About Chicago's Andersonville

In the midst of December, as my wife an I were helping my younger daughter move, from one apartment to another.... we found ourselves parking at a meter in the Andersonville area of Chicago. As I climbed the giant mound of snow, in order to access the parking meter I noticed something unusual.

It appeared that the entire top of the meter was missing... the meter was wide open to the elements,and there was no place to put a coin.

So, we parked scott-free (or so I thought) and went and organized our Elizabeth's new apartment.

Upon our return, there was a ticket attached to our windshield. Seriously?? Seriously!!

In order to write us a ticket, the meter person would have had to look at the meter, and assuredly noticed that the meter had no top. I double-checked to make sure that I had identified the correct meter (I had)... so I could not understand how any meter reader would be able to determine how I was in violation.

I had the presence of mind to take a photo of the "missing" meter head, with my cell phone, and sent in my protest, along with a photo of the damaged meter... to the powers that be, and promptly forgot about it.

Yesterday, we received in the mail, a letter from the Circuit Court of Cook County stating that they had "investigated" my claim that the meter "through no fault of my own" was inoperative... and had found the claim to be unsubstantiated, and the fine remained owed.

Seriously!!?

I paid the ticket.

My wife and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant last night (for those in the area... it was Tank Noodle on Argyle and Broadway). As we were perusing the menu, she seemed somewhat amused, and said to me... "look at #50 on the menu". The waiter overheard her and said "You want number FIFTY??? Whoaa!!", clearly impressed with her choice.

"No, I DON'T want number fifty" she replied... I looked at the item on the menu... it was a common Vietnamese-style dish... a large bowl of soup, with many ingredients and many spices... but one of the ingredients had struck her funny-bone. Cow Penis. Yep, that's right, you heard me "Cow Penis".

Now we asked the waiter (whose English was only so-so)...

"Do many people order number fifty?" He admited, "no, not many".

Before all of you get all caught up in the "ewwwwwwwww" factor... I want you to think about it for a moment... have you thought about it yet... no? give it another minute. Okay, now!

As I said to the waiter... I have a little problem with this dish.... he looked at me quizically.... A cow is a female.... she doesn't HAVE a penis. He responded "right.... not anymore!!!".

hmmmmmm

My daughter, Elizabeth (Liz) raised a concern, the other day, that she was getting "short shrift" on my blog, and her sister Sarah was getting more coverage. I looked through my blog posts, and dang if she wasn't right. Sarah had way more coverage, since she had recently been married, and then taken an extended trip to Bangkok. But wait, I'm talking about Sarah again.

In an effort to ameliorate that inequity, I posted Equal Time. The daughter in question has not yet commented. In fairness, it's highly likely that the "daughter in question" hasn't even SEEN the post yet, since she only tends to read my blog, when she's here, and using my computer. She can just click on my "active rain" link, and doesn't have to remember any fancy URL (yes, daughter, that's right... your ancient daddy knows what a URL is and can use it in a sentence).

As you can see from the photo... Liz is cute as a bug in a rug, and plenty o' smart to boot. Just in case Equal Time wasn't enough to bring us to equal, I thought I'd write another post, and include this photo of Liz. Okay, okay... the photo was taken at Sarah's rehearsal dinner (dang, i keep bringing up Sarah)... but it's a darn cute photo of Liz, so...I'm leaving it up.

Liz has recently begun her fieldwork, in pursuit of the completion of her master's degree in occupational therapy, and is less than 6 months away from graduation. I promise to blog about her gradumacation. (of course that means, I'll have to fit 15 more posts about her sister... but I think I can manage.)

Liz is currently living with her pet cat, Bailey, who is the devil incarnate. The cat is mean, mean, mean. His latest trick is to sit ON the mouse, while you're using it... and if you try to pull the mouse out, he'll bite you on the hand. Nice. But she loves this evil cat, and she claims that he loves her... and by LOVES, I mean TOLERATES... and by TOLERATE, I mean he "bites her less than others".

I'm sure that Liz will enjoy the fact that I'm "featuring" her in this post. (not)... but hey... equity is an important factor, and since you pointed it out, I want to make sure you get equal... or maybe MORE than equal coverage!! And besides, the more I post about her, the more opportunity it gives her to correct my grammar, spelling and/or punctuation!

So... here's to you, Lizzie-Occupational-Therapy-Student-Mean Cat-Whisperer, and tamer of the Bailey, Lady! Here's to you!

btw... thanks to Kristin Moran for the idea for the title of this post.

Today, I took my daughter to view an apartment. She's almost done with her graduate degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Illinois Chicago campus, and is readying to do her Fieldwork.

Her 6 months of fieldwork, brings her further north in the city. A little closer to her parents (a happy circumstance for her mother and I)... so we were helping her locate an apartment in Andersonville. One of the apartments we looked at was directly across the street from the old Essanay studios. This small, nondescript building was once known as the FIRST of the Hollywood studios (located in Chicago!).

I had forgotten about the Essanay studios, and wasn't even sure where they were located. But here was the building, larger than life (yet small in size)... Founded in 1907 by George Spoor and Broncho Billy Anderson.... get it?... Spoor and Anderson... S & A... "Essanay"... a cute play on words. It was best known as the studios that filmed comedies for Charlie Chaplin (that's right... THE Charlie Chaplin) in 1915...

Essanay also filmed such luminaries as Ben Turpin, Wallace Beery, Gloria Swanson, and Tom Mix (for those of you too young to know these stars of silent movies and some talkies... Tom Mix was the John Wayne of his era). They also furthered the career of Broncho Bill Anderson in the "Broncho Billy" westerns (yes, one of the owners of the studio).

Even though Essanay had managed to lure Chaplin away from Mack Sennet's studios, he only stayed a short year, and then left for more control. Chaplin was Essanay's biggest earner. Eventually, Chicago's fickle weather, caused the studio to move out to California, leaving their building behind, for me to discover today. It is now part of a local college, and still has the Charlie Chaplin auditorium.

A treasure, hidden away in the 1300 block of Argyle in Chicago's Andersonville (Uptown) neighborhood. Cool.