Sunday at the Mall

For the Sunday before Christmas, the traffic at Highland Mall wasn't all that bad this afternoon. Perhaps that's because Highland is no longer the destination it once was.

It's not like they've let it all go to hell, though. The anchor stores (Foley's, Dillard's, JCPenney) are still there, as are most of the usual suspect stores like Foot Locker, B. Dalton and Hot Topic. Highland won't blow anyone away, but I'm not the kind of person who gets blown away by malls. I'm just glad it's close.

The Recliners were playing lounge music out in front of JCPenney, which was pretty fun. They did holiday tunes, of course, but the Recliners' meat and potatoes are easy listening covers of AC/DC, the Ramones and the like. I was surprised how well the mall acoustics suited their Rat Pack-style rendition of Radiohead's "Creep."

Highland also had a good mall Santa with a real white beard and everything. It was nice to see Santa as a bystander, but the line to sit in his lap was quite long and I was hella glad not to be in it either as a child or a parent. Being Santa must be a hard job. The germ thing alone would freak me right out.

Every mall in America has a Deck the Walls, but Highland Mall also has a place called Happy Arts. I can understand selling those office motivational posters that make me want to vomit a river of blood, but I can't figure out why a place called "Happy Arts" would sell pictures of the Last Supper, Ground Zero and veterans consoling each other at the Vietnam Memorial. That's not the sort of thing that ties your breakfast nook together.