Chicago: Beef, Love and Understanding

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (3146 of them)

The mail in Chicago in general is AWFUL. I have had endless trouble with them. And complaining does make it worse -- you're lucky you're still getting mail at all.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link

HAY GUISE yesterday in class Prof. Hummingbird talked a lot about breast feeding and pumping breast milk except she would stammer badly whenever she tried to say "breast" and she kept flitting around at the front of the room and we talked about breast feeding for a good fifteen minutes and given that I have never heard anybody speak openly about the challenges that working women face if they want to breast feed children, it was possibly the greatest lawschool moment I have witnessed. It would been less great if it wasn't Prof Hummingbird flitting and stammering her way through it, though.

― Jenny, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

When my friends Karen and Andrew got married, they put their home address as the mailing address and the return address on their RSVP envelopes. They got about ten of those back stamped return to sender, no such address. It was the same address!!!

― Jenny, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

What's the class???

― Jordan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Prof. Hummingbird also invited me out for a beer again. Wheee!

― Jenny, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link

It wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have to make a weekly trip to the post office to return all the mail meant for other buildings, but the mail carrier flat out refuses to take anything back with them.

Anyway, enough bitching for today. Really I'm in a good mood.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I will most likely come to the IF show on Saturday night.
I would like to encourage people to come see the FFs NEXT Friday (the 16th) at Beat Kitchen if they feel like it. It's for purely selfish reasons, I hate playing at Beat Kitchen when it's empty. So I want it to be PACKED.

― n/a, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:39 (seventeen years ago) link

My initial reasons for turning vegetarian are similar to Sarah's in that my sophomore year of college I had a bunch of vegetarian friends. My roommate was vegan, and on the other side of the dorm basement we lived in was the Veggie Co-op, which was two suites of girls who were all vegetarian and thus were given access to a kitchen. My roommate's girlfriend lived there, as did my several other female friends, including Kelsey.

So I was used to hearing the usual arguments about why it was a good idea to not eat meat (from animal rights to environmental concerns), and over the following summer, I began to flirt with the idea myself. I was never the kind of dude who relished a huge steak or pork chop, I was just accustomed to the conveniences of having meat as part of my diet. So I thought maybe it won't be that hard. I was studying in the UK that fall, and I made a spontaneous decision on the plane that I was going to try it out. (The last piece of meat I knowingly ate was a Philly cheesesteak at the Philadelphia airport). The fact that I was making all sorts of other adjustments in my life by living in another country and cooking for myself for the first time meant that it was a little bit easier to make that kind of change.

Anyway, it was totally fine. The idea of cooking with raw meat always grossed me out, anyway, so I was happy not to have to deal with that. And because the UK had just gone through the mad-cow scare, it had become a very vegetarian-friendly place to live -- lots of green V's on frozen-food packages and on restaurant menus.

But I did initially struggle with the philosophical justification for what I had done. Eventually, I happened upon this: that while there was no single reason (like animal rights) that I felt passionate about, there seemed to be, from an objective perspective, more good reasons for humans to not eat meat than to eat meat.

A year or two later, as I learned more and had discussions with vegetarian friends, I became more specifically invested in animal rights and environmental arguments, although I was never preachy about it, and as I've often mentioned, these days my vegetarianism is mostly just out of habit and preference.

― jaymc, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

can we not talk about vegetarianism? Ever again?

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm pretty sure that it was the meat-eaters that started the whole conversation. Plus, Jenny SPECIFICALLY asked people about why they became vegetarian.

― n/a, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:57 (seventeen years ago) link

So go chew on some shoe leather.

― n/a, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

http://typolis.net/static/shortsville/images/werner.gif

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

tom skilling you better not be dicking me around with this 7 day forcast....

Tom Skilling's 7-day forecast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday
31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Some early morning cloudiness, perhaps a few flurries. Becoming partly sunny but chilly with daytime highs remaining below freezing. North 8-15 m.p.h. winds pull wind chill into the mid teens. Clear and cold at night: lows from 10º coldest outlying areas to 20º in the city.

Thursday
37
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Generous sunshine, modestly warmer temperatures. Light morning winds shift to the east keeping shoreline readings in the low/mid 30s; low 40s south.

Friday
45
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
35 Increasing cloudiness and warmer as southeast winds shift to the south. Light rain arrives by evening and continues at times overnight.

Saturday
48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 A few lingering morning showers, especially northwest Indiana. Becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon.

Sunday
48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 Intervals of clouds and sun, though more clouds prevail southern sections. Near 50° well inland and south. Lake breezes restrict highs to the upper 30s downtown.

Monday
56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
42 Partly sunny, breezy and substantially milder with 2007’s highest readings to date possible.

Tuesday
60
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 Milder still, with the first 60-degree reading of the season possible. Sunshine along with patchy high and mid-level cloudiness.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I asked, and I like reading people's responses. Thank you everyone.

― Jeff, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

hellooooo open windows.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

my windows are painted shut.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

ok, ok, sorry guys. Vegetarianism it is.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link

but i could always open them with a brick i suppose.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.apnm.org/programs/gx/vegetarianism.jpg

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Carrots make me that happy, too. Srsly.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

ok, ok, sorry guys. Vegetarianism it is.
SO EASY!

― KitCat, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

That weather report makes me slap-happy, so watch out. This means that my transition from Momphis weather to Chicago won't be quite as much like running smack dab into a brick wall.

― KitCat, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey if anybody is going to be in the loop at noon tomorrow, come to the Daley Center for the 24th annual International Women's Day demonstration. It is usually a pitifully small group of women holding signs and listening to fiery speakers and we could use all the help we can get.

― Jenny, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

http://zo.la/me/img/vegetarianism.jpg

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link

(Reasoning I can get with, yo.)

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Being referred to as a "meat-eater" makes me feel like I'm a velociraptor or something. A carnivore. A predator.

― dan m, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

when i was last in momphis it was 42 and raining a hard, steady, cold rain. it was still about 35 degrees warmer than it was in chicago however.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

There's a blues song somewhere there.

― dan m, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

i prefer the term "omnivore" becuase i'm not just a meat eater nor am i strictly a vegetarian. ideally i'd like to have a little of both but rarely do.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Being referred to as a "meat-eater" makes me feel like I'm a velociraptor or something. A carnivore. A predator.

Cool, isn't it?

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Dan, age 265 million:

http://www.dinosaursrock.com/velociraptor-skeleton-lg_small.jpg

― dan m, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:13 (seventeen years ago) link

How do you guys feel about the Olympics possibly coming to Chicago in 2016? It seems like a bad idea to me.

― n/a, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i think it would be a huge headache at best.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

The architect and urban planning enthusiast in me will be interested in following the designs and integration of the facilities and village, but other than that I think its going to be a huge mess. I think it might be best to just be out of the city for those couple of weeks if it happens.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:23 (seventeen years ago) link

think it might be best to just be out of the city for those couple of weeks if it happens.

OTM

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

It would be awesome if we got the Olympics! Big BIG boost to the economy, not to mention all the improvements they would have to invest in to accommodate a Olympic-sized crowd, everything from new hotels to (*holds breath*) expanded train lines.

But we won't know this for several years. If we win the US sweepstakes, we still have to compete with world cities.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Back to vegan shoes for a sec... I think that, for the most part, people who do things like buy expensive chemical-ridden vegan shoes, do so because they truly believe they are doing a good (or at least not-quite-as-bad) thing. I doubt most of those purchases are strictly done of the basis of being holier(or cooler)-than-thou. That said, I know little personally as to whether they are indeed any better for the environment.

― KitCat, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

fyi- montreal just finished paying for the 1976 olympics this past fall. they made their last payment on the bonds that paid for the olympics in october. whatever gains they saw in their economy were probably offset by the intervening years of payments.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.veganline.com/blackspot-unswoosher.jpg

*shudder*

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

That shoe is "unisex," which means it can be worn by both men and lesbians.

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

If we win the US sweepstakes, we still have to compete with world cities.

yes but it is almost certainly coming to the US because the summer games have not been generating the kind of tv money & ratings they used to. the games will be back in the states and structured around whatever tv entity pays the most for the rights to broadcast. that will mean things like the 100m dash being run at 8p.m. central time and the basketball finals tipping off during prime time on a saturday.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm guessing when you're a full-blown vegan, your concerns for animal suffering often override your concerns for the environment. But then I don't know anyone who's going out of their way to buy vegan shoes who isn't a vegetarian/vegan. (I hadn't heard about it being trendy.)

― jaymc, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I've heard lots of scary stuff about the economic effects of the Olympics on the cities where they take place.

― n/a, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll take the Olympics.

― Jeff, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

i think a place like LA where they already have the infrastructure to handle it would fare better. i was watching wttw last week and LA would only have to build 16% of the structures for the games whereas chicago would have to build over 70%.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Do crocs count? Because they're just ugly.

― KitCat, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

i was watching wttw last week and they reported that LA would only have to build 16% of the structures for the games whereas chicago would have to build over 70%.

fixed.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, but Los Angeles has already hosted it twice, and as recently as 1984. I'm a fan of the Olympics moving around a lot. I wish it wasn't such an economic/infrastructural burden for most cities, because I'd love to see an Olympics in somewhere like South Africa or India. As much as a Chicago Olympics would be interesting (if overwhelming), I'm kind of rooting for Rio de Janeiro to win.

― jaymc, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it could be Chicago's time. Coming soon to the area surrounding Washington Park: massive rent hikes!

― kenan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link

If it was in Chicago it might be fun to come down and see something.

Speaking of which, if Justin Timberlake wasn't playing in Chicag on weeknights, I would be there.

― Jordan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 3046 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.