Perusing The December Issue Of Chicago Magazine

I recently received the December issue of Chicago Magazine, and found it quite interesting. The cover story was "Why We Love Winter - 39 Ways to Get the Most Out of the Season." It has been quite a while since I lived in Chicago, but as I recall, I did not love winter. Sometimes it was very snowy, sometimes not so much, but seeing the sun was always a very rare thing. Which I very much hated, not loved. The article mentioned such things as the feeling you get walking into a bar on a frigid night, boozy nights playing board games, soups that warm your soul, etc. etc. Sounds like grasping at straws to me. There was also an article about an 1874, 10,000 square foot mansion for sale in Evanston that sounded really nice - fireplaces in all the public rooms, the high quality of the spaces, a quarter-acre-lot, all for a measly $1.899 million. That is less than a lot of homes in Denver's Washington Park, which do not seem to me to be nearly as impressive. If I had that kind of money, I might consider moving back to Chicago from Denver, although then again, there is the issue of those horrible winters. And on the opposite page from that article was a full page ad for The Residences at the St. Regis, a 101 story high-rise on East Wacker Drive that features 1,097 square foot "pieds-a-terre to full floor 6,800 square foot full floor penthouses." The prices range from $860,000 to $18,500,000. Wow! Are we now living in a new Gilded Age, or what? Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him? And yes, I did have to look up pied-a-terre (a small living unit in a big city some distance away from an individual's primary residence). Hopefully, the purchasers of those units won't be too cramped on the rare occasions they use the place. Keep a stiff upper lip, guys!