FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS...

-
The Chi-rish are about to let loose.

It's St. Patty's weekend in Chicago.

Which means the Metra today let us know that there would be no glass objects or alcohol allowed on the trains this weekend.

Yes, we love our St. Patty's day in Chicago - it's our way to let loose during Lent. Unlike New Orleans, we still feel compelled to party hard during the time of abstinence. We dye the river a bright, unnatural green. And we all add an O' or a Mac after our name, no matter where our ancestors came from.

Everyone is Irish on St. Patty's Day! At least in Chicago. Not sure what it's like elsewhere. I've heard that until recently, St. Patty's day was a day to go to church in Ireland. That was until the Americans flooded the place wondering where the parade was.

I had no idea that booze was allowed on trains on other days! Just thought the people surreptitiously drinking beer out of gigantic cans during non-festive days was their surreptitious way of getting drunk before getting home.

According to a friend, some bars in Chicago will open at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, March 17.

A fab way to celebrate the saint who drove snakes out of Ireland...

(Wonder if Starbucks' numbers diminish in Chicago in March.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Together Now! (A look at new millennial globalization at work...)

-
DDB London created a spot for Budweiser to air on Irish TV. (An interesting enough proposition, if you think about it!) Pix showcase the vibrant American city of Chicago as seen from the El train. Music is a very fun remake of a Beatles classic done by The Hours. Add it all together and what do we have? A British ad agency selling an American brew to an Irish audience using images of Chicago.... Check it out ... The Guardian story details the complexity of the shoot (50 hours of production during a freezing November week in Chicago! Coordinating the speed of the El train with the lyrics of the tune and the movements of multiple actors! And provides you a link to the spot.) What I love most - the glimpse it gives of a city I love....
Read more

The Mysterious Madness of Medical Billing...

-
I am a rebel, I suppose, a van-driving soccer mom of a rebel - one who works as a freelancer, who married a freelancer. We work out of our basement, I as a writer, my husband as a photographer. We love what we do - we love the clients we have the good fortune to work with - we love the fact our careers make us more available (sort of) to our children. The price for our rebellion against the corporate way of working is that we must buy our own health insurance plan for our family. We pay $600 a month for a the privilege of paying for the first $4000 in medical costs. It's a major medical crash and burn plan. It's what we can afford. We are healthy. We see the doctors primarily for annual check ups. Occasionally, a child has an illness that requires us to head over to the doctor. Otherwise, we see little of the medical establishment. My twins had their five-year-old check up recently. Required for school, as are eye exams (not sure of cost yet) and dental exams
Read more

Ayn Rand's Greatest Defender?

-
Ayn Rand is all the rage these days (and unbeknownst to me, has apparently been all the rage in certain circles since her career as an author began), with current interest jacked up thanks to the publication of Anne Heller's biography of Rand . In catching up with my reading this weekend, I noticed Newsweek had a review of Rand cleverly called "Atlas Hugged." As I read it, I found myself irritated by some of the thoughts of the reviewer, who found The Fountainhead "a stunning evocation of the individual and what he can achieve when unhindered by government or society." The reviewer pulls a quote from The Fountainhead to support the assertion, a claim by Roark: "I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need... I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to
Read more