Chicago MMXII

If you're bringing your little guy, look at this Bark at the Park package--doggy turn-down!

OK, last one, but Hotel Lincoln tweeted this (though they didn't mention the promo code needed):
Hotel Lincoln ‏ @HotelLincoln Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
We're running a 48 hour sale for select dates in April! 30% off standard rates! Check http://hotellincolnchicago.com or call us! Ends 4/4 at midnight!

That'll run you something like $125.

And Google deal today on Chicago Architecture Tour

^^^ fact checkin cuz

let's do pub quiz again tonight guys
i'd be up for an enbb minifap

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-bank-teller-thwarts-robbery-by-saying-banks-closed-come-back-tomorrow-20120403,0,1539443.story

Well. That's one dumb bank robber.

ENBB - There is a pierogi restaurant (Pierogi Heaven?) in the Loop and I'm sure there are others, elsewhere b/c come on, it's Chicago. There was one on Belmont Ave. by the CTA station but it closed and something dumb opened in its place.

Sorry that I can't really help much w/ hotel recs - I should bookmark some ideas b/c I get asked for lodging advice fairly often.

Also, you're not crashing us! Stay a while. Relax. Play with us forever, and ever.

was there a video game or something that had a creepy voice saying "stay awhile ... stay - FOREVER!"?

apparently it was IMPOSSIBLE MISSION which i probably played on C64

I was thinking of these two

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmnT57QJCK2jHFYNp7RaBG-yBnji0CapAyJOq3fnaj-_tEnUXs

xp nothing like those old 64-era games that were impossible, I had more than a few

http://chicagoist.com/2012/04/04/heres_a_response_to_complex_mags_25.php

Ha, I have been to 19 of those.

15 for me

But that does remind me that I need to check out Maria's one of these days. Even my dad has been there.

What's Brehon's Pub? Might be good for q Thirsty Thursday sometime.

I've walked past it -- it's an Irish pub. Never looked all that exciting to me, but I think that's kind of the point with a lot of the places on the list.

anyone read anything good recently? something i could go pick up at the library over lunch (ie probably not brand new) and something that isn't too thick so i can carry it around on the train

i got "the power broker" by robert caro from the library but it's a huge unwieldy paperback with annoying laminated covers so i'm probably just going to keep it at home and read it there instead of lugging it around with me

I have been enjoying David Simon's Homicide: Life in the Killing Streets. It might be big, though (I'm reading the ebook).

i've read that. it is good.

I read Patti Smith's Just Kids and Edmund White's City Boy in tandem, and they both cover the same era of bohemian/eccentric early-70s NYC.

Nice -- when you mentioned the White to me the other day, I thought it would be a good companion piece to Just Kids.

I think I'm going to reread The Great Gatsby.

think i might get one of the ned sublette music/history books

James Wolcott's Lucking Out and Will Hermes' Love agors to Buildings on Fire also cover the same 70s NYC ecosystem, so I'm tempted to head to them next.

Love Goes, that is.

I keep recommending to people lately:

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

Not sure about length, though–read it as an e-book.

Love that book! It always looks creepy sitting on the shelf too ;)

I'm reading a super depressing book about Blackwater. It's called BLACKWATER (by Jeremy Scahill)

Hey all will read through thread tonight but does anyone know anything about the Conrad hotel? Found a good price and it's ranked as #5 in the city so should be OK, right?

I mean I'm sure the hotel is nice but location and stuff? I guess if it's on the mag mile it's fine from what you were saying earlier.

Another contender was The River Hotel which I guess is also on the mag mile.

i have no idea about hotels since no one ever comes to visit me, but when they do, they stay here, at the super 8 around the corner, or a few miles north in evanston.

The Conrad is really swank and hip, kind of like the W, and it's attached to a swank mall (North Bridge) and you can walk all over from there.

^^ Hotel social-media guy

^^ he's not lying.

^^ i just want to play too

Location-wise, the Conrad is great. Actually they both are. So I'd go for swank and hip.

The super 8 around the corner from my apt is p gross, but it's spitting distance from the beach/lake.

which is why its p gross, what with all the spitting towards the beach and lake

http://elitechoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/conrad_hotels.jpg

^^ENBB in Chicago

Be careful. There's a lot of spit in that water.

no don't worry, there are no people like that anywhere near my apt

boy lake michigan looks way different with all that spit to frolic in

Barefoot in the Spit

catch the spirit, catch the spit

After my unfortunate experience with Spirit airlines on Friday, it was recommended that I vandalize their signs in the above manner. I considered it.

Dare I ask what your experience was? I've never heard anything positive about Spirit, but I booked a Spirit flight to NYC later this month because it was so cheap. I figured ORD>LGA was short enough that it couldn't be too terrible.

that's what i thought too, but it was friday night, they were backed up from earlier in the day, and my flight was delayed delayed delayed CANCELLED. everyone who works there, when you could find someone who worked there, was like 14 years old. i missed a full day of my trip, kinda sucked.

the way home was ok though, and i can advise you not to worry about bringing an extra bag (mine was a bag of records i was worried about shoving into my cramped backpack) -- no one was paying attention to ANYTHING.

Bummer, sorry to hear it.