Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! In celebrating this holiday, I am posting a photograph taken of me at my most charming best one Easter morning, back where I grew up in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago. It was taken in the den of our home there, which later doubled as my sister Susan's bedroom after I came along and took her room. And yes, after 71 years, she still brings this up once in a while. Talk about a long memory. But no matter - it is Easter, spring is here, the days are getting longer, the summer not too far off, and we have an exciting presidential election to look forward to that will entertain and absorb our attention all the way through the first Tuesday in November, and perhaps much longer, if the last presidential contest is any guide. And on this Easter Sunday, one of the candidates is even comparing himself to Jesus and selling "God Bless the USA Bibles" (at a cost of $59.95 each - get them while you can). One South Florida newspaper columnist has suggested referring to those bibles as the "King Donald Version." That should give you pause as you digest that ham and scalloped potatoes. Am I right, or what?

Better Late Than Never - My Photograph Of Largo Argentina Has Resurfaced!

Just before the Ides of March, I looked for a photograph to post on my blog that I took of Largo Argentina, a square in Rome near Campo de Fiori, where the remains of the 4 oldest temples in Rome, as well as the Curia of Pompey, are located. The Curia, part of the Theater of Pompey, was where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. Back in 2012, it was announced that the exact spot where the assassination took place was found there, marked by Caesar Augustus, Julius Caesar's adopted son. And just this past summer, these ruins were opened to the public for the first time in 2000 years. The Theater of Pompey was evidently a very large complex, and stretched all the way to Campo de Fiori, but Largo Argentina is ground zero for Caesar buffs, of which I am sure there are many. And so, I was not able to post my photograph for the Ides of March, but happily, I ran across it the other day, and am posting it now. Better late than never, right? After all, tourists have been waiting for 2000 years to visit this place, so what is a mere two weeks to see a photo of it? Enjoy!

The Chicago White Sox Home Opener

I got home yesterday afternoon in time to watch the final innings of the White Sox Home Opener at Guaranteed Rate Field on Chicago's South Side. They were playing the Detroit Tigers, and Detroit was leading 1-0 when I tuned in. And that was how it ended. Later that night, I watched the WGN News at Nine, and they had several reporters at the game, interviewing the fans. The weather was sunny and pleasant, people were in a good mood, and even after the 1-0 loss, everyone was very optimistic about the season. Of course, last year, as I recall, the White Sox started the season giving up runs left and right (literally), and it only got worse from there, and so a well-played pitcher's duel was good to see, even if they did lose the game. And, of course, new play-by-play guy John Schriffin, on the left in the photograph on the left, and longtime announcer Steve Stone (on the right) were also very optimistic about this very young team.

White Sox management recently announced it wanted to build a new stadium in the South Loop, just south of Roosevelt Road along the Chicago River, to replace Guaranteed Rate Field, as seen in the photograph on the right. And watching that WGN news report, I was surprised to find that all of the fans interviewed wanted the team to stay exactly where they are. This when Guaranteed Rate Field is considered the third worst stadium in the major leagues, after ballparks in Oakland and Tampa Bay. The last White Sox game I saw before leaving Chicago was at the old Comiskey Park, and so maybe I should actually take in a game at Guaranteed Rate before I continue to condemn it. In any case, the Chicago Cubs, the team's North Side Rivals, opened the season on the road against the Texas Rangers, losing 3-2 in extra innings. They looked pretty good, too, so perhaps a subway series in Chicago might not be too far off. We can dream, can't we? It is Opening Day, after all. As for my adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, they started the season in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. The Rockies were predicted to be one of the worst, if not THE worst, team in baseball this year. And how did they do, you ask? They lost 16-1, which is better than I thought they would do against the 2023 National League Champions. The sportscasters here in Denver stressed that no one was killed, which is indeed the most positive aspect of the game.

The MLB Regular Season Begins Today

Baseball is back! The MLB regular season starts today, and my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, will play their home opener against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field this afternoon. The Sox had a horrible season last year, losing 101 games, and are once again in a rebuilding mode. Their North Side rivals, the Chicago Cubs, will start the season in Texas against the Rangers. The Cubs finished with an 83-79 record last year, but still almost won a wildcard spot before - surprise! - falling apart in the final week of the season. The Colorado Rockies, my adopted hometown team, will start the season against the Diamondbacks in Arizona. They lost 103 games last year and nobody expects them to do much better this season, either. Although the Rockies attract almost 3 million fans a year to their ballpark, thanks to playing at beautiful Coors Field, they had the third worst television ratings in baseball last season, and as of now can only be watched through a streaming service. Probably for the best. But no matter - as of today, all three teams are undefeated, and anything is possible at the start of the season, right? Right?

Wildlife Gone Wild!

But not really. Actually, they all seemed pretty laid back, venturing closer to roads and neighborhoods looking for food after a snowstorm dumped up to a foot of snow in the foothills this past Sunday. And in point of fact, the buffalo in the photograph on the left are not really wild - they are part of a herd maintained by the City of Denver up in Genesee Park (Genesee is a foothills suburb west of Denver). What I want to know is how those elk got into that enclosed area. I have heard of the deer and the antelope playing, but not elk and buffalo. Live and learn, I guess.

And driving along Upper Bear Creek Road west of Evergreen, I was hoping to run across some bears coming out of hibernation, or at least a mountain lion or two, but had to satisfy myself with a herd of deer, blending into the background, munching on a grassy hillside. And they did not seem spooked at all. A few turned around to look at me, and then quickly went back to their afternoon snack. But what I would really like to see most is a real live moose. The local newscasts are constantly featuring stories about moose hanging out in ski areas, threatening skiers and snowboarders, or stopping traffic in mountain towns, but despite years of searching the Colorado and Wyoming wilderness, no such luck. I am beginning to think moose in Colorado and Wyoming are a myth, made up to draw tourists into those states. I once even went to the Colorado Center for the Moose, in Walden, Colorado, where they post moose sightings, and headed to those locations, only to find nada. I suspect the people working at that center can't stop laughing after you leave to follow their wild goose chases. Talk about cruel.

Gentrification Gone Wild?

I noticed while walking through Denver's Washington Park a few weeks back that the house in the photograph above now had a fence around it, which is a sure sign that it was about to be torn down, and a new, larger, more grand structure would be taking its place. But since it looked like such a nice home, I couldn't believe that could be true. Perhaps it was just undergoing a renovation? But several days ago, as I was driving past that corner, I saw that it was gone, a bulldozer sitting in the backyard. That lot sits directly across the street from Washington Park, on the east side, with a view of the park and the mountains beyond, and a location like that is very pricey indeed. Since it is a wealthy neighborhood, I really don't think this can be called gentrification, unless it applies to the rich being replaced by the super-rich. Hard to believe that when I was young, "small is beautiful" used to be a popular movement. These days it is more like "back to the gilded age."

"Breaking Up With Spring Break" Seems To Be Working In Miami Beach

After three straight years of huge, disorderly, mostly intoxicated crowds during spring break, including two fatal shootings on Ocean Drive last year, Miami Beach launched a campaign called "Breaking Up with Spring Break," letting visitors know there would be curfews, bag checks, restricted beach access, DUI checkpoints, expensive parking fees, and lots and lots of police. And it seems to be working. There are still spring breakers around, but not in such large numbers, and the atmosphere is much more subdued. For a lot of these college students, the final straw was a Thursday through Sunday midnight curfew during the month of March, and many have headed to Fort Lauderdale instead, where it is evidently spring break as usual. Imagine having to stop partying at midnight? What is the point of even partying if you have quit so early? The City of Miami Beach says arrests are down 8% this year, and that the initiative is a success. However, bars and restaurants say they are losing a fortune having to close at midnight, and what's the big deal about a few dozen extra shootings, anyway? That's Florida for you. In any case, I took the photograph above of my sister Susan on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach back in August of 1994. There were still big crowds back then, but no shootings, at least while we were there. And no, we did not stay until the wee hours of the morning. Bet that surprises you, doesn't it?

Getting Together With Some Of The Old DU Gang

Speaking of DU (in my previous blog post), I got together yesterday evening at Las Delicias with some of my old University of Denver Bookstore colleagues and their spouses, as well as with my friend Mark, who works at DU's Anderson Academic Commons (the library) and his parents. It was a very pleasant evening, and fun to catch up with what everyone has been doing and what trips they are planning in the future. In the photograph on the left, starting on the front left side, is Renee, the wife of Bill, the former DU Bookstore Operations Coordinator. Bill and Renee are planning a trip to Monterey, California and from there up to Vancouver, British Columbia. Sitting next to Renee is Linda, wife of Wally, the former DU Bookstore Operations Manager. They are planning a trip to San Francisco to visit their kids, and from there are taking the train up to Seattle to attend a wedding. Sitting next to Linda is Mark, and standing behind him is his mother, Kay. Sitting in the back on the right is Mark's father Dale. The three of them, along with Mark's brother Mike, just returned from a vacation in Maui. Sitting next to Dale is Bill, then Wally, and finally my sister Susan, who has no connection to DU whatsoever. Probably for the best.

Darrel, the former Accounts Payable Manager of the DU Bookstore, along with his wife Linda, also dined with us, but due to a senior moment, I forgot about taking a photograph of the group until after they had left. Darrel and Linda just got back from a trip to San Clemente, which they say was a bit on the nippy side, but still had a fun trip. And fortunately, in keeping with the travel theme, I have a photograph of Darrel and Linda, seen on the right, that I took back in June 2014 at the Travel and Adventure Show, where none other than Rick Steves, my favorite travel guru, was giving a series of talks about traveling in Europe. That show, as I recall, was held at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, and the stage was set up beneath some windows, making getting a decent photograph of Rick with Darrel and Linda in the foreground pretty hard. But no problem - I found a nice spot to take their photo directly under a giant poster of Rick, which was almost as good as the real thing. It was a fun evening, and the food at Las Delicias in Glendale, Colorado was, in point of fact, delicious. Great to see all you guys again!

Spring Break At DU

Spring Break begins today at the University of Denver, and yesterday afternoon, when I took a walk across campus and took the photograph above, there was nary a student in sight. DU attracts a wealthy student body, and no doubt most of them have jetted off to exotic locations for the week, and probably even longer - why should missing a few classes matter? And not only did I not see a single student on campus, I also did not see a single soul in the DU Bookstore, where I worked as the Finance Manager until the university outsourced the store to Follett Higher Education Group. In fact, the doors were closed, and I was not sure they were even open. And surprisingly enough, for the first time ever, I received an ad for the store on my DU e-mail account. The advertisement wanted to let me know it had everything I needed to take along on spring break. Back when I worked there, none of the staff was on spring break - we were all desperately getting ready for the start of the spring quarter. Of course, if they no longer have many customers, as appears to be the case whenever I walk by, I suppose there is not much reason to worry.

Checking Out The April Photograph In The 2024 CTA Historical Calendar

While checking dates coming up in April (most significantly the day income taxes are due), I was impressed by the photograph seen above in the 2024 CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) Historical Calendar. It shows the "L" station at State and Lake in downtown Chicago, which was around from the 1920s until the 1960s. This photograph was taken in 1957, and the child in that photo was about the same age as I was at the time. Back when I lived in west suburban Forest Park, I remember taking the "L" home from State and Lake after wandering around the city on my days off from working at the Walden Bookstore in the Yorktown Shopping Center, located in Lombard, a suburb further to the west. It was the best of both worlds - living in a close-in suburb just two blocks from the Forest Park "L" stop, and a relatively short drive to work at Yorktown. When looking for my first apartment, I had considered renting a place on Chicago's Near North Side, where all the "action" was, but just finding a spot to park to even look for an apartment around there convinced me that it was not a good idea. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those Forest Park days, but then again, after a short while, I think to myself "to hell with it." It occurs to me that I am indeed starting to get old. Be that as it may, be sure to check out https://www.transitchicago.com/historicalcalendar/ to view and download that 2024 CTA calendar. You'll like it, I'm sure.

Boulder's Columbia Cemetery - One Of The Most Haunted Places In Town?

I took a stroll a few days ago through Boulder's Columbia Cemetery, which opened back in 1870 and is the final resting place of many of the city's early residents. According to an article by Boulder-based freelance writer Tyra Sutak, the most likely person haunting the cemetery is the one who for years was beneath a grave labeled only "Jane Doe." Around 20 years old, she was found beaten to death, lying naked on the banks of Boulder Creek back in 1954, and only within the past 15 years was identified. Others likely haunting the place are Marietta Kinsgley, a madam in Boulder's red-light district back in the 1890s, and Tom Horn, a famous gunslinger and cowboy who was hanged in Cheyenne for a murder it was believed he did not commit, and is still pissed off about it till this day. The most intriguing thing I read was that visitors have sometimes captured ghostly figures in their photographs. And yes - I did closely inspect all of my photos, and unfortunately found that all of the questionable images I captured were actually still alive.

And, of course, all of these stories I found online seem to have been published around - surprise! - Halloween, and none featured actual photographs capturing those ghostly images. For the most part, the people of Boulder treat this cemetery, located just below University Hill in the center of town, as a park for taking a stroll or walking the dog. It is a pretty place, and mostly quiet, except in even-numbered years in October, when Historic Boulder presents "Meet the Spirits," where community volunteers in period costumes portray many of the more famous people buried in Columbia, and tell their stories. And guess what, people! This is an even-numbered year! Buy your tickets now!

Lunching With Stuart In Washington Park

I had lunch with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph above, in Denver's Washington Park yesterday afternoon. Stuart got takeout from Qdoba, while I, being the health food fanatic, got a burrito and tacos from Taco Bell, which we took to a picnic table in the park. It was 62 degrees and sunny, and a lot of people were walking around in shorts and tee-shirts. However, there was a wind blowing, and to me it was a bit on the chilly side, even with a jacket. Nevertheless, we had lunch and discussed this and that, but very little about the upcoming baseball season, which starts next week. Stuart is originally from the North Side of Chicago, and a Cubs fan, but seems to not have high hopes for his team, even after they re-signed all-star Cody Bellinger. Being originally from the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, I myself am a White Sox fan, and told Stuart I was mildly optimistic about the team after watching interviews with the new White Sox General Manager, Marketing VP, and Manager. Of course, the Sox lost 101 games last year, and so to a true White Sox fan, mildly optimistic means losing less than 100 games this year. Wildly optimistic means they finish at or around .500. And there you have the true difference between North Side and South Side fans. But curiously, both teams usually wind up with the same results.

The First Day Of Spring Has Arrived!

Spring arrives today at 9:06 P.M. Mountain Time (10:06 Central), and not a minute too soon. It is way past time for walking around the neighborhood, bike riding, hiking, art and street festivals, and everything else the warm weather brings. I took the photograph above at Denver's Washington Park last week, showing people getting out and about on a pleasant afternoon, ironically just a day before the city's biggest snowstorm of the season. While areas to the west and south of the city got up to 5 feet of snow, in Central Denver it was a mere 9 inches, and the next day the sun was back out. Which is actually what "Springtime in the Rockies" is all about: the occasional large snowstorm followed by warm and sunny days. Except for the mountains, where you can expect snow to fall 9 months out of the year. Of course, if you choose to live in the mountains, you get what you deserve. And if you really are fond of the mountains, that is why God invented day trips.

Watching Leeds Play Millwall With The Leeds United Colorado Fan Club

My friend Mark - seen in the photograph on the left - and I headed to The DNVR Bar at the corner of York and Colfax here in Denver yesterday morning to watch the soccer match between Leeds and Millwall. Leeds beat Millwall 2-0 and are now in first place in the Championship League, England's 2nd division soccer conference. This is important, since the teams that finish first and second at the end of the season are automatically promoted to the 1st division Premier League, while the teams that finish third through sixth compete in a playoff round to decide which one will be the third team promoted. This is a pretty powerful motivation for both players and team ownership. Imagine for an instant that Major League Baseball used the same system. The Colorado Rockies draw almost 3 million fans a year, no matter how bad they play, and so owner Dick Monfort is not very motivated to do what it takes to win - namely, hire baseball executives who know what the hell they are doing and know how to build a winner. Imagine if the three worst teams in Major League Baseball were demoted to Triple A, and the top three Triple A teams replaced them each year. Now THAT would finally light a fire under Monfort to start thinking about winning.

The Leeds United Colorado supporters seem to be a very amiable group, and I was surprised at how many turned up at 9:00 A.M. to watch the game. On the right is the official group photograph for yesterday's get-together, taken by the bartender, who told me he had to work until 2:00 A.M. the previous evening and then come in early the next morning to let in all the Leeds fans. Talk about dedication. DNVR is a digital sports network that decided to take over the space that once housed the Three Lions, a popular Denver soccer pub, which Mark and I frequented in the past. Now that DNVR is returning the place to its soccer roots, we have started visiting more often. And I must say, we enjoyed both the game and the pleasant company. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Like many other cities around the country, the celebration began yesterday here in Denver with a parade in the Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood. It started at 9:30, and so a little too early for me. However, I did manage to head down to LoDo in the afternoon, finding the place filled with thousands of 20-somethings, all trying to get inside the same bars, such as Scruffy Murphy's Irish Pub, seen in the photograph on the left. This neighborhood is filled with rooftop bars, all of them packed wall-to-wall with people. One of them, El Patio, was blasting what to me was horrendous music at the sound level of a jet airplane taking off. How lovely it must be to spend the afternoon up there. Okay. Okay. I know I am an old curmudgeon. Deal with it.

Meanwhile, a little further south, on Market Street, right around the corner from historic Larimer Square, Nallen's Irish Pub was celebrating its 32nd St. Patrick's Day, and also seemed to be packed to the rafters, as seen in the photograph on the right. Years ago, when I first moved to Denver, the most well-known Irish restaurant and bar in Denver was Duffy's. It was located downtown, right around the corner from the 16th Street Mall, and had waitresses that had worked there for decades. When the National Association of College Stores had their convention at the newly opened Colorado Convention Center, which I attended thanks to my job at the University of Denver Bookstore, I overheard one out-of-towner describing how he kept asking people on the street for bars to visit in Denver, and every damn one of them told him to go to Duffy's. Ironically, they were always closed on St. Patrick's Day to avoid possible lawsuits resulting from overdrinking. How times have changed here.

And, of course, all those twenty-somethings just love to dress up in costumes and party. Be it St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Oktoberfest, Comicon, and whatever other holidays a costume might be appropriate, they will be down in LoDo celebrating. The next big event to draw people to LoDo will be Opening Day. I used to attend the Colorado Rockies home opener every year, no matter the weather, but eventually, after the introduction of "dynamic pricing," where the price of a seat went up or down based on the popularity of the event, not to mention the phasing out of ballpark ticket windows and the start of online sales, with a fee added for the "convenience," no less, I decided to skip opening day and just walk around the neighborhood each year and enjoy the ambiance. I remember going up to one of those rooftop patios to take a photograph of Coors Field, located across the intersection. That patio was, of course, packed with people, but I assumed the place would clear out once game time approached. And I was shocked to find that nobody ever left, or even went in to watch the game on television. Nobody was interested in baseball. It was just another excuse to party. Oh well, it certainly makes for great people-watching. Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!

Twelve Days Away From The Regular Season: Watching The White Sox Play The Cubs

I watched the spring training game between my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, and their North Side rivals, the Chicago Cubs, yesterday afternoon on MLB.com. The game was played at Camelback Ranch, the White Sox training facility, in Glendale, Arizona. It was 60 degrees and raining, and the start of the game was delayed 30 minutes until the rain lessened to the point play could begin. The White Sox still have 51 players in camp, and need to make some serious decisions about the final roster pretty soon. The Sox beat the Cubs 3-2, their 4th victory in a row, and I was happy to see that a lot of their pitchers actually look pretty good. The game was called in the middle of the 8th inning when the rain started up again. Putting those two teams together always seems to bring Chicago's weather to the desert.

I actually tuned into a rebroadcast of the game last night, and planned on watching just the first few innings. However, I wound up watching the entire telecast because during the game, Steve Stone and John Schriffen (who are beginning to work very well together in the broadcast booth) interviewed Chris Getz, the new White Sox General Manager, Brooks Boyer, the Marketing VP, and Pedro Grifol, the 2nd year manager of the team, over 3 innings. Getz (seen in the photograph on the right in the center, with Stone on the left and Schriffen on the right) recently traded ace pitcher Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres, and talked about his reasoning and why he thinks the 4 prospects the Sox received in return will make an impact on the team. Brooks Boyer talked with enthusiasm about all the promotions that will take place at Guaranteed Rate Field this year, and Pedro Grifol talked about how the team is coming together as a unit and accepting a style of play he feels will win ballgames. I was very impressed with all three, and it makes me feel the team, although now in a rebuilding mode, will prosper in the coming years. Wait a minute! My God! I said it would not happen, but damn it, it did. I have caught that contagious kind of optimism that comes with every spring training. Is there no cure?

The Ides Of March 2024

Today is the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated back in 44 B.C. on the steps of the Theater of Pompey. A seer had warned Caesar to "beware the Ides of March," but he unfortunately did not heed the warning and beef up his security detail. When we were in Rome back in 2019, my sister Susan and I stayed near the Campo de' Fiori, and I read in Rick Steve's guidebook on Rome that you could see part of one of the original walls of the Theater of Pompey incorporated into one of the buildings there. I spent a lot of time trying to find that damn wall, but without success. Then I read on the internet that the ruins in the center of Largo del Torre Argentina, a number of blocks away from Campo de' Fiori, have reopened to tourists after 2000 years or so, and it mentioned that the Theater of Pompey was once located there. Just for fun, I checked out a map of Rome, and it showed the site of that theater located just around the corner from Via Dei Chiavari, the street where our hotel was located. I had taken a number of photographs of that street while we were staying there, including the one above. So where was that theater really located? Digging deeper, I found that the Theater of Pompey was quite large, and so it is very possible the complex took up the entire area. That seems to make sense, and so I am just going to accept it as fact. But I do have to wonder if the ghost of Julius Caesar haunts that area after dark. Perhaps that is why Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet on the old Superman television series, always used to exclaim "Great Caesar's Ghost" whenever he got exited about something. That makes sense to me, too.

The Quiet Before The Storm. And Then, Of Course, The Storm...

It was a very pleasant afternoon this past Tuesday in Denver's Washington Park, sunny and in the 60s. And there were a surprising number of people out and about, enjoying the day. Could Mitch Romney actually be right that half the country doesn't work and are receiving entitlements from the government? But, as usual, I digress. They were no doubt all out there because the weather forecasters have been predicting a major storm starting last night and continuing into Friday. This has been predicted to be the largest snowstorm here since March of 2021 (March is, by the way, our snowiest month), when we received 27 inches of snow at the airport. Of course, Denver International Airport (DIA) is close to the Kansas border, more like a different planet than part of Denver. The amount of snow received varies wildly in the Denver area. Golden and Boulder, to the west and northwest of the city, and up against the foothills, get far more than Central Denver, where my condo is located. And the mountains, of course, get dumped on like crazy. No surprise there.

The rain, as predicted, turned to snow last night, and the local newscasters were interviewing people stocking up at the local King Soopers Supermarket in Golden, where it looked like they were preparing for a months long siege. One woman explained that they were predicting 3 feet of snow for Golden, so I guess I can understand their concern.  Just after 10:00 last night, it was reported that snow in the mountains was very heavy, visibility was down to zero, and Interstate 70 was closed in both directions between Golden and Silverthorne, on the western side of the Continental Divide. Hopefully people who live in Denver's mountain suburbs, such as Genesee and Evergreen, made sure to get home early last night. If not, it will be a long cold night waiting for the interstate to reopen. But living in those suburbs, most of them probably will just stay at their place in the city, and have the concierge bring up a light dinner and bottle of wine.  Here in Denver itself, they predict around 12 inches, but spread across Wednesday night and Thursday. Big deal. Why does everyone else have all the fun? And why the hell do we not have a concierge in our building? From which, by the way, I took the photograph on the right? Life is so damn unfair.

The March Issue Of Chicago Magazine

I just finished reading the March issue of Chicago Magazine, the cover story of which is titled "Who Runs This Town? The 50 Most Powerful Chicagoans, Ranked." The answer to that is J.B. Pritzker, Illinois Governor, number #1, and Brandon Johnson, Chicago Mayor, #2. And enough of that. Far most interesting was the article in "The 312" section about La Salle Street, the financial center of the Midwest, which is evidently economically distressed due to corporate restructuring, employee downsizing, and the popularity of work from home (so you actually don't have to work). The purchase of the James R. Thompson Center by Google is considered a positive step, but everyone agrees more needs to be done. La Salle Street Reimagined, an initiative started by the former mayor to revive the area, has five projects in the works, but Brandon Johnson, the current mayor, has eliminated funding for La Salle Street Reimagined in 2024 to cover budget shortfalls, which is giving the jitters to proponents of the plan. Canceled because it was the former mayor's idea? In other words, politics as usual?

Another article, titled "Raising L," is about a grassroots advocacy group that is unhappy with the current state of the Chicago Transit Authority (the CTA), which they say has become unreliable, with "L" trains scheduled every 5 or 6 minutes often running every 30 minutes. Of course, it is the same with the RTD here in Denver. There have been cutbacks in service, and the light rail trains now also run every 30 minutes, but RTD actually announces those cutbacks and change the schedules, so people know what to expect. What a concept! Do you think it might work in Chicago, too? Combining these issues with all those vacancies on North Michigan Avenue (the Magnificent Mile), as well as the prospects for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs this year, and it looks like Chicago has it's work cut out for it. But as they often say in both business and government, there are no problems, just opportunities. And so, Chicago currently seems like a city with a lot of opportunities. And yes, that is indeed a photograph on the right of the Chicago Board of Trade, anchoring the south end of La Salle Street, that I took in 1973. All seemed well back then. See what happens when I leave town?

My Father's 115th Birthday!

Today would have been my father Nelson's 115th birthday if he were still alive today. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 74 in Stuart, Florida, where he and my mother Mary had retired to from Chicago. They both loved living in Stuart, and my father especially loved finally being able to retire from his career as a dentist, which he very much hated. He had only 7 years of retirement down there, but at least he had those 7 years of enjoyment. Many people don't even have that. The photograph on the left shows my father and I in the backyard of our home in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, where I grew up.

My father's father, Claire, grew up in Clear Lake, Iowa, and recently I have been trying to get more information about our family there - where they lived, where they are buried, etc. I know that my grandfather's mother, Sophie, lived there for many years in the family home, and that my grandfather and grandmother, Fleta, and eventually my father, too, often visited there from Chicago, where my grandfather worked for the Rock Island Railroad. As an employee and eventually a retiree, he was able to travel free on that famous railroad, which explains how they could make those frequent trips. The photograph on the right shows the three of them at his mother's home in Clear Lake, probably sometime around 1915. I visited that town, which still retains its 19th Century charm, a few years ago, and was hoping to see if that house still existed. However, back then, letters and postcards to Clear Lake did not have an address, just the name of the person and Clear Lake, and so who knows where it is or was. At the time my father passed away, a friend of my ex-wife Lisa told me that at least he lived a long life. I suppose to a young person that might seem true, but to me, especially as I approach that same age, I think it was way too short. Happy Birthday Dad!

Reservations Please!

The City of Golden, Colorado recently announced that they are considering requiring reservations for tubing down Clear Creek, which runs through the middle of town and attracts huge crowds in the summer. During the pandemic, many people turned to the outdoors for recreation, and the number of tubers on that creek increased exponentially. And after the pandemic, they kept coming. In 2022 over 2,000 people crowded onto Clear Creek one weekend. Will the city actually implement that plan? And if you have a reservation, will it be for a certain time, and once your float down the river is finished, are you done for the day? The tubers would not like that one bit. In any case, I took the photograph on the left of Clear Creek yesterday afternoon while standing on the footbridge near Golden History Park. The paths along both sides of the creek were packed with people enjoying sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, but there was not a tuber in sight. At this time of year, I imagine a stream with water coming down from the mountains might be a tad chilly. But on the plus side, no reservations needed!

A similar problem happened during the pandemic at Rocky Mountain National Park, where the crowds increased to the point where reservations were instituted during the summer months, and have been in effect ever since. If you want to enter the park and drive the Bear Lake Corridor (popular for a very scenic and easy walk around that lake) reservations during the summer are required until 6:00 P.M. For the rest of the park, reservations are needed until 2:00. I myself wouldn't think of hiking before 2:00, despite warnings about being off the mountain peaks by noon to avoid lightning strikes. If you start after 2:00, you finish right around happy hour, and can head directly to the Estes Park Brewery for a pleasant after hike beer. If you finish at noon, you have the entire rest of the day to fill and are probably too tired to do anything else except go home and take a nap. Boring! The photograph on the right, by the way, is of my sister Susan and late brother-in-law George taken one long ago summer afternoon hiking the Glacier Gorge Trail, one of our favorites, and located in that Bear Lake Corridor. Definitely worth it, even if you do have to make a reservation.

I Have Learned I Have Very Famous Relatives! Sort Of...

After I canceled my Ancestry.com subscription, I signed up for FamilySearch, a similar site run by the Mormon Church, which is very big into genealogy. And for free! My very favorite price point!  After putting in the information you know about your family, they make it very easy to trace your relatives back many generations. Sometimes I get e-mails from FamilySearch with interesting tidbits. Yesterday, I received one telling me to sign in to find out about my very famous relatives. And so I learned that I am related to Benjamin Franklin (1st cousin 9 times removed), Abraham Lincoln (6th cousin 5 times removed), George Washington (7th cousin, 6 times removed), and even Martha Washington (7th cousin, 6 times removed). I am also related to Franklin Roosevelt, Lucille Ball, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Princess Diana, and Muhammad Ali. Yes! Muhammad Ali! And they show you who your common ancestors were, usually a couple from around the 1600s or so, and display two side-by-side lineages leading from this couple directly to you and your famous relative. And what does this all mean? It means that there are millions of people out there who are very remotely related to each other. Not directly, of course, but I guess the point is that we are all more or less family. But very distantly. Which is very warm and fuzzy and all that, but does not help me identify photographs of my direct descendants that I have puzzled over for years. For example, I think but am not 100% sure that the man in the photograph on the left is Alexander Nelson, my great great grandfather, in front of his house in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Sadly, everyone who could tell me who all the people are in my old mystery photographs are dead. And so my advice to everyone out there is to make sure you sit your parents, grandparents and other relatives down in a room, against their will if necessary, and have them write down on the back who the hell is in each of those photographs, and the date they were taken, before it is too late. And why do I think the previous photograph was Alexander Nelson, my great great grandfather? Because there is also a photograph of my Grandfather and Grandmother Hoyt, as seen on the right, taken in front of what looks like the same house, and with the same blue tint, which I believe is called cyanotype photography, a 19th Century process. My Grandfather Hoyt was raised in Clear Lake, Iowa by his mother Sophie Nelson, after her husband Nelson S. Hoyt died at a young age. She remarried, but divorced her second husband, and so raised my grandfather and other children in her parent's home, which my grandfather and grandmother frequently visited from Chicago, where they had settled. A later photo showed my father as a little boy in front of that same house, and he told me it was taken in Clear Lake. As for the many, many other old photographs I have that are still unidentified, there is little hope of learning anything about them. Sad.

Sunset Bluff

 

I just finished reading Sunset Bluff, the latest "Key West Capers" novel by Laurence Shames. Shames started his writing career as a journalist and also began writing non-fiction books, both under his own name and as a ghostwriter. In 1991, Boss of Bosses, which he wrote with two FBI agents, became a national bestseller and provided the means to buy a house in Key West, where he decided to do what he always wanted to do: write novels. He began with Florida Straits, which turned out to be a big hit, and led to 7 more of these comic novels about Key West. Then he and his wife moved to Ojai, California, where he tried his hand at scriptwriting, and since he was not living in Key West anymore and in touch with day-to-day life there, stopped writing the series for 12 years.

Then, wanting his books to remain in print, he republished them and made them available on Amazon in both print and digital formats. And to his surprise, he found people were still buying them. Since he really enjoyed writing these stories, he decided to continue the series, self-publishing them due to the new realities of the industry. He has now written 10 more "Key West Capers," the latest being Sunset Bluff, which finds two writers in a local Key West bar getting to talking and deciding to switch identities. One ghostwrites a mystery/adventure series of novels, and the other writes biographies of mob bosses. They are both bored with their work and think taking over each other's current project would be fun. Of course, if you are doing this when it involves a Mafia don, it could and does lead to trouble. And as usual, Bert the Shirt, an old, retired mafia guy who lives in Key West with his chihuahua, Nacho, has to step in to keep things from getting out of hand. These are really fun books to read, and I definitely recommend the series. And by the way, the photograph on the right is of my sister Susan, mother Mary, and father Nelson on a trip to Key West back in 1979, the last time I visited the place. I wonder if it has changed at all since then?

Spring Training Continues At Camelback Ranch

I watched a spring training game yesterday afternoon on MLB.com between my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, and the Milwaukee Brewers. It took place at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, and the fans were all bundled up against the cold as the game started after a 30-minute rain delay. The sun eventually returned, but the improved weather conditions did not help the Sox. They lost to the Brewers 8-2. However, at this point during the spring, teams are still putting in new pitchers almost every inning and fielding different position players to see who should make the club. In yesterday's game, Dylan Cease, the White Sox ace starter, gave up only 1 run in 3 innings of work, while relief pitcher Bryan Shaw gave up 6 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. As for the offense, the White Sox managed only 2 hits, although the day before against the Dodgers they had 11. Of course, since the regular season begins in less than three weeks, teams will soon begin making cuts and sending players to the minor league camps. And in another week or so, we will get a good idea of what the White Sox will look like in 2024. As of today, I'm afraid just thinking about it.

The March Mutt Of The Month

I took the photograph above of the March Mutt of the Month this past week on West Pearl Street up in Boulder. Even on a windy, rather cool day, there were lots of people out and about, and as seen in the photo, that dog was quite willing to proudly pose for a portrait. Boulder is known as a place with a lot of free spirits, and I couldn't help thinking about that as I walked down the Pearl Street Mall. Every half block there were signs stating that dogs were not allowed on the mall, and yet it was filled with people walking along with their canines without a care in the world. Since Boulder is often described as "25 square miles surrounded by reality," this is not really a surprise. No wonder it has been named the happiest city in the U.S. by both National Geographic and The Today Show. Of course, not being able to afford living there kind of makes me unhappy, so I guess it is all just a zero sum game. Bummer.

Is There A Ghost Of A Chance This Is All True?

A while back I featured a photograph of The Norman, an elegant apartment building built in 1924 and located across the street from the Denver Country Club. I have driven past this place many times, and to me it looks like it would be the perfect place to film a remake of Rosemary's Baby. It just seems like a place where Satanists would hold their rituals, and the sound of chanting could be heard coming from somewhere in the building late at night. Of course, I am not saying there are Satanists performing their rituals there, but then again, I can't say for sure they are not. I took another photograph of the building recently, as seen on the left, and then did an internet search to see if there were any reports of ghosts in the building. And there was not a single mention of paranormal activity. Which makes sense, of course. I imagine any ghosts would be frightened off by those Satanists.

Interestingly enough, when I was searching for information about ghosts in The Norman, the Grosvenor Arms Apartments came up. It is still another of those elegant old apartment buildings, built in 1931 at the corner of 16th and Logan Streets, very close to downtown Denver and seen in the photograph on the right. To me this apartment building doesn't look haunted, but there are lots of stories online about various paranormal incidents there, including a man dressed in a dark suit and a fedora, staring out of a mirror in the lobby, the ghostly presence of a woman wearing a long skirt in the hallway outside the 8th floor laundry room, a feeling of a presence among the crypt-like, dimly lit, always chilly storage lockers, and the experience of elevator users who press the button for the 5th floor and are taken to the 8th, home of that ghostly young woman, before descending down to 5. On the other hand, the current manager has been there for 25 years and has never seen anything strange happen there. Or so he says.

Although I have never seen or felt the presence of a ghost, I have to admit that all you have to do is look at the Patterson Inn, seen in the photograph on the left, and know it must be haunted. It just has that look about it. It was built by Thomas Croke back in 1891, and he only lived there for 6 months before selling it, the assumption being the place was cursed. He sold it to a man named Thomas Patterson, who along with his wife Kate are reputed to be among the 12 spirits who haunt the place. Each of those spirits occupy a different part of the house. Thomas hangs out in the pub, which used to be his study, while his wife Kate spends her time in the Biltmore room, turning the lights on and off when unmarried couples stay there. In the basement, a mother and her child can sometimes be heard crying, and two dogs who were locked in a second-story room jumped out the window to their deaths trying to flee the building. Do they also haunt the place? After being an apartment building for a number of years, and having a hard time renting the units out due to all those stories, the place was turned into a bed and breakfast, and now capitalizes on its reputation as a haunted hotel. I suspect they must even charge more for the most haunted rooms. Be sure to stay there the next time you are in Denver. Enjoy!

A Rino Sighting!

I spotted the rhino in the photograph on the left the other day on a wall next to the RiNo Beer Garden, located in Denver's River North Arts District (RiNo for short). I know this is supposed to be the hippest neighborhood in Denver, but to me it seems a strange place. It is divided into two distinct districts by railroad tracks. The side between those railroad tracks and the Platte River is centered around Brighton Boulevard, and is filled with high-rise apartments, a food hall, hotels, and a number of brewpubs. But there are still enough vacant lots and industrial buildings to discourage people from walking through the area. The other district is centered around North Larimer Street, which has many fine Victorian buildings and lots of restaurants, brewpubs, and shops, as well as the historic Five Points neighborhood to the east. But to the west, the new apartment buildings and breweries are surrounded by still operating factories, boarded up warehouses, and large fenced off lots waiting for future development. The building in the background of the photograph, by the way, is One River North.

One River North is currently under construction, and will feature a large gash running from the 6th to the 16th floor. Floors 6 through 9 will have outdoor, trail-like walkways, a flowing creek, and lots of plants. Floors 9 to the roof of the 16-story building will feature a vertical "slot canyon," with the rooftop hosting trees and a pool. The developer believes this building will become the symbol of Denver, kind of like the Empire State Building in New York or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Yeah, right. We will see how that goes. Right now, the building looks just plain ugly to me, much like RiNo itself. And how much will it cost to live there? A one-bedroom will average $3,400 per month. I hope whoever rents one of those units has a lot of roommates to split the rent with. Maybe they can get quantity discounts on sleeping bags they can use out on those trail-like walkways.

Fascinating Facts From Rick Steves' Europe Page-A-Day Desk Calendar

I have Rick Steves' Europe 2024 Page-A-Day Desk Calendar on my kitchen counter, and in addition to information on interesting European travel destinations, it also sometimes includes some very fascinating tidbits. For example, the March 1st entry features a statue of George Salmon in front of Dublin's Trinity College. According to Rick, he was the provost there back in the 1890s and said that women would be admitted to Trinity College over his dead body. And days after his death in 1904, that is what happened. And although Rick Steves didn't mention this, I assume Trinity College must have had Salmon's body embalmed, placed across the entrance to the college, and then had the new female students step over him as part of the admissions process. Let's face it - the Irish are weird. You only have to wander around town on St. Patrick's Day to know that. And I am sure that after that solemn ritual, they gave Salmon a nice wake and respectable burial. No harm, no foul.

The Treasure Coast Brightline Station Will Be Located In - Get Ready For It - Stuart!

To everyone's surprise, the new Brightline train station serving Florida's "Treasure Coast" will be located in none other than Stuart, where my sister Susan and I own a condo that we inherited from our mother Mary. Brightline recently started high-speed rail service between Miami and Orlando and promised to put a station between West Palm Beach and Orlando within 4 years. Everyone was convinced that station would be located in Fort Pierce, which would be more centrally located, but Brightline chose Stuart instead. A columnist for the Stuart News believes that was because Stuart is a wealthier community than Fort Pierce, and people there will be much more likely to purchase those very costly tickets. My theory is that Brightline intends to add a second station farther north at a later date. In any case, the station will be located several blocks to the east of the downtown area, behind the Martin County Courthouse. I myself do not have a photograph of that location, since it is just an empty parking lot, but I did take a "selfie" years ago of myself, as seen on the left, in front of Luna, a pizza and pasta restaurant in Old Town Stuart, which is just across the street from the railroad tracks those 110 mile-per-hour trains traverse.

One good thing about a station in Stuart is that those trains will have to slow down when they reach the city limits, which will make crossing those tracks far less dangerous. Ever since train service began, some people have been trying to beat the train across the tracks, not familiar with how fast a 110 mile-per-hour train can travel, sometimes with disastrous results. The bad thing about the decision is that a lot of people who live in Vero Beach and points north say it will be too far a drive to get to the station. As for Susan and me, it will mean we can take the light rail train to the airport in Denver, fly to Florida, take the Brightline train to Stuart, and get off only a mile or so from our condo. And so to hell with all those people from Vero Beach. In any case, the article in the Stuart News says that the station in Stuart will be very similar to the one in Boca Raton, located just across from a shopping district called Mizner Park, which Susan and I and our mother visited a number of times. This brought back memories and also a search for the photograph seen on the right, which I took at Mizner Park back in October of 1994. That is another trip that can soon (in 4 years or so) be taken via Brightline, still another experience that all those complainers in Vero Beach will miss out on. Tough.

A Late Lunch With Stuart At Old Chicago

I had a late lunch this past Wednesday afternoon with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph above, at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in Lakewood, Colorado. Lakewood is a community whose heart and soul revolves around West Colfax Avenue, once called "America's longest, wickedest street" by Hugh Hefner and also one of its ugliest. But happily, inside Old Chicago, a spring training game was on the television, reminding us of the baseball season to come. Stuart is originally from the North Side of Chicago, and a Cubs fan, and was happy to hear that the Cub's star player, Cody Bellinger, has re-signed with the team, and is now at their training camp in Mesa, Arizona. He initially decided to become a free agent after having a great comeback season last year, but evidently a great comeback year with the Cubs did not produce a lot of offers from other teams. And so it will be back to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field this summer. I myself, as regular blog readers know, am originally from the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago and a White Sox fan. Stuart is still pretty iffy about the Cubs chances of making the playoffs this year. They are, after all, the Cubs, even with new hotshot manager Craig Counsel. And after the trainwreck that was the White Sox season last year, I am not buying World Series tickets anytime soon. As for our adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, nobody even remotely believes they will be anything but horrible. But it is spring training after all, and miracles can happen. Right? Right?

C.J. Box Makes An Appearance In Lone Tree!

C.J. Box read from and discussed Three-Inch Teeth, his latest Joe Pickett novel, yesterday evening at the Douglas County School District Legacy Campus, located in Lone Tree, Colorado. Afterwards, he answered questions from the audience and then signed copies of his book. This was a sold-out event, and so it was a long line to get an autograph, but nobody seemed to mind. Box is very popular here in Denver, not to mention throughout the rest of the country. The book came out this past Tuesday, and Box said the reviews were good and Three-Inch Teeth might very well be his best-selling book ever. Last year, when promoting Storm Watch, his previous Joe Pickett novel, the event was moderated by a KOA radio host, and to me it seemed like Box was not able to interact nearly as much with the audience. This time, I am happy to say, it was back to the traditional format.

In this latest book, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett has to deal with a rogue grizzly bear going on a deadly rampage in his district, while at the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison and has vowed revenge on six people, including both Joe and his friend Nate Romanowski. It was a very pleasant evening, and I enjoyed hearing Box talk about the book and discuss his writing and upcoming projects. Of course, these days, instead of holding author signings at bookstores like the Tattered Cover here in Denver, which could be attended for free on the spur of the moment, popular authors now tend to speak at ticketed events in auditoriums such as in Lone Tree, sponsored by a bookstore, or as in this case, the Douglas County Library. I know from working at the Tattered Cover Bookstore as the bookkeeper years ago that events such as these, with a guaranteed sale of the books in advance, really help the store's bottom line and allow them to compete against Amazon. And so, if this is what they have to do to compete, more power to them.