Thursday, December 05, 2013

Chicago, city of poles

(Photos by your humble blogkeeper)
Totem on left: (teeth chattering): "Oh, dear! The museum closes at 3 today for a women's board meeting. Should we tell him?"

Totem on right (smiling sardonically): "The early closing is right there on the Web site. Let the idiot read more carefully next time. And the schmuck calls himself an editor."
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OK, so all I got to see of the Field Museum this afternoon was the Stanley Field Hall, thanks to that early closing. But what I saw was impressive, including not just my two polish friends, but also Sue (John McFetridge will like this one.)

And Chicago's architecture is so rich that any excursion downtown is like a walk through a museum, so this was still a hell of a day.

This is what Rome must have been like when Raphael was sneaking into the Sistine Chapel to look at Michelangelo's still-in-progress ceiling frescoes and crib ideas for his own work in the Vatican's Stanza della Segnatura.

What other city has ever produced such a feast for the eyes? What combination of genius, imagination, and money made it happen? And why in Chicago?

© Peter Rozovsky 2013

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4 Comments:

Blogger Dana King said...

I lived three years in Chicago, and still go back when opportunity permits. To me, it's the best city in the world. (Well, after Pittsburgh.)

December 06, 2013  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dana is correct about Pittsburgh being ranked above Chicago, and that is likely to rankle the folks in Chicago, including all the Poles (and others from other eastern European roots).

I rode the train from Great Lakes to Chicago in February 1966 for a day of liberty from Navy bootcamp. At that point in my life, I had never been anywhere that was so damned cold. I suspect today there is much as it was way back then . . . COLD!

December 06, 2013  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

R.T., I don't think Bill Mazeroski or Andrej Varhola Jr. would have been rankled to see Pittsburgh outranking Chicago.

The temperatures dropped into the teens and twenties yesterday after three days in the 40s and 50s, but there was little wind (except by Lake Michigan), so the effect was one of pleasant briskness.

December 06, 2013  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dana: I've never been to Pittsburgh except once, when I stepped off a train for a minute to make a phone call on my way back from Chicago, but it would have to be something to match Chicago.

I have long known that Montreal's bagels are better than New York's. I am now reminded that Chncago's architecture beats the pants off Midtown Manhattan's. So you'll get no argument from me if you say Chicago is the best city in the world (after Montreal).

December 06, 2013  

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