I direct you to deadmall.com, my new favorite waste of time. Fascinating, especially the glossary, which gives the definition of labelscar, which is that dirt and crud left from a sign or store; like when they move shelves at the grocery store? Anyway, they are 'readable'...the current archeology of dead retail spaces. But here's the best new word:

Mallmanac: A map which lists names of stores and diagrams the layout of a mall. This word is a Sniglet, which is "a word that should be in the dictionary, but isn't".

A definition within a definition! And now I have to figure out the word for the words you create from mashing together two words, like mandals, showmance, fraudience, and now...mallmanac.

My favorite part was the detailed submission regarding Toledo's Northtowne Square Mall, which I went to exactly twice, once for a discount movie and once to see my friend's boyfriend who worked at Scooter's Skate Shop. As the author charts the slow death by retail abandonment and gang infestation, he notes that among the remaining stores is "...a Deb store which, by all accounts, does terrific business." It's like Rainbow here in Chicago EXCEPT Deb's storefront is of quilted metallic plastic and neon signage. There was one at Southwyck; Southwyck is one of three dead malls in the Toledo area, and it's brown dome is pictured above.

I feel more sentimental and connected to the ebb and flow of culture when learning about dead malls then I do, say, listening to nostalgia radio--music doesn't stay fixed to a time, for me, and I didn't stay at a school or neighborhood enough to get fully immersed. But the malls of Toledo, my friends, they are my museums. Que Madonna's heartbreaking "This Used to be my Playground." Grab those bags by the plastic handles and have a fountain pop in hand. This was my childhood.