In Ohio for a few days visiting family in and around the Snow Belt.

Some things never change. The Indians lost a game in the ninth inning a few minutes after my flight landed, so at least that was the same as always. And the weather is intolerable, which it usually is here, so that felt familiar.

Most of all, the conversion of the remaining bits of greenspace into a vast shopping imperium continues unabated. The small town I grew up in, which once had empty expanses of woods between little neighborhoods of small homes, is now a strip mall fiesta, one of the leading retail destinations in the entire state. The new Taco Bell is incredibly shiny. Really. Much nicer than the schools. If Taco Bell ever decides to become a religion, I now know what the cathedrals will look like.

Not far away, the newest megamall is another in the current fad of simulated-town monstrosities which architecturally remap selfish consumption as a form of community. Its actual name, which to me sounds like self-parody: Legacy Village. As if the great legacy of our forebears, one we will proudly fight to pass to our children, is the right to eat at Cheesecake Factory.

This is just a middle-aged guy looking at his old hometown and saying it’s not what it used to be. Doesn’t make it less true.

And over there, there were apple orchards…