Chicago: home of the President of the United fucking States

LET ME BE THE ONE TO ILLIN-WAH

Guys is your history full of ze safety French fur trappers?

Oh don't get me started. Actually, to be a tad grandiose, the history of Chicago is the history of capitalism.

Migrant workers, assembly lines, labor unions, violent protests, then skyscrapers, unchecked growth, pornographic political corruption, organized crime, more violent protests... I'm skimming a bit. But there's a whole lot there.

Oh! And race. Race is huge here.

Okay I do not care about anything but the fur trappers, I am thinking bcz Illinois is French-ish looking but it is not named after Trees like every French fur trapper outpost in Idaho, 'Dubois,' Les Boise' aka Boise as it is now known.

Dubois being pronounced Do-Boys, NB, leading to many hiLARIOUS pedophilia jokes.

RACE for the cure.

Hey guys does anyone else find breast cancer awareness month kind of annoying? Esp. if you might have breasts?

I for one never ever for ever a second stop being aware of breasts. If that counts.

http://www.neatorama.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/f1e6da37548b07da_awesomelawyer2.jpg

John - Jenny and I were just talking about that documentary. We might watch it on Thanksgiving.

An ex of mine is a thyroid cancer survivor and she used to get really pissed about the amount of breast cancer awareness stuff out there. According to her it was all due to men's interest in titties, which I can see.

I don't know about Illinois but Wisconsin and Michigan are chock full of fur trader-related stories, place names, etc.

According to her it was all due to men's interest in titties, which I can see.
this cracked me up, because i have been teaching restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses to my students and this sentence's meaning would change substantially if you used "that" instead of "which"

also i have no idea why we are suddenly talking about fur trappers and breast cancer, but i'm sure it makes sense to someone

also i have no idea why we are suddenly talking about fur trappers and breast cancer, but i'm sure it makes sense to someone

abbott brought it up!

When I was in 4th grade, my dad signed me up for trapping classes.

Man all the dogfighting stories in the Trib lately are making me sad.

My xmas present from work:

Chicago: City on the Make - N. Algren
One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko
The Encyclopedia of Chicago - Grossman, Keating, & Reiff
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo - P. De Vries

Thanks work, sorry we're splitting up!

Wow. Heavy on the local.

I went to college with a Pete DeVries. I've occasionally wondered if he was related to the writer.

I went local because I've wanted to read the Algren book for a while and never got around to picking up a copy, Royko because I've never ready anything by him at all so it seemed like a good place to start, the encyclopedia because I like big reference books like that, and the De Vries because... well, I needed something to get the total up to the $100 limit and it sounded interesting.

There are so many books to choose from, but a lot of them are incredibly esoteric. I considered getting a book about native Alaskan skin sewing techniques as a present for 3rica, but it was outside the realm of ISBNs that we can apply our gift allotment to.

Oh. You chose those books. I thought people were just giving them to you.

What is everyone else reading? I would like some recommendations. I want to read Brave New World.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and The Tortilla Curtain.

OK! I will finally read Oscar Wao!

Oh. I forgot I have that book that L*bby gave me - Three Cups of Tea.

Breast cancer awareness month bothers me for the same reason it bothers Dan's friend.

Also I don't like consumerism as activism. And why does everything have to be pink?

i was just in hyde park the other day near obamas house and got creeped by mad cop cars

I bought Oscar Wao the other day and will read it as soon as I'm caught up on the last couple of New Yorkers.

oscar wao is good

i am reading anathem, the new neal stephenson. it is good but very long and i am kind of struggling to get through the last 200 pages or so after rushing through most of it. oddly this is the same thing that happened the last time i read one of his books. he needs to write something shorter

i have the white tiger lined up to read next, then 2666 to read during xmas break from school

Every single time Katie says "Oscar Wao" to me I think she's saying Oscar Wilde. Well, at least the first time she says it each day.

What is 2666? My dad mentioned it to me last night on the phone.

I guess I could look it up.

it's the "new" (ie newly translated) epic by roberto bolano, the author of the savage detectives and others

the translation of the savage detectives was a big deal when it came out a year or so ago - it's very good

Every single time Katie says "Oscar Wao" to me I think she's saying Oscar Wilde

it means oscar wilde (wild), though

i think i'm going to buy 2666 and start it next year (i've posted this elsewhere but i'm almost done with Infinite Jest, and want to read some short books in between).

hey, there is a guy here named steve reich :)

That's funny, I was just reading a New Yorker article that mentioned an executive at Pfizer named J0rdan C0hen.

^^^is that the guy who's supposed to be getting the ski trip emails?

Guys. C0urtney had a FIVE hour interview last night. Lasted till 11 p.m.

I have no news of my own to report, so I give you that.

today is the 10 year anniversary of the (somewhat arbitrarily chosen) date when sarah and i started going out

Wow, congrats.

And why does everything have to be pink?

Because of nipples.

I have all this stuff to do today, but all I want to do is go play outside. Sunshine is a splendorous thing.

the translation of the savage detectives was a big deal when it came out a year or so ago - it's very good

― n/a is just more of a character....in a genre polluted by clones (n/a), Wednesday, November 19, 2008 9:53 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is an amazing book - probably the best book ive read in a couple years
really excited to read 2666

now i'm thinking that maybe i should read 2666 next while my reading endurance is up, it's like marathon training.

should i wear a cardigan to our show tonight y/n?

it's not very rockin but we're playing with dorky pop bands anyways so maybe i should just wear a cardigan and corduroys and go with it

post-dork

cardidork