text:
"...a checkered canvas..."
A few weeks ago, I attended the 2019 induction ceremony for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, which honored Frank Marshall Davis, Salima Rivera and Sam Greenlee. A fine evening. I really like Davis' "Chicago's Congo", and especially this passage:
Across the street from the Ebenezer Baptist Church,
women with cast-iron faces peddle love
In the flat above William's Funeral Home
six couples sway to the St. Louis Blues
Two doors away from the South Side Bank
three penny-brown men scorch their guts with four bit
Dr. Jackson buys a Lincoln
His neighbor buys second hand, shoes
—the artist who paints this town must
use a checkered canvas ...
I hear echoes there of Nelson Algren's description of Chicago as being Janus-like and two-faced. Algren and Davis were contemporaries (born four years apart) and both were involved in the Federal Writers Project, so I assume they knew each other.
November 11, 2019 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (2)
"...his father didn't believe in touching the savings."
Mike Royko's favorite everyman, his fictional boyhood pal Slats Grobnik, was a true creature of the the city. An actual news story about suburban Arlington Heights' banning the playing of sidewalk hopscotch lead to the column "Sidewalk Slats", which includes this gem of a passage:
The best place for a child to play and learn is on a sidewalk. It is his natural environment. If you take a child into the woods, he can fall out of a tree and break a leg and ruin the weekend.
Nobody liked sidewalks more than I did, except Slats Grobnik. To this day, if he walks on grass for more than five minutes, his feet blister. His attitude towards lawns and gardens is summed up when he looks sick and says: "Worms live in that stuff."
When the rest of us would go to Humboldt Park, Slats would shake his head and stay behind, saying: "Anything that can hide behind a fireplug is small enough for me to handle, but how do I know what kind of creep is in the bushes?" He feared being kidnapped and held for ransom because he knew his father didn't believe in touching the savings.
When we built a tree house, Slats wouldn't come up. He said, "If people was meant to live in trees, the squirrels would slip some nuts to the city building-inspector."
Collected in I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It! (1968).
October 17, 2019 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
"Chicago was a swamp hole and a blowhole..."
In The Emigrants, the aspiring settlers have hired "Long" Landberg as interpreter and guide. He will take them as far as Chicago, for which he is not quite a booster.
Landberg said that he intended to leave Chicago as soon as he had performed his duties there. This town was the only place in North America he detested. But it was the gateway to the West, which all travelers must pass through, although most thanked the Lord they could journey farther. Chicago was a swamp hole and a blowhole, built on the low shores of a lake and a river. One the one side was the lake and on the other side the prairie, with no protection against the winds, which blew so intensely that eyebrows and hair were pulled off people's heads. The town had only three decent streets: Chicago Avenue, Kinzie and Clark Streets. Yard-high stumps still stood in the other streets, and almost all the surrounding country was desolate wasteland where cows grazed. The houses were newly built, yet gray, dirty, and unpainted, for the hurricanes blew the paint off the walls. And the whole town stank from the mud and ooze of the swampy shores. Pools of water abounded, filled with crawling snakes and lizards and other horrible creatures. Thirty thousand people lived in Chicago, and of these, several thousand earned their living as runners, robbing immigrants passing through. Grazing was fine in Chicago, and cattle lived well in that town. But honest people, non-runners, could ill endure an extended visit in the place. Landberg thought Chicago would within twenty years become entirely depopulated and obliterated from the face of the earth.
Wow. That's quite the rant. I was hoping for more, but was disappointed when Moberg fast-forwarded past their stopover in Chicago, going straight from their Great Lakes steamboat to the inland waterways. Though Moberg wrote this a hundred years after its mid-1800s time frame, I still would have liked to read his detailed descriptions of the fledgling city.
July 12, 2019 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
"I intend to keep bossing others around."
I enjoyed this 2008 profile of Wanda Kurek, proprietor of Stanley's, the last remnant of Whiskey Row, in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.
"If I quit I'll be like all those old ladies sitting there with their mouths open," she says. "That ain't gonna happen to me. No way. I don't intend to quit. I intend to keep bossing others around."
Kurek recently passed away, at age 95. But the bar will continue on, which I'm sure is what she wanted.
June 26, 2019 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
"Everyday People"
I've been very tardy in passing this along, but Ben Tanzer and I recently had a great conversation about Where the Marshland Came To Flower, writing in general, and Chicago, and our talk can be heard on his venerated This Podcast Will Change Your Life. Enjoy.
April 1, 2019 in Books, Chicago Observations, Fiction, Marshland | Permalink | Comments (1)
"... a group not to be matched elsewhere in the country..."
William Dean Howells, from Literature and Life (1902):
Could one say too much of the literary centre at Chicago? I fancy, yes; or too much, at least, for the taste of the notable people who constitute it. In Mr. Henry B. Fuller we have reason to hope, from what he has already done, an American novelist of such greatness that he may well leave being the great American novelist to any one who likes taking that role. Mr. Hamlin Garland is another writer of genuine and original gift who centres at Chicago; and Mrs. Mary Catherwood has made her name well known in romantic fiction. Miss Edith Wyatt is a talent, newly known, of the finest quality in minor fiction; Mr. Robert Herrick, Mr. Will Payne in their novels, and Mr. George Ade and Mr. Peter Dump in their satires form with those named a group not to be matched elsewhere in the country. It would be hard to match among our critical journals the 'Dial' of Chicago; and with a fair amount of publishing in a sort of books often as good within as they are uncommonly pretty without, Chicago has a claim to rank with our first literary centres.
February 14, 2019 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (4)
Fading Ad: J.S. Patterson Body Shop
J.S. Patterson Body Shop, formerly located at 3611 S. Archer Avenue in Chicago. The building is still car-related, but now houses Monte-Jalisco Auto Repair, which gives an indication of McKinley Park's changing demographics. The age of the ad is suggested by the phone number lacking an area code - until 1989, the entire Chicago area had the area code 312, so the area code was rarely referenced.
January 13, 2019 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Archer Avenue Tour
Last week I had a bachelor weekend (Julie and Maddie were away, at our city place), and my big thing to do for fun was to...drive the entire length of Archer Avenue, from Lockport to Chicago. (Yes, I'm quite the wild one.) My daily train runs generally parallel to Archer, so I've seen bits and pieces of the street here and there, but never the entire distance. So I hopped in the car on Saturday afternoon, with a bottle of water, an Epic bar and a couple of old CDs (Chris Mars, Treat Her Right) and set out.
Archer is one of the major southwestern arteries of the Chicago area, which starts just north of downtown Lockport, winds through the towns of Lockport, Lemont, Willow Springs, Justice and Summit (just edging Bedford Park) and the Southwest Side of Chicago, where it ends at 19th and State, in the South Loop. Archer follows the path of an ancient Native American trail (which paralleled the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers), and was originally built as a supply road for the building of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which was headquartered in Lockport.
Naturally, I stopped and took photos along the way.
St. James at Sag Bridge Catholic Church, in Lemont. St. James was built in 1833 to serve Irish diggers of the canal, many of whom are buried in the quaint churchyard. The church stands on a bluff above the canal and the Des Plaines River, on a highland that in prehistoric times was an island - in fact, the area is formally called Mount Forest Island. Driving up the short road between Archer and the church feels like stepping back in time.
Pleasanty creepy, Addams-esque (or Munster-esque, if you prefer) Victorian house in Willow Springs. I've seen online mentions of this house being haunted. Ghosts might be the only thing living there - it looks abandoned. The house isn't actually on Archer, but is visible from the street, on the bluff just a block up Charleton Street.
The main gate of Resurrection Cemetery, in Justice. Resurrection is one of the largest cemeteries in North America, with 540 acres and over 152,000 graves. The cemetery is infamous for being the purported resting place of Resurrection Mary, whose ghost supposedly haunts Archer Avenue.
Administration building of the former Argo corn starch factory, in Summit. These relief sculptures depict the history of corn, from its first planting and harvesting by Native Americans to the laboratory explorations of scientists. The factory is one of the largest corn processing plants in the world, and is so prominent that the town is often known as Summit-Argo in its honor. This building is now occupied by the U.S Food and Drug Administration.
36th and Archer, McKinley Park, Chicago. This house, the setting of my story "Valentino's Return" in Where the Marshland Came to Flower, is incongruously wedged between an auto repair shop and a CTA bus lot, on a very commercial stretch of Archer. I see the house from my daily train to the city, and am always struck by how out of place it looks. Thinking of the sort of people who would live in a house like this eventually lead me to my story.
Huck Finn Donuts, 3414 S. Archer, McKinley Park, Chicago. I've always been curious about the name - I don't remember any specific references to doughnuts in Huckleberry Finn, or from Mark Twain in general. Yes, I stopped for a doughnut, to fortify myself for the long drive home - tasty, good but not spectacular.
R.V. Kunka Pharmacy, 2899 S. Archer, Bridgeport, Chicago. Sadly, it's no longer in business - I would have loved to stop in for a chocolate malt. I hope that wonderful storefront is retained by the next owner.
Hilliard Towers Apartments (formerly Raymond Hilliard Homes), seen from Cullerton Street near Archer. Designed by the incomparable Bertrand Goldberg (best known for Marina City) and built in 1966 as a CHA public housing project, the complex was redeveloped in the early 2000s as a mixed-income development - middle-class, low-income and seniors. Hilliard is bounded by Cermak Road, Clark Street, Archer, Cullerton and State Street, and even though it is only briefly bordered by Archer, it bears a commanding presence over the street. Archer ends just two blocks east, at State, where I turned around and headed for home.
January 13, 2019 in Chicago Observations, History, Photography | Permalink | Comments (2)
"It is the foremost American city – vital, wonderful, and always on the move. Chicago is a huge ant hill. Push it a little with your foot, and you stir up a million little creatures, each carrying a grain of sand and scurrying around. But that's the point: they're moving." - Nathaniel Owings
December 28, 2018 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
The worst of Chicago
Given the pervasiveness of "Best of Chicago" pieces, it's refreshing to read the "Worst of Chicago" feature that The Reader ran last December. Here are some highlights, along with representative quotes.
The Chicago Authenticity Police might be worse than actual cops
"Deep-dish is just for tourists, they say. Real Chicagoans prefer thin-crust square-cut pies, delivered from a neighborhood joint that's been there so long the phone number listed on signage still starts with an obsolete alphabetical exchange abbreviation."
Chicago's thirst for a 'celebrity culture' is an embarrassment
"At best, it's awkward—with a distinct lack of self-awareness the media trumpets such people and attempts to shoehorn in ever more notables as a means of legitimizing Chicago's existence."
The Chicago bro is coming to ruin your neighborhood
"The toxicity spikes during the the bacchanalian binge-drinking marathons of Saint Patrick's Day and TBOX (the Twelve Bars of Xmas bar crawl), when the bros are empowered to spill out from their barstools to treat Chicago as if it's their own private beer garden. Venture into Wrigleyville on those days and the streets look like a scene from the world's whitest, most dude-centric zombie movie—call it The Walking Ted."
December 12, 2018 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Garrick ephemera
This old matchbook gave me a laugh - check out the message on the spine. Dubious selling point, eh?
December 11, 2018 in Chicago Observations, Ephemera, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Garrick Restaurant
My dad ate lunch at the Garrick every day, for about ten or fifteen years, until he relocated his office from the Loop (in the Oriental Theatre building, just visible at the far right of this photo) out to Arlington Heights. When I worked in the Loop, some of my favorite lunch restaurants were located on the ground floor of parking garages - Haute Sausage, Cafecito, Blackwood BBQ. Those places are generally low rent, no frills, just a focus on good, affordable food. I'm pleased to realize that the Garrick was a "parking garage restaurant" too – another bond between me and my dad.
(Via Urban Remains.)
December 11, 2018 in Chicago Observations, History, Personal | Permalink | Comments (3)
"The average magazine editor's conception of good verse is verse that will fill out a page. No editor is looking for long poetry. He wants something light and convenient. Consequently, a Milton might be living in Chicago today and be unable to find an outlet for his verse… In other words, the modern English speaking world says 'Shut up!' to its poets, a condition so unnatural, so destructive to new inspiration, that I believe it can be only temporary and absurd." - Harriet Monroe
I admire and agree with her opinion, while also admitting that, as much as I love the city and its writers, there obviously weren't any unpublushed John Miltons in Chicago in 1911.
November 19, 2018 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ben Hecht and Paul Dailing
Henry Justin Smith, on Ben Hecht, in the preface to A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago:
It was clear that he had sat up nights with those stories. He thumbed them over as though he hated to let them go. They were the first fruits of his Big Idea — the idea that just under the edge of the news as commonly understood, the news often flatly and unimaginatively told, lay life; that in this urban life there dwelt the stuff of literature, not hidden in remote places, either, but walking the downtown streets, peering from the windows of sky scrapers, sunning itself in parks and boulevards. He was going to be its interpreter.
Of course, that's hyperbole - nobody could ever be the interpreter of an entire city, especially one as vast and complex as Chicago. But Hecht did succeed in his inevitably narrowed focus - the book is wonderful.
I'm reminded of this quote from the penultimate post in Paul Dailing's blog 1,001 Chicago Afternoons, which chronicles (in 1,001 posts from April 2012 through last Friday) his encounters in seemingly every corner of the city, and hundreds of points in between. Dailing was heavily inspired by Hecht's premise, and in some sense took it further than Hecht (who gave up Chicago and journalism after only a few years, leaving for the bright lights of New York and Hollywood) ever did. I won't pretend that I intently read even a fraction of Dailing's posts - that's a ton of content, even spread over six and a half years - but those that I did read were never less than worthwhile. I'm tempted to read all the way through the blog, start to finish, or wait for what would be even better - the entire blog compiled into a single book.
November 5, 2018 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fading Ad: Gibbons Box Co.
H.R. Gibbons Box Company, 1210 W. Lake Street, Chicago. I took a longer-than-usual walk yesterday afternoon through an area I visit only rarely, and was very pleased to find this ad. Though I've walked this block before, I must have been on the other side of the street, where the ad is obscured by the L tracks. The company is long defunct, and doesn't even appear in the State of Illinois corporations database.
This 1921 obituary for Harry Gibbons (from an industry trade journal, with a typically laudatory tone) seems to suggest that the company made boxes for Marshall Field & Company, where Gibbons worked before leaving to start his own firm. Great customer to have, especially back then.
October 25, 2018 in Chicago Observations, History, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
"I mean, I'm not interested in any violent reaction, obviously. But I think that there's something worse than riots, and that's when we end up with a whole generation that has absolutely no confidence in the criminal justice system. If Van Dyke is acquitted, we'll lose a generation. I think that's a worse outcome than a riot."- Reverend Marshall Hatch
September 13, 2018 in Chicago Observations, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Welcome back
I'm very happy to see the recent return of Calumet 412 ("A pictorial love letter to the city and people of Chicago") after its year-plus hiatus. This wonderful 1967 image of Marina City (by Yale Joel) is quite timely - Julie and I are buying a lakefront condo in Chicago as a weekend getaway, so soon we'll become occasional high-rise people, too. Though maybe not as stylish as these folks.
August 14, 2018 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
"They're not all bums that sleeps here."
I love this Chicago reporter's 1883 description of vagrants sleeping in Lake-Front Park (now Grant Park):
As a tramps' paradise the park was an eminent success. Deep, raspy snores, indicative of a tranquil slumber, floated up from various quarters of the park, and here and there could be dimly seen a recumbent figure, flat on its back, its arms and legs ungracefully distributed about it, a coat serving as a pillow and darkness as a cove.
"They're not all bums that sleeps here. Some of 'em are pretty well-to-do, but put on their old clothes, leave their valuables at home, and come down here to sleep. It's cooler, you know, than sleeping in a close room. Come down and try it some night, and I'll see that you ain't arrested."
I can vouch for the latter. My dad and his siblings used to sleep in Chicago city parks on hot summer nights.
July 5, 2018 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (1)
"I despise your order, your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me for it!" - Louis Lingg
"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." - August Spies
"Will I be allowed to speak, O men of America? ... Let me speak ..." - Albert Parsons
Lingg, Spies, Parsons and two other defendants were convicted, without evidence, of the infamous Haymarket bombing in 1887. Lingg killed himself before he could be executed, and the other four were hung, on November 11, 1887.
January 28, 2018 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
"Honesty is the best policy. I know. I've tried it both ways." - Richard W. Sears, founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company (quoted in City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America, by Donald L. Miller)
January 14, 2018 in Books, Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
"...the soberest and the most clear-headed..."
Frederick Law Olmsted, writing about the aftermath of the Chicago Fire, in the November 9, 1871 edition of The Nation:
For a time men were unreasonably cheerful and hopeful; now, this stage appears to have passed. In its place there is sternness; but so narrow is the division between this and another mood, that in the midst of a sentence a change of quality in the voice occurs, and you see that eyes have moistened. I had partly expected to find a feverish, reckless spirit, and among the less disciplined classes an unusual current toward turbulence, lawlessness and artificial jollity, such as held in San Francisco for a long time after there - such as often seizes seamen after a wreck. On the contrary, Chicago is the soberest and the most clear-headed city I ever saw. I have observed but two men the worse for liquor; I have not once been asked for an alms, nor have I heard a hand-organ. The clearing of the wreck goes ahead in a driving but steady, well-ordered way.
Quite the contrast to Chicago's reputation, both then and now, as a den of ruthless, lawless incorrigibles. I'm puzzled, though, over the implication that the playing of a hand-organ is as immoral as drunkenness or begging. It must be some dated reference I'm just not catching.
January 7, 2018 in Books, Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
"...the perishable possibility..."
"4. Early September anywhere in the city, when the sunlight angle has changed and everything and everyone appears kinder, all the edges softened; the torments of the hot summer are over, the cold torments of the winter have not begun, and people bask in the perishable possibility of a gentle city." - Aleksandar Hemon, "Reasons Why I Do Not Wish to Leave Chicago: An Incomplete, Random List" (from Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology)
December 4, 2017 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
"...the splendor of the square window..."
Francesca Falk Miller, from her 1948 novel The Sands: The Story of Chicago's Front Yard:
Her own room was at the top of the house facing the street. It was the nursery during her babyhood, but had later become a schoolroom with the tiny alcove over the stairs for her bed. Tom had the hall bedroom at her back, and there was a dark bathroom between, where often Sulie would see the shine of a roach as it scurried to a hiding place under the tin tub. There was no window to this bathroom, but a square skylight showed blue sky and white clouds on clear days, and the stars on dark nights. Sulie who was never afraid of the dark, hated to light the wall-lamp and so shut off the splendor of the square window on the heavens above the tin tub and the roaches.
"Chicago's Front Yard" is a misnomer, as the Sands (a desolate, nearly lawless stretch of squatter-inhabited lakefront during the mid-19th Century, long before beach property became fashionable) would have been better described as either Chicago's back alley or its dumping ground.
November 20, 2017 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
1000 W. Monroe Street
I'm glad I photographed these two charming rowhouses (now very rare in the West Loop) while I had the chance, because they were recently demolished, for yet another new development. As if the West Loop doesn't already have enough generic luxury apartment buildings.
August 16, 2017 in Chicago Observations, History, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Farewell, Selected Works
At South Side Weekly, Malvika Jolly writes a tribute to Selected Works, the used bookstore in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue, which closed in June. The store was a bit too far from my office for me to visit on a regular basis, but I really enjoyed the times I did get over there. (And I petted the store cat, Hodge. I've always thought that one of the nicest things about owning a bookstore would be having a store cat.) I tried to visit the store during my city day at the end of my sabbatical earlier this summer, only to learn that it had closed the prior week. I'm very sorry I missed out.
On that city day I also learned that the Books-A-Million store on Clark Street had closed. For the moment (until The Dial opens in October, in the Selected Works space), the Loop doesn't have a single book store, with the closest stores now being Sandmeyer's on Dearborn in the South Loop, Open Books on Lake Street in the West Loop and After-Words on Illinois in River North. (No, I'm not counting the Barnes & Noble in DePaul's downtown campus, which is mostly geared to textbooks, or the Barbara's outlet in the basement of Macy's.)
August 3, 2017 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (1)
"No orange flashes in the sky."
East Chicago: a blue-collar suburb, thirty miles or so south of the big city. It is—was—the archetype of Steel Town, U.S.A. Most of its breadwinners worked in the mills: Youngstown, Inland, U.S. Steel.
On this rainy afternoon, the journey on the IC train offers a bleak landscape, as other industrial suburbs are whizzed by. Smokeless chimneys. No orange flashes in the sky. Empty parking lots. Not a Ford nor a Chevy to be seen near the deserted plants. An occasional abandoned jalopy, evoking an image of the thirties. A stray dog, no humans. A fleeting glimpse of the business end of the towns; enough to see boarded-up stores and empty Main Streets.
A mind-flash of Willard Van Dyke's 1938 documentary, Valley Town. It was Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a steel city of the Great Depression, stone-cold dead. It is a moment of deja vu in reverse.
The front lawn of every other bungalow in East Chicago, it seems, has the sign: FOR SALE.
- Studs Terkel, from The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream (1988).
July 22, 2017 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm pleased to announce the publication of my flash fiction piece "Spectacle", in the journal Chicago Literati. In case you're not a Chicago aficionado, the photo above should give a strong hint of the story's historical context.
This is my first publication in almost two years, the delay being partly due to the fact that I only rarely submit to journals any longer, and also from lack of fresh material, as I've been writing long-form work lately instead of short stories. Though I might have to rectify this - seeing the story online this morning was quite a pleasant jolt.
July 9, 2017 in Chicago Observations, Fiction | Permalink | Comments (0)
Michael Brand Brewery, the epilogue
Six years ago, I posted about the impending demise of the old Michael Brand Brewery complex on Elston Avenue in Chicago, which was about to be demolished for a new HH Gregg store. Which indeed happened, shortly after. And now comes the news that HH Gregg is bankrupt and is closing all of its stores. So, at the cost of an impressive relic of Chicago history (and buildings that could have easily undergone renovation and creative reuse) we got about five years of a crappy Indiana electronics chain. How stunningly short-sighted.
April 8, 2017 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
"You can't force a boat through it."
Chicago tour guides often marvel at the epic engineering feat of the late 19th Century that reversed the course of the Chicago River, diverting its noxious flow away from Lake Michigan (the city's source of drinking water). But what those guides never tell you is where all of that sewage went. In short, it was flushed down the I&M Canal and the Des Plaines River, to Joliet.
The water is nastier here than it is in Chicago. They have as much sewage there, but the putrefaction is well under way when it gets down here. Down on Lake Joliet it is thick; you can't force a boat through it.
Thank goodness for modern sewage treatment technology.
February 11, 2017 in Chicago Observations, History, Joliet | Permalink | Comments (0)
Grand and humble
I love this undated photograph of the Stratford Hotel, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but only partly for the hotel's 19th Century grandeur. What really strikes me is the tiny white storefront at the far left, which is dwarfed by the surrounding structures. I can't tell what the building was, but I'd guess it was a cigar shop or newsstand, even though the hotel would surely have had both of those amenities within its own building.
The photo is taken from Chicago at the Turn of the Century in Photographs: 122 Historic Views from the Collections of the Chicago Historical Society, edited by Larry Viskochil.
February 5, 2017 in Chicago Observations, History, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Madison and Halsted, 1959
This 1959 photo looks east, toward the corner of Madison and Halsted. The buildings in the left foreground are where my office building now stands. (I guarantee you that the goings-on at the Elite Hotel and Little Max's Clothing - the only two signs I can read in full - were a lot more interesting than what happens there now.) The only building in the photo that's still standing is the long one on the right, between the theater and the corner - the old Mid City National Bank, now vacant.
December 6, 2016 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
Something sinister
At The Millions, Jason Diamond surveys the books of Chicago's North Shore suburbs, from Waukegan (which, Diamond notes, generally isn't considered "North Shore", which is generally a enclave of the ultra-wealthy) to Evanston.
There's an order to things once you make it out of the city, out to the wider spaces where the houses and people all look alike, an inherent dishonesty in the suburbs that somebody convinced America to look past long ago. The suburbs were supposed to be the reward for working so hard, for making it through. It was supposed to be paradise, the last place you needed to go in life...
Diamond omitted my favorite North Shore novel, Ward Just's An Unfinished Season, which is set in fictionalized versions of Lake Forest and, I think, Half Day (the original name of Lincolnshire). Just's coming-of-age story about a Half Day kid uncomfortably moving through Lake Forest high society is one of those books that has stuck in my mind, years after the fact.
Diamond has just published a memoir, Searching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life I Learned From Watching 80s Movies, which I might check out eventually. I'm a bit too old for Hughes' movies to have much of an impact on my young life (I graduated high school in 1983, the year before Sixteen Candles, his directorial debut, came out) but Hughes was a very big deal to Diamond (the writer grew up around the North Shore, where most of Hughes' classics were set), so the book might still be worth a look.
December 1, 2016 in Books, Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Seen in passing
Curious sight this morning, at Union Station. As I was leaving the north concourse, headed toward the Great Hall, I walked past an electronic board that features (presumably for Amtrak tourists) information on local attractions. An African-American railroad worker, with a grizzled beard, hardhat and reflective safety vest, was tapping the touch screen, presumably to help an Asian man who looked on with a slightly bewildered look. This wasn't unusual in itself - railroad, security and station workers are helping tourists with directions all the time - but after I left the station and walked a few blocks, I saw the two men again. They were standing on Adams Street, just east of Jefferson Street, and the railroad worker was pointing toward Old St. Patrick's Church, as if showing the other man exactly where he needed to go. I walked past them, and glancing back, I saw them warmly shaking hands as the railroad worker turned back toward the station.
Helping a tourist at the station, when it's not actually part of your job, isn't that big of a deal - a few moments taken from a long workday - but to walk with that tourist for two blocks, on a cold day, to show him where he needs to go, just seems like a really thoughtful, generous gesture. Thinking about it is still giving me a smile.
November 28, 2016 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Boy's gotta have it.
A gorgeous pen, made of wood reclaimed from an 1874 Chicago building, Brand's Hall. Perfect. And then I saw the price. Boy's not gonna have it.
October 18, 2016 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fading Ad: Ginza Restaurant
Somewhat recent, but definitely fading, ad for Ginza Restaurant, at State and Ohio in River North, Chicago. Ginza operated here from 1987 to 2013. It appears that Ginza was gentrified out of the neighborhood, which is ironic given that its food was well-regarded, and the area is now booming with restaurants and hotels. If the food was good, you'd think the gentrification and influx of people would have benefitted the place, and not lead to its demise. Apparently the new landlord had other, more expensive plans.
This was a difficult photo to take - I only had my iPhone, the ad was up high (about eight or ten stories) and I was shooting toward the west and the setting sun, which inevitably caused it to be overexposed. I edited as well as I could, but ended up with sharpness that was much less than ideal. Then, again, this almost has a watercolor feel to it, which I like.
August 7, 2016 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
From the 'L'Excellent series of photographs taken by Angie McMonigal from inside of Chicago's 'L' trains. (Yes, that's the proper nomenclature, including the single quotes. "El" trains are New York, not Chicago.) I think this one is my favorite. Some sort of metaphor there about being in the gritty outlying neighborhoods with the train taking you away to the Oz-like towers of downtown.
(Via Coudal.)
June 27, 2016 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
South Side
This week I found myself taking photographs through my train window while passing through the far South Side of Chicago. These were originally posted to my Facebook and Instagram pages but I thought it would be nice to collect them all here.
92nd Place and Vincennes Avenue, Brainerd
91st Street and Vincennes Avenue, Brainerd
78th Street and Fielding Avenue, Auburn Gresham
76th Street and Normal Avenue, Auburn Gresham
76th Street and Normal Avenue, Auburn Gresham
75th Street and Eggleston Avenue, Auburn Gresham
72nd Street and Stewart Avenue, Englewood
Marquette Road and Yale Avenue, Englewood
These neighborhoods have special meaning for me, since my mom grew up in Auburn Park (now part of Auburn Gresham) and my grandmother in Englewood. Though the neighborhoods have changed significantly since my family lived there, both economically and racially, it touches me to see (albeit from the distance of a train viaduct) the streets and many of the same buildings that they moved amongst every day, up until the mid 1940s.
My method was fairly basic. Since there was no way to carefully compose photographs from a moving train, I simply had to take a flurry of shots in promising areas, and then sift through them afterward for the best images, which I cropped significantly to cut out the extraneous, and adjusted for brightness and contrast. Some were taken facing east toward the sun, which resulted in darker images after editing, while others were taken facing west (especially the Brainerd photos, which were the only ones taken under a completely clear sky) and were marked by more natural, vivid light. Any blurring was the inevitable result of the train moving at twenty or thirty miles per hour - instead of marring the photos, I think the blurring helps create a sense of motion.
June 11, 2016 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Quote"When I look at my life, all my misfortunes are pretty much self-made; the wonderful things the gift of others." - Lynn Becker
June 10, 2016 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Randolph Street, then and now (and still sort of then)
Since I started working in Chicago's West Loop and walking around the neighborhood, I was long puzzled by this stretch of Randolph Street (looking west from Desplaines), and why it was extra wide, with the buildings set far back from the main part of the street. The buildings are so far back that there is an extra service lane on each side of the street, which allows rare-for-Chicago diagonal parking. (You can see one service lane on the right side of this photo.)
Then, a few weeks ago, the wonderful photoblog Calumet 412 solved the mystery:
The city's old West Market Hall once stood right in the middle of Randolph Street, at the exact spot where the cars are lined up in the center of my photo. With this important structure being sited there, the adjacent lots on each side of Randolph had to be set back to allow room for traffic to flow around the building. All of which now makes perfect sense to me.
In the old illustration, Desplaines Street is the horizontal street abutted by West Market Hall; the next street up (west) is Union Avenue, most of which was removed for construction of the Kennedy Expressway, and the next street west is Halsted Street. (My office is now located at the upper left corner of the illustration, on what appeared to have then been a small homestead.) Interestingly, although Randolph west of Halsted appears to have originally been a street of normal width, it now has the same service drives as the stretch between Desplaines and Halsted. The street must have been widened and those drives added after the time of this illustration, to accommodate the wholesale food market that later developed along Randolph. Though a lot of wholesalers still operate there, the area is rapidly redeveloping and the old companies are slowing being priced out the neighborhood.
April 16, 2016 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Gapers Block going, going...Andrew Huff is putting Gapers Block on hiatus, and the site might be going away for good. Sad, but understandable. Everything runs its course, especially in the Internet era, and it's clear that Andrew no longer has the passion that he once had to run the site. Andrew will always have my sincere gratitude, as he published my first major piece of writing, the non-fiction "Captions Without Photos" (for which he also did essential editing, to correct major flaws that a newbie like me couldn't recognize), and also the short story "The Fixer", which is still one of my favorites.
My hat's off to you, Andrew, and I wish you all the best in wherever life takes you next.
December 21, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fading Ad: Amazon Hose & Rubber Company
Construction of the new building at the left appears to have prompted the partial removal of the canvas banner on the building at the center, at 140 N. Jefferson Street. When I saw the vaguely retro typeface and the orange background, my first thought was that this might have been an early logo for amazon.com. But an image search for old Amazon logos brought up nothing that looked anything like this, and so I kept looking, and a search on the address finally revealed that this was once the home of Amazon Hose & Rubber Company, a wholesaler of industrial hoses. The company was established in Chicago in 1945 but, oddly enough, now operates only from three locations in Florida - Miami, Tampa and Orlando. A corporate snowbird, I guess.
November 22, 2015 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fading Ad: Quality Food Products
A soon-to-be fading ad: Quality Food Products, a food wholesaler ("We sell produce, canned goods, dairy, frozen. No fresh meats.") at 172 N. Peoria St.; this ad is actually right around the corner, on another building in the company's complex, at 918 W. Randolph St. I really like the little chef face inside the Q. The company is still in business, but may soon be moving - the Tribune ran an interesting piece (source of that quotation above) on one of the co-owners earlier this year, in which he voices his regret of how much the neighborhood has changed, even though that change would make him very wealthy when the property is finally sold.
October 20, 2015 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
A random alley doorway in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. During my afternoon walks I often like to stroll down the alleys, behind the storefronts and old factories. While the street side of buildings may have been cleaned up and polished, the alley doors are often an afterthought, left untouched and weather-worn. I'm slowly collecting photographs like this, and might someday run a series here.
October 11, 2015 in Chicago Observations, Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Farewell, Maurice Lenelldodged the bullet in 2008, when the brand was taken over by Consolidated Biscuit. But now Consolidated is pulling the plug.
The company, which produced about 275,000 packages of Maurice Lenell cookies annually, discontinued the line shortly after the new year, when it also took down its website offering holiday gift tins. Antiquated equipment, slow sales and recipes that included controversial trans fats all led to the decision to stop making the cookies, Jasper said.This time I doubt Lenell will find another rescuer, which means those wonderful, old-fashioned cookies will be gone for good.
Today, all that remains of the old-fashioned treats are what's left in stores, including The Cookie Store and More, which opened in 2010 blocks away from the shuttered factory to serve as the unofficial local outlet for the brand. The store now has a "Last Chance for Maurice Lenell" countdown sign hanging in the front window. As of Thursday, the sign said 18 days until supply runs out, said Jeff Bach, the store's owner.
August 14, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Russell's Silverbarthis 1943 postcard for Russell's Silverbar ("Where the Crowds Meet") at State and Van Buren in Chicago. (The building is long gone; the Harold Washington Public Library now stands on that entire block.) The graphics are wonderful, of course, but what I really like is how all of the great old State Street department stores - Marshall Field, Carson Pirie Scott, Goldblatt's, The Hub, The Boston Store, The Fair - are labeled, as if to say "When you're finally all shopped out, stop by Russell's for a stiff drink before you head home."
July 21, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
FascinatingChicago Tribune article, here is an 1880s bird's-eye view of Chicago's downtown lakefront, superimposed with the grid of streets that were added later through landfill reclamation. The new streets are now some of the most valuable real estate in the city, but before reclamation the sandy shoreline north of the river was mostly an outlaw wasteland known as "The Sands." I have a book of the same name (by Francesca Falk Miller) that I picked up at the Newberry Library sale a few years ago but still haven't gotten around to reading yet. Soon.
July 16, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
"It was a constant nagging problem that nobody owned up to."The lost (and gradually rediscovered) county cemetery at Dunning is in the news once again.
May 18, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Boy's gotta have it.Restored print of an 1898 bird's-eye view map of downtown Chicago. Fantastic detail.
May 8, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sad: Chicago's Mirabell restaurant is closing, after 38 years in business.
Owner Jeff Heil planned one last weekend of food and drink last weekend, but some well-wishers had to be turned away, because more than 1,500 people showed up.I've been to most of the places mentioned, but Mirabell was my favorite - though I'm chagrined to admit that I haven't been there in twenty years, so I'm as much to blame for its demise as anyone. I first went there with my high school German Club, then on a business lunch after college when I was auditing a company in the area, and then a few times after I moved to the city, including once with my parents. Good memories.
"Probably more than we had all year," Heil said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
Chicago has not been kind to its German restaurants over the last 30 or so years; one by one, once-storied names such as Zum Deutschen Eck, Heidelberger Fass and Golden Ox have succumbed to business pressures, retiring owners, or both. Mirabell was one of the last old holdouts.
May 7, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (0)
You can't stop eating 'emnice remembrance of Jays Foods, longtime Chicago purveyor of potato chips. The Jays jumbo box (with two chip bags inside) was a staple of my family home - the box was so big that it didn't fit on any of the pantry shelves, but instead sat in the vertical space to the side, on top of the box that held the extra leaf for our kitchen table. And until I read this article, I had forgotten about the Jays pencil that was included in every box in the fall, when school started again. I'd love to find some of those at a garage sale sometime.
Interesting thing about the company's slogan, "You can't stop eating 'em": during the late 1990s, after discovering a Jays faded ad in the city, I contacted the company and traded some emails with the office manager. Curious about the slogan and its similarity to the "Can't eat just one" used by their rival Lay's, I asked her which came first. She replied almost immediately, saying she asked Leonard Japp - sitting right at the next desk, still at work in his nineties - and he testily answered that the Jays slogan was first. She said he had always resented a giant company like Frito-Lay for essentially stealing the idea.
The Jays brand still exists, but it is now owned by Snyder's of Hanover, and Jays products are no longer manufactured here.
April 3, 2015 in Chicago Observations | Permalink | Comments (2)


text:
By Jeff Andrew Lule
A cholera epidemic has hit six villages in Dei parish, Panyimur sub-county in Nebbi district. According to the Uganda Red Cross (URC) the epidemic attacked the area this month.
The URC head of communications, Catherine Ntabadde, said the disease followed a case at Die Heath Centre II in Nebbi on January 17, where a business woman called Consolate Akum from Ogwedo village from Buliisa district was admitted at the health centre and was found with signs of excessive watery diarrhoea.
"She was later moved to her home by her relatives from where two other children in the neighbourhood of Dei and Munduryema villages developed similar symptoms and died shortly after," Ntabadde noted.
She said medical reports indicate that it was cholera, which killed them and has eventually spread throughout the six villages of the parish and other neighbouring areas of Buliisa.
The affected villages include; Dei, Dei A, Dei B, Dei C, Dei centre and Namutangna village.
She noted that 28 cases of cholera had been registered since January when the outbreak was reported.
"Many of the cases have been discharged and only three are still admitted at Dei Health Centre II for surveillance," she added.
URC is working together with the Ministry of Heath and district authorities to strengthen social mobilisation among the communities to combat the outbreak.
"Our officers have already embarked on social mobilisation and hygiene promotion in all the affected areas so that the outbreak can be contained."
The volunteers are sensitising communities about symptoms and signs of cholera," Ntabadde said.
Nebbi district hit by cholera

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Have you tried any make-up from The Body Shop?
New make-up products and tools from The Body Shop
Have you tried any make-up from The Body Shop?
6 comments:
I used to LOVE a certain eyeshadow from The Body Shop back in my teens, it was almost holographic...probably very in again these days :pReplyDelete
But I've actually not given The Body Shop make up range much of my attention the past few years at all. I really should pop into store and have a look soon as these brushes look just lovely.
Gillian xx Eyelinerflicks.comReplies
I've been all over their skincare for a few years now after rediscovering them post teenage years but I don't really look at their make-up either. I will take a little bit more notice now xDelete
I have the make up brushes and Paris Peony and love them both! Have to admit I picked up Paris Peony because of the name but also love the colour! Sophie xReplyDelete
It is a good name! I did want the Sydney one (I can't remember the full name now) but when I checked it out in store it was a bit too much of an orangey red for me :( xDelete
Those brushes look so great! I'll have to go into a body shop near me and try them out!ReplyDelete
Yes pop in and take a look xDelete


text:
One day on a search for something that would be a great makeover project, I ran across two lonely chairs.
This is one of the beauties that I ran across in a barn. This little girl was the better looking of the two. I know by looking at the seat and back covering they really aren't old. Oh, but wait after digging in and removing the very different cloth on the seat covering and backing I discovered they were older than first appeared. These are solid oak frames…..awesome bones for this makeover. [Read more…]


text:
|Effect of Pelvic Obliquity on the Orientation of the Acetabular Component in Total Hip Arthroplasty.
MedLine Citation:
|PMID: 22054902 Owner: NLM Status: Publisher
|In infrapelvic obliquity, coronal pelvic malrotation entails a change in the spatial location of the bony acetabulum. In the present study, 77 patients presented with infrapelvic obliquity with types 1 and 2 hip pathologies in which the pelvis is lower and higher, respectively, on the short-leg side. The 2 types were classified into 3 subtypes (A, B, and C) according to the severity of the pelvic obliquity (0°-3°, 3°-6°, and >6°). Angles of inclination of pelvic obliquity postoperatively, anteversions, and inclinations (abduction angle) for acetabular components were measured after total hip arthroplasty. Increased inclination (mean, 8.79°) was observed in type 1C, where the angle of inclination to pelvic obliquity postoperatively was minimally corrected. This increase may lead to cup instability. Rebalancing the pelvis in these cases with preoperative skeletal traction and/or sufficient release of hip contractures may be necessary. A correction of the mean inclination of the cup by 8.79° is required.
|Xiaoxiao Zhou; Qi Wang; Xianlong Zhang; Yunshu Chen; Hao Shen; Yao Jiang
Publication Detail:
|Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE Date: 2011-11-3
Journal Detail:
|Title: The Journal of arthroplasty Volume: - ISSN: 1532-8406 ISO Abbreviation: - Publication Date: 2011 Nov
Date Detail:
|Created Date: 2011-11-7 Completed Date: - Revised Date: -
Medline Journal Info:
|Nlm Unique ID: 8703515 Medline TA: J Arthroplasty Country: -
Other Details:
|Languages: ENG Pagination: - Citation Subset: -
Copyright Information:
|Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|Department of Orthopedics, Taizhou Central Hospital, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Export Citation:
|APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex
|MeSH Terms
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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text:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks fell on Tuesday, hit by signs the euro zone crisis is worsening and evidence that Europe's slowdown is hurting U.S. companies, including bellwether UPS.
The decline was the third straight for the S&P 500 index, which tested its 50-day moving average, a technical support level which could trigger more selling if convincingly broken.
Stocks got a lift late in the session after the Wall Street Journal said Federal Reserve officials were moving closer to taking new steps to spur activity and hiring. Fed officials recently have spelled out what measures they might take, including Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech last week.
After the market's close, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell on disappointing results from Apple (AAPL.O), which reported quarterly revenue below analysts' expectations. Apple's shares fell 4.8 percent to $572.12 in extended-hours trading.
During the regular session, United Parcel Service (UPS.N), seen by many as a proxy for economic activity, fell 4.6 percent to $74.34 after reporting quarterly results that missed forecasts and cut its 2012 outlook, citing uncertain global economic conditions. UPS helped pull the Dow Jones Transportation average .DJT down 1.2 percent.
"We are going through an adjustment period where there has been a lot of talk about Europe facing a recession in 2012. Now we are actually seeing it in the earnings and the market is reacting to that," said Gail Dudack, chief investment strategist at Dudack Research Group in New York.
The struggles of the U.S. and euro zone economies intensified in July, surveys showed on Tuesday. Europe's private sector looked set for a prolonged slump as the surveys showed the downturn that began in the euro zone's small economies has since become entrenched in Germany and France.
Concerns about the euro zone grew after Spain was forced to pay the second highest yield on short-term debt since the launch of the euro and European Union officials said Greece had little hope of meeting the terms of its bailout.
AT&T Inc (T.N) lost 2.1 percent to $34.63 after the company reduced its outlook for business services this year. The S&P telecom index .GSPL dropped 1.8 percent.
Whirlpool Corp (WHR.N) slumped 7.5 percent to $62.25 after the world's largest appliance maker missed Wall Street's expectations for quarterly earnings and sales, hurt by weak demand in Europe and a stronger dollar.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 104.14 points, or 0.82 percent, at 12,617.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was down 12.21 points, or 0.90 percent, at 1,338.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 27.16 points, or 0.94 percent, at 2,862.99.
The Fed says it is still considering a third bout of quantitative easing, or QE3, and some analysts expect recent weakness in the U.S. economy could prompt policymakers to launch such a program as early as September.
"Given the events going on around the world, I think the odds are increasing the Fed will take action at one of the next two meetings," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist, RDM Financial, Westport, Connecticut.
Of the 145 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings for the quarter, 66.9 percent have beaten analysts' expectations, Thomson Reuters data showed. Over the past four quarters, 68 percent have beaten estimates.
Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) fell 5.9 percent to $15.12 after VMWare Inc (VMW.N) said it would acquire privately held Nicira Inc, a move seen as a threat to Cisco's core switching and routing business.
In another sign of the economic malaise from Europe, Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) warned that its third-quarter revenue would be weaker as customers show caution due to global uncertainties. The shares lost 0.9 percent to $26.57.
Spanish five-year government bond yields rose above 10-year yields for the first time since June 2001 as investors fretted about the possibility that Madrid may need a full-blown sovereign bailout. The 10-year note last traded at around 7.6 percent. <GVD/EUR>
Volume was about 6.71 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and Amex, compared with the year-to-date daily average of 6.74 billion shares.
Decliners beat advancers on the NYSE by about 22 to 7. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers about 17 to 7.
Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry


text:
New Delhi: Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses will soon go hi-tech with the public transporter deciding to install electronic ticketing machines in 200 of its fleet by the end of this month.
In the first phase of the project, 200 buses of Rajghat and Rohini bus depots will be equipped with ETMs by the end of January. Thereafter, the facility will be introduced in the rest of the DTC fleet by June.
At present, there are 4,500 buses plying in the national capital and of which, 3,775 are low-floor buses, including about 1,275 air-conditioned ones.
"DTC will install ETMs in 100 buses of Rohini depot and Rajghat depot each in the first phase. In some buses, conductors have started charging fares from passengers through ETMs on trial basis," DTC spokesperson RS Minhas said.
He further said that by the end of June, all DTC buses will have e-ticketing machines. Thereafter, all these buses having ETMs will move towards common mobility card through which one can travel in DTC buses and Delhi Metro.
"Once ETMs are installed in all DTC buses, we will move towards common mobility cards for traveling in both DTC and Metro, which will be done on priority basis," Mr Minhas said.
Transport Minister Gopal Rai had recently said that the government would soon launch common mobility card for DTC and Metro.
Common mobility card had been proposed in 2010 during the Commonwealth Games but due to financial reasons, the project did not take off.
According to DTC, talks on this project are going on and it wants this project to be implemented as soon as possible for giving better facilities to its passengers.


text:
With the past post I think this blog has come to an end.
This blog was intended to help me straighten out my thoughts. To document what I want to do with my life. To navigate through my life, given the restrictions imposed.
I have found what it is I want to do. It's still the same as it ever was: illustrate, write, art, design, engineer, create. All at once and none of them accumulating to something great.
There are still the same old things holding me back: ambition, perfectionism, fear of failure, fear of choosing, the need to be seen, the need to be acknowledged. Ah, such child's needs… I may never grow out of them.
Watching me take these hurdles and me documenting this struggle will be tedious and with lots of repetition and small victories and never ending in a big crescendo.
I'm not going to write it down.
You're not going to need to read it.
It would be equally exhibitionistic and boring, for all concerned. And really not that interesting.
Through this blog and the time that's passed I've learned that there will never be enough hours in a day to do all the things I want to do. No matter whether I'm bed bound, brain fogged or running around drunk with sunshine.
There will always be choices and priorities to be set.
I have learned to think my way through some faulty assumptions I was carrying and building my life upon. Assumptions about life, about society and about what makes for a meaningful life. There's that.
And as of today I glimpsed another truth. The truth about existing, meaningful, without giving account. Without given witness.
Without catching meaningful thoughts in a sentence. Without blogging, tweeting or writing a book about it. Shedding that urge, the urge to visibly exist. Using the time and space that it frees up to cuddle the cat, to share its place in the sun, examining something rustling in the tall grasses.
Because that is living.
I have a confidence that living unforced like this will bring out the drawings too.
Or it may be a tree house I build. Or an urban space I design. Or a cake I bake for a friend who loves owls.


text:
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A Speculation on Tabitha's Curse.
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Tabitha the Story
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:27 pm
Post subject: A Speculation on Tabitha's Curse.
In time travelling back into time to rescue her sister from being killed in a car accident, Tabitha has guarenteed onto all one thing:
Though a bright star Sabrina short life was, in being a normal life thereafter made her into just another average Skunkette, who has a job/carreer, a child and a husband. Did she aspire into greatness? Perhaps into her early years she did; but later in life, she fell into the rut of everyday living.
The Adventures of Sabrina With Chris and Alan are to become everyday things that couples enjoy. No evil mad furs to fight on, no helpless princeses to save. Just a lot of sleeping, snoring, working hard and hardly working days to meet the challenges of paying one's monthly bill and feed one's empty stomaches. Ocassionally, there will be tiny goals to set (Chris, Alan, and Sabrina at the Grand Canyon), and little demonic deeds to over come (Damn it- dinner's burnt... again...)
Sabrina will continue to be Sabrina, with little change and plenty of Skunkiness to have around. She will be the same when she is 22 as she will be when she is 52. Question is Will we still lover her, or is it better for her to die young and forever stay pretty?
SHARKS In The Gene Pool South of Kosovo!
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Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 893
Location: East coast somewhere
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 8:39 am
Post subject:
it depends on your love for something at 22 or 52. life has its moments of bordom and intrests. Each day has the oportunity of being a best seller or a box office bomb. eventually this cycle will repeat life ends. at some point you may end it with the death at 22 or end it they lived happily ever after. or continue with the high and low points of their life till they depart this world. it all depends on the writers and the readers only they can answer that question.
Av by GreyCat
Last edited by Mapper on Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:12 am; edited 1 time in total
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Joined: 03 Apr 2001
Posts: 2497
Location: Isernhagen, Lowersaxony, Germany
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:01 am
Post subject:
Bluntly spoken it's impossible to tell.
A furson's life with all its aspects is so complex that even the slightest change can have a huge impact on the end result (yes, that is the chaos theory) and Tabitha's intervention was a major change.
However, the good thing is that Sabrina's life is not subject to the Chaos theory, but to the ones who write it. Therefore I'm pretty sure that it's going to have it's interesting parts. For me that's enough.
And besides, was Sabrina's life a bight star before she died in that car accident? We know that she had a family who loved her but many 'boring' people have loving families.
Tygon Panthera - name and species
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:14 pm
Post subject:
Just reviewing a few items in TV Dave's forum, and it got me thinking.
It is not what one has done at the age of one's passing that make him/her a bright burning star, but how they continue to affect others afterwards. It has been the things they did in live, how they treated others, and what little they expect for themselves that makes the difference.
So the answer in this case is YES. At 22 or at 52 or even at 102, it does not matter not the number when things end for one but what they leave behind in things immaterial but long and perhaps forever lasting.
SHARKS In The Gene Pool South of Kosovo!
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Joined: 23 Dec 2003
Posts: 319
Location: Nashville TN, USA
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:16 pm
Post subject:
Elfen_Furry wrote:
It is not what one has done at the age of one's passing that make him/her a bright burning star, but how they continue to affect others afterwards. It has been the things they did in life, how they treated others, and what little they expect for themselves that makes the difference.
So the answer in this case is YES. At 22 or at 52 or even at 102, it does not matter not the number when things end for one but what they leave behind in things immaterial but long and perhaps forever lasting.
VERY well put Sir Elfen. I have seen sadder funerals of someone who was elderly, than those young. Because the elderly person of which I speak, really didnt impact many people, and when thier number finally came up (cancer)... all that was left was a heck of a lot of -nothing-... no impact, other than immediate famlily (wife and one child), there was -nothing-. Where as, when one of my friends died in a car wreck, we had a -ton- to reflect upon as to his life. And the funeral, was more a celebration of his life, than a mourning of his passing. Tis why I always say... its not the years of life, its the life in the years that counts. May we live every day as full as we possibly can!
My Fury Code:
FFX2arsw A-- C+ D++ H+ M- P++ R+++ T+++ W Z- Sm# RLCI a36 cl++ d+ e+ f++ h+++ iwf+++ j+ p++ sm+
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Joined: 20 Oct 2003
Posts: 39
Location: Oak Park, MI
Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 4:59 am
Post subject: All life has value
Elfen_Furry wrote:
Question is Will we still lover her, or is it better for her to die young and forever stay pretty?
Taken at face value, this is a terrible question to ask. The value of someone has
to do with their physical beauty or lack thereof. (And in any case, judging from Endora's appearance in the comic, it seems that furries age much more gracefully than the furless among us!)
While there are exceptions, I have found that people who are beautiful
on the inside
become more so as they age - especially as they are able to interact with and influence more and more people as time goes on.
And there is no doubt that Sabrina's beauty is much more than fur deep. If Tabitha succeeds in changing history, Sabrina will be able to bring her special light into more and more lives. By dying before her time, not only do her friends and family suffer a horrible loss (as do we!), but those whom she never had a chance to meet unknowingly suffer a terrible loss too.
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Joined: 11 Jun 2002
Posts: 88
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:51 am
Post subject:
Hmm... might draw fire for this one, but here I go.
As stated so eloquently already, The quality of life lived, not the quantity matters. It is also what one leaves behind that is the best indicator.
Analysis time.
Sabrina has a loving family, which at the point of her death, include a husband, plus her little sister, and parents. Obviously, there are more, but those are the ones we know of by name and face (there might be more that I don't know of, or don't remember, but hey, that's what threads are for). She has several friends in "The clique" Amy, Thomas, ZZ, coworkers from ZZ Studios, Clarence, Friends made at Work at Chris's company, and who knows what other friends She made here and there.
Now, I doubt her funeral would have been near empty. I've already compiled a list of likely attendees. Of those significant members of her life... Chris, her family, and her closest friends would obviously be greatly affected, to varying degrees. Those casual friends from various places of work and such would likely be saddened by the news, but I think they would quickly recover and get on with their lives, and likely even forget her.
Given the setting of Tabitha's starting time, several years after the accident, I think only her family, and close friends even know who Sabrina Foxx was. Realisticly, this does not put her as one of those "bright, shining stars." Sabrina is an average person. Her death was tragic, just like every other fur (or person for the matter) who dies, except for those who feel they have lived their full lives. In fact, the only reason their is even a discussion really, is because she happens to be the main character of a very nice story, written extremely well.
Now, Tabitha managed to get the opportunity to bring Sabrina back, by trying to prevent her death. She does so by breaking the rules, going directly against directives from those in charge of the project and her. She lies and conceals her true motive for the opportunity to be on the development team, just for the opportunity. In some ways, she resembles an obsessed, unstable fur. She has devoted a great deal of her life, risked a great deal for this. There are others who would do the same, given the chance, but I do think the vast majority would have been able to accept her death, and move on with their lives, as is generally accepted to be proper.
Should Tabitha have meddled as she did, went back, and tried to alter history? Probably not. The sci-fi genre is riddled with stories of time travel gone wrong. Altering history seems to be a bad idea, with far reaching, intricate, sometimes subtle, sometimes unsubtle ramifications. The what-ifs are nearly infinite, limited only by the imagination. Tabitha knows how things turn out in the years after Sabrina's death. We're all going to find out how things change because of going back. I don't think any of us will ever know how things would have turned out in Tabitha's future to come, had she not devoted her life obsessively to this goal, and had moved on.
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Joined: 20 Nov 2000
Posts: 1561
Location: Kansas City, KS, USA
Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 9:30 am
Post subject:
Maybe I'm mistaken, but in the Tabitha timeline, there is an Allen with Chris when Sabrina dies.
Allen isn't an indicator that Tabitha's succeeded in her quest.
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Joined: 11 Jun 2002
Posts: 88
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 9:42 am
Post subject:
Like I said, the waht-if's are infinite, limited only by the imnagination.
Good what-if.
It seems to me, that involvemnt with time travel is just plain bad bussiness. Some time travel occured, one of the results being Sab only having one kid, and dying before having others., one of whom ends up bing either incredibly important, or the ancestor of one such fur. Do we go in and try to fix the problem? Dunno. If we could stop the original time-transgression, that would be better, but it seems the parameters of this what-if do not give the identity of the original transgression/transgressor.
Well, we run into several problems... Sure, we save Sabrina (woo hoo!) and she gets to have her happy life, have her alotted offspring, who go on to do spiffy things. But, what other ramifications happen from this new time travel and interference?
I'd like to suggest a metaphor.
The "proper timeline" Is a calm pool of water. Time travel, and more specificly changing events, is a dive in the pool, ranging from a speck of dust alighting on the surface, to IR doing a cannonball. We have Mike's suggested original interferance with the timeline, a dive of unknown size, but one of it's known effects is Sabrina's death before giving birth to (and properly raising) one or more offspring. Who knows what other effects, what other ripples and waves this dive has created. While tabitha's dive creates some waves that interfere with and counter a portion of the original dive's waves(saving Sabrina's life and allowing her to live out a happy life), there are still ripples in other directions from both dives that still exist, and you now have an even chopier pool. Many of these waves are likely minor, and the changes they represent may not matter. Some of the changes might very well be just as significant, or more significant than Sabrina's death or happy life and reproduction. Are we going to jump in the pool and try to counter those waves also?
Some people get headaches trying to puzzle out, visualise, or simply understand alternate timelines, paradox, and various other intricacies of time travel. I don't have any such problems, but I question the the ethics. Using Time travel in the manner Tabitha is seems like using a baseball bat to try and fix an omelette that wasn't cooked right. Rather than bash away at the burnt eggs, you should try to make sure no one brings any baseball bats into the kitchen in the first place. If time travel doesn't exist, then we don't have to worry about trying to fix the mistakes created from it's reckless use and misuse, by recklessly using timetravel.
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 3:10 pm
Post subject:
Hikaru wrote:
Maybe I'm mistaken, but in the Tabitha timeline, there is an Allen with Chris when Sabrina dies.
Allen isn't an indicator that Tabitha's succeeded in her quest.
As some sci-fi shows would say, "The events have yet to manifest themselves to our timelime.
For me, that sounds more like an "Uh-Oh!" than a "IT's Alive!!!"
[Place Evil Laughter Here]
SHARKS In The Gene Pool South of Kosovo!
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Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 792
Location: Somewhereville, MO
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:15 am
Post subject:
The Tabitha timeline is not done. so things will change after Sabrina is returned to her time. What exactly will change has yet to be seen. One thing will be the number of children that she had as The Sabrina Story confirms that Tabith was succsesful in changing that.
I'm a serial killer, it's a bad habbit.
I killed tony, lucky charms, and the silly rabbit.
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:18 pm
Post subject:
I will admit that I have not read StOLS in quite a while...
The problem where when Sabrina gets back to her time, will things continue as per StOLS, or diverge into another direction. Sabrina is taken foward into Tabitha's time before she meets Chris Foxx, somewhere between the termination of her webmaster/graphic artist job and her being hired at ZZ Studios.
Tabitha going back into time and giving Sabrina the cure for Endometriosis happens somewhere in the middle of the Sabrina/Chris love affair- indictating that there will be more time jumps by Tabitha in interfering with Sabrina's life. (Did I read this right or am I confusing things here?)
Third- This version of Tabitha is going to end soon. As Chris stated the story will end some where around Chapter 25, if not sooner. But he has also stated that it may not be the end of Tabitha's time travels, and who knows... Maybe Tabitha ends up in a time line where Sabrina is sterile because of her endometriosis, and goes back into time again to fix that, allowing her to have Alan. But that would have to be in another story, or if Chris can do it just right, weave it into this one towards the end.
We do not know the results until Sabrina goes home, Tabitha returns into her time and all other things are adjusted accordingly. Then the time-line will adjust itself accordingly, but to what end?
And the Question still remains- Will Sabrina be in that car accident? Also- will she survive it this time?
SHARKS In The Gene Pool South of Kosovo!
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Registered User
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 792
Location: Somewhereville, MO
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:21 pm
Post subject:
Tabitha had the medicine when she went back the first time so that leads me to believe that Sabrina waits to take the medication or it takes a good amount of time for it to work. Tabitha planned on changing everything at once, Sabrina's death and her medical condition, as she was told that it would be impossible for anyone to travel through time after her if she succeeded, and that would include her as well. That's also why she was dead set on going through first, she had to be the first or it would be almost impossible for her to succeed.
I'm a serial killer, it's a bad habbit.
I killed tony, lucky charms, and the silly rabbit.
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:56 pm
Post subject:
If you read Sabrina carefully, Tabitha had made several jumps into Sabrina's past, not just this one as mentioned in the Tabitha story.
That means that Tabitha had made several jumps into Sabrina's past to make sure that the future outcome remains as a positive one, and constantly fine tuning the future with small adjustments and not with a big one that might end up disasterous if it turns out wrong.
Thus far- she guaranteed the birth of one child- may it be Alan or not, because she took care of Sabrina's endometriosis, which if you look it up on [url=http://my.webmd.com/hw/endometriosis/hw103057.asp?lastselectedguid={5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348}]Wed MD.com[/url], causes infertility in a small number of women. What if Sabrina was one of the 8% that was infertile by the condiction? Tabitha just cured her.
*throwing a monkey wrench into the works*
Time Travel makes for sloppy book keeping- Squishy Doo Doo
SHARKS In The Gene Pool South of Kosovo!
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Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 2601
Location: NYC NY
Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 11:47 am
Post subject:
In the Tabitha Story, Sabrina gets kidnapped at about
(Aproximate date), between getting fired from her first website designer job and baby sitting the younger Tabitha. This is long before Sabrina had any physical relationship with either RC (in the comic strip) or with Chris (in StOLS).
That is several years before Tabitha's projected attempt, and a couple years off from the StOLS- where Tabitha's continual interference occurs.
Judging from the actions of Tabitha, giving Sabrina medication for her condiction, to me it does not look like a cure all, but more like a treatment for the cause. Did she give it to Sabrina in the Tabitha story line? I dont remember. Did she give it to Sabrina in StOLS? I remember that she did on a couple of occassions (remember who's memory we're all dealing with- I can be wrong).
But if Sabrina was given the medication in both stories, think of it like cancer:
Tabitha goes bak in time and gives Sabrina the medication. (1999)
Sabrina is cured (in remission).
Endometriosis returns
Tabitha returns (2000,2001,2002) to Sabrina and gives the medication to her (again).
Sabrina is cured (again - in remission 1 more time)
Will Sabrina need more medication?
We wont know, but it seems that Tabitha will return to make sure.
Will Sabrina have children?
That depends. Medically speaking- the condiction does not terminate pregnancies, in fact in most cases the symptoms almost disappear during pregnancies. But the condiction does cause sterility in 8% of those afflicted. She misscarriaged because of other reasons, I believe.
I dont want to sound like a sexist pig here- oink oink..., but pregnancy is a delicate time for females to take it easy. Anything that would happen to them, will ultimately affect the unborn child. A miscarriage is a very hard and heavy loss to those females that it happens too. But it can be the result from any reason, not just from the endometriosis as everyone tends to believe it is.
I remember Sabrina saying in StOLS, (not in these exact words), "I dont have sex around that time of the month because its painful..." To me that means that from Ovulation to the end of her menses (sp?), she tries not to have sex. If one misses that crutical ovulation point, how is she going to get pregnant? Most importantly, at this time, her hormones are in influx- and this causes her condiction to flare up as according to the medical text.
I dont think Tabitha is giving her a cure all for the condiction, but rather a treatment, and like her constant interference in StOLS shows it to be.
But it seems that Tabitha's time travelling adventures does not end with this installment of the Tabitha story.
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This set comes complete with 8 all weather bags. 4 blue bags and 4 red bags.
The bags are filled with plastic pellets instead of corn and are regulation size and weight and come with their own drawstring bag for storage. These boards also have a metal scoring plate attached with the magnets that match the bag colors for easy scoring. If you would like different colored bags other than the ones specified with this set, please feel free to add a message stating color choices upon check out. If no message is received, the colors specified will be sent. Color choices are black, yellow, red, green, purple, orange, grey, maroon, royal blue and navy blue.
If you would like lights added, let me know and I can make a special listing. These boards are custom built using 2" x 4" framework and have a 1/2 hardwood birch playing surface.They have 2" x 4" folding legs for easier carrying and transporting that are bolted on using 3/8 bolts with locking nuts. They are constructed using decking screws and tops are air nailed and glued.
All holes are filled and sanded. Undersides and frames are stained. Upon completion, we apply polyurethane for UV and wear protection.
The item "Vintage Miller High Life Girls Corn Hole Boards Bean Bag Toss Game" is in sale since Thursday, March 28, 2019. This item is in the category "Sporting Goods\Outdoor Sports\Backyard Games\Cornhole Bag Toss".The seller is "wayne-michele" and is located in Saint Charles, Minnesota. This item can be shipped to United States.


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Troop 10's
Home Page
Sea Base 2015
Project June 2016
Past Activities
Boy Scout Troop 10
(Pensacola, Florida)
Contact Our Troop
Member Login
This was when Troop 10 went rock climbing at UWF in 2014.
National Flight Academy Aug 2013
This was when Troop 10 took a 2 night visit to the national flight academy at the navy base in Pensacola, FL
Blue Angel Campout - March 2014
We went to the Blue Angel Recreation Center in March 2014 and had a fun campout.
Shark Tooth Campout Oct 2013
These pictures were taken during Troop 10's shark tooth hunt in 2013
Stennis Campout 2014
This was when we visited Stennis Space Center and camped in the heat in Louisiana afterwards. After camping, we visited the D-Day museum in New Orleans. We also ate lunch in New Orleans on the way home.
Merit Badge Day May 2014
This was the merit badge day some scouts in Troop 10 attended. The members attending forestry got to take part in a controlled burn.
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Professional Cover Up
Tattoos can seem great at the time, and the thought of it being permanent may never cross your mind, but things change and so do preferences for what is visible on your skin. If the time has come where you regret a tattoo and would like it covered, the process can be tricky but experts like artist Amaury Ramirez at Bad Habits Tattoos in Fort Lauderdale will give your skin a brand-new look.
Important to keep in mind the facts of tattoos. Ink is initially injected into the dermis (1mm below the surface) and because of this, when a cover-up takes place, the inks mix instead of the new sitting on top of the old. With this in mind, there is no cookie-cutter template for making a tattoo, it is understandably more difficult of a process as the desired tattoo to be covered increases in complexity. The expertise of an artist is crucial for this process to produce exceptional results and no artist in Ft. Lauderdale does it better than Amaury. Artists, like him, will assess what it is you'd like covered, take into account any suggestions you may have regarding what you'd like in place of it and craft a new design to either blend it in or cover it entirely. Whether it's turning an ex's name into a new work of art or covering that spring break tattoo you regret, each experience is personalized and will hide exactly what it is you'd like.


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A controversial fertility expert has today reported a second failure in his attempt to clone a human.
Dr Panos Zavos said his team had created four cloned embryos that were transferred to the womb of a 33-year-old Middle Eastern woman.
However, none of the embryo transfers resulted in a pregnancy. Dr Zavos offered no scientific evidence to support his claim, and no peer-reviewed journal is publishing the research.
A similar lack of information surrounded his previous announcement of a failed cloning attempt in January 2004. On that occasion, Dr Zavos said a single cloned embryo had been placed inside the womb of a 25-year-old woman.
Speaking at a press conference in London, Dr Zavos said the latest procedure took place in a Middle Eastern country, which he refused to identify. He would not reveal the identity and nationality of the woman, either.
The woman's 35-year-old husband donated cells that were used to create the cloned embryos, said Dr Zavos. The man was unable to produce any sperm, and cloning was the only option left that might enable the couple to have a baby.
Dr Zavos was undaunted by his latest lack of success. "What we know today is what we learn from our failures as well as our successes," he said. "We had great expectations for success."
But his announcement lacked scientific detail, with Dr Zavos arguing that it was difficult to get such research, which would be banned in the UK, published.
"Not every journal wishes to publish our work because they don't want to take a chance on a controversial subject," he said. "We're honest people sharing this information with you. History's going to judge us accordingly."
Other scientists involved in fertility research and therapeutic cloning have condemned Dr Zavos and his attempts to create cloned babies.
After his last announcement, a group of leading scientists issued an open letter to newspaper and broadcast editors. They urged a curb on the publicity given to unsubstantiated claims made by Dr Zavos and other clone scientists.
The scientists wrote: "We fear that the disproportionate coverage given to these stories convey the impression that fertility scientists in general are engaged in the race to clone the first human. In fact the opposite is the case. Mainstream scientists are united in their opposition to this work and Parliament has banned reproductive cloning in the UK."
Among the signatories were Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council; fertility expert and TV presenter Lord Winston, Imperial College London; Professor Alison Murdoch, chair of the British Fertility Society, and Dr Harry Griffin, deputy director of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, where scientists created Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.


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As a designer you have to make many decisions during a project, some of which will impact it more than others. One such decision is what colours to go with when design or redesign a website. In this article we'll take you all through our process when it comes down to deciding the colour scheme for a new project.
- Sometimes it's easy
- Defining your colours
- What! Only 3 colours?
- Using your 3 colours
- Wrap up
1. Some times it's easy…
And sometimes its not, it all depends on the clients needs and whether they have established strong brand colours. Obviously if the client already has a style guide then use it to make your colour decision. However we tend to get quite a few companies that don't have well established band colours. This is usually because they are either a startup or that they rely on the visual part of their logo and not the colours.
2.Defining your colours
For the most part, though there are some exceptions, we tend to stick to 3 major colours when it comes to web design. But what should this 3 colours be? Well the first one should be either the clients primary brand colour. If they have no well defined brand colour then a choose a colour that strongly reflects their brands values and identity. Here are some colours and the values they represent:
- Red – heat, passion and excitement.
- Orange – warmth and vitality.
- Yellow – optimism and creativity.
- Green – serenity and health.
- Blue – security, truth and stability.
- Purple – spirituality, intelligence and wealth.
- Pink – youthful intensity.
- Brown – class and durability.
- Black – power and drama.
- White – clean and simple.
As for your second colour choice, you'll be looking for something to contrast with that of the primary one you've just picked. For me, a lot of the time I end up going with either black or white. Both those colours will provide a good backdrop for your site. Both black and white contrast well with just about any of the colours mentioned above.
Now on to colour number 3. You want this colour to compliment that of the primary brand colour. Something that can sit alongside it and provide unity that you contrasting colour can not.
3. What! Only 3 colours?
Well the answer to that is both yes, and no. Yes you are only picking 3 strong colours that work well with each other but don't forget you can use various shades of each colour. So you're really looking at quite a few more colour options than you may have first anticipated.
4. Using your 3 colours
You have now chosen your 3 colours, so how should they be implemented into the site? how much of what is a good idea? For us this will differ slightly with each site, but as a sort of general rule, 60%, 30%, 10% is good.
For the 60% you have two options. Either you pick your primary brand colour or use the secondary contrasting colour. More often than not if I've chosen to use black or white as the contrasting colour I'll choose to make it the most use colour in on the site.
The 30% colour should then be whichever colour was not chosen to be the dominant colour. for example, if you choose white to be the 60% colour then use the primary branding colour as the one that will colour 30% of the page.
Last and possibly least (see what I did there?), the 10% colour should be the colour that you chose to compliment your primary brand colour. you know, the only one that's left. This should be either a colour that you would use for your call to action buttons (so think high contrast), or a more muted variation of your 30% colour choice.
5.Wrapping up
And there you have it. You should now have a better understand of the process that we at Zing Design go through when it comes to picking a colour palette for a new project. Don't forget to check out our other post on web design colour tools & resources.


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If you are a blogger, you may have faced a question quite often, 'Why do you blog?' or 'what do you get from writing blogs?'. Trust me, these are among the most annoying questions for bloggers. We (bloggers) blog because it is our passion for writing. We love writing blogs and disseminating information on the web. We love being a part of this amazing community that helps each other. And above all, we love interacting with our audience. Continue reading "3 Well-wishers Who Help Bloggers In Writing Blogs"
Tag: Blogging
Are you fed up of explaining the kinds of content writing to your friends belonging to different industry? A lot of people don't understand the diversity required in a content writer's life. Content writing doesn't involve only blogs… it is rather a big umbrella covering numerous writing styles. Continue reading "20 Types Of Content Writing Services That A Writer Sells"
The emergence of digital marketing evolved the demand of digital marketers too. But is there any institution offering digital marketing education? There are a few leading organizations offering digital marketing training. They are definitely of help to those who are willing to spend huge pennies on experienced trainers of the industry. However, if you are not prepared to spend any money currently then you must look for the digital marketing blogs like ours. Such blogs serve to be a self-study material of digital marketing and charge you nothing. Continue reading "Top 10 Blogs To Learn Digital Marketing"
Are you a writer? Do you have an excellent vocabulary to please your readers? Do you understand your language and its grammar? Alright, final question! Is this enough? Continue reading "Top 10 Websites Offering Royalty Free Images At No Extra Charge"


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Another make day started early with cream cheese. Because it takes 16-24 hours to set the curd, it made sense to start with cream cheese and then set it aside to set. The second cheese was Gruyere. I started with 2 gallons of goat milk and added a gallon of whole milk from the store.
Follow the story of each on the following pages: Cream Cheese, Gruyere.
Gruyere Update: I sealed the smaller block of Gruyere in seal-a-meal plastic June 20th. It looks a little dry.
July 11 Update: Sealed larger block in wax it has been in the cheese frig and it is a little squishy and seems like it is coming along nicely, but I think it is ready for wax.


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- This event has passed.
Montana Legal Services Association
November 14, 2018 @ 10:00 am - 2:30 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every month that begins at 10:00 am on day Second of the month, repeating until December 12, 2018
They come to Mineral County the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 10am to mid afternoon on the 3rd floor of the Mineral County Courthouse in Superior at 300 River Street.
Walk-ins welcome but call to schedule an appointment and to see if you qualify for these free services: 1-800-666-6899.
www.montanalawhelp.org Can apply on line
Shannon Fuller, Attorney at Law
They can provide:
- Legal services and representation
- Referrals to volunteer attorneys and other providers
- Self-Help clinics and materials
- Educational brochures, classes and workshops for Montana's low-income community
They cannot help with traffic violations or criminal cases


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Home » Party! » Jax's Birthday Party
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Jax's Birthday Party
8 comments:
Thank you for joining our Oh My Heartsie Girl Wordless Wednesday Link Party. Love the photos, it looked like it was so much fun! Have a great day, co-host Evija @FromevijawithloveReplyDeleteReplies
We had a blast! We also grilled pizzas, but I didn't get any pics of that part. Once I set the camera down I never think to get it again. I really need to get better about that!Delete
Hi Carlee, Happy Birthday Jax!! All of your treats are mouthwatering as always! I've never had white chocolate buttercream, something new to try. Ha, love that he loves treats! Too cute!! Looks like he had a fantastically fun birthday! :)ReplyDelete
Thanks Christine! The white chocolate buttercream is really good. You should try it, you will be surprised how fluffy it turns out! Poor Jax asks for treats all day long now and hardly ever gets one.Delete
The party looks like so much fun! Baby Boy is also now 2 and I'm in awe. I'm actually in exhausted awe as he's only been 2 for about a month and it feels like 6 months already lolReplyDelete
Unfortunately, I didn't plan or host the party I wanted to for his 2nd birthday (or 1st for that matter) because I was sick this go around and caring for my dad out of town last, but a "surprise" visit from some family and grandparents was all he needed. He had a blast. :)Replies
I think the parties are more for us at this age than them anyway. I just wanted to be able to have creative freedom for a couple of parties before I had to start getting input from him!! I'm sure it will be action figures parties and whatnot soon enough.Delete
Previous memories and a milkshake bar...it's all good! Thanks for joining OMHG Wordless Wednesday!ReplyDelete
Thanks for stopping by! It is hard to go wrong with milkshakes around!Delete