chicago or bust!
This was a good idea.
2536 N Clark St, Chicago IL
Get the peanut butter nutella. Or anything.
And there’s a sprinkle bar.
Do it do it do it.
Again, a day off, and again, important news you need to know from your favorite couch in Chicago!
First, from the BBC: a headline from the 17th century?
Sure might’ve been, but they didn’t exactly post things on the internet back then. Nope, this is a headline from today, 2009. I still can’t quite get over it. Kind of makes all those pirate jokes whose punch line is something that rhymes with “yarrrr” seem kind of insensitive.
Next, I’m not usually much of a youtuber, but this is actually really worth a watch:
I first read the article on the BBC and then checked it out – now with over 8 million hits and counting, this woman, Susan Boyle, is both fascinating and inspiring… watching the looks on everyone’s faces change from bemusement to shock to awe is totally entertaining, and even Simon Cowell, like, smiled and said nice things. I don’t watch American Idol, but I know enough about the world to know that that’s rare.
Next, on a totally different note, LVC, the volunteer program I did last year, came up in an article in USA Today! But not just any article…
… an article written by our very own first lady Michelle Obama. Now that’s pretty cool.
And finally, from the BBC, the most eye-catching, no-that’s-not-a-joke headline I’ve seen in a long time:
Apparently, the 13 foot long python actually dragged the man up a tree, which we apparently didn’t really know snakes could do. The man smothered the snake’s face with his t-shirt, and, as you probably guessed from the title, bit it. The whole thing lasted three hours. Yikes!
Ok, that’s all you need to know about what’s going on in the world today. Oh, and pay your taxes. Unless you’re Timothy Geithner, of course.
Book club postponed until next Wednesday. Fine. I’m going out for cupcakes.
What do you think, peanut butter nutella or key lime? Call in the next 10 minutes if you have any strong feelings either way…
I totally meant to resurrect the blog on Monday with some flying, fabulous endorsement. And Mac has a Tuesday post all ready to go, all he has to do is click “publish.” He didn’t. Oh well.
The real problem, you see, is that for that my book club meets tonight, and for the last 48 hours, I’ve been trying to finish this book. This doesn’t mean I’ve spent 48 hours reading, just that I’ve spent 48 hours thinking that I ought to be reading, not updating the blog or nagging Mac to update the blog or anything like that. So the blog has been unresurrected from its week long nap until now, Wednesday. Just in time for some food.
Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get a retroactive techy post at some point today, and I’m happy to report that I’ve only got 44 pages left to read, having already polished off 70 this morning, and 9.5 whole hours left to read them. Piece of cake.
No, this is not some techy thing from an actual different country, as the title might lead you to believe…. it’s Shana’s first ever Tech Tuesday post! Don’t worry though, pigs are not flying, this is as much “alternative transportation” related as it is techy.
Anyway, check it out: this morning, Autoweek (yeah, I definitely don’t read Autoweek, it was forwarded to me) featured the following headline:
… with a gallery full of pictures, including this one:
yeah baby
You know, a lot of us have been saying for a long time that you don’t need a whole big, gas guzzling car to go five blocks up the road and pick up a bag of groceries – cars are, as the article states, “overengineered” for a lot of everyday situations. This baby can reach speeds up to 35mph and lasts for about 35 miles between charges… yep, that’ll get you to the g-store and back, with a lot less wasted along the way.
Anyway, they’re apparently not actually legal to drive on either streets or sidewalks at this point… which leaves us with… golf courses? Just so long as it’s not bike lanes. Anyway, they’re not commercially available yet, we’ve got lots of time to iron out logistics.
Also, on totally unrelated note, my birthday’s in September, so… if you haven’t decided what you’re getting me yet… 
1. Napping
2. Winking
3. The awesome new quilt my mom made us
Happy Monday.
Hey there.
I recognize I’ve been doing a lot of “place” name dropping lately… oh, I was in Beijing before the Olympics, oh, I was in Oslo a few years ago, and I wasn’t even that impressed, oh, I used to live in Iowa… blah blah blah…
In the interest of humility, mostly so as not to alienate those of you who potentially find this annoying, I would like to share a story from a couple days ago at work…
I’m standing there at the register, in my little outfit with my little hat (love the hats), :-\ and in come these two guys. With just ever so slight an accent, they order their drinks and some scones, and when it comes time to pay, the one guy holds out a fist full of change and asks me to help him count out 46 cents. This actually happens a lot, since we’re right off the Mag Mile and we get a lot of tourists. As he held out his hand, he said, “Sorry, I’m from Norway, I don’t know these coins well yet.”
“Oh,” I said, “Norway!”
“Yep,” he said.
“You know,” I said, “Edvard Munch is in town!” like, you should totally give him a call and see if he want to hang out and like, talk Norwegian or something!
But he was nice, he said he’d seen ads and thought it was kind of funny to have a big Norwegian arts thing in Chicago while he was here too.
Oslo, Norway.
I said, “Where in Norway are you from?”
And he said, “Oslo.”
And I said, “I was in Oslo two summers ago!”
And he said, “… yeah… me too.”
Guess he didn’t want to be friends. Then we had a bit of a rush and I totally forgot to get their scones (sigh) and when they reminded me, after the rush was over, I felt so silly that I opted against telling him that I have the exact same Patagonia polartec hoodie he was wearing – maybe my best move of the whole exchange. At this point, it would’ve been just creepy.
At least he didn’t try talk to me in Norwegian. My Norwegian is about as… nonexistent, I guess, as his English was existent. I did get a Scandinavian phrase book, from the bookstore off Trafalgar Square in London, before I flew out, but I left it on a train in Stockholm…
(To be totally fair, the whole time I was in Oslo, the weather was terrible, and it was at the end of my trip, and I was tired, etc., and I really did think some of their stuff was pretty funky cool, in a good way, of course. This guy not among them.)
More than just corn fields and rolling hills and bluffs by the river, more than stunning, sweeping vistas, bald eagles and morning glories and friendly, friendly people, more than just the state I’m proud to have called home for a year and a half,
… Iowa becomes today the third state in the union to overturn the ban on gay marriage, and for that reason, all of Iowa is receiving this week’s coveted Gold Star.
Perhaps you never thought of Iowa as particularly cutting edge. Well, think again. Despite the stereotypes about cornfields and only cornfields, Iowans have always seen themselves as ahead of the curve: As Iowa goes, so goes the nation, they say, right? They were right on Obama a year ago, and hopefully they’re right on this too. From the ruling, as quoted in the New York Times:
“Since territorial times, Iowa has given meaning to this constitutional provision [of equality], striking blows to slavery and segregation, and recognizing women’s rights. The court found the issue of same-sex marriage comes to it with the same importance as the landmark cases of the past.”
Iowa now joins Connecticut and Massachusetts as the first states to uphold same sex marriage. It is, as you can see, also the first state in the Midwest to do so. Quoth one of the activists involved in the suit:
“We are blessed to live in Iowa.”
Indeed. A big fan of wide open spaces and corn fields and friendly people myself, I’ve always felt this way. And today Iowa has done me proud once again. Pay attention, other states! Iowa is makin’ moves.
Ooooh, Chicago is all abuzz these days. As many of you (Chicago residents for sure) know, Chicago is one of four cities still in the running to host the Olympics in the summer of 2016. Olympic hopefuls (hopeful to host, not compete) have been flying high ever since Barack Obama became the coolest thing ever, figuring that pretty much clinched our bid. And now, today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is coming to town.
Of course, not everyone in Chicago is excited about the idea of Chicago hosting the Olympics. Like the people whose houses are going to be torn down to build the Olympic Village, or the people whose taxes are going up to pay for the houses being torn down… the police are actually leading the protests, if you can imagine that, taking advantage of this opportunity to highlight their discontent over contract negotiations with our fair mayor, Mr. Daley. Others simply say they would really like it if Chicago spend money on things like education and housing before taking on this additional responsibility. I wonder how the protesting in Chicago compares with the reaction the other bid cities (Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro), and if this is pretty common when a city considers hosting a major international event involving lots of capital and infrastructure investment…
I was actually in Beijing in the late fall of 2005, as they were really getting going on their Olympic prep work for 2008. They were already selling t-shirts and were halfway through remodeling national landmarks, not to mention tearing down hutongs and the like. China tried for a whole etiquette makeover too – when I was there, they were handing out brochures to locals to teach them about Western manners so as to make a good impression – things like shaking hands and not spitting all the time and the like. Very interesting.
November 2005, off Tiananmen Square
Anyway, the IOC is coming to town, and with such sports heros as Michael Jordan and Oprah (?) on their side, the Chicago 2016 folks are all geared up to show the boys around town and see what they think. Everything downtown is covered in Olympics ads or protest flyers. With all this tension in the air, all the e-mails and news articles flying, I don’t know how much longer I can take it til someone makes a decision!
Sadly, here’s the news on that front:
(minus however many seconds/minutes/hours, etc, it’s been since 8:56pm on Thursday) Aaahhh!!
Fortunately, Mac and I came up with an impromptu song for the day to help cut the anticipation, and it goes like this:
Shana: Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry
Mac: Cry!
Shana: You better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why
Mac: Why!?!
Shana: The IOC is comin’ to town.
Still Shana: They’re makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice
Mac: Twice!
Shana: Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice
Mac: Nice!
Shana: The IOC is comin’ to town!
Mac: Hey, hun? I’m actually on the phone…
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