Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

HEY - what is the area around 61st and Woodlawn like? I am asking as a directionally challenged middle class-looking white woman who would be on foot around there after dark.

that's about two blocks from here? i would not want to be on foot alone after dark around here. even though i am every night. what time will you be here?

my yearly attempt at mustache/beard growing has coincided with a head cold so blowing my nose is an adventure. never sure if the kleenex is getting it all!

I won't be, thanks to my assertive nature and protectionist tendencies w/r/t my leisure time.

xp Kevin that is kind of disgusting.

it's more than "kind of disgusting" when it's your face.

I don't know. I am much more able to deal with mine own snot than with the snot of others.

You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose
but you can't pick your friend's nose

Didn't The Snot of Others win the Oscar for foreign film last year?

Speaking of The Snot of Others, I have to go write about lung ailments. Thank you all for your advice.

Also, send me a god damn cookie for not getting mired down in smashmortion discussions on the internet. A real cookie that I can eat, not a stupid internet browser cookie.

I want a cookie too. Even though I did Discuss Abortion On the Internet.

We have a SECOND DOG in the office! Yay!!!!

What kind??

Meh. It's a stupid beagle, but at least it's a dog. It belongs to my predecessor. the boss is baby sitting it.

HEY. Can anyone help me find that funny chicago neighborhood map that Evan posted some time ago?

The one with chocolate smell east of the Loop?

yes!

(er, west)

Yeah, I loved that map. No idea where it came from.

I am currently purchasing tickets for Peru. I don't think I've ever spent this money on anything before. :/

Ah, well. My morning nothing-to-do bliss is coming to an abrupt end. :(

See you guys in a month or so!

Didn't you say you went to Montreal once?

I am saving to go to Mexico.

Amanda has convinced me that if a lady of her thrift can do it, so can I.

Yeah, Montreal was cheap! Direct flight from Chicago. This time I have to go Chicago-->Miami-->Lima-->Arequipa. And then on the way back Cuzco-->Lima-->Miami-->Charlotte-->Chicago.

I think I need to make a conscious effort to save up in the next couple months. Not go out as often.

Wow.
When I looked into going to Montreal for the honeymoon, the flights alone were going to be as much as going to Europe.

Guys, I'm spending like $1000+.

seems about right

Yeah, actually kind of a good deal for that many hops and not leaving from where you entered.

Is that just air fare or does it include hotel or maybe one of those all-inclusive deals with food or a tour...?

I will maybe be going to Peru sometime in the next couple of years, since that's where my sister & her bf are talking about getting hitched (he has family there).

Just airfare. Luckily, Peru is a pretty cheap country to travel around in, so that will be the bulk of my travel expenses.

Ha! I better start saving for her wedding. Never mind the fact they aren't engaged yet...

So remind me how long you will be there?

A week. March 30-April 6.

"The right to do ______ with my own body" has always struck me as the kind of pre-emptive lingo that makes people hate liberals. Cuz if other people didn't think there was an other's body involved, there would be no abortion furor. It's a way of trying to make the opposition just go POOF with self-righteous verbiage.

Also I said strident lesbian activists, cuz that's what the Citizen Ruth guerillas are, and if you don't see why such people making abortion their #1 issue is funny...

I never "hated on a movie I didn't see," mukluks, I just speculated that a guy who had made a rep only for a couple short-lived teen-centric TV series suddenly being hailed as A GREAT FILMMAKER (usually by folx who tut-tut that movies and TV are now basically the same)seemed real unlikely.

John- that sounds like sounds arduous.

xpost do keep up

I don't think that Apatow is a great filmmaker, although I do think his stuff is, on the whole, fairly entertaining, and I will say that Freaks and Geeks is a great TV show.

What sounds arduous, Jesse?

Listening to you guys talk about abortion and movies?

;D

Pitting the interests of a lump of cells versus the body of a sentient human being whose body plays host to those cells is a real matter for you? Really?

xxxxpsost

The flying sounds arduous. Are those all layovers on the way to the one destination? Unless you were spending a few days at each place--actually no--even if you were spending time at each place it sounds tiring. Though fun!

looks like we're all murdered out:

Chicago logs fewest murders in 40 years, unofficial tally finds

By Angela Rozas | Tribune staff reporter
12:50 PM CST, January 2, 2008

Chicago recorded its fewest murders last year in more than four decades, an unofficial tally shows.

Chicago had 442 homicides in 2007, 25 fewer than in 2006, Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, said today. In 2004, Chicago had 448 homicides, then the lowest since 1965, when there were 395.

The official tally of homicides will take two weeks, and even then the number can be somewhat fluid. Sometimes deaths are reclassified as police continue to investigate a case.

Police credited a number of initiatives, including the targeting of gangs, guns and drugs and improved technology, for the more than 40-year low in homicides.

Plus there is no more reason for it to be mock-worthy for someone to make abortion their #1 issue than it is for someone to make (again) child abuse their #1 issue. Or immigrant rights, or wife-beating, or whatever matters to a person.

How it's possible to be a "strident" lesbian....I just don't know.

"Police credited a number of initiatives, including the targeting of gangs, guns and drugs and improved technology, for the more than 40-year low in homicides. "

Texting & Myspace!

Yeah, the longest layover is 4 hours, though, which isn't nearly as bad as some of the other routes I looked at, even if they were $100-$200 cheaper.

Maybe jet blue will start some direct Chicago/Lima flights by 2009...

xp

Jesse, please tell me exactly on what day of a pregnancy that "lump of cells" becomes a sentient human being, and I will stop finding absolutism re abortion absurd.

Remind me why you're going to Peru. Ms. K has some conference there?

Dr. Ackbarbius

Yes. Basically she goes on 2-3 business trips a year, all of which are training sessions for R0t@r1@ns. Her division is responsible for the Southern U.S. and northern Latin America, but so far she's only gone to cities in the U.S.