3 Stations East

Looking for light freelance web work in/around Chicago?

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:25:17 -0500

I've had more than one person ask me if I could refer them to a freelance web designer since I'm not doing any of that anymore. So if you're in or around Chicago, let me know and I can feed you the details.

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The Thing About Chicago's Olympic Bid

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:00:26 -0500

This past week Chicago essentially said, "Yep, we want the Olympics and we will use public funds to do so even though we said we wouldn't." The thing that bothers me about this whole Olympics business is the speed at which it happened. It was very, very fast.

In the meantime, the CTA is crumbling quite literally: not enough trains, rickety old stations, poor service... and that can't be fast-tracked?

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5

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:03:51 -0600

It is cold outside. But that's not the bad part: the wind is what makes it feel really, really cold.

Temperature: 5. Wind chill: -16.

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Paul on the Street: Five Faces

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:08:41 -0500

Introducing Paul on the Street, a semi-regular video food review.

For the inaugural edition I review the hot dogs at Five Faces in Chicago. Do watch my marginal editing skills, won't you?

Paul on the Street 20061010

The Place
Five Faces Ice Cream/Gyros/Hot Dogs
10 W. Division, Chicago
312.642.7837

The Meal
Hot dog special ("everything on it") with fries and a Pepsi: $4.85 with tax, no tip

The Verdict
Marginal C+.

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Reasons to Love Chicago

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 08:28:16 -0500

This Week's Weather

Check out that awesome forecast: we're going from 76 and sunny to 40 and sleet/snow in four days.

Per the weather guru Tom Skilling, if it snows Thursday that'll be our earliest snow since 10.7.00. And I thought we'd have a mild autumn....

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Big Box Store Size

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:27:10 -0500

Final post for now.

With all of the hullabaloo over Chicago's big box ordinance (summary: living wage if your store is over 90,000 square feet and you gross over $1B annually; all companies potentially affected are pissed) I've been wondering just how big 90,000 square feet is - it's hard to visualize. Here are some references.

The average Target is 126,000 square feet. SuperTarget is 174,000.
The average Wal-Mart is 101,000 square feet. Super Centers are 185,000.
The average Lowe's is 116,000 square feet. (Note that this source is a little dated, and Lowe's was trying a "small store" format of 94,000 square feet.)
The average Home Depot is 130,000 square feet.

Thus, 90,000 would be smaller. But I've maintained that the retailers should just build smaller stores (89,999 square feet, anyone? ... although, of course, that wouldn't exempt them from the ordinance. But still.)

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Minor Celebrity Sighting: Alpana Singh

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:43:45 -0500

This is the year of meeting (or at least, seeing) minor local celebrities. As readers of ennui will recall, my organization hired a former local news anchor and it was just kind of weird working on the same floor as her. (Ryan suggested I ask her to give me a news update every time I walked by her. Nice.) It was uneventful, of course, when we said "Hi" in the hallways or whatnot. It wouldn't be right to say, "OMG, you're from channel 5! I loved your report on vitamins!" But no.

Anyway.

Yesterday Jeani and I were at the Glenview Trader Joe's. We were looking at the trail mix/bagged nuts area. I was standing with the cart and Jeani was a little ways back in the aisle. I was looking at her, and then I turned around to look forward towards the dairy section.

My eyes probably nearly popped out of my head.

"Honey!" I said. Now, I said this about 20 decibels too loudly - a level reserved more for, "Help!" or "We won the lottery!" than "Oh, come here, look at these great peanuts!" Jeani naturally replied, "What?"

But I didn't reply. What could I say at that same level? "Oh, look! It's..."

Instead, Jeani looked at me in a quizzical fashion and slowly walked towards me.

"Honey, I'm pretty sure that's Alpana Singh."

We both looked over to the bread aisle where this woman was. Jeani turned to me quickly and said, "That's her!"

Alpana Singh is the nation's youngest sommelier and the host of channel 11's Check, Please! - a great restaurant review show. There she was, buying stuff at Trader Joe's in Glenview.

We were kind of stunned in a good way, so we poked around the cashew section a little more. I kind of wanted to see what was in her cart - I mean, she's an obvious foodie, so what would she buy?

However, just staying put and not buying anything else and looking at Alpana Singh seemed a little weird. We moved on with our purchases and made it to the frozen section. It was really hard not to look at her and be all stupid when she was just a few feet away from us. As I told Jeani, it's a stupid situation: "What do you say?"

So of course, we said nothing.

Alpana, it's worth noting, looks like a totally normal person (although Jeani noted she was wearing makeup but, on the North Shore, wearing makeup whilst grocery shopping is just fine). The only time when she would have been a true practical help was when we were debating over getting a bottle of $2 wine - not Charles Shaw.

Jeani: "It'd be great if we could go up to her and ask her how this is!"

And it would be.

In any case, it was reassuring more than anything to think that Alpana Singh - someone in a high echelon of local cuisine - shops at Trader Joe's. It would be just as satisfying to know that Charlie Trotter shops at Dominick's.

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Sunday: Exploding Thermometer

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:48:36 -0500

It cracks me up that ForecastFox's little icon for "very hot" is an exploding thermometer.

Monday: Kaboom!

Unfortunately, it's going to be really hot here. So hot, thermometers will explode! (Tom Skilling would never say that.)

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Move Your Car!

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:18:05 -0500

Your car will be ticketed AND towed!

Here in Evanston, our street cleaning only happens about 6 times a year. The dates are posted on signs along our street, and one has to remember those dates.

We did get a flyer in the mail about two months ago with the dates for the whole city, but the dates were wrong for our street ("opps!")

In any case, on the day of cleaning a truck actually goes up and down the street and a gruff female voice is broadcast using a megaphone. I really just envision it like the Bluesmobile.

But isn't that a little outdated? I mean, yeah, flyers and the Bluesmobile. ("You, on the beach." "Hey, you.") But why don't I get this over email? Or RSS? Or via iCalendar format? Hmmmm? It's 2006.

I imagine I'll get that by 2015 or so.

In the interim, I just have to check my calendar and make sure I listen for the gruff woman warning me that my car will be ticketed and towed.

Oak Park doesn't do this. They just ticket you.

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Schwag!

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:46:31 -0500

THE ITEMS ARE SECURED. REPEAT. THE ITEMS ARE SECURED.

Coudal Schwag

Thanks again, guys and gals!

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