.
There is some weird stuff hidden in corners of this city. I was driving near the Arch last weekend, hoping to refresh my photo inventory. The Mississippi was just above flood stage from all the recent rain in the Midwest, so the floodgates near the Arch were closed. I detoured down a back street and noticed this. Screech to a halt and whip out camera.
Say what? Sputnik was history's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. The name is just the Russian word for satellite. What did that have to do with an old warehouse on the St. Louis riverfront? I nosed around some more and found a sign on a door that said Sputnik Importing. Odd name. Even more odd when I found the company's web site, promoting "vintage clothing and modern furniture," most of which looks like thrift store kitsch. And yet even more odd: although the site lists two addresses in St. Louis and nowhere else, most of the text is in Japanese. I'd like to pay a call on them. Konichiwa!
There is some weird stuff hidden in corners of this city. I was driving near the Arch last weekend, hoping to refresh my photo inventory. The Mississippi was just above flood stage from all the recent rain in the Midwest, so the floodgates near the Arch were closed. I detoured down a back street and noticed this. Screech to a halt and whip out camera. Say what? Sputnik was history's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. The name is just the Russian word for satellite. What did that have to do with an old warehouse on the St. Louis riverfront? I nosed around some more and found a sign on a door that said Sputnik Importing. Odd name. Even more odd when I found the company's web site, promoting "vintage clothing and modern furniture," most of which looks like thrift store kitsch. And yet even more odd: although the site lists two addresses in St. Louis and nowhere else, most of the text is in Japanese. I'd like to pay a call on them. Konichiwa!
