Chicago MMXII

(i probably shouldn't have posted it here either. sorry.)

Tweet it!

Somehow I've never been to ribfest, but I'm determined to make this year the year where I attend

Nick if you tweet it you have to use #ribfest

FINE

i typically try not to go too blue on twitter but whatever

@ribfestchicago

I did actually got to ribfest yesterday and, guess what, it sucked. I don't know why I ever held out any hope that it wouldn't, really.

We bought a meatstravaganza when we got back into town in Friday. Brought it back home though. Would never actually hang out at ribfest.

The meatstravaganza was delicious, but I credit a good part of that with Jeff going to get the food while I stayed home in the AC and unpacked.

Here's a depressing article about Chicago if you are in the mood: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_chicago.html

That's an excellent -- but, yes, depressing -- article. Logan Square Kitchen is now defunct, in fact.

as with everything nowadays, do yourselves a favor and don't read the comments

Yikes at that article. It's depressing because so much of it is true.

City Journal does have conservative/libertarian leanings, so perhaps some of that article should be taken with a grain of salt. But, yeah, i think chicago is fuct.

Holy shit I read the comments. :( forever

xp I've never read anything on the site before but yeah, it became very obvious right about when the first mention of unions came up

I am unfamiliar with the publication but I guessed it had some conservative leanings, particularly since the first thing the author mentioned as ruining Chicago was unions*. And since so much of the solution revolved around business-friendly policies.

But the bit about byzantine government, corruption, being broke as hell, and a decade of quick fixes that just make problems worse is OTM.

*I have some specific issues with some specific unions vis a vis city and state government that I do think make some of these problems more difficult to solve, but I don't think SCAAAAARRRY UNIONS BOOOOOO are the main problem here.

Ha! xp to Dan, who is OTM

hi 5

You all are approaching the comments section wrong. Just embrace them as a hilarious epilogue.

There are too many talking about how great it is for the city that black Chicagoans moved to the suburbs (or how terrible it is for the suburbs). It's just straight up hateful.

a friendly reminder that this is on wednesday!

http://www.justforlaughschicago.com/justforlaughschicago/stories/story/0,,262043,00.html

Chicagoans, I have a favor to ask of you.

You may remember last year many of you attended and very generously donated to a fundraiser I held for The Organization On Whose Board I Serve. I'm not going to hold a fundraiser this year, but you can still help us out in a very easy and delicious way!

On July 18, Homemade Pizza Company on Southport is donating money to us based on their sales. We get $5 for every large pizza and lesser amounts on salads and breadsticks. Each member of the org has been asked to "sell" five pizzas, and if we all do as instructed, we'll raise $1,000! Whoa man! So if any of you people who occasionally enjoy a delicious Homemade Pizza Company pizza, or have always wanted to try one, would make such a purchase from the Southport location on July 18, I would be very grateful.

*Fine print bad news: it's only at the Southport location and it's only takeout, no delivery. But HPC is very easy to transport and this store is right next to the Southport Brown Line.

Also if any of youse want to post this info on Facebook when the time draws near, email me and I'll give you more specifics.

Oh and you have to make your purchase between 1 pm and 8 pm.

And you have to pay with a Discover card.

Just kidding about that last one.

ok i will do that

I'll do it too, though a reminder closer to to july 18 would probably be a good thing

Definitely. I have a calendar reminder set to remind you all the week before. I just wanted to give you lots of advanced notice so you can apply for your Discover card.

For Jesse, because we just discussed it at lunch, but also for Amanda, who IIRC likes this kind of thing (also: Ohio connection) -
http://gawker.com/5914621/the-long-fake-life-of-js-dirr-a-decade+long-internet-cancer-hoax-unravels

Thats a fantastic read, but OMG at the horrible editing. Come on Gawker. Sorry, this shit just makes me IA.

J.S. had embedded himself firmly in online the online lives of hundreds of people.

"Everybody was devastated when she was died,"

I guess since that second one was a quote, it may be verbatim, but I doubt it.

Yikes, that is bad.

I usually pick up on that stuff but I didn't notice, which either speaks to me being very engrossed in the story or reading it clandestinely on my phone at work.

Who can tell me about Fitzgerald's and whether I should go see the Waco Bros there on July 3?

http://fitzgeraldsnightclub.com/AmericanMusicFestival.html

don't know anything about fitzgerald's but it's going to be a little bit of a hike out to berwyn, especially without a car

I wouldn't bother, but that's just me.

carl, is there any advantage for you or your organization if people buy pizza instead of making a cash donation? I am going to ask around the office and it would be much simpler to solicit plain old cash since no one here lives anywhere near Southport.

that club's site says it is a short walk from the Blue Line, but yeah I will probably just go see the White Sox.

Well I'll be damned. It's only 1/2 mile from the Blue line. I never knew where the city of Berwyn was. I thought it was way out past Joliet or something.

No, there's no advantage of pizza over cash. I posted about the pizza because I knew some of you were Homemade Pizza Company fans and lived nearish to that location and it seemed like an easy way to meet some of my fundraising obligations.

If any of you want to donate cash instead, email me and I will give you the information.

I do need to do some kind of a fundraiser (I have a $500 give/get fundraising commitment every year) but I'm reluctant to do another "Come over and give me your money!" event since that kind of thing gets old pretty quickly. I need some kind of angle on this one. Like, sponsor me in a hardboiled egg eating contest or something. Maybe I'll organize a Malort Mile.

One of my colleagues did an art sale (she drew the uterus pictures that we used for arts and crafts at the last fundraiser) with a pledge/reward structure, but I can't think of anything I could make that would entice people to give me money. I'm also kind of handicapping myself by not being on Facebook.

If you organized a Malort Mile I can all but guarantee I could send multiple people your way.

That is, if I understand what a Malort Mile is. If it involves the opportunity to drink Malort for charity, I know some people.

Which is a little depressing but it's their problem, not mine.

haha

It would be structured like a beer mile. Find a quarter mile track and then take a shot, run a lap, take a shot, run a lap, take a shot, run a lap, take a shot, run a lap. One mile, four shots.

I wonder if a liability waiver would hold up under those circumstances... I don't want anybody to sue me because they get Malort poisoning and die.

Hmmm... I think I could do this. Jeff has the local running connections, I have the drunken goofball (no offense everyone) connections. I would need Malort and some kind of first, second, and third place prize items. Do you think people would pay $25 as an entrance fee?

Could I get t-shirts donated? People would probably pay extra for a Malort Mile t-shirt.

http://jeppsonsmalort.com/

^^^just launched apparently