Chicago

Eclipse of the City of the Sun

July 18, 2011

In southern Illinois, just East of St. Louis, you can walk on and among the remains of a great prehistoric civilization. Built a thousand years ago, it was once the largest city in North America – as big or bigger than Paris or London at the time. Between 15,000 and 40,000 lived here. Too big […]

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A Kindle Does Not A Library Make

June 7, 2011

The library is where I learned to dream. As a child, could you imagine walking through these portals to Fantasyland? This is the entrance to what was my local library – the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza. It was here I learned about the responsibilities of borrowing and returning […]

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Hail Mary To The Chief

April 7, 2011

Regime change is about to happen in my adopted city of Chicago.  We will be Daley-less for the first time since 1989 – a whopping 22 years. While Rahmbo is trying to figure out his way to the patronage lists, there will be a small municipal power vacuum – kind of like skin ripping off […]

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Old MacDonald Meets AOL

March 5, 2011

Prices for farmland here in the Midwest are soaring, says the New York City-based newspaper of record. Up as much as 23 percent year on year for the prime stuff. And while I live in Illinois, a state that is corporate home to some of the world’s biggest multinational agribusiness operators in part because it […]

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The Groundhog Day Blizzard

February 5, 2011

“…make the narrative a combined Diary and Autobiography.  In this way you have the vivid things of the present to make a contrast with memories of like things in the past, and these contrasts have a charm which is all their own.  No talent is required to make a combined Diary and Autobiography interesting.” Autobiography […]

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Ergo Sum

January 22, 2011

Look, I am not claiming supernatural powers. Its just that stuff happens.  It follows me around. And with no one else stepping forward to claim credit, I figure – why the heck not me. For instance,  my ever changing, adopted Sweet Home Chicago was recently crowned the Traffic Congestion King of America. Huzzah! And who […]

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Externalities

November 17, 2010

They say it was unusually strong November storm.  But it last happened just three years ago. The temperature climbed to almost 70 today before seasonal air masses collided –  and tornadoes spun their devastation in Illinois – touching down in several towns, killing at least three people… The effects were felt in downtown Chicago as […]

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The Most Prestigious Address in the World

October 15, 2010

The distinctive yellow of the taxis.  The tumble of people and languages on the streets. The smells of the sidewalk right after the late summer shower. A sensory bombardment of images and memories that could only occur in this one place. Every corner, if it hits me the right way, reminds me of my past.  […]

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Touching The Sphinx

October 3, 2010

If  you visit the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park in Los Angeles on a public viewing night,  you are encouraged to look into the heavens through actual galaxy penetrating telescopes.  Griffith J. Griffith thought the perspective of plain, ordinary people might be broadened if the common (wo)man were able to have free access to the […]

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