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Boo Hoo, Princess
Oct. 2nd, 2009 08:08 pmI honestly didn't want the Olympics to come here, but when Chicago got voted out in the very first round, my civic pride reared up and said, "Hey! No dissing my city! We are way more awesome than dead last!"
Oh, well. Maybe Daley can get back to actually running the city now instead of obsessing about an Olympic dream that belonged to no one but him.
Oh, well. Maybe Daley can get back to actually running the city now instead of obsessing about an Olympic dream that belonged to no one but him.
Another One Bites the Dust
May. 20th, 2009 09:24 pmKiddieland amusement park in Melrose Park is closing after 81 years. It was a tiny little family-owned amusement park that catered to small children. Basically, you outgrew the place before your age hit double digits, but it was great for little kids (I think the scariest ride there was the tilt-a-whirl). I grew up right down the street from it, so my grandparents took me all the time. They took my dad when he was a kid, too.
When I was little, Kiddieland was the place to have a birthday party. The park owned a decommissioned fire truck, and if you had a certain number of kids at your party and lived close enough, they'd come out in the fire truck and give all the kids from the party a ride to the park.
And now it's going to close forever in September. I almost wish I had a kid to take for one last visit.
When I was little, Kiddieland was the place to have a birthday party. The park owned a decommissioned fire truck, and if you had a certain number of kids at your party and lived close enough, they'd come out in the fire truck and give all the kids from the party a ride to the park.
And now it's going to close forever in September. I almost wish I had a kid to take for one last visit.
I am so sick of companies from outside Chicago coming here and buying our landmarks, then naming them after themselves like our history and traditions mean nothing. Sears hasn't been in the Sears Tower for 20 years, but all the other occupants managed to leave well enough alone. Now some British company has bought it and is renaming it Willis Tower. And they want to paint it silver. I think I'm going to be sick. The Willis execs clearly need to talk to the Macy's people about how much good will they're about to engender. But, hey, what do we know? We're just a bunch of Midwestern hicks who've never been to a big, important city like London or New York.
Okay, this post was intended to be a Supernatural review, but apparently I need a tissue for my issue.
Okay, this post was intended to be a Supernatural review, but apparently I need a tissue for my issue.
Tourist In My Own Hometown
Jun. 1st, 2008 07:48 pmI'm originally from Chicago, but I live in the suburbs now. My dad and his wife are in town visiting and wanted to do downtowny things, so we spent much of the day on the museum campus.
The Field Museum of Natural History has two new temporary exhibits going right now, one on mythical creatures and one on natural disasters. The mythical creatures exhibit was okay. There was some good stuff in there (I especially liked the sea monster section), but there was a lot of reading material attached to each display and the text was a little on the dry side.
The natural disasters exhibit was much cooler. There was a spot where you could stomp on the floor and see the results on a seismograph, and there was also a panel where you could flip levers to choose gas and rock content, then push a button to see an animation of the type of volcano you just created. The tornado section included footage from the first video probe ever to be hit dead on by a tornado displayed on 360° screens so you could watch the twister come right at you and recede away behind you, and a bunch of debris from the Greensburg, Kansas, EF5 tornado that I mentioned in my post about the Severe Storms Seminar at Fermilab this year. The debris was accompanied by pictures of it where it was found.
After lunch, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. There were no special exhibits going on, but there was a new baby beluga whale in the Oceanarium. I also like watching the rays, and there was a baby stingray in the central reef exhibit. It was very cute. We also spent some time just sitting on the benches outside the Shedd and watching the boats on the lake because it was such a nice day.
We finished off the day with dinner at The Italian Village. The food there is amazing. The décor is a little dark (I needed a flashlight to read the menu), but the walls are painted with Italian townscapes and there are little twinkling lights set into the walls and ceiling to mimic stars in the night sky.
We got home late and we're all pooped, but I had a good time.
The Field Museum of Natural History has two new temporary exhibits going right now, one on mythical creatures and one on natural disasters. The mythical creatures exhibit was okay. There was some good stuff in there (I especially liked the sea monster section), but there was a lot of reading material attached to each display and the text was a little on the dry side.
The natural disasters exhibit was much cooler. There was a spot where you could stomp on the floor and see the results on a seismograph, and there was also a panel where you could flip levers to choose gas and rock content, then push a button to see an animation of the type of volcano you just created. The tornado section included footage from the first video probe ever to be hit dead on by a tornado displayed on 360° screens so you could watch the twister come right at you and recede away behind you, and a bunch of debris from the Greensburg, Kansas, EF5 tornado that I mentioned in my post about the Severe Storms Seminar at Fermilab this year. The debris was accompanied by pictures of it where it was found.
After lunch, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. There were no special exhibits going on, but there was a new baby beluga whale in the Oceanarium. I also like watching the rays, and there was a baby stingray in the central reef exhibit. It was very cute. We also spent some time just sitting on the benches outside the Shedd and watching the boats on the lake because it was such a nice day.
We finished off the day with dinner at The Italian Village. The food there is amazing. The décor is a little dark (I needed a flashlight to read the menu), but the walls are painted with Italian townscapes and there are little twinkling lights set into the walls and ceiling to mimic stars in the night sky.
We got home late and we're all pooped, but I had a good time.
