Oh, I Think So

Federal Plaza, after work on a weekday  I am still fascinated by the notion of taking pictures of people who are taking pictures.  These two young men were being creative at Federal Plaza and they looked like two approachable people so when they were done taking their picture, I said, "Look, I took pictures of you taking the pictures."  I showed mine to them and they said, "Wow, those are great."  I asked if they wanted me to send them to a phone and they did.  Hours later they sent me a text saying, "Thank you." You're welcome, guys! More of the same

My coworker's sister's boyfriend wanted to go fishing.  He was trolling around on You Tube looking for information on that wily sportfish, the bass.  He came across "All About That Bass."  He realized it was not about bass fishing but watched it anyway.  He then got his girlfriend to watch and, in turn, told my coworker to watch it.  She told me advising it was very, very catchy.  She said you heard it once and it stayed in your head.  I said I would go home and look for it, which I did. It went into my head and took up residence. [In case you don't care about popular culture, "All About That Bass" is a tune sung by Meghan Trainor, a pretty and not-super-model-thin woman, and her pretty and zaftig pals in celebration of not being skinny or photoshopped and that we are all perfect and that according to this young person's mom, males like a little something to hang onto at night.]   Weeks go by.  I told my niece about it and saw that Jimm...

Topics I considered for today: 1.  Dead trees:  Safety last in forest preserves, along the freeway, and on the streets of Chicago. 2.  Jay Cutler:  Ick 3.  My vacation:  You don't care ?  Why the hell not? Now, I could go on and on about how the city and the parks and the county and the state need to get it together and fell the dead trees because all those dead trees near streets and roads and sidewalks and trails near humans traveling in cars/walking/biking are a public hazard, but how does one put it? How about this:  All those dead trees are a public hazard. A local woman was killed last week on the North Branch Trail by a dead tree that fell on her when she was caught in a fast-moving storm and couldn't get to shelter. In 1991, Kathy Huffhines, the film critic of the Detroit Free Press, died when a dead tree fell on the car in which she was traveling in Philadelphia. If you see a dead tree in Chicago, call 311 with the addres...

The cozy hearth of Pritzker Pavilion lit up in the center And so we were back to Millennium Park and the Pritzker Pavilion lawn this weekend.  The Stars of the Lyric Opera is a very popular event.  I've covered this in the past, about how thrilling it is, but this year we decided to view it from another vantage point:  the lawn.  General seating in the actual pavilion opens at 5:30 p.m. and for the last several years, we have arrived at 3:30 p.m. to get in line.  The closest to the front of this waiting line we've even been was two years ago when only two others were ahead of us.  After we race in and get our seats -- which takes all of 30 seconds -- we sit in those seats for another two hours before the show begins.  From those seats one could see the facial expressions of the singers and be stunned -- in good and bad ways -- by some sensational gowns worn by the female singers. It was exhausting.  Four hours devoted to sitting before the s...