they drove old dixie down

As usual, the prediction department at towers of ilium was wrong. No one else quit or was fired in Washington aside from Jim Comey. All in all, it was a slow news week.

The topic today, fortunately, is architecture (not the Civil War). The capacity for repair is nearly unlimited. We can fix just about anything, given enough time and resources--and most importantly, a disregard for the economics of thing being fixed. Restoration is about nostalgia and romanticism. So, at what point in time do we assign the role of "ruin" to a building? Lack of occupancy can be remedied by repair. Fire can be remarkably effective, unless the major part of a structure is fire resistant. A heap of stones in the wilderness is the pinnacle of romantic achievement and a strong argument for selective abandonment--unless it threatens human welfare by increasing states of dilapidation.