✶✶✶✶ Chicago MMXIV ✶✶✶✶

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa356/fugexlac/chicago_big_zpsb5f26a8a.jpg

Hi

Sorry to disrupt snow-talk but I took that pic on Sunday and rly wanted to use it.

a+

???? ????

They should be 6-pointed stars, update yr charset

Your charset is too tight.

damn how do you people live in this arctic tundra

went to Publican last weekend, yum!

Since this is a lesser cold streak than earlier in the month, I'm going to defy it. Which means running at least 3 times this week.

The only thing keeping me alive is the idea that spring will definitely come eventually. That and a few other things, but mostly that.

I am already tired of winter and it's only January 21st.

You mean already January 21.

Milestone dates for winter haters:

02/26 - Historical average daily high temp reaches 40
03/09 - Time change
03/20 - First day of spring
03/21 - Historical average daily low temp above freezing
03/23 - Historical average daily high temp reaches 50
04/16 - Historical average daily high temp reaches 50

TBH, January has gone by quickly for me. Still, February typically awful. Keeping these dates in mind helps me focus on what is to come. But then it can still fuck with me and snow in April like it did last year.

Whoops, typo in the last one, meant 60.

http://i.imgur.com/I3jzYmQ.png

Great picture, Dan!

Hi new thread!

Hi friends. I have been on a little ILX break this month and now I have a new job starting in February so I'll probably be continuing my ILX break for a bit. But I like being in touch with you so please email if there's anything going on, and I'll at least be lurking. Just imaging me floating around like an internet ghost.

Yes, that's a very nice pic, Dan.

I'm normally OK w/ winter but this winter has been trying.

Hi NA. I was just searching for a Space Ghost video and "internet ghost" reminded me of Space Ghost so now I'm going to share w/ you one of my favorite things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-P6EolKb90

hi NA are you still working in the same neighborhood? its a shame we never got lunch or w/e

I'll still be in the Loop, but in the northeast corner instead of the southwest corner. I'm here for another week or so if you want to have a business meeting lunch about business.

have your people call etc

Are you guys familiar w/ the Urantia Foundation? Their HQ is directly across the street from my home.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2884/12072695565_c6f24dd7e8.jpg

The just put up that flag, which led me to finally google them. It's an odd organization, but not as creepy as I expected (hoped).

The main purpose of the foundation is to provide for the dissemination of The Urantia Book and to ensure that the text remains as unaltered as possible.

The authors introduce the word "Urantia" as the name of the planet Earth and state that their intent is to "present enlarged concepts and advanced truth."[1][2] The book aims to unite religion, science and philosophy,[3] and its enormous amount of material about science is unique among literature claimed to be presented by celestial beings.[2] Among other topics, the book discusses the origin and meaning of life, mankind's place in the universe, the relationship between God and people, and the life of Jesus. It has been described as "a rich and complex moral narrative, equal parts Tolkien and St. Paul."[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book

Sounds like How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?

Ha yeh.

I was hoping it was a cult. That would have added interest to my duller days. And it would have made me more popular w/ Leticia L. Lechuga.

I dunno, uniting us with celestial beings via Tolkien and Jesus sounds just fruity enough for me.

Yeah for real.

I'm normally OK w/ winter but this winter has been trying.

It's not been trying for me in the same way summer can be, but I feel very sad that so much of my leave has been spent cooped up inside bc of the weather. The handful of times Ivy and I have go out have been so delightful.

I think she's hearty enough to go outside more now if it were high 20s but waiting for a bus/train in the teens/single digits seems like a bad idea if I can avoid it.

i am just barely hardy enough to go out in this
i feel like a dried up leaf just waiting for my leaf bones to crumble
need sunlight/warmth/to not wear this gigantic worm coat anymore

Yeah, I wish I had the constitution or fortitude or shining optimism or whatever it is that's possessed by the people who get jazzed for this weather. It's like someone vandalized the outdoors.

the snow is up to my waist in the backyard
my WAIST

that's like 2 feet of snow

Just passed 200" inches on the season back home.

two hundred redundant inches

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID

the snow is up to my waist in the backyard

That's incredible. How is that possible? It has to be b/c of drifting, right?

Or did your area get significantly more snow than where I live and work?

Both I think! Definitely drifting, but also amazing shit tons of snow.

Is anyone else just not getting mail? We haven't gotten any mail in at least a week, maybe more like a week and a half. I would assume there was just no mail for us except we were supposed to get a Netflix last Thursday and it hasn't come and the estimated delivery dates on those are pretty much always accurate.

Our mail was a bit fucked up after the Cold of Doom, but it's been back to normal for the last couple weeks.

Ours has been really intermittant since the Poehler Vortex. My New Yorkers have been coming like a week late and we'll go 3-4 days without anything and then everything all at once.

Mail delivery in Chicago has always been a bit laissez faire, in my experience.

It's usually pretty reliable at our apartment, which is what makes it weird. I just submitted a complaint form on their website so I'm sure that will fix everything right up.

Now your mail carrier is going to poop in your mail box wtg

I think our mail has been pretty normal? I think it's unusual to get no mail, not even junk, for a week and a half for sure, though. We at least get some kind of sales paper or charity solicitation bullshit every day.

We had a couple of days of mail.

I got a call back, apparently it's a problem with the carrier's access to our building specifically, so I passed it on to the landlord.

wow, that's service!

is your door jamming because of the cold

I don't think so? It's something to do with the mail carrier master key and our lock. I haven't had any problem getting in.

for the record i am a fan of the US postal service

i just found an apple that was as old as the moon inside my desk drawer

so gross

A few weeks ago I reached into my work bag and squished my finger into a soft tangerine that had been in there for too long. This is why I don't eat enough fruit.

oooh i know the feeling

Some people at my work were talking about this place and it looks insane: http://www.kingspa.com/c-about.php

Yeah that place rules

my friend loves that place but i've only been to the sauna on montrose (paradise!)

ive been to both and paradise on montrose is like a fleabag motel compared to king spa's resort hotel... and they cost around the same!

bring a water bottle though... the dry saunas really really dry you out

yeah
but i like the idea that i won't see anyone i know at the fleabag

does everyone walk around naked at kingspa?

also take the MEDICAL BENEFITS plaques posted all around w/ a grain of salt obv

does everyone walk around naked at kingspa?

― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Wednesday, January 22, 2014 1:38 PM (30 seconds ago)

the dry saunas (all 11 or 12 of them) are co-ed, as is the cafe, the movie theater, and the nap room (!!) and you have to wear the shorts/t-shirt uniform they provide

the baths/steam/showers are mandatory nudity, save for a towel

For the ladies: I rep hard for Thousand Waves Spa on Belmont. Muuuuch smaller than these look but really pleasant.

My old boss was a bug fan of Kings Spa. Any relaxing that occurred would be totally undone by having to drive back from Niles, though. Bleh.

*big fan

LOL bug fan

I will never visit any of these places. All I want is a completely woo free massage. Does not exist.

oh i didn't know they give you little uniforms

no one even has towels at paradise spa, it's just wall to wall nudity

woo free?

man, the lady who does the scrubs at paradise sauna is definitely not interested in wooing
her manner is ideal imo

wearing shirts in a sauna wtf

I mean wearing shorts in a sauna wtf too but shirts is unheard of ime

there is an "ice room" too which is basically a walk-in refrigerator and feels awesome after exiting a 200 degree brick sauna

that place sounds like heaven right now
is it still open 24/7?

yeah and admission permits you to stay for up to 24 hours

being in niles doesn't sound like fun but otherwise
yes pls

they give you a little bracelet that has an RFID chip in it so if you book a massage or order lunch/a smoothie you dont even need to carry a wallet-- they just scan your wristband and charge you on your way out

also look at how hilarious and awesome the furniture in the common area is, i feel like its up yr alley LL

http://i.imgur.com/lVSEjlk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/2Fus9uD.jpg

i have wanted to go there forever! i just didn't want to make the trek alone, and i had been putting off inviting anyone bc i don't know a lot of people who would be into full days of nudity but now i know that there are little uniforms
when are we going?

i have room for 4 ppl in my car.

think it over

well tbh if you invite lady friends it will prob be a half days of nudity

also i saw that fred frith is going to be at constellation 3/3 if anyone's interested?

do i need to wear clothes

in general or to this event?

My wife swears by this Korean spa in Niles where old, underwear-clad Korean ladies scrub inches off your body:

http://www.kingspa.com/

She and her friends now call it the Naked Spa.

Having just moved to a new place and settled in, our cat picked the one-month mark to make his escape. He's been missing since Sunday. I can only hope he's found some place to wait out the weather while feasting on small(er) animals, but I feel horrible every time the temp drops further.

thats the place we've been talking about all day

and if you are a man you can have an underwear-clad Korean man scrub you down

Lol
Sorry about yr cat JiC :(

Aw kitty. I'm sorry, Josh. Fingers crossed.

There are all sorts of gambles at play when you let a cat out. He could be hit by a car, he could drink antifreeze, he could be eaten by a coyote. I figure at least Oscar has a fighting chance: he was born on a farm, still has his claws, has been out in the cold before, and he can kill animals like a pro. When he comes back, he'll have some stories to tell, I'm sure.

xpost Oh shit, that totally is the place, sorry for skimming. Anyway, she loves it. I think she and her buddies are going back for the fourth or fifth time. She tried to get some of the dudes to try out the guy side, but half of us were all hell no.

Josh, I hope your cat comes back, and soon.

When I was kid in rural northern MN my cat disappeared in late winter. We'd seen bears in the yard and we'd found one of our dogs mauled to death by a trail in the swamp, so we thought maybe a bear killed the cat, too. But months later, sometime in summer, she turned up on the porch like nothing happened. She was skinny but otherwise fine.

I'd read Pet Sematary before any of this happened, and the memory of the book plus that cat's reappearance precipitated a recurring dream where I had to stuff my undead pets into a mop bucket and hand wash them.

Anyway, I hope Oscar is having fun and comes back before too long.

Hooray, the return of everyblock.

Oh good!

Jeff,where did you hear about Buster's developer quitting support?

I tried Transit Stop for a week or two but I really don't like it. Its structure is confusing.

otm.

i just use google maps and cta's bustracker webpage mostly now

Because they haven't updated since May 13, 2011. I'd consider that done. It's hasn't even been updated to fit the iPhone 5 resolution. I try contacting the developer but they never responded.

Buster did bus times fine, but did a half assed job on the train tracker part. You have to drill down to get to your stop every time, and it's just loading the CTA mobile webpage anyway. With TS you can just create bookmarks and have them all on the same page. And you can have the app open directly to that page.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3807/12102810833_1258a27eed.jpg

Then tap the clock icon in the upper right to show the next arrival times for all your stops, all at once.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3795/12102812953_7748b6f658.jpg

Adding bookmarks and finding stops can be confusing, but I don't have to do that very frequently. One thing that took me a little while to learn how to do was to find the stop closest to you that isn't in your bookmarks. Unfortunately you can't just click the location arrow and list all the stops closest, but you can search for a specific route, then click the location arrow in the lower left and it will sort them by proximity to your current location.

I'm listening to this guy on the radio talk about the closing of Sears and he's being so cold! Of their State St store, he said, "they were trying to come home, and nobody wanted them." Gotta give it to the guy for not sugarcoating, I guess.

I hope a Whole foods opens in that spot. With about 4 bars in it.

jeff you are super in to drinking at whole foods

errbody in whole foods gettin tipsy

drinking at whole foods is always delightful

i am more a fan of having a slice of pizza at whole foods

I'm never in the mood to stay at any grocery store any longer than I have to. Sometimes I dilly dally around the bakery at Fresh Farms but most of the time grocery shopping is strictly business.

I've only ever drank at the Kingsbury one, but they usually have very good draft lists at both bars. Plus I have a lot of pals that go there every Friday after work.

http://www.beermenus.com/places/12664-red-star-bar-whole-foods-lincoln-park

Routine would be to have two drinks at the bar, then another while I'm shopping.

binny's on a friday nite can get you hammered just w/ the free samples

That Sears store kind of sucked, though, which is the thing people seem to forget to mention when hassling Chicagoans for acting like we're better than Sears. The Lands End part was okay but the rest was a mess.

Agree. That's what the guy said too, he was just like welp the store sucked and it died who cares the end.

I don't have any friends (outside of you guys) who like to drink at Whole Foods! It still sounds totally bazonkers to me.

Sears in general is kind of a shit show. I've blocked out the specifics but I had a Kafka-esque battle with their CS reps about a defective air conditioner shortly after we moved here.

i live practically next door to the dinosaur sears on lawrence, its so weird and old but i like having it there

that sears is kind of cool, I like feeling like I'm shopping in a store in 1920.

Whole Foods bar is a good place to drink with a baby.

Not that the baby is drinking you know what I mean.

I still hate that Whole Foods though.

I liked having that Sears there b/c every now and then I needed some shit and there it was. But that was once every couple of years and Target will take up the slack just fine.

You're right about the bookmarks being better in Transit Stop, Jeff. I spent some time w/ it today and I just have to do a bunch of bookmarking and remember how to navigate it. Unfortunately you can't just click the location arrow and list all the stops closest This is my biggest beef w/ it. Frequently I want to find out which bus lines are nearby. I'm supposed to just know that info when I'm in a strange part of town?

For a moment this morning I thought, hey, maybe Electropuf (whose website is gone, BTW) will let me have their API and I can build my own dream CTA app, which, come the fuck on, eat me, Jesse.

I've only ever drank at the Kingsbury one, but they usually have very good draft lists at both bars. Plus I have a lot of pals that go there every Friday after work.

I like that northwoods-cabin upstairs corner at the Kingsbury Whole Foods.

That Sears has been so understaffed that the few times I've stopped in there for something essential, it was never worth waiting in a long line. (No crowds--just 8 out of 10 customers in the entire store waiting in line.) Reminded me of Borders' last days in that way.

It's been varying shades of that for a long time. The last several years have felt like a protracted going out of business sale.

The guy on the radio was saying the State St store had been losing money since it reopened in 2001. The sad part was how they stopped all catalogue operations (closed warehouses, shipping centers) not long before they could have become competitive in Internet sales. Oh well!

i remember the Sears "wish book" was the most amazing thing to flip though before christmas as a kid

I would love to browse some old Sears catalogs right about now. So soothing!

Those things were nuts. They had Star Wars toys that I'd never seen anywhere else, before or since.

Oh god the Wish Book! Almost as good as actually getting toys.

I still look at catalogs as a form of self soothing to this day.

Since we lived overseas so much of the xmas experience was using Sears and JC Penney mail-order catalogs to build xmas lists. I wonder how many years I asked for, and (fortunately) did not receive, a rock tumbler.

OMG I wanted a rock tumbler so bad!

Unrelated but hilarious: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/23/chicago-gop-hopeful-reveals-gays-cause-autism/

She's running against Jan Schakowski!!! Lololol good luck w/ that you fucking loon.

Well no she's running in the republican primary and would run against Jan if she won. But still. LOL.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/sets/72157603419794725/

Chicago: There Is No Foreeable End To The Deep Cold Here

Unrelated but hilarious: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/23/chicago-gop-hopeful-reveals-gays-cause-autism/

She's running against Jan Schakowski!!! Lololol good luck w/ that you fucking loon.

― carl agatha, Thursday, January 23, 2014 5:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the fuck?! I mean, apart from her batshittedness, there's like a total of 3 conservatives in that district. Maybe her campaign is actually some sort of elaborate tax dodge.

ugh i am so deeply bummed about -XX degrees on the first week of school

also i might need to go to kingspa on sunday

http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-indiana-crash-fatal-photos-20140123/

This is horrifying.

That is among the last things I need to click on right now.
Just drove back from the airport and the story on the radio was about the brain dead pregnant woman in TX. Too much gloom for a day that's already plenty gloomy by itself.

Yeah. I watched two hours of local and national news on Wednesday, much of which was about the weather, plus reading all the politically minded people I follow on Twitter and I had my first good old fashioned anxiety incident since my pregnancy got all complicated. It sucked.

I'm sorry. It always sucks. That's why I find twitter exhausting tbh. When they're not making jokes I don't understand about things I (usually) don't care about, people are so upset about so many things (because there sure are a lot of things wrong with the world) and 1) I don't feel like chiming in with my own worthless opinion and 2) I just can't take that level of zzzzzzz on top of the shit at work, friend and family issues, etc. My constitution hasn't become weaker, there's just more noise out there than I know what to do with and it's kinda paralyzing. Better to just otherwise occupy myself.

8 hour sauna day

my office's ancient heater seems to be finally wearing itself out, so we've relocated to a meeting room with a 7th-floor view of LSD, the jardine water traetment plant, and the ice floes on the playpen

that's better than the closet you were in, right?

8 hour sauna day sounds great
will my kindle melt if i bring it in there?

I unthinkingly wore my glasses into the sauna at Thousand Waves and it felt like a terrible, disastrous turn of events though I didn't stay in long enough for anything to actually happen to them or my face.

Anyway ask a Yooper.

It depends on how hot the sauna is? I've been in saunas that made shampoo bottles melt and they're generally at least somewhat damp places so it's probably not a good idea.

Anyway the concept of reading in sauna is a bit alien to me b/c I never wear my glasses in (this also makes nudity easier to deal with imo).

Reading a newspaper in a sauna is one of life's great pleasures.

Would not recommend anything that you actually want to keep past the duration of the sauna visit. The Reader fits the occasion perfectly.

king spa has like 12 diff dry saunas, each at diff temps. some i'm sure low enough for kindle use.

there's also the lovely lounge area though

Is anyone else unable to access Gmail? downforeveryoneorjustme.com says it's working, but when I try to go to the site it says:

Temporary Error (500) We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.

It's down per everyone freaking out on Twitter.

I'm sorry our conversation as cut short. We were really making some headway.

Yeah, apparently it's down all over the world. Is this the way the world ends?

Who's drinking at Whole Foods tonight???????

Gmail is working again.

xp

so, not me

Hey Thursday and Friday next week are my vacation between old job and new job, just in case anyone else has days off for some reason and wants to catch a matinee or drink day beers. I'll probably be doing those things with or without you.

i might go see frankie rose at schuba's on monday

If it's not assbuttshitfuck cold I would bring the baby and meet you for a beer somewhere, NA.

it's my first week of classes and i'm not doing anything fun because i need to preserve my sanity

Let's get baby beers.

This winter is the hardest one I've experienced since the early 1980s when I lived way up in northern Minnesota. It feels like all my big talk is coming back to me, e.g., how winter is NBD and my Chicago apartments are always too hot in the winter (there's been a major, unstoppable draft from the screen door for weeks).

I've got to stop talking about having only experienced one flight delay in my life and hoping to see what turbulence is like.

Strangely, Brenda seems to love the draft. Which is nice b/c she blocks it when she stretches out at the bottom of the door.

Brenda useful

I'm watching a Lifetime movie about these asshole teenagers who kill their neighbor when he busts them having a giant party in their parents' house. This is about as good as it gets for a day like today.

It's called Bond of Silence (A woman seeks answers when her husband dies while trying to subdue teenage partygoers). There was a part where a woman was slicing a single stalk of celery with a chef's knife while three other stalks of celery were sitting right by her hand. LOL.

I'm watching a Lifetime movie

As soon as I saw this I knew it had to be you. We should make a Lifetime Original Movie date sometime!

Anybody got a recommendation for a tailor? Last one I tried wasn't a great experience - I got a suit jacket altered at a place on Broadway near Cornelia and the lady relied on me to tell her not only the fit I wanted, but to specify exactly which spots to alter to achieve those results.

I'd like something more like what happened at Macy's when I bought my suit - they told me how they thought it should fit, then measured, tucked, marked, pinned and a few days later I had a suit that fit nicely.

If you find a good one, lmk. I have been to three or four and for anything beyond hems (and even that was not good at the one on LaSalle and Lake) none of them have been worth the money.

I bought a suit at Nordstrom Rack on State St. and the tailor there did an amazing job fitting it to my stupid proportions. Iirc it was like $70 but totally worth it.

p sure i've posted this on ilx before but the tailor at nordstrom rack st street used to be a man named Carlos Zambrano

my roommate knows a great tailor who is kind off off the grid, i'll ask him for deets

Yes please, gr80!

I've been expecting Eazy to come through w/ a good tip. Seems like it would be in his bailiwick.

Incredibly, after six full days MIA outside in freezing temps, our cat came back! We had a feeling today would be the day when we saw some paw prints in the snow this morning, and now he's here. Awesome.

Yay!!!!!!!!

that's great news and i am genuinely happy for you.

how does he look?

Like nothing ever happened! In fact, he asked to go outside again this morning. I told him "no." Not until it warms up, at least.

lol

c'mon man its way fun out there

That's awesome, JiC!

I just read this on FB: Mobile [Alabama] sends folks with sand and shovels, not salt and spreading machines, to cover slick spots on I-10

Stupid schools stupid closed again tomorrow, and I assume Tuesday, too.

not mine!

:(

Glad to hear your cat is back home and warm JIC! Our Alfred is still reacting amazingly well to his medicine and has been in continued good spirits, but he's still noticeably slower.

My son's daycare is closed tomorrow, so glad my wife has a flexible work from home policy.

Yeah, Evie's day care is closed but we have access to back-up day care through Sarah's work, which just involves bringing her downtown on the train with us.

My cat update is that our older cat Pepper had another stroke(?) last weekend and was really having trouble getting around for a few days, but she has once again mostly recovered, though one of her eyes is permanently dilated so I'm guessing she can't see very well.

Our furnace was broken all weekend. Thankful for space heaters right now.

CPS closed again tomorrow :(

i can't wait to meet 15% of my students who show up for their first day of class tomorrow
i've been told "we never close"

Sarah said that people at her work must have been complaining about having to come in today because HR sent out a snippy email reminding staff that they live in Chicago and should own warm clothes and be expected to be able to deal with cold weather.

yeah everyone's getting real pissy this time
i told my coworkers that i am totally ready to flip the bird at this month and move on

Haha, I made the decision to open today (though we are closing early) and I can tell a bunch of people are pissed off at me.

It's not even close to as cold out today as it was on that Monday a couple weeks ago.

No, definitely not, but it's going to get even colder tonight then it was then.

We had half days scheduled later this week for teacher conferences. My friend did the math and our kids will he going to school about 12 out of 36 possible hours this week.

Yes, 12 hours. Of a potential 36. Even the fucking teachers unions must be kicking themselves at all the required institute days which can't be cancelled, thus basically guaranteeing an extra week of school. So far. God help us if we actually get some bad weather to go with our cold weather.

All my CPS teacher fb friends seem to be mad about both these days off.

There's an argument to be made that it's better to have schools open for kids that may not have heat in their homes. Also I mean if you think it's too cold outside for your kid you can keep her home, right? You don't get in trouble for that do you?

Plus I read that before the last 37 years of nonstop record high annual temps, it wasn't that weird for it to be this cold. We're just not used to it.

everyone seems to be mad about everything at this point

Yeah, historically, its not that uncommon to reach these temps, it's just that now the media has fancy new terms to make the cold sound NEW AND SCARY. Also it's just the way this winter, especially since the new year, has seemed to just hammer us with one thing after the other. Beyond maybe the NYE snow, none of thse things have been so terrible in and of themselves - 3 inches of snow here, 4 inches there, cold ass days, etc - but cumulatively it just feels so much worse. Also, yes, I can understand the pissedoffness. Screw this winter already.

Weather is evidence that God hates us and wants us to be angry.

My senior year of HS was the year of the East coast's "Storm of the Century," which dumped 18" of snow on our part of North Carolina, closing school for a week. We'd already gotten several snow days that year, and they had add extra days on at the end of the school year to meet state requirements. The result was a huge crisis b/c the number of extra days would have extended classes beyond graduation day.

I don't remember how that got resolved. Probably I never actually graduated high school.

yeah that is the issue for all schools and all emergency closings -- same with colleges
there is a mandated # of contact hours

I can understand cancelling for snow, but cold? The concern is kids who have to walk to school or wait around in sub-zero. They say it takes about 10 minutes for frostbite to kick between the wind and temperature. But still, any way you slice it, -10, 0, 10: it's cold this time of year. If you don't have a hat, gloves and scarf by now, maybe this isn't the place for you.

Admittedly, it's supposed to drop down to -20 tonight, and hit a high - high! - of -6 tomorrow. Still, wear a fucking hat.

You can't tell a little kid who has no control over whether or not his/her parent(s) buy decent gloves/hat "sorry, maybe this isn't the place for you"
Cold can be really dangerous!

hey poor people, life sucks, wear a hat

Jesse this one? http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ilm/archive/Superstorm93/

Do L platforms still have those (utterly ineffectual) heat lamps?

yeh but there's only room for a handful of people under them

I understand some people can't afford the best hats and gloves, but again, lack of hats and gloves would be a serious problem if it were 30 degrees warmer. So I suspect the reason they cancel school is not because some kids can't afford hats and scarves, but because the schools do not want to be liable for idiot kids (and trust me, my kids can be idiots with the best of them) who lose their hats and gloves on the way to school or even take them off on purpose and then lose an ear.

How I and all my childhood friends never froze to death or at least lost multiple extremities I'll never know.

Well yeah no one wants to be responsible for a kid losing an ear! I don't get how that means we should have school open?

Because it's always cold in the winter! That's why it's called winter!

Last year my kids got a preemptive day off because the forecast called for lots of rain.

Jesse this one? http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ilm/archive/Superstorm93/

Yep, that's the one. I was going to say it was in March but then thought surely that wasn't right, but it was. March 13.

By early afternoon on March 13th the central pressure of the low was lower than had been observed with any historic winter storm or hurricane across the interior Southeastern United States. All-time low pressure records were established in Columbia, Charlotte and Greensboro, even beating out the pressures observed just a few years earlier during Hurricane Hugo's visit in September 1989.

I know it's winter, but i was reacting to "gtfo if you can't take it"
i'm not hostile, just pissy bc i think it's dangerously cold out there and my nose/toes froze when i last went outside :(

also bc my workplace's reaction to this is ridic

I was being serious above btw. We did winter camping and downhill skied in awful weather and generally a bunch of the other stupid kinds of things kids do.

I remember playing hockey in a natural ice arena and not being able to feel my fingers and toes to the point where I couldn't hold my stick right and couldn't skate normally.

JiC you're not making sense.

School should be open "Because it's always cold in the winter! That's why it's called winter!" But it's not always as cold as it was today -- so cold that school officials are concerned b/c "schools do not want to be liable for idiot kids...who lose their hats and gloves on the way to school or even take them off on purpose and then lose an ear. Suggesting that a 30º variance doesn't make a major difference is crazy. -2º is plainly, on it's frostbitten face, more uncomfortable and risky than 28º.

xp to Dan - I can't believe the cold I intentionally endured as a kid in MN. I remember my brother teaching me that I should run cold tap water over my hands to warm them so they didn't itch and burn from getting to room temp too fast.

Things got a lot better once my dad let me have shelter in the winter.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/55/124940034_077732cb94.jpg

omg that is adorable
i have never seen baby je55e!!

That's adorable.

Ahahaha xp

Thanks. Once more. Putting snow on Sally, my first dog.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/39/124940043_c0eeaf7ca5.jpg

oh! you look exactly the same! i can't take it.

Exactly the same as now??

Or is that a joke? (exactly the same as the dog?)

xpost I admit I'm not being totally fair. Yes, it really is cold. So they should concede to concerned parents and allow them to keep their kids home if they're worried.

Anyway, they're called Snow Days and not Cold Days for a reason. Huge storms physically impede people from getting to school, on bus, by car or on foot. Things grind to halt. But cold? The danger-difference of zero degrees (no cancellations) and -10 (preemptive cancellation) is for all practical purpose indistinguishable, so clearly the school districts have some sort of semi-arbitrary magic number they hit before they call things off.

your face looks the same as your face now, that's what i mean! the dog is fine but looks nothing like you.

i also could argue that extreme cold impedes people from getting to work/school just like snow does but i don't feel like arguing
let's just agree that -15/-45 is total bullshit.

Yeah, fuck these temperatures.

Agreed. I'm just so, so tired of the same old thing. I was talking to (some of) our friend T0m@s who said for him that first big sub-zero snap was kind of awesome b/c it was novel and everybody was buzzing about it, which I think is OTM. I'm just so tired of the same annoying crap forever.

Also, sub-zero and persistent snow suck worse in the city. Just like summer is grosser in the city. B/c you have to walk more, increasing your exposure to it every day, plus it stops being pretty almost right away and turns to invasive slop and salt crust.

With that, Resolution Fuck This Bullshit is passed.

i like it.

At least in the city you don't have to drive in the icy snowy terribleness.

i mean i'll admit i'm doing a jedi mind trick on myself as a coping mechanism, and that i do maybe enjoy being a contrarian fuck, but i'll take sub-zero and sunny over grey and slushy any day

i honestly did yearn for cold weather for a lot of the last seven years and so i really am enjoying this

being cold indoors however is a way different story and that's when i fall apart

also i am house/dog-sitting in the suburbs this week and i just drove in to the city and back to see a show and the roads were in pretty great shape the whole way

It's mostly only going to warm up today. I take solace in that we could have a unseasonably warm february or march. It's possible. I choose to believe.

Plus I read that before the last 37 years of nonstop record high annual temps, it wasn't that weird for it to be this cold. We're just not used to it.

― carl agatha, Monday, January 27, 2014 4:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's definitely been a below average winter, by at least snow and cold metrics. From the WGN Weather blog:

The 19.8-degree average temp since Dec. 1 ranks 12th coldest of the past 143. Thirty eight of the past 58 days—66% of them— have been colder than normal. The last time a winter was this cold at this stage of the season was 5 years years ago.

The season’s snow story is even more impressive. With 48.2” on the books thus far, snowfall is accumulating at a rate 2.5 times faster than “normal”. This is now the 5th snowiest season on record since 1884-85.

Only three other Chicago snow seasons have logged more than the 29 days of “measurable” snowfall recorded to date—-31 days of measurable snow (the record) in 1976-77 and 1978-79—and 30 days of at least 0.1″ of snow in 2008-09.

I do remember the winter of 2009, because it got down to my previously lowest temperature ever felt, -17. I remember specifically walking in Daley Plaza thinking I needed a thicker coat.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMDW/2009/1/16/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

It's definitely been a below average winter

I admit I misread this and was about to get all WTF.

predictions on the % of students who show up for the first day of class today?

i'm hoping for 60%

I also remember 5 years ago because my parents were here and freaked out by the weather.

Wow Je55e was a cute kid...

...

...what happened?

Just a bit of fun, be cool ;)

Je55e y u put snow on that dog

We watched a really good documentary last night on Netflix: "Beauty is Embarrassing" which is about Wayne White, an artist from Alabama who designed all the puppets for Pee Wee's Playhouse and did a bunch of album cover for Lambchop (including this one: http://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/nixon_lambchop.jpg) and is just a cool/interesting guy in general. Good if you want to feel artistically inspired.

I also remember 5 years ago because my parents were here and freaked out by the weather.

Oh man yeah. That was kind of fun to witness.

My stepdad just emailed and said he'd never felt cold like they are reporting here.

Our heater basically never stops running even though I have the thermostat set to about 60!

I saw that doc, it was pretty good!
100% btw!

So how many students showed up?

All of them, plus 2 extra!
Also, for the record, one of them was wearing a hoodie + sweater (no coat), one young lady was wearing a light polyester jacket, and the classroom was so hot that we had to crack a window.

did you use the extra kids for warmth

I was out and about with the kids today, and each stop of the way we became less and less diligent about totally bundling up. It's cold, sure, but out here we somehow evaded all the wind and wind chill as forecast.

This morning, after getting the OK to work from home for a second day and spending some time outside shoveling, in that order, my wife said screw it, and took the train to work.

xp - We didn't need to -- the heat was cranked to face-melting levels in that room.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140128/rogers-park/activists-call-police-spying-at-heartland-cafe-laughable-disturbing

Bad biscuits and police spying. That place doesn't have mug going for it.

i think the old hippie vibe is charming and reminds me of people flipping out about the school of the americas back in the day
the food is not great but it was also within walking distance of my home for a decade

lol @ spying though, wtf

Hey if anyone knows anyone who's interested in working in publishing, we're gonna have an opening, maybe two, at my work fairly soon.

i'd like to work in publishing

I'll post a link when things start happening, I just learned of this today.

I'm at the Logan for the first time since the remodeling, pretty swanky! Plus they have alcohol!

So sick of winter. It's warmer, but the wind out there is terrible. I'd almost rather have the cold without the wind. Almost. Also, apparently like 16-20 more inches of snow coming in the next week.

would def take sub-zero and sunny over 25 and windy

yeah. doesn't help that wabash by my office is basically a giant wind tunnel.

I was an early adopter of being sick of winter. Really started around November for me.

Even my wife, who has a very high tolerance for snow and has, until as recently as this past Sunday, talked about how much she's been enjoying all this snow, forwarded me the forecast for the next week with an emphatic, "SCREW THIS SHIT".

Today was so much more annoying and uncomfortable than Monday or Tuesday that despite being 30 degrees warmer the kids totally blew off the chance to sled.

Nice day before the snow started.

http://i57.tinypic.com/33xd16s.jpg

lol that forecast

I totally have a high tolerance, and I even enjoy winter, but basta already.

What forecast?

It was good weather to see Inside Llewyn Davis. I came out if the theater and it felt like I was in the movie.

unless the forecast goes all the way to the end of march, i'm not looking at it

i'll be in the basement if anyone needs me

I'm planning a trip to Christmas Mountain for tubing, indoor waterparking, skiing, or some combination of those things. Very excited.

And I might go on a 2 day Burt0n snowboarding trip? Not so sure about that one - 3 nights and 2 days w/ snowboarding strangers? Esp since I'd have to learn to snowboard?

What forecast?

Also, apparently like 16-20 more inches of snow coming in the next week.

Although now the link my wife sent me to the article about it is dead and I'm not finding the same totals anywhere else, other than like a big snow event tomorrow night into Saturday. So who knows. Still, winter sucks.

There's apparently some possibility of a big storm on Tuesday.

i am hemorrhaging mojo at this point

This has been posted several times on twitter.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfO39rgCIAAps-j.png

But it is based on one computer model and is not the actual forecast.

And I believe that's supposed to be the total of these 2-3 systems over the next week.

Some friends some of you know are taking a discount long weekend cruise to the Bahamas today and for a second it made me REALLY hurt and sad that I wasn't going to the Bahamas. I just can't do this anymore.

just read this and you'll feel better

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/29/travel/royal-caribbean-illness/

Ivy and I went outside two days in a row! Then we came home today and took a three hour nap.

Anyway we're never going outside again is the point. At least not until the ice in our steps melts.

Gross. Love the link to another story Are cruise ships floating petri dishes?

I should say that I normally have no interest in cruises, but 3-4 days including time on the islands sounds exactly right.

Sorry I'm whining so much. I really really need a vacation.

That's like the article flying around on FB the past few days about how you'll die if you have a lemon wedge put on your water or tea glassa at a restaurant.

I saw that last Monday/Tuesday's temps would be below zero and skipped town last weekend. But one weekend away is a drop in the bucket this winter.

Yeah, I was lucky enough to be in Florida from Friday morning thru Tuesday night. Just in time to avoid the negative temps, but back for all the snow!

Despite the cold and snow, we can still honor the sun (when it is visible). It is setting after 5 PM now. But the end of the month it will be up to 5:40 PM. Then eight days later, time change!!!! By March 18th the sun won't set till 7:00 PM.

Thanks Jeff. That's great news. I noticed the other day that it wasn't fully dark when I got out of work at 5:15 and it helped.

i mentioned earlier i'm house-sitting for my parents in the suburbs this week-- got home tuesday nite to find that several canned/bottled carbonated beverages they were keeping in the garage had exploded, sending shards of glass and aluminum and sugary slush all over the place

ugh that is a bummer
meanwhile, i just finished my new fitness routine and i feel pretty great
i'm sure it'll snow today but at least the first week of classes isn't looming over my head anymore

Wholefoods.

Nice

did i miss the memo where we're only allowed to talk about whole foods and the weather?
i spent 2 hrs grocery shopping today, went to 3 places, including my new favorite bakery on devon -- i got 6 loaves of samoun for $2!

No longer wholefoods.

my roommate bought a vitamix. feels pretty life changing.

You should have a vitamix party and invite me over.

can you pick up some organic greens at whole foods

what are you making in the vitamix?

hella fruit & veggie smoothies mostly

the horsepower on it though, it's really something.

Isn't that the thing w/ all the attachments that let you make ice cream or something?

My old hippie babysitters had a vitamix and they used to make baby food in it. I guess making your own baby food isn't weird anymore, but it was in the early 80s.

Vitamix is like $500, right? That's a lot of fruits and veggies at the store.

i make fruit and veggie smoothies every morning with my immersion blender -- is this faster or something?

I went through a period last spring of blending up kale and other veggies along with fruit and yogurt for these awesomely healthy smoothies every morning. And then I got summer pneumonia. So fuck that noise.

I like smoothies but I don't like smoothie cleanup.

look what i saw today!

http://instagram.com/p/j4qURSBgMJ/

Deer smoothies

I can't link directly because the website is stupid, but the listing for the open positions in my group at work is up. https://jobopportunities.uchicago.edu and search for requisition number 094560.

I love that line of woods that borders the city on the west. I house-sat in River Forest once and saw lots of deer in the woods there, then noticed that the preserve went north for miles and miles.

I've seen deer at Brookfield Zoo. Like, just walking around, like the peacocks.

Venison and cranberry smoothie

Okay, winter. Stop. Seriously. Stop it.

honestly i feel like i'm at the end of my rope

was gonna make some hilarious ironic jokes about how it snowed and it was a miracle. morning commute killed that vibe.

seriously it's like i've been trying hard to keep my chin up but man this winter is really squashing my spirit something fierce

They just extended our school year by two days. Now rather than the kids getting out on a Thursday, they get out the following Tuesday. My wife and I already gave a collective "fuck that." I'd rather they just mail us the report cards rather than stick around just for the sake of stupid end of the year parties. They have enough parties at school as it is. Man, I know CPS has it much worse, but given the erratic quality of (admittedly, elementary school) education out here in Oak Park, I can only imagine.

I think the plow drivers have just gotten tired of all this too, because the roads are complete shit.

I can only see one road but Diversey is a mess. They usually clear it quickly.

The Sun Times weather word today is WEARY.

I am going to crumble into a big bag of bone dust unless i manage to kip at least through the end of the week.

I finally ordered boots, but I think they are too narrow so I'm going to have to return them :(

Good boots can take a little while to break in, just saying.

I fear these are not good boots, but I guess I'll try them on again when I get home.

My 8" boots have been a great investment.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfvOD9WCIAAQcjq.jpg

my neighbor was talking about the '77-'78 winter today while we were shoveling. he said it was a disaster and everyone just gave up. there were like 8" of packed snow on the sidewalk and that became the sidewalk until spring.

Seconded all the complaints about the snow. End please. And, yeah, it does seem like they've just given up on plowing or anything, almost none of the streets I saw this morning were plowed or salted. Even main ones like Howard and Wabash were just inches of slush. And its not like this was a surprise snow or something, this has been predicted for like a week now.

Something Chicago but not weather-related:

http://www.chicagomag.com/real-estate/February-2014/Heres-Why-Apartment-Security-Deposits-Are-Going-Away/

xpost

At this point I'm so miserable, I think we should just go for the snow record.

thinking of going to the lincoln and/or garfield park conservatory...at least it'll be warm and tropical. Or I could just go to a mall.

I remember Jesse talking about the move away from security deposits. xp

I keep saying you winter SAD ppl should go to a tanning salon. I'm serious!

I don't think I get SAD. It's just been so cold and snowy and shitty, it's a drag. I'm tired of cleaning off my car and sliding all over the road.

It is a drag for sure.

The city and some parking lot owners having to haul snow from some areas in dump trucks. The only other time I've seen that was after Snowpocalypse.

Something Chicago but not weather-related:

http://www.chicagomag.com/real-estate/February-2014/Heres-Why-Apartment-Security-Deposits-Are-Going-Away/

They totally left out that landlords also like having the extra income from move-in fees. I wonder if some landlords try to collect for damages upon move-out. Presumably they would not credit the tenant for the fee they paid. Also if that's legal. I paid move-in fees at my current and previous places and the lease didn't give me any reason to think the fees vs deposit changed damages charges.

Map of what closed Dominick's stores are turning into. Looks like the one near Broadway/Thorndale will be a Whole Foods:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140206/NEWS07/140139938/map-here-are-the-grocers-taking-over-dominicks

I'd noticed that the Fullerton/Sheffield one will be a Whole Foods, too. That would actually be pretty convenient, in terms of stopping on the way home to grab something for dinner. Not that the one on Ashland is that far from the Paulina stop, but a store right off the train is a bonus.

I hated that Dominick's so much.

mine will still be "vacant Dominick's"
did you guys hear about the shooting yesterday at mcd's in rogers park? i drove right past it as the police were arriving and i saw one of the bodies lying on the ground in the drive thru exit. not surprisingly it has been haunting me.

Holy shit, sorry you had to see that. That would probably haunt me too.

first responders/people who deal with dead bodies for their jobs have some kind of mental strength that i would like to read/hear more about. i'm sure it's easy enough to drown it out/stop being involved emotionally with every single person and just detach from the job that needs to be done, but there must be something special about the people who manage to maintain respectful distance while also staying in touch with their humanity.

i dunno sorry for changing the topic from weather/grocery stores

otherwise things are ok

yikes.

sorry to switch gears back so fast but:

Something funny happened to me today resulting in my learning a new little piece of Chicagoland history:

I ended up taking a different Metra train than I normally do this morning, and then when it came i noticed this funny looking car i didn't recognize on the back. I was really curious what it was but I know that a lot of the trains have been running w/ less cars than normal due to damage from winter storms, and so my initial assumption was that this was some old ass car they pulled from the yard to replace out of service cars. I got on the normal bi-level car and walked down to the end and opened up the back door to cross over in to this mystery car.

When i walked in I was like whoa what the fuck is this, it looked way different from anything I'd ever seen on the Metra before. I snapped a pic, which wont make much sense if you don't know what Metra cars usually look like but:

http://i.imgur.com/fvCrTX2.jpg

(The normal cars are two levels and have no carpet and the seats are vinyl and face forward, not towards the center).

You cant really see it but all the way at the end of that car between the two framed pictures on the wall there's a door leading to a room with a few tables and chairs. I was like whoa this is pretty cool, must be some vintage car they rarely have in service, what a great discovery for my Thursday morning. So I walked all the way down to the back room and sat down at a table.

Then I noticed it was pretty empty and all the passengers were 40+ year old white dudes. I started noticing all this train memorabilia hanging on the walls in frames, and for a moment I thought that maybe this was an area for conductors only, but none of these guys really looked like conductors.

I had hardly been sitting there for any time at all and this guy came over to me. I assumed he was a conductor even though he wasn't really dressed like one, but I handed him my ticket and in a firm but friendly tone he asked "are you new to the car?" and i said "yes i just got on at Ravenswood". Then he said "oh, this is a private car". I apologized and told him I had no idea and he then asked me to go sit in the next car down, the one i had crossed over from. So i did, still very confused.

Once I got settled, i googled:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-20/news/0907190246_1_commutes-cell-phones-lake-forest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_553

so weird!

It's also funny because i usually commute in a suit w/ galoshes over my dress shoes and a wool top-coat, basically how all these guys were dressed. But it was so cold today i wore jeans and snow boots and my hooded parka and had my suit in a garment bag I was schlepping,so i looked even more outta place lol

But also funny for the exact opposite reason, that I mistook a private club with a $900 annual membership fee for an old hunk of junk salvaged from a train yard.

xps

Somewhat along those lines, there has been a story back home that has gotten some international attention -- an Iranian woman who came to the area to go to grad school was beaten to death by her American husband and the saga of the last few days of her life in a UP hospital brought out some of the best human qualities in the people who cared for her. To me it's the kind of thing that flies in the face of what a lot of people think about rural, racially-homogenous areas, but it also touches on emotional investment in sorta the way you mention, LL. I don't mind saying it made me tear up.

http://iranwire.com/en/projects/4460

There has been a lot of hyperbolic coverage by wingnut types, spinning it into a story about how all muslims treat women and how sharia law is coming to the usa and all kinds of other stupidity. I find that shit so irredeemably sad.

Wow, I've never heard of that private Metra car.

Crazy--never heard of that private Metra car ever. I like it. If someone suggested that to Rahm for the El...

Also, shooting at the Rog Park McD's crazy in a different way. I read most of Coetzee's Disgrace in that place in 2010.

I used to see the private car all the time when I was commuting on the Kennedy. Never knew what it was though.

never heard of a private car, but i've never ridden metra either!

private metra cars should not be allowed, really

otm

I mean, imagine if Morningstar and Groupon et al pooled together for an El-train equivalent to the Google busses in SF...

i can't imagine bc i have no idea what you're talking about!

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/12/09/protesters-block-google-bus-in-s-f-mission/

gross

gross, but also that happens all the time only without a corporate name attached to it, right? certain parts of cities are better served by transportation than others? poor people are marginalized to the difficult-to-reach areas? i mean…?

also N/A may find this amusing -- today my students asked what "nick" means (as a verb) and we all had to say the word "nick" like 100x
it was funny (for me)

yeah i mean a metra private car is weird and unnecessary but its a totally different thing from bay area tech company private transportation

speaking of which, northwestern memorial hospital has something very similar

so does northwestern (the school) -- it has a goofy 70s-style bus with a stupid name iirc

maybe it's loyola, i can't remember
it's called, like, THE FREEDOM TRUCK or something

The Free Enterprise System

right!

lol

which is actually a private contractor hired by the campus

http://www.freeenterprisesystem.com/

Yeah, actually my college had a couple of bus lines too. I took it everyday for a good chunk of the time I was there. They did stop at some public stops too. I wonder if they paid for that right?

few things make me as livid as private appropriation of publicly funded infrastructure

maybe that's an overstatement but I srsly find it offensive as all hell

I'd rather them ride their private bus than taking 30 or whatever number of cars they would take otherwise.

But yeah, they should still pay.

I've never heard of them, but I think I'm all for private train cars. Just like quiet cars on AMTRAK or whatever. The public transit system is such a disgusting, dangerous, noisy, unpleasant experience that anything that gets people to ride is fine with me, and clean, comfy cars seem like just the thing. I mean, when I was in England last, with my daughter, taking the train around, I was amazed at 1) the upholstery 2) the food carts and 3) the presence of toilets, because all three of those things would be trashed and/or stolen within a week of being implemented in Chicago or any other major American city.

Admittedly, Metra is something else, and I haven't taken Metra since I was in Hyde Park. But still. I wouldn't pay $900 a year, but I'd probably pay a premium to guarantee I wouldn't have to constantly lift my feet to avoid a sloshing pool of vomit and/or urine, being scammed or otherwise hit up for money, or having to feign illness or general untouchability to ward off would-be robbers. The shit my kids have seen and heard on the train ... man, it's a travesty.

you're pretty much guaranteed that riding in a normal metra car already, with the exception of one returning after a Ravinia concert lets out i guess

Yeah, I know. That's why I mentioned it's been so long since I took Metra. I wish they could do that with the CTA.

The cleanliness of the CTA is low priority on my list of things that need fixing with the CTA. I'd stand in vomit all day if they'd just bring back the Lincoln bus.

Twice in the past week I've had that rush-hour experience of standing on the platform at Grand at rush hour, having a train pull up and seeing a mostly empty car in front of me, thinking Jackpot! for a moment, only to see some of the few people in the car run out of it to another car due to a super-noxious smell.

My wife waited nearly 25 minutes for the blue line this morning. Then it ran express, which ironically did not give her feet time to thaw.

In non-grocery store/weather news, this place is opening on my block: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140205/lakeview/beermiscuous-cafe-hopes-have-coffee-shop-setting-but-with-craft-beer

that sounds great

Does sound great, especially for evening hours.

And they will have a rewards program to reserve bottles. I'll probably be their first customer.

Holy jumping christ Chicago, fix your traffic. Had to drive in today for a project meeting later this afternoon, but it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get in. 12.3 miles from my house to the parking garage near work and it took 2 hours and 15 fucking minutes. Works out to about 12 minutes a mile.

Non weather/grocery store: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-chicago-spire-20140207,0,6626095.story Spire project to be resurrected? I can't imagine this thing would ever get built.

I hope that ugly thing never gets built.

Weather and Grocery: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/06/3257031/mother-fired-foods/

Xpost. I kind of like it. Would make some tweaks to make it less like a screw though. I just really like tall things.

I'm a huge fan of really tall things, I just don't think our skyline needs a giant screw. Though the screw is better than when it looked like a dildo. Either way, Calavtrava has done so many more interesting things.

I was watching WGN morning news this morning and the traffic reporter said there was a bus on fire somewhere and a car flipped over and lots of snow drifts. Maybe it's like that everyday but the reporter seemed to be implying that this morning was particularly bad.

there are snowdrifts at sidewalk intersections taller than i am

Yeah, there was apparenlty a CTA bus on fire on Lake Shore Drive. It was gone by the time I got there, but it still caused me to be half hour late for work.

Ah, that would explain my nightmare on LSD this morning, but the traffic report on wbbm kept reporting it as a "CTA stall that has been cleared". Of course they also kept saying "45 minutes from Hollywood to Monroe", which was quite annoying as I inched well past the hour mark sitting on LSD.

horse-drawn snow plow on michigan ave, 1908

http://i.imgur.com/NI5ldvl.jpg

http://chicagohistorymuseum.tumblr.com/post/39584940062/snow-plow-on-michigan-avenue-1908-chicago

Who's got big weekend plans?????

I'm renting an iGo car and doing donuts in empty Dominick's parking lots.

That's a great pic, gr80.

i think i have frostbite on my nose

Here's an asinine article about how Chicago is backwards and provincial about sex: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-barry/sex-positive-most-people-in-chicago_b_4733910.html

I wish I wasn't so sleep deprived because I have a lot to say about why this is dumb, but a few highlights:

1. This isn't San Francisco v. Chicago in the war over "sex positivity." This is San Francisco v. the rest of the god damn country. Get out more, dude writing this.
2. "In my short time here, I've learned how to make friends fast -- frequently going out to bars and approaching groups of strangers. I favor an earnest introduction, which always carries with it a necessary amount of awkwardness, but that typically subsides, particularly when people find out I'm 'not from around here.' Recently, I approached two women and we began talking." Has it crossed your mind that maybe women find you creepy and don't want to talk about sex with you at all, much less how much sex you have and how positive you are about it?
3. He then goes on to talk about how as a sex positive person, he embraces the word slut. Oh how fucking edgy and risky, a man who embraces the word slut because god knows men have been ostracized by society for sleeping around since time immemorial. That is super brave of you, you clown. How about pausing to consider how loaded that term is for women, especially women of color, and how not wanting to carry the burden of reclaiming a pejorative is not antithetical to enjoying sex or being open minded about people's sexual preferences. Now who's being narrow minded????? THIS BOZO THAT IS WHO.
4. He's basing his whole thesis that Chicago has never heard of sex positivity on a conversation with some women at a bar? Which bar? If you're hanging out on the roof at the Wit, you're going to run into different attitudes than if you are at a bar where college students who learned about sex positivity in their first gender studies class hang out.
5. Who died and made him president of how to define sex positivity anyway?

I guess that's all I have to say about this article. Not just highlights. Anyway, I hate this man and also I hate the Huffington Post, crappy linkbait bullshit website. CHICAGO RULES THIS DUDE DROOLS.

Also I feel like some of you may identify with this bird:

http://tribunecwcblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/friwxpic4.jpg

I find it very encouraging that the local weather has been slightly off the past couple of weeks. For a streak there, when they said -10, it would be -10. When they said 10-inches of snow, it'd be 10-inches of snow. But I think it's reverted back to their regular practice of hyperbole. Yesterday, for example, was supposed to be 8, with chilling winds, but it was closer to 15, with no wind (small victories). I'm hoping they're wrong again saying it could barely break freezing for the first time in two weeks on Thursday, and that it breaks freezing by a significant margin. And that their estimates of temps in the '40s and maybe the '50s next week is similarly low.

i get to go take wedding photos in a park on saturday so i'm hoping it's nice enough to make that fun

I met a woman the other night who said that she thought it was easier to meet people/make friends in bars in NYC than in Chicago because the bars there are smaller or something, and I became annoyed not just out of Chicago pride but also because this just seemed like a dumb generalization based on one's limited personal experience.

Why are you being so sex negative?

i've long held a layman's social science theory that the bars/clubs/nightlife scene in chicago does not have the same energy and patronage as some other cities (mostly NY and SF) because the rental market here is so much better than those other cities

in chicago one or two people with a college degree can afford a place large enough to entertain a few dozen people, so going out is less a part of the culture

my experience in honolulu was that any dj/promoter/owner had to work so much harder to make a saturday night event a success compared to a friday night event because everyone is outside beaching/surfing/hiking/barbecuing all day saturday they're pooped by 8pm

ime, it's much, much, much harder to strike up conversations with strangers in bars in Chicago than in other cities i've spent time in. i have a lot of thoughts on this, but they're really not well gathered at this point in the morning.

that said, sex positivity doofus up there is a doofus supreme.

Feeling U Robin.

Why would anyone want to talk to strangers in bars anyway? I don't talk to strangers. Unless they talk to me and I'm sort of forced into it. But then I pretty much end the convo as quick as I can. Basically if I'm going to a bar I'm either 1) Going there to meet people I already know, 2) Meeting people I've already pre-socialized with on Twitter but haven't met in person, or 3) Going alone and don't want to be bothered with mingling strangers.

Sometimes it's nice to talk to people while you wait for the people you are meeting to show up. This comes in handy when you have habitually late friends. I don't really go out of my way to do so, but when I'm travelling I find myself in good conversations with people quite often. Way more than it happens here.

talking to strangers at bars is great

Yeah, I really enjoy it most times.

Austin was great for this. I remember sitting at one bar eating dinner on like, a Tuesday night, and I struck up a conversation with the bartender. A bunch of his friends came in and within an hour I had been invited to a couple barbeques.

I've lived in... six cities ("cities") as a bar-going adult (and spent time in bars in many more) and honestly I wouldn't rate Chicago as more difficult in that sense (I actually found Atlanta to be the toughest, Rapid City, SD was probably the easiest). But a lot has changed about my bar/socializing habits over the years as I've gotten older so I can't really make a valid comparison.

Gr80 what you say makes sense about energy and why it's different. I've definitely felt more at home in Chicago nightlife than anywhere else I've lived save Newark, DE, but that's because I more or less treated one particular bar as an extension of my living room. Also I really hate "clubs" so can't even speak to that aspect.

kill the sex positivist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcqkTOVbdPw

I guess I just don't like the unknown factor with strangers. I like to do my pre-work to see if it is potentially worth my time.

Granted, with this method I may miss the occasional good conversation with a stranger, but I figure the odds are so low of that happening for me, then NBD.

I love the small handful of experiences I've had with strangers in bars. Especially the one time in Melbourne. If I haven't had those experiences much in Chicago, I feel like it's mostly because I haven't made myself available to them. Here, I'm at a bar with my wife or with friends -- there's little reason to talk to strangers. In Melbourne, I was by myself. I'm sure "friendly Australians"/"pub culture" had something to do with my experience, but I was also more receptive to it.

I'll admit that sometimes I get overly defensive of Chicago because I haven't really lived anywhere else as an adult and am unable to make worldly comparisons.

I love talking to strangers in bars, too.

Also I think the social dynamic is different when you're traveling. I tend to be more open and willing to risk making the acquaintance of someone who might be a total numbskull since I won't have to see that person again after I leave. Also people traveling from out of town are more interesting by virtue of their difference, especially if the bar is in a smaller city/town (see Rapid City where I was treated as a minor celebrity for being as exotic weirdo from Delaware and also I was killing a few days while trying to get my traveling companion out of jail, so I had (undeserved) street cred).

I get defensive of Chicago, too, particularly of criticisms that it's backwards or uncool or undeserving of being a top five city or whatever since that is super subjective and based on the narrow but irritatingly universalized preferences of the criticizer.

Remember that jerk you met in Simon's and then invited to have dinner with us at Andie's? That was no a great stranger.

A guy in a bar in Hong Kong wouldn't leave me alone. Just kept going on and on about bars in Korea. Worst of all he was smoking the whole time.

South Korea, not North. He had not been to North Korea.

even having a terrible conversation with a terrible stranger at a bar can result in a kind of fun memory once its over

Yes! Like the time I invited a complete butthole to Thanksgiving dinner! God he was annoying.

i met some italian dudes at this bar the other nite who were not my style at all but they were fun enough to hang out with. i started talking about the green mill and they demanded i take them there, which ended up getting me a free cab ride back to the north side :)

One time I was back home visiting my parents and went out by myself just to get some alone time. I was at a bar that I never go to (b/c of said alone time) and ended up talking to this guy who was 1. really really drunk and 2. had obviously suffered some kind of horrific injury at some point in his life because half his face was sort of gone. Anyway, it ended up being really hilarious and fun, and we watched a hockey game for a while, and when some other fucked up person came by and started making fun of him we both told them to fuck off and laughed about it a bunch.

I came to find out later the reason for his injury was that he had attempted suicide but "missed" and just taken half his face off with a shotgun. He seemed like a really positive person at the time, but maybe that was because of the booze.

Shotgun suicide attempt guy kills thread dead, sorry.

Strictly anecdotal, but maybe our neighborhood bars are more far-flung? With the exception of, what, the Viagra triangle or "Lakeview," there's no real goin'-out destination like there is in other cities, no? Like, in NYC, you would get dressed up and head to [neighborhood X]. In San Fran or New Orleans or LA or whatever, probably the same. But Chicago seems like a city of specific places - we're going to *this* bar, or *that* bar, not just "goin' out." But hey, I'm old, so what do I know.

Whoa. That's a great stranger-in-a-bar experience.

Man, I'd totally forgotten about the guy we took to dinner from Simon's! On Thanksgiving, FFS. All I remember is that he was super drunk and a dingdong. Weird.

I have a lot of thoughts re talking to strangers. Don't change the topic, I'll BRB!

xp

josh sort of otm, but wicker park, river north, logan square, boystown wrigleyville are all places you can bar-hop

division between ashland and leavitt is basically bar and/or brunch-hopping territory, depending on time of day

it's easier to talk to strangers when you're not in your hometown because you have things to talk about with strangers, questions to ask, the freedom to be known only as much as you want to reveal, etc. i don't see how it's any more difficult to to talk to strangers in chicago specifically.

i have never enjoyed bar hopping though.

also i didn't read that thing about how chicago is sexually provincial because i can't deal with the soaring cliffs of total garbage being published at this point in history.

I guess I've never gotten the appeal of barhopping, either.

Well, just to clarify, I wasn't basing my experiences re talking to strangers on "bar-hopping". At this point in my life, its mostly find a bar with good food and a good beer list and that's about it. "Bar-hopping" ime has mostly been just go to bar A -> "this bar sucks" -> go to bar B.

I know -- I was just sharing my feelings about bar hopping. It was unrelated to the convos with strangers.

2/11/14 -- the day i felt compelled to share my feelings about bar hopping on the internet ;_;

So my thoughts on talking to strangers:

First of all, I love it and do it quite a lot, except when the stranger is a gay guy and I'm not drunk, in which case I clam up.

I read some book or article where the writer (from NYC) said that socializing in Chicago took some getting used to b/c he found that people gathered in homes much more than they do in NYC. His amateur social science theory was similar to gr80's; he figured his New Yorker peers were living miniscule apartments w/ tons of roommates, so they didn't do stuff at home as much.

New Orleans is absolutely fucking amazing for meeting strangers. I'm not referring (just) to one-night (tourist) bar friends, but meeting neighbors and other strangers on the street. And it wasn't the shallow Southern "friendliness" where you say "Hi" to everybody you see -- it was more open, e.g., chatting w/ some guy sitting on his porch and winding up having a beer with him. Or meeting a group of strangers at a coffee shop and taking a drive with them and going out later. Or joining a bunch of 60-70-something gay men and a 90 year old woman hanging out looking at her convertible.

The openness is contagious and during my 6 month stay, I became more open and at ease (though I was still tense and quiet around most gay guys).

Regardless of the place, I think talking to strangers is much, much easier if you're a stranger. It's a huge entree to talking to complete strangers, and it provides its own topic.

I wanted to start a thread about this topic after talking about it on a dating thread. It's not that my thoughts are that fascinating, but I am really interested in the topic.

Agree. I talked with multiple strangers at pfork this year and it was really easy because there was a built-in topic of conversation. I also enjoy talking with strangers when I have the advantage of walking away and never seeing them again.

ilx is basically talking with strangers

I'd be all about that thread, but I don't think I'd have a whole lot to add. It ties into some stuff that I've been thinking about a lot lately, specifically wrt the difficulty in making new friends as you get older and just general opportunities where its easy to meet new people.

xpost

Yeh, it'd be about that, too.

jon por ejemplo

you know that i am interested in going to see chris forsyth, and that askance johnson is too -- we mentioned it on that other thread! if you want to make new friends, we are two people who are 1) friendly 2) interested in going to see a show you are also interested in

why not invite us?

it's never "easy" to make new friends. it takes effort.

that show is coming up at the end of the month iirc? a few sundays away?

anyway i would go if anyone wants to go with me

Talking To Strangers
Striking Up Conversations With Strangers

I'm definitely still interested in that Forsyth show! I'm waiting to hear how some family plans shake out for that weekend before I pull the trigger on getting a ticket, but I hope to know by Friday and I'm hoping its not sold out by then (doubting it will be). I'll let you know!

Fwiw, that wasn't a lame fishing attempt up there. I genuinely have been thinking about this a lot.

Like I was specifically thinking the other day about like an OkCupid sort of thing, but more for people looking for friends instead of any dating/romantic thing. Would people use something like that? I mean, I know there is meetup and similar sites, but those seem pretty specifically targeted for special interests. Is there room for a social networking site based on, "hey I like '70s films, stoner rock and craft beer, how about you"? Would people use it? Is it weird? Would it face the same social stigma that online dating did in, say, 1998?

Anyway, pardon my babbling, it's been something in my head a lot lately.

As an interesting sidenote, I started typing "okcupid but" in Google and autocomplete went to "okcupid but with friends", so I'm clearly not the only one.

Ha, sounds like one of those mustache cars for pallies. "Man, I wonder if anyone wants to see a movie with me? Hmm, let me check. Cool, here's one!" Makes call, dude with mustache shows up to check out a '70s movie then see Fu Manchu.

My only point was to indicate that it takes an overture of friendliness to make friends -- an exhibition of effort! At least it does for me.

There is no quicker way to make friends than sharing a shitty situation. That's why we all talk about the weather so much. It's effortless.

"How 'bout that weather?"

"Yeah, it sucks. My socks froze today."

"Did you say your socks froze!"

"Yeah! That's fucked up, right?"

"Totally. You should get socks that don't freeze. Mine don't freeze."

"What kind of socks do you have?"

Friends!

lol Josh.

Oh absolutely in takes an overture of friendliness, it's how/when/where you run into the people for which you can make the overture that is the trick for a lot of people these days.

strangely enough, I bought tix to that Chris Forsyth show this morning! So I'm definitely going, and S probably is too. So if you're going, jvc or ll, it will be fun. It's at 7 PM, which, tbh, is one of the reasons I'm excited for it.

It's at 7 PM, which, tbh, is one of the reasons I'm excited for it.

Haha yes, I thought the exact same thing.

Who the eff is Chris Forsyth #howwouldiknow

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/john-cale/Event?oid=12455623
!!!

better yet http://www.oldtownschool.org/concerts/2014/04-17-2014-john-cale-8pm/

I saw that! I wonder if he'll just do "fragments of a rainy season"-esque piano numbers? Bcz that would be awesome.

You guys listen to old people music. Who wants to go see Capital Cities at the United Center??

News you can use:

http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads//2014/02/Fall-Through-Ice-3.jpg

do i need to pay any attention to this sexual assault/abuse case thats all over the headlines?

omg the rauner one? what a mess. if he's lying, what a total shitbag. if he's not, jeez almighty.

and the fact that an accusation of that nature would even be up for debate -- sickening! and yet.

i admit i haven't been paying full attention, but i thought it was Rutherford that was accused.

lol art of manliness, I remember that stuff from boy scouts xps

xp - i clearly haven't either -- it seems impossible to figure out who's lying and i'm tired of trying

Who the eff is Chris Forsyth #howwouldiknow

― jaymc, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://soundcloud.com/solar-motel-band

In addition to being a mindblowing guitarist, he's also an incredibly nice guy who would probably enjoy talking to strangers. I do not know what kind of socks he wears, but I can find out.

wait is this rauner the repub candidate for governor you're talking about?

yeah

also charter school guy iirc?

oh wow had no idea the accused had a shot at the governor's office

that's the whole point i think -that the accusation came right before the primary and not three years ago when it allegedly occurred

the plot sickens

I only know of Rauner via his TV commercials, but he reminds me of my mom's husband.

Should I care about anything with any republican candidate for gov? I can't imagine I would have wanted to vote for them any way. I don't want to vote for Pat Quinn either.

In other news: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-car-free-streets-met-0212-20140212,0,4141283.story

I love ActiveTrans as an org. It almost feels like they're throwing out this proposal to piss off car owners, which I also kind of love. Because really, none of this is going to happen. MAYBE one, but I doubt it.

huge fan of plazas over here

Even as somebody that drives a lot (way, way more than I want to, tbh), I like the idea, but I know that even if by some miracle it did happen, Chicago would botch it in some colossal way that would just make it unpleasant for everyone.

I went to a local (Oak Park) highway expansion meeting (290), and there was a very interesting turn in the conversation. Several people had popped up to complain that the last thing we want is to encourage more people to drive, to take the highway, to add to congestion and pollution. But then some guy stands up and offers that, hey, at the rate we're going, by the time any highway expansion project is completed, however many (more) decades down the road, cars could very well have little to no emissions. He had a certain point.

xpost

Possible, but I don't have a completely fatalistic point of view regarding Chicago projects. Some good things were done in the past few years with the speed cameras, biking infrastructure, bike sharing and upcoming with the 606 and river walk expansion. But these are really just the low hanging fruit. The city is still so car focused and we're not making the big changes that we need to.

we = ?

We, the city.

It's just such a big city (physically speaking) -- I looked at the changes they're suggesting and they seem to be limited to a pretty small number of areas (in spite of attempts to include Pilsen and Humboldt Park). Sounds great for the people who are around there, but it doesn't really seem to involve the whole city.

convert all roadways within a 4 block radius of wrigley in to plazes

Possible, but I don't have a completely fatalistic point of view regarding Chicago projects. Some good things were done in the past few years with the speed cameras, biking infrastructure, bike sharing and upcoming with the 606 and river walk expansion. But these are really just the low hanging fruit. The city is still so car focused and we're not making the big changes that we need to.

This is 100% otm and a good, necessary reminder to keep my cynicism in check sometimes. But, yeah, we need to make huge scale changes wrt how transportation works at a macro level before small changes like ped plazas can make sense. Simply shutting down part of a street for a plaza without larger considerations to the infrastructure will really just make things worse for short-term goals. We need to start with ways to discourage driving/encourage public transportation, a need that has been hammered home in recent weeks. The CTA delays on particularly cold days have pushed people back to driving when the weather gets so extreme, making the traffic congestion so much worse. I've personally spoken with 4 co-workers that typically take the CTA 99.9% of the time, but they said "fuck it" on the sub 10-degree days because, why? Why stand on the corner or a platform in the cold for 20-35 minutes? Until we can address things like that, these bandage solutions aren't going to solve anything.

Anyway, sorry for derail. I'm 100% in favor of more bike lanes, more ped plazas, fewer cars, etc etc forever, but I am also 100% positive that the CTA circa 2014 is not anywhere near equipped to handle that kind of dependency.

New Bern NC got a foot of snow WTF.

The governor advised: "Don't put on your stupid hat at this point in time."

Don't forget, it wasn't that long ago that State Street was closed to cars! A reminder:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-11-09/business/9611090143_1_great-street-jackson-boulevard-traffic

Yeah, I've seen that mentioned many times in opposition to creating pedestrian malls. Obviously I didn't live here at the time, but from what I've read/seen pictures of, it was poorly implemented. There wasn't really any people/pedestrian friendly infrastructure built. Basically just the street was closed. And the culture around the loop is completely different than it was in the 80s and 90s. It's now a much more vibrant area than it was when everyone just went to malls to do their shopping. And more people live there, 30,000 as opposed to the 5,000 or so that did when State St. was closed. Hopefully any new pedestrian malls would be more thoughtfully planned and implemented, learning from the mistakes of the failed State St. one.

i wonder if neighborhood chambers of commerce would be pro- or anti- walkways.

on the one hand it would make deliveries/pickups more difficult/expensive but it could also mean more business

I'm seeing a lot of what seems like concern-trolling of these street-closing ideas based around the ability/inability for differently-able people to get cabs/buses in busy areas like Michigan Ave and such.

There should certainly be accommodations made. I've seen ideas for accessible light transit through the pedestrian areas. The State St mall did have bus traffic, but it was the big pollution spewing buses of the 80s, which didn't make for a pleasant pedestrian environment.

I was here when State Street was closed, and it sucked. There are some (former) ped malls out here in Oak Park (per the article), and they pretty much sucked, too. The thing is, a lot of people get to and from places via car. If you close something off to cars, you're basically telling people to drive around or go somewhere else. Which is fine, but it's a high burden to place on businesses to rely exclusively on foot traffic. God knows there's no reason to ever go to Navy Pier, really, but as easy as it is to get there, I can only imagine how dead it would be if it was not half parking garage.

Personally, I'm a big fan of neighborhoods like Lincoln Square, where parking is so shitty it might as well be a pedestrian mall. But actually shutting things down to traffic somewhere? Again, pretty high burden all around. I recall some grumbling when the bike stands all went in, that some businesses were losing one or two valuable nearby parking spots. I'm not sure if there's been any follow-up as to whether or not the presence and/or availability of all those bikes spiked or hurt nearby business at all.

I'm familiar with pedestiran malls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_Mall

Has this been linked? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/can-a-twitter-bot-capture-chicagos-essence/283789/

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2014/02/13/dibs-bandit-causes-neighborhood-choas-by-stealing-dozens-of-chairs.php#more

"Pedistiran" wtf kill me now

http://image2.8ball.co.uk/catalog/product/cache/1/image/217x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/A/l/AlfTShirt_IKillMe_Daisy_CU.jpg

i feel pretty lukewarm about this although seeing kendrick lamar (among others) would be fun

FRIDAY 7/18
Beck
Giorgio Moroder
Sun Kil Moon
Factory Floor
Death Grips
Haxan Cloak
Sharon Van Etten
+ more!

SATURDAY 7/19
Neutral Milk Hotel
Tune-Yards
Mas Ysa
Pusha T
The Range
Ka
Circulatory System
The Julie Ruin
Wild Beasts
+ more!

SUNDAY 7/20
Kendrick Lamar
Grimes
Diiv
Slowdive
+ more!

that's pfork lineup this year

Hope Friday ends with a Beck/Death Grips/Moroder/Kozelek "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" encore.

omg saturday is going to be a cluster that i'm not sure i'd want to see. i still can't believe how many young kids approach NMH at like godlike cult status.

would love to see kendrick, giorgio and diiv though.

odds on death grips showing up?

NMH in '98 really is one of the best shows I ever saw (especially because I barely knew who they were at that point). That once was all I really needed, though.

i could see myself going on sunday but prob not going to get a weekend pass unless something pops up to surprise me
i completely missed the NMH boat

i will go see moroder play at the Mid or smart bar but no way am i seeing him at pfork

Hi guys. Interesting to see you all talking about pedestrian plazas and highway expansions recently since this is all the kind of stuff I've been reading about at my new job. I wanted to jump on and recommend this guy's blog:
http://danielhertz.wordpress.com
especially this post:
http://danielhertz.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/curiosities-in-chicagos-housing-plan/
and this one:
http://danielhertz.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/zoning-its-just-insane/
that talks about how local zoning prevents growth of housing in high-demand neighborhoods and drives up rents. I'm not enough of an expert to know how "right" this all is but it's interesting stuff.

I read that site, it's great!

He's also very pro-Ashland BRT if you're into that.

odds on death grips showing up?

omg, a friend in the know told me exactly how many bridges on so many levels these assholes burned last summer. It's incredible they're on a bill, any bill.

Be awesome if it was just Moroder and a mic, talkin' 'bout Moroder.

with Daft Punk producing underneath?

He's also very pro-Ashland BRT if you're into that.

Which is how I found his site, he does a lot of BRT defending on Everyblock. Which is kind of a fruitless endeavor but I admire his persistence.

Is there a more-well-constructed anti-BRT argument than "NIMBY" or anything business-related?

What's a BRT?

Bus Rapid Transit

thanks for passing along that blog n/a, right up my alley but i hadn't come across it before.

i noticed your instagram shots of urban planning materials, those were pretty cool to see.

When my family lived in Australia for a time we lived in a city that had these weird/awesome busway things, the tracks were right down the street and I loved going to watch them go by. Riding them was kind of fun too.

http://www.baulderstone.com.au/__/assets/thumbnail/2fa4------e8ba/includes/PROJECTS/transport-and-rail/O-BAHN%20BUSWAY%20ADELAIDE/1.jpg

I doubt anything like this would work in Chicago because lol where would you put it, but it'd still be kinda sweet.

Is there a more-well-constructed anti-BRT argument than "NIMBY" or anything business-related?

Possibly, but nothing I can articulate on my phone while sitting in a bar. Most of the arguments are just about entitlement/privilege. People don't want to make their commutes slightly more inconvenient so a whole lot of other people can have better commutes.

Whoa, I didn't really think this was possible

94 percent of Lake Superior, 95 percent of Lake Huron, almost 96 percent of Lake Erie, and around 81 percent of Lake Michigan is ice covered.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5523/12541124735_1699f49987_z.jpg

Just yesterday a client just told me and my boss that he'd flown over Lake Michigan and it was completely frozen and we were really skeptical.

Lake Superior looks like an angry dog-shaped hand puppet.

or a WOLF thankyouverymuch

http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131219084059/simpsons/images/c/c8/Release-the-hounds-o.gif

Ha I guess I'm not the first person to notice its shape. But did you ever notice how Michigan is shaped like a mitten??

A WHAT??!?!!!

http://whiskymeister.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/mi-marquette-paddle-to-the-sea-drawings-of-lake-superior.jpg

^^^ from Paddle to the Sea, my all time favorite children's book. Lake Michigan is compared to a squash, Lake Huron a trapper wearing a backpack. iirc Erie and Ontario were lumps of coal or something.

We went snowshoeing at the Morton Arboretum today. At least, we did for about 15 minutes, until my older daughter threw a total fit, basically dismissing snowshoes as bullshit. She made me take them off, then she made a point of running, jumping and tumbling through the snow unencumbered. Then my other daughter wanted to go shoe-free, too, and I soon followed. Even my wife, who was the one who wanted to go, couldn't quite figure the point of snowshoes, figuring maybe they would make more sense if we were tromping across 15 feet of snow rather than 8 inches or whatever. At least they didn't charge for the kids.

Someone needs to drive me out to the Arb so I can run some hills there.

Your children are wise Josh

Wow, a U of C student was found dead and decomposing in his I-House room 8 days after last using his keycard:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-university-of-chicago-student-20-found-dead-20140215,0,4743212.story

Eight days!

saw that. sad. first thought is how could it take that long for someone to notice... but then i realize there were periods i was living alone and single without close friends, probably could have happened. my family might be concerned not hearing from me at all but i doubt enough to send someone to check. poor kid.

In a dorm, though? I could see that in a house/apartment but dorms are so social with everybody up in everybody else's business.

i guess not everybody's business
there were people in my dorm who would come and go, visitors (who were not students) no one recognized, etc
speaking of dorms and death, i just found out that the guy who lived next to me and played "building a mystery" for weeks on end just died :(

I'm trying to remember what that 80s satanic cult panic thread was called, because I want to share this story. Thought it might be of interest to some in that thread.

just search for insane sybil
that's what i do

was that girl a lone killer claiming to be a satanist or does she allege that a satanic cult made her kill?

Oh right, that's the thread! Thanks.

The latter is what she claims, but not a lot of evidence found anywhere to back it up yet.

International House at u of c is not the most traditional dorm. More like apartments.

i loooove seeing jerks like this go down

http://www.wbez.org/news/new-dcfs-boss-pleaded-guilty-stealing-social-service-agencys-clients-109715

unfortunately,

Gov. Pat Quinn appointed Arthur Bishop to lead Illinois’ child welfare system last month. WBEZ and the Sun-Times found Bishop had once admitted to a misdemeanor theft after his former employer accused him of the crime.

What kind of monster steals money for social service agency clients? Holy shit.

And denies his daughter's existence and then gets nommed to head the agency controlling child welfare. Great decision making team, IL!!

OK, listened to the radio thing on this today, and while the stealing from a child welfare agency is a total no-no, the daughter thing isn't as beyond the pale as it seems. It sounds like the woman he got pregnant didn't tell him until his child was 17, so he really had no idea. She sued for child support and lost, but (I think) has gone on the record not blaming him for doing anything wrong. (No idea why she belatedly sued for child support, though).)

Meanwhile, Mel Reynolds arrested ... in Zimbabwe!

http://www.herald.co.zw/former-us-congressman-arrested/

lol @ no one even bothering to post about yet another snowstorm at this point

glad it came yesterday instead of over the weekend when i had a ton of family in town for a wedding, but my sister and brother in law had their flight back to nebraska yesterday cancelled and opted to rent a car today and drive back today (with two 5mo old babies)

I figured everyone had finally gotten used to it.

I spent 5 hours getting from Milwaukee to Chicago yesterday afternoon...

i had a friend get driven to UIC hospital right in the middle of it-- it took 90 minutes to get there from Foster & Kimball.

I'm not used to it, just too tired to moan. Weather reports have been pointing out that this isn't a record year for snowfall, as if that means it isn't a special, extended hassle.

The damage to my psyche has already been done this winter. One day it will get better. By May I'll be in a great mood, ready to conquer the world.

Today I booked a March 1 overnight getaway...to the Wisconsin Dells. lol

But besides skiing/sledding, the stay includes access to an indoor water park so yay.

There are things melting today that I did not even know were frozen.

I'm pretty worried about flooding this week.

/gardenapartmentlyfe

The snow is just sort of whatever at this point, but I'm just tired of the CTA just not being prepared at fucking all for the weather. My door-to-door last night, taking the red line, was 2 hours and 33 minutes. The red line took about 30 minutes from Harrison to Loyola, but then nearly 45 minutes between Loyola and Howard. We just kept sitting and sitting and sitting. Then I finally get off at Howard and transfer to the 97 bus and it's a cluster, loading us all onto one bus and then getting us back off and onto another bus that then sat for 20 minutes before pulling away from the station. Situations like that don't exactly encourage me to want to take it more often.

Bus bunching has made a comeback the last couple of weeks. It really did get a lot better in the last...5? years (IME).

I get that yesterday was definitely less than ideal circumstances, but it just doesn't feel like a trip that should need to take 2 1/2 hours even under shitty weather conditions.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Data-Reveals-Intersections-With-Most-CTA-Red-Light-Violations-245970421.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Well at least buses keep running red lights to help keep you on time!

I see this all the time at Clark/Broadway/Diversey (which is not a red light camera intersection). My favorite is when the bus driver blatantly runs the light but lays on the horn to let you know, HEY I'M DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL THAT MAY KILL YOU GET OUT OF MY WAY.

Not at all shocked on number 1, but from what I understand that is exactly why they are taking the lights down at that interesection. Traffic gets so backed up through that intersection during rush hour that it's almost impossible not to get caught in the middle as it changes sometimes.

It does. I'm not expert on the subject, but it seems like it could be designed better to alleviate gridlock instead of just allowing it.

If I could, I'd put a red light camera on every light in the city. Traffic be damned.

I'm okay with red light cameras at certain intersections, less comfortable with speed cameras. Because honestly, when municipalities see that cash cow, how long until every mile or road everywhere has cameras? The thought of actually having to always drive 55 on the expressways everywhere is awful.

Ahaha I ride through the 57th/Cornell intersection twice a day, dunno if I've seen buses run it but people do all the time.

Realistically, I don't have nearly as much beef with buses as I do with taxis and private vehicles. Bus drivers have a largely thankless task at hand, regular drivers do so much more immensely stupid shit that prosecuting the occasional right on red by a bus seems almost nitpicky.

I definitely agree about the thankless job of a CTA driver but, given a choice, I'd rather get hit by a Mini Cooper illegally crossing a red light than a CTA bus. So ticket 'em all, I say.

it's weird -- i drive a lot and i don't really harbor any driving-related resentment other than not liking the idea of searching/fighting for parking spots. most of the time i'm singing and enjoying my alone time tbh.

Yesterday morning I was walking to the bus stop and a person made a left turn into a shopping center parking lot directly in front of me. If I hadn't stopped walking they would have hit me. I rapped on the window of the car with my knuckles as it went by. The person stopped, honked, and yelled something at me out the window. I asked if their poor car was hurt by me hitting it. They drove away.

Another time I was crossing at a signal and someone turning left just drove straight at me and I had to jump out of the way. Then the guy rolled down his window and said "get out of the way" (he had to stop talking on his phone to do it. I called him a motherfucker as he drove away.

These sort of things happen every single day. I'm tempted to say south siders are worse drivers overall. It's probably not true but sometimes it feels like I see a lot more crazy shit happening here than I did up north.

yeah that sucks

also you would be surprised at the number of stories my students have about them and their friends driving without ins or licenses
it's kinda shocking!

themselves (hasty post, sorry)

I'm not trying to play it off but it wouldn't surprise me. After I went through the wringer of getting hit by someone w/o insurance I came realize it's a lot more prevalent than I ever would have previously thought.

I'll be the first to admit I have a bit of pedestrian rage. But like Dan, these things just seem to happen to me all the time. It's hard not to be enraged about almost getting hit by a car.

I've almost been hit so many times crossing 8th street at either Wabash or State, and 95% of them its from one of the cabs that circles the Hilton. It's pretty much useless to say anything to them, because ime all cab drivers are 100% certain it's your fault for crossing the street, in the crosswalk, with the light in the first place.

Wow, this'll be pretty goddamn amazing:
http://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/2014/02/13/loose-booty-thurston-moore-richard-hell-joe-mcphee-milford-graves/

The thought of actually having to always drive 55 on the expressways everywhere is awful.

Yeah, I'm not sure anyone would advocate them on expressways (except those in it solely for the money grab). There are no pedestrians, so cars can fight it out for all I care.

I'm all for them on city streets, specifically high pedestrian traffic areas. I'd rather get hit by a car going 30 MPH than one going 40+ MPH. Actually, I'd rather not get hit.

I've got a radar gun on my wishlist, I really want to set up on Diversey and get data on how fast cars are driving between Southport and Racine. My unscientific estimate is that a good majority go over 40 MPH in that stretch. There are five crosswalks between those streets with mostly residential areas of both sides.

Fair enough. I'm okay with them in most residential neighborhoods, particularly near schools or situarions like that stretch you noted. I just worry about the slippery slope towards easy cash for municipalities. I can't find it now, but I remember an article about some state out west considering speed cameras out on long stretches of interstate.

But yeah, I don't get the people that fly through streets like that. I'm perfectly okay going 30 throughout pedestrian heavy blocks, there's too much other stuff to be aware to feel safe any faster than that. The only place in the city with an unreasonably low speed limit, imo, is the northern stretches of Lake Shore Drive.

I got hit by a car while riding a bike years ago. I'm pretty sure the only permanent damage I incurred was to the part of my brain that had any patience whatsoever with shitty drivers. So this is naturally a terrific city for me to be living and regularly walking in.

Fuck red light cameras. Something like 95% of the tickets they give (and 100% of the tickets they've given me) is for failure to come to a full stop before making a right turn on red. And trust me when I say, having seen the videos, that it's about the same degree of bullshit as ticketing for jaywalking, not least because there is no data that shows failure to come to a full (as in, full, driver's ed, count to three, you're being tested on this) stop before turning right on red leads to more accidents, or vice versa. I respect the revenue notion, but it's not right to impose a scheme like this strictly to gain revenue, especially in light (ha) of the fact that the contracted red light camera company skims a huge percentage of that ticket fee for itself.

According to the LA Times, Los Angeles officials estimated that 80% of their red-light camera tickets are for rolling right turns. And according to the Chicago Daily Herald, rolling-right-turn violations have accounted for 90% of the tickets generated in several Illinois communities. These tickets are often given to drivers who actually stopped safely but were inches over the line.

They're fascist, basically.

Worse: they're capitalist.

Well yeah, but I'm talking about the union of state and corporate power.

(I promise not to make this a political discussion beyond that!)

Three Floyds and David Yow

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/02/18/men-spotted-on-ledge-of-intercontinental-hotel-taking-pictures/

Yesterday was the highest temp in 51 days. First time above freezing in 18 days.

After Thursday, rest of February is not looking good though. Setting expectations appropriately.

I guess flooding is a real concern. All that snow has to go somewhere, and Thursday it's supposed to be both warm *and* raining.

Yeah, that's going to be rough.

My street is already mostly flooded. All the drains are under 8 inches of snow and frozen trash/leaves.

Skated to the train station this morning.

I'm nervous about flooding and I have a dentist's appt this afternoon. The less I think about all of it, the better. Waking up this morning to rays of sunshine and bird noises was super nice.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/02/18/men-spotted-on-ledge-of-intercontinental-hotel-taking-pictures/

OMFG those pics give me actual vertigo

They are terrifying.

not to mention the snow and ice up there... i could barely handle the parking lot this morning

http://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/1178266

lol no southside

white people

also lol no green eye wtf noobs

No westside either.

Someone on my Facebook page asked"Is there a song about spotting Jeff Tweedy on the street in Chicago? I mean, there must be, right?" And then someone replied:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMdF1lNmRRg

xp - advertising map

is that an advertising stunt for chipotle?

Is that Frontline doc you watched going to make you think everything is advertising?

I don't think so, guessing it's just "there has to be a song about seeing someone famous who's out and around" and it was funny that in a minute someone found it.

at least they got clark/division correct

xposts 2 bar map

yes i'm afraid so, for a while at least
the doc was very illuminating!

cant wait to watch that one.

my new sister-in-law had never seen an episode of frontline until about a month ago and is now hooked. i got them an apple tv as a wedding gift and i think she might be more stoked on it than any of the home goods she registered for

That's a very nice wedding gift!

full disclosure i won an apple gift card as a door prize at my work holiday party

Nice and practical, too.

“There’s no way GQ hired you to be a staff writer. So it’s obviously one of those advertorial sections, where it looks like a real article so they trick you into reading it, and then you find out it’s a paid advertisement. Which is both morally and creatively bankrupt. So who’s the sponsor?”

?

Girls (luckily stayed in a room with cable last week and saw it).

Also, I guess we're about to find out if Slate is good at predicting our weather.

If I were a meteorologist I'd want to be very sure of my shit before name checking the Edmund Fitzgerald in a prediction.

Especially since that storm happened in November, not January.

I don't want that weather to happen.

Especially since that storm happened in November, not January.

It's right there in the song: the gales of NOVEMBER came early!

http://www.esquire.com/features/rahm-emanuel-interview-0314

I really don't understand why the stoplight at Hollywood & Sheridan is so hard to keep running or fix when it goes bad. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to go from Howard & Ridge to Hollywood & Sheridan this morning because of that damn stoplight.

am wearing my rain trench for the first time since october today. was so excited to break it out that i forgot to grab an umbrella before leaving the house :-/

i need a nice rain trench, but yeah i think the umbrella would have been key this morning.

I wore a nice trench this morning, but it has a button missing so I looked like I was clutching my heart.

I think I would look stupid in a trench coat. Other ppl can pull it off, for sure. Not me.

You know, I don't think you could pull it off, either.

Julia, that article is something else. I'm going to repost it here - Rahm Emanuel: C/D? (probably going to be a Chicago politics complaint thread too) - so others can enjoy it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnkUcp9l5MY

Very cool--I think that's the western Marina tower.

Shot from, that is.

Read that the same reason we did not get the promised 50 degree weather is related to all this current fog, but that in a rare twist, we will get a blast of (relative) warmth after our upcoming big storms, to be followed almost immediately tonight by another cold front. By the end of next week they're predicting more single digits.

Yeah, march is going to have a shitty start in regards to weather.

take my weather - please

March in Chicago: comes in like an asshole. Goes out like a motherfucker.

It did snow in April last year. So it can still suck for a while. Maybe may will be tolerable.

It's windy out there

I'm tired of our People's Gas bill being double it's normal amount.

Our old house was 100 years old and drafty and stuff, but we got one of those underwritten energy assessments that beefed up the insulation and whatnot. They bring out a thermal imager and everything, which shows basically the convection process that cools old houses. Made a big difference, even though we half-assed it, since we were about to move. The new house is maybe twice as big, but everything is new and up to code, so our gas bill more or less stayed the same! Amazing, really.

Owen & Engine on Check Please!

Oh snap. I hope we can still get a table there.

Chicago friends-those that know me from real life encounters or just as a presence on this board, I have a question/favor to ask of you..,

I know of an especially deserving young person who is about to graduate college and is hoping to move to Chicago to begin their professional life. This person is really hoping to find work in some film/television/postproduction capacity and I ask myself if I know of any IlXors who are involved in such activity, or know someone who is. I know it's a total long-shot, but I figure why not? Maybe one of you knows of someone who needs am intern, a research assistant, anything. This is not just for a friend of a friend but someone I know personally who works very hard and just needs some kind of small break. Any tips, hints, leads, feel free to email me off list. Think of it as good karma!

do any of you know who these people are or where/what borelli's is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxezI6jOZKs

i don't work in any of those fields btw, nor do i know anyone who currently does such work in chicago. i wish your friend the best of luck though!

Cold. Not expected to be above freezing again until the end of the 1st week in March. And then barely. We should be averaging highs in the 40s by this point. At least the time changes in 12 days.

today i gave up wearing my gigantic coat, even if it means that i'm cold.

also the show last night was INCREÍBLE, so glad i went.

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/p480x480/1601035_10152228292009413_804082643_n.jpg

If the forecast pans out, this will be the third coldest Chicago winter ever recorded.

it's going to be over soon enough
almost march!

My friend in Portland has been posting pictures of blooming flowers. Jerk.

Today's a beautiful day, lots of sunshine. I walked about ten blocks at lunchtime & got just to the brink of breaking a sweat.

It is nice and sunny out and I had the exact same plan for lunch until the Wabash wind tunnel (literally) smacked me in the face when I walked outside.

Why is WBEZ' Lisa Labuz such an intractable mushmouth?

broke out the long johns again this morning

I skipped them. Maybe I'm acclimated.