AOL's logo, "The Running Man" (not to be confused with the book of the same name, which in turn is not to be confused with the movie of the same name) is gone from the window in Rockefeller Center.

Walmart is changing its logo.

From this:

To this:

MSN wonders out loud: "What does Wal-Mart's new logo mean?"

""(The new sunburst) looks organic. My sense is they are trying to say, 'we're an eco-aware company,'" says Marty Neumeier, president of Neutron, a branding firm in San Francisco."

This is the same school of thought in which a train disappearing in a tunnel symbolizes travel.

It's abundantly clear what the source of inspiration of this logo's designers was: this passage from Kurt Vonnegut's classic "Breakfast of Champions"

"To give an idea of the maturity of my illustrations for this book, here is my picture of an asshole: "

To quote two other modern classics:

"It means "grease your little cornholes""

Has it been 5 years? Don't know. Sometimes it feels like it happened last year, sometimes - many years ago, and sometimes - like it never happened at all. My mind often fills the horrible void in the skyline with two ghostly towers and that brings me some comfort. I really can't believe that the towers, and along with them somewhat simpler times are gone. To some images of the Twins might be unsettling, but I treasure them.

A few days ago I was leafing through my old issues of Silicon Alley Reporter, Jason McCabe Calacanis' failed dot com rah-rah magazine. Almost every single issue carried this ad by the Alliance for Downtown New York.

The alliance changed it's logo, like so many other companies.

I think that a logo redesign is the same thing as being ashamed of the past. I salute every company that kept the original logo. It does not really matter what happened. The World Trade Center will keep standing, even if only in our minds.

This, of course, is only my opinion. Let me know what you would have done by voting in my latest poll.