Alan May, Coldwell Banker Evanston Realtor, North Shore Realtor

This is a public service announcement:

For those of you who need instructions, here is how to build a property Chicago-Style hot dog. And just in time for memorial Day.

The bun must be fresh, and must be poppy-seeded. (Plain is acceptable, too... but you will be made fun of) Rosen's is a good choice... but we'll settle for Jewel or Dominicks'.

The hot dog can be grilled or boiled, but it must include Tomatoes (wedged)... pickle slice (also wedged... may be kosher, garlic or dill)... a MUST have... Celery Salt... (for those who have not had celery salt on a dog... it doesn't really have that much flavour, but if it's a Chicago dog... the fact that it's missing is notable).

Neon Relish (they don't have that colour in nature!)... diced onions are optional... but don't be a wuss... put them on... Sport peppers may be substituted with Pepperoncini... and most importantly

Yellow Mustard... not Grey Poupon... not hearty German with mustard seeds... no Colemans English mustard (admittedly... good... but not a traditional Chicago dog!)... just plain and simply yellow mustard.

and NO KETCHUP!! Poochies (a local dawg server in our neighborhood) will not put any ketchup on the dawg, if you ask... they'll hand you those little plastic baggies of ketchup... scowl at you, and make you put it on yourself

Thank you for listening... we now return you to your regular programming already in progress.

ALAN MAY, Realtor®
Specializing in Evanston Real Estate and North Shore Real Estate
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Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, 2929 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201
847.425.3779 Cell: 847.924.3313 Email: Almay@aol.com

Just came back from reviewing the latest (earliest??) in the Star Trek series at the Evanston Century Theatre. (I didn't really see it for myself... I saw it so that I could review it for my readers... oh, how I suffer for my art).

It did not disappoint. Nonstop action... James Tiberias Kirk was played with panache. Young spock was excellently acted, and casted.

Additionally the introduction to each of the time-honoured cast (Ohura, McCoy, Mr. Scott, Checkov) not only fit the personalities that we've learned to love, but the additional nuances they've revealed in this movie only enhanced that love we already feel for them.

There is enough action here for the non-trekkie, and enough throwbacks for the Trekkie, and little hints to past episodes, and characters to keep even a true Trekkie involved. The 2 hours +, passes quickly. Don't blink.

I give it a resounding "Live Long and Prosper"!

ALAN MAY, Realtor®
Specializing in Evanston Real Estate and North Shore Real Estate
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Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, 2929 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201
847.425.3779 Cell: 847.924.3313 Email: Almay@aol.com

it's raining, it's pouring
the old man is snoring,
bumped his head
when he went to bed
and couldn't get up in the morning.

It's pouring here in greater Chicagoland. And, of course, today was the day that we had scheduled with a Window-washing company to send their guys out and wash the windows. So 10:00 arrives, and Andy arrives in the rain, with his truck and ladder.

Standing at the front door, soaked to the bone, Andy asks "are you sure you want to do this today?"

"No", we answered "in fact we called the office yesterday to suggest if it was still raining, to reschedule."

Andy is grateful... he doesn't want to be up on a ladder in the middle of a thunderstorm either. So, as we're rescheduling with him, making small talk, my wife asks how long he's been doing this.. he say he's only been washing windows for 3 weeks. He's actually a licensed and bonded concrete guy, and carpenters.

Our eyebrows go up.... we actually have some concrete work that needs doing. We walk Andy around the property, show him the front stoop, and sidewalks that need repair. And I casually mention that I'm a Realtor... "oh really? I just bought a townhouse last fall, in Deerfield." We talk a little Real Estate, and he asks for my card. I take HIS card, and ask him to work up some concrete estimates.

Turns out that Andy will also clean our gutters for a really good price. He'll be back next Sunday to do the windows and the gutters.

This could be a good coincidence... eh? Don't be a secret agent... spread the word.. make sure everyone knows what you do.. it may have worked out nicely for Andy & I.

Today was the opening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, and even though it's been raining pretty steadily on and off all day, they are anticipating a crown in attendance of approximately 10,000 people for the opening

The Illinois Holocaust Museum was built at a cost of approximately $45 million, and former President Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel are featured speakers for the opening.

The opening has been sold out, and tents are set up in an adjacent field, with Disneyworld-style waiting lines to get into the museum. Many of the exhibits were created using items donated by local residents over the last dozen years.

As you can see by the image, the museum uses a lot of symbolism, starting on the "dark side" of the building, and exiting on the "light side"... although there are items of contemporary holocausts around the world on the light side as well. You can see on the front... two items that could represent columns (or smoke stacks?).

People who have been touched in some way by the Holocaust braved the weather and the lines in order to be here, and they were not disappointed.

There are exhibits which include a German railroad box car, of the type that carried many to concentration camps. Many survivors found themselves stopping in front of those cars, eyes wide, lips trembling as they relived horrible memories.

Hopefully, they'll find some healing here.

Earth Day is Wednesday of next week. I wanted to publish this prior to Earth Day, so that you'd have ample time to digest the information. Earth Day is a great idea, one day a year, to think about the impact that the human race is having on the planet, and hopefully pull us back from the brink of disaster. It's a great time to celebrate our planet and discuss serious environmental concerns.

It's also a time to pause and remember that, during the first Earth Day in 1970, some of the world's leading (and loudest) environmentalists were terrifying the public with horrific predictions of planet-wide doom. Predictions that, thankfully, were spectacularly wrong

The Washington Policy Center (WPC), a free-market think tank, tells us:

"MOST EARTH DAY PREDICTIONS TURNED OUT TO BE STUNNINGLY WRONG!"

In 1970, environmentalists said there would soon be a new ice age and massive deaths from air pollution. The New York Times foresaw the extinction of the human race. Widely-quoted biologist Paul Ehrlich predicted worldwide starvation by 1975.

"On this Earth Day 2009, new predictions will again be made about looming environmental disasters about to strike our planet. If past experience is any guide, most of these predictions are wrong. People concerned about our planet's future should be wary of statements from activists and other interested groups, so we stay focused on real environmental concerns, and don't waste time on fearsome predictions that will never happen."

Here are some examples from 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, gathered by the Washington Policy Center:

• "By 1985...air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by one half..." -- Life magazine, January 1970
Is it dark in here honey?? We have to get a lighter color dog, I can't see him in the yard.

• "...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind..." -- biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.
Let's see.... 1970 plus 30 years should be 2000.... I think we've made it.

• By 1995, "...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct..." -- Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.
Serious prediction failure.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor "...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born..." -- Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.
A new iceage??? I thought we were complaining about Global Warming?? It's hard to be THAT wrong!

• The world will be "...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age..." -- Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.
Again, I ask you... Global Warming?? What?

• "We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation..." -- biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.
He must be talking about American Idol, and Survivor.

• "Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction..." -- The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.
Well, at least he hasn't been proven wrong yet... he's on the right track.

• "Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make..." -- Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.
I thought I was feeling a bit hungry.

• "...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone..." -- Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.
Again... he hasn't really be proven wrong, just yet.

Paul Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.
Okay... NOW he's been proven wrong!

• "It is already too late to avoid mass starvation..." -- Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.
Uh... pass the ketchup.

• "By the year 2000...the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine..." -- Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.
I love it when they give you a specific date, by which, you can prove them wrong.

Some of this may seem laughable now (ya got that right!), but it was taken very seriously at the time. Had the nations of the world followed the prescriptions of these original Earth Day prophets of doom, it is possible that millions or even billions of people would have suffered and died.