SST: I Got a New Way to Walk

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

Just down the street from my apartment is the intersection of Nixon Road and Huron Parkway. Until recently it was a four-way stop, which was just fine since the spot has only a moderate amount of traffic. However, somebody didn't think that a four-way stop was good enough, so they completely ripped up the intersection, as well as a block of road in every direction for good measure. After more than two months of construction and annoying detours (preventing me from seeing my beloved fence mural), they finally unveiled their new creation: a roundabout. And not just any roundabout - I've never seen so many directional signs and arrows and giant crosswalk signs and lights at one intersection. It's such overkill that people have a hard time figuring out whose turn it is to enter, so you frequently see cars just waiting for everyone else to clear out even though they have the right of way. Plus they've planted some nice young shade trees in the middle of the roundabout, so when they grow up they will nicely diminish visibility as cars for cars entering the roundabout.

But the highlight of the roundabout is the stylish red brick crosswalk for the pedestrians as they ease on down the road. I was thinking that ridiculous roundabout on Sunday when I ran into Kara Stowers, who made an SST request. Her selection struck me as apropos, so here it is:



Kara also informed about a remake with Destiny's Child, which I thought was pretty good. But since I strive to make SST an Elmo-free zone, I will refrain from directly embedding the clip here. I also discovered another version from 1993 with an unlikely collection of celebrity cameos (Rosie O'Donnell! Maya Angelou! Garth Brooks! Sally Jesse Raphael!). Unfortunately, both of those versions downplay the celebration of pedestrianism found in the original.

P.S. I'd like to thank Seth for filling in for me last week (quite admirably, I might add). I usually write my SST posts on Monday evening and they schedule them to post themselves just after midnight, but I may want to rethink my SST schedule since last Monday I broke my arm and then tonight as I wrote this I threw up twice (no more tacos for me for a while). But don't worry - I'll fight through the adversity and SST will go on.