providence a gazillion times and have never seen that. It's really neat looking.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am too busy thinking about the containers roaming the world!
ReplyDeletewhat a great building, i think i saw it or a similar one on one of those home shows. i guess it's sorta a pain to insulate. but it looks (pre) fab.
ReplyDeleteLove that photo. (And the obit.) I took my old point and shoot with me to Atlanta and regret it mightily. It's only my big DSLR from now on. : )
ReplyDeleteActually, I am picturing shipping containers lowing and "roaming" the open prairie along with the deer and the antelope.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about a container lumbering, elephantlike, around the world full of stuff.
ReplyDeleteT.