Destination shopping! That's the ticket.

As St. Paul wonders what to do with its old Dayton's building - sorry, the iconic Daytons building - Minneapolis zoning solons are grappling with the Neiman Marcus site. The new tenant doesn't want retail. The city wants retail. Says the new tenant, according to Business Journal:

At first one thinks: CVS would be a step down from Neiman Marcus. On the other hand, Neiman Marcus didn't make enough money to keep the store open. There aren't many CVS-type stores in the area. People who live downtown might not object. It's not high-end speciality destination shopping, no. But it would be better than office space. And better than nothing.

The article cites the city's brief against the variance, which says there's been retail on the block since 1890. A bit earlier, perhaps; the site was occupied by the Syndicate Building, construction of which began in 1885. The building survived, more or less, until they knocked it down for the Gaviidae Expansion.

This was the final incarnation: the metal-shrouded Penney's facade, which had a pinkish hue, if I recall correctly.

SANITY IN THE SKIES All those electronics which are really, really dangerous to planes during take-off and landing? Nevermind:

Great! No phone calls but iPods permitted. The NYT article notes:

Why so long? Because it'll take months to untrain the flight attendants who've acted like you're putting 300 people at risk by looking at a Kindle? Let's go to the comments:

CRIME Another one of those "Jack the Ripper case finally solved" stories. This one has a twist: there was no such thing as Jack the Ripper.

I liked this quote from the author of the new theory:

Yes: imagine someone in a white dinner jacket with tails swanning around Hell's Kitchen in 1915. I don't think any of the local toughs would shrink away, saying "such aristocratic dress in these parts surely means he is a fearsome killer whose horrible crimes are characterized by a surgical skill that speaks of considerable intelligence." That said, the article notes that some of the crimes were done by a German seaman, who probably did more here and there. So, Johann the Ripper. But Jack? Made up by a newspaperman.

That's the theory du jour, anyway.

THE WORST DECADE EVER This is either proof of how the concept of "cool" is different for every generation, or a very short documentary about the decline of popular music:

Likewise for TV: oh, a golden age! All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore! Right. Well, consider the following compilation of short-lived sitcoms themes. I swear: growing up, everything was like this.

That's Ted Knight up there. One of the last ones looks like something from a parallel universe, where Fred Sanford never existed, and some strange Not-Redd ran a hotel instead of a junkyard. Wikipedia explains:

In case you were wondering whether Sanford Arms was canon or not.

PAGING DR. JONES Poor Etruscans. The Romans get all the press. Perhaps this will help to rekindle interest

"Fascinating" because we know so little. More here at Discovery.com.