2 Things @ Once

Happy Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday. No question about it. I love the time of year, the weather, the costumes, the spooky decorations, the treats, the good old fashioned ghost stories, and the classic Hollywood monster movies. (Bride of Frankenstein and Mark of the Vampire are my favorites.)

This is the first year since we moved into the townhome that I didn't man the door with twenty pounds of candy. I decided to jump to the other side of the candy bowl and went the rounds with my friend Lauren and her two kids. The weather could not have been more un-Halloweenlike--66-degrees and no rain. It's a nice change when you can actually see the kids' costumes and they don't all look like commuters on a rainy day.

Today was like an Easter Parade. Families strolling the sidewalks and folks sitting on their front stoops, chatting with neighbors, handing out candy. The kids were having a great time, seeing their friends from school and comparing loot. The best costume I saw was a brother and sister dressed as a glass of milk (complete with straw) and a chocolate-chip cookie. Very cute, very clever.

On my walk home, I passed by a few houses that were amazingly tricked-out for the holiday. Animated objects, flashing lights, smoke, creepy sound effects, the whole shebang. One particular block had a haze surrounding it from all the dry ice and smoke emanating from their displays.

I got home and displayed decidedly un-Halloweenlike behavior by shutting off all the lights in the front of the house. No candy here. Inside, I lit the jack-o-lantern and gave my MacBook the Halloween gift of an upgrade (hello Leopard!) while I watched Ghost Hunters on the SciFi channel creep around a Civil War-era prison looking for spirits. Boo!

Don't You Wish You Were There Too?

From Yellowstone's Old Faithful webcam.

Ironside: Light at the End of the Journey

The killer checks into the hotel where Norma is staying (along with Ironside and fifteen other cops.) I'm so distracted by his pulling out a couple of lousy quarters as a tip that I nearly miss who's playing the bellboy. It's Mike Farrell everyone!

My next installment in the Ironside series is up on The Beachwood Reporter.

Wrigley Reflects

Here's the last of the shots from my trip up the south branch of the Chicago River a few weekends ago. You can see the rest in my Flickr album.

Chicago River, South Branch

Chicago -- river, railroad bridge, Sears Tower, barges, (empty) water towers, cement and warehouses.

Race Ya!

Two Weeks Ago, When It Was Still Summer

Low Fidelity

I find it highly ironic that WBEZ (Chicago's public radio station) has created a new method for raising pledge dollars that they've dubbed "High Fidelity." In the last few years they've systematically gutted their music programming, replacing what used to be great jazz and blues shows with blah blah blah and reruns of programs that air earlier in the day. Every time I hear them mention "High Fidelity," it reminds me of how much I miss the music (Piano Jazz, Blues Before Sunrise, and Dick Buckley included) that they used to play.

Saturday 3 p.m. ~ Planting Bulbs

I took advantage of what may well be the last warm and sunny weekend of the year to plant daffodil bulbs--about a hundred of them. I also planted some squill--those tiny blue flowers that come out just behind the crocuses in the spring. If you've ever seen lawns or areas under trees covered in tiny blue flowers, that's probably squill. Absolutely beautiful.

I also couldn't resist a bag of miniature iris bulbs, which I planted in the plot on the corner. My goal is to have a yearly blanket of blue and yellow covering the front of our place every spring. The nice thing about planting these bulbs, as opposed to tulips, is that one fall of back-breaking work and you're done. These bulbs should multiply on their own and provide years of welcome spring color.

I spent the rest of the weekend getting all the outdoor fall chores done. Brought in all the hoses, emptied all the vegetable tubs in the backyard (including a cherry tomato plant that amazingly still had some blossoms on it), reorganized the garage to stow everything away, and gave the front stoop a good washing off. Next weekend, the indoor fall cleaning begins in earnest before we have to seal this place up for the winter.

Review: How the States Got Their Shapes

Mark Stein (2008)

As long as I can recall, I’ve been interested in, well, like the title of the book says, how the states got their shapes. Why do some state borders follow rivers—and then suddenly don’t? Why are some states boring squares and others curvy squiggles? Why do some states have corners cut off and others have notches cut into their border? Why are Texas and California so darn big and Delaware and Rhode Island so small? And what’s up with those panhandles? Heck, I didn’t even realize that originally, Rhode Island, yeah, it was actually an island!

All this and more author Mark Stein illustrates in a concise state-by-state rundown of their north/south/east/west borders and how they got that way. Plenty of maps and a limited amount of information illuminate how history, politics, geography, and sometimes personalities impacted the jigsaw puzzle makeup of the United States. Enjoyably read in a couple of sittings (like I did) or dip into it a few states at a time to spread out the fun.