The title of this entry comes from the Steve Goodman song, "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request." But first, the celebrity death of the week is Tommy Makem. Yes, the style of Irish music that he and the Clancy Brothers were famous for is old-fashioned and sentimental. But, though it isn't to my taste, it kept the traditions alive long enough for the next generation to put a more interesting twist on.
My week was characterized largely by annoying transportation issues. The worst of those was a metro melt-down on Thursday night, involving a train breaking down between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom. I sat on a Blue Line train at Arlington Cemetery for about 40 minutes. And then Rosslyn was a total mess, with inconsistent information and massive crowds. They were single tracking, no, they weren't, we were supposed to be upstairs, we were supposed to be downstairs, there was a shuttle bus, they cancelled the shuttle bus, etc.. When the station manager begins an announcement by saying, "I don't know if this is true..." that is a definite bad sign. In the end, it took me roughly two and a half hours to get home, which is normally about a 45 minute trip.
Friday's delays were on American Airlines and were less annoying since the information was more consistent and accurate. My flight to Chicago ended up about an hour late. I then discovered just how slow the El has gotten, including single tracking along one section of their Blue Line. I was pretty exhausted when I got to my hotel and more or less just collapsed. Chicago hotels tend to be pricy and this time I ended up at the Whitehall, due to a deal through AAA. I had read mixed reviews on-line, but it proved to be fine.
Saturday morning, I did a Volksmarch in Evanston. That gave me the "E" in the "A-Z" special program, leaving me with just two more letters to go. ("K" and "Z," in case you were wondering.) More importantly, it's a college campus walk, and I need to finish that program before the end of the year. Overall, the walk was a nice one, except for directions on the Northwestern campus that were impossible to follow, due to massive construction. I figured out a way around that, which probably did add a little to the overall distance. There are also a lot of lovely (and expensive) homes to see. The architectural highlight is definitely the Bahai temple - certainly not what one expects to see in the suburban Midwest.
I finished the walk with plenty of time to make it to Wrigley Field. This is a ballpark I'd been particularly looking forward to, given its long history and its reported quirks. It does have a nice old-fashioned feel, but I can't say it has aged entirely gracefully. Perhaps because I was sitting under an overhang, I could see a lot of the shabby steel supports, which are hardly beautiful. The ivy-covered outfield wall is cute, but it makes the wall look lower than I think it actually is. The most interesting element is not actually in the ballpark itself - namely, the bleachers erected on the roofs of surrounding buildings. I'm not sure exactly how all that works, but they were as packed as the stadium itself was. Other things to note - an actual organist plays before the game (and between innings), there is no mascot (yea!), and everybody sings along loudly to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." So the look of shabbiness is quibbling.
As for the game, the Cubs ran over the poor Mets, largely due to John Mayne's pitching meltdown in the 3rd inning. It's bad enough to load the bases and give up singles to score runners. When you walk home a run and then let another run score by hitting a batter, you're seriously in trouble. And that after a double steal in the second (which ended up stranding the runners, but still ...)
As for today, it was hot and humid and a good day to be indoors at a museum. I briefly contempleted the high culture of the Art Institute of Chicago or the Museum of Contemporary Art. I thought about the Shedd Aquarium, too. But, in the end, I settled for quirkly and went over to Navy Pier and the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. The walk to Navy Pier from the Magnificent Mile is maybe a mile itself, but is not particularly attractive. The Pier has every sort of tacky touristy thing you can imagine - boat rides, ferris wheels, shops selling things nobody needs, etc.. And then there is the long long hallway of nicely lit and well-captioned stained glass windows. They're mostly late 19th through early 20th century windows and they're pretty much all American, but they cover a wide range of styles. I was especially impressed by the Belcher mosaics and by the Tiffany landscapes. But there's neo-Gothic stuff, religious themes (including a Jewish section), Prairie School (which it's easier to imagine actually living with), and some truly dreadful but interesting 1970's stuff. It's worth a good hour and a half to meander through the collection. (And, it's free.)
I also meandered around Michigan Avenue, with more interest coming from the gardens with displays of female torsos (I mean mannequin sort of scultpural things), than from the shops. I was glad I'd left myself a lot of time, as the El back to O'Hare was even more painfully slow than it had been coming in on Friday night. My flight, however, was reasonably on time and I got home about when I expected to. And so to bed, as soon as I upload t his.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel