Illinois

Illinois

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Chicago... a Midwest Mirage

The Cubs. The Bears. The Sears Tower (actually, it's now the Willis Tower), Wrigley Field, elevated trains, deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, the Midwest, the beach....wait...what? The beach? This is Chicago we're talking about, ...

Chicago Times

It’s midday and my friend and I have gotten off at the wrong stop. Chicago’s “El” train costs only $2.25 for one-way fares, and if used correctly (the key idea here) you can get anywhere. ...

From the Moon to the Stones: Chicago's West Side

It’s around 2am, and I’ve taken the “L” train in the wrong direction. There are two “Western” stops on the blue line. I could have sworn that I knew which was which – one located ...

Wrigley Field, Chicago

Built in 1914, just two years after Boston’s Fenway Park, Wrigley Field is America’s second-oldest ballpark. But the Wrigley family (as in the gum) didn’t own the venue until 1920, when it was known as ...

Springfield, Illinois: the Hidden State Capital

Presented with a two-hour delay for my Springfield flight, I made the best decision that any rational person of age would: I paid a friendly visit to the airport pub. “Where are you from?” I ...

Summer in Chicago

The end of summer is at hand, and I may well miss it. Jumping the gun a bit, but not by much, I find myself less disgruntled, overheated, and dying for that sense of “death ...

Red Ink at Copley?

On April 11 of this year, Copley Press, parent of the Union-Tribune, sold nine newspapers in Illinois and Ohio for $382.5 million. Now we know: those papers were losing money. The buyer was GateHouse Media ...

Mimi Smartypants in Chicago, Illinois

Me So Kooky First, the office is really big on this pupil-dilation thing. I know, preventive care blah blah, but it's just never convenient and I hate it, so I declined this time around. And ...

Mimi Smartypants in Chicago, Illinois

Urban Encounters This morning I was walking up the subway stairs right behind one of those girls . You know, with the hair? And the fingernails? And the ass pants? Her ass was pretty much ...

MIMI Smartypants in Chicago, Illinois

Box of Munchkins I went out drinking last night, and while it was fun and social and a nice change of pace from my evening routine of wholesome dinner, playing on the rug, and Elmo's ...

Mimi Smartypants in Chicago, Illinois

Parade of Weirdness The Set-up: Although I usually profess to hate humanity, the truth is that I am a dedicated observer of human quirks and oddities, particularly the collection of human quirks and oddities that ...

Meg B. in Chicago

Darning Socks I came across an odd piece of rounded wood on a stick, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember its purpose. Looks like a hardboiled egg on a Popsicle stick. It's ...