Pre-Holiday Nattering

Posted on May 26, 2021 by admin

Back again after the Memorial Day weekend, when it will be June already. June, now that’s a fine month.

Lilly arrived for a short visit today. We all went out to a restaurant to eat this evening. Sounds ordinary, but that was the first time since March 2020. We went to the last place we all went together that month, SGD, or So Gong Dong, a Korean place with about a dozen locations in the Midwest and on the Eastern seaboard. It’s a wonderful place, glad it survived.

My meal.

As usual with a commencement program that lists everyone’s full names, I spent some time during Ann’s graduation on Monday examining those names, and again just now. As usual, the variety is remarkable.

Last names, for instance: Ahmed, Awdziejczyk, Bhandar, Cwik, Degrazio, Garcia, Gomberg, Jayawardena, Jones, Kaspari, Kobe, Lavrynovych, Mapembe, McCoy, Michalowski, Nguyen, O’Connor, Onilegbale, Picadi, Schoefernacker, Shah, Stribling, Wang.

Common names aren’t so common. There are no Smiths and two Joneses, three Browns and one Johnson (and a single Johnston) and a pair of Williamses. There are four Garcias and three Sanchezes but only two Gonzalezes and one Hernandez and one Gomez. Rodriguez is fairly common: seven. No one is named Kim, though there is a Lim. The aforementioned Wang is the only one.

Far and away the most common surname among the Class of ’21 is Patel. How many? Twenty-one. It’s a common name from Gujarat state on the west coast of India, and apparently Patels are well-represented in the diaspora.

One reason: Idi Amin. “When Idi Amin turfed out some 100,000 Indians (mostly Gujaratis) from Uganda in 1972, most of them descended on Britain before peeling off elsewhere,” notes the Economic Times of India. The timing was right, since the U.S. had junked its racist immigration policies that effectively kept out most South Asians only in 1965.

“There are said to be more than 500,000 Patels scattered across the world outside India, including some 150,000 each in Britain and the US,” the paper continues. A good many in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, clearly. Then there’s this associated term, which I’d never heard before.

During research for an article not long ago, I came across the persnickety food site Eat This Not That!, whose very title screams judgmentalism. One article is called “20 Vegetarian Foods That Are Surprisingly Aren’t.”

The subhead: These supposedly animal-free foods will make you gag, regardless of your dietary lifestyle.

I don’t have anything against principled vegetarianism or veganism, though I don’t plan to be either. But I do think an article that essentially says, Look how gross food additives are! is an exercise in simplemindedness. Overthink just about any food and you can say it’s repulsive.

The additives the articles objects to include animal bones, sheep’s wool, pork fat, shellfish, bird features, beaver musk, crushed beetles, fish bladders, pig hooves and calf stomachs. I don’t see that list and think, ew, gross. I think damn, human beings are awfully clever, using the most unlikely things to improve our food. Is that not a virtue among primal peoples anyway — using every part of the animal?

My favorite entry:

If you’re eating … Lucky Charms
You’re also consuming … Animal Bones
Those marshmallow moons, clovers and horseshoes are made with gelatin, derived from animal collagen (aka cartilage, skin, tendons, bones). True veg-heads — and those who keep kosher, and cannot mix milk and meat — have known this for years, staring regretfully at the taunting leprechaun. Also containing gelatin: Smorz, Fruity Marshmallow Krispies, and Rich Krispies Treats Squares.

There may be legitimate reasons not to eat a lot of sugar-coated cereal, but animal collagen doesn’t strike me as one of them.

Ann’s Graduation

Posted on May 25, 2021 by admin

Ann’s high school graduation was yesterday evening at the venue formerly known as Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. These days it’s named after a supplement maker. There’s much money to be had in the patent medicine biz, not so much in department stores.

Afterward, pictures.

Kevin was able to join us, and we all sat in the same “pod.” Meaning a block of seats. As expected, some seats were closed via plastic cords, others not. Also as expected, our pods didn’t involve cones of silence.

The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago

Posted on May 24, 2021 by admin

On a pleasant Sunday in the spring, metro Chicago offers any number of things to see. One of them is the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago.

The HTGC is in southwest suburban Lemont, tucked away on a moraine hilltop off Lemont Road, not far south of I-55. It’s a temple complex, actually, including Sri Rama Temple, Ganesha-Shiva-Durga Temple, a mediation center and other structures.

The Sri Rama exterior.

Entry meant a temperature check and a few questions by a slightly suspicious hired security guard. The interior features a fascinating array of religious artwork and devotional alcoves.

Next to Sri Rama is a structure called balipeetham, also styled bali peetam. As far as I can understand, it’s a place to ditch your unholy thoughts before entering the temple.

As hinted at by the temple’s generic name, it was an early — maybe the first, I haven’t confirmed that — Hindu temple in the Chicago area, founded in 1977 with the rising tide of immigration from the subcontinent. Many more temples have been established since then, of course. The first structure on the HTGC site was completed in 1985, according to this incredibly detailed and professionally written history of the temple at its web site. (There’s no reason such a history can’t be detailed and well written, it’s just that web-site histories tend to be otherwise.)

This is the outside of the first structure, the Ganesha-Shiva-Durga Temple. Its interior is interesting, but not nearly as elaborate as Sri Rama.

Elsewhere on the grounds are other structures. The one on the left protects a statue of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).

Swami Vivekananda is best known in this country — at least among people who know such things — for representing India at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Which, I have to add, seems like a remarkable event all by itself.

Swallow Cliff Woods

Posted on May 23, 2021 by admin

The parking lot and the road next to the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve trailhead were packed with cars and people on Saturday afternoon. As the name mentions, there’s a waterfall along that trail and, from the looks of some of the people headed for the trail, someplace to swim.

The thing to do was go somewhere else. Before long we drove to Swallow Cliff Woods, which is one of the many wooded areas encompassed by Palos Preserves in southern Cook County (so is Waterfall Glen). To reach the trails, you climb the stairs next to a former toboggan run. It was late afternoon by the time we got there, though it was still in the 80s.

“Constructed in 1930 [sic] by the Civilian Conservation Corps, 125 limestone stairs lead to the top of a former toboggan run on Swallow Cliff’s 100-foot bluff,” the Cook County Forest Preserve District web site says. Of course, the 1933-founded CCC built nothing in 1930, but whatever the correct year, it’s good to happen across more of the Corps’ handiwork.

The view from the top isn’t bad, though you do have to look at the parking lot.

From the top, a trail leads to other trails, and eventually we made a loop through the woods. One of the spying apps on my phone says we took more than 8,100 steps for the day, mostly in these woods.

Illinois has reached flush spring green.

One structure along the way: a time-worn shelter with evidence that fires are built there sometimes, and partying occurs.

It’s also a horse trail. They were moving reasonably fast at a trot or canter, maybe. I don’t know horse gaits intuitively.
Swallow Cliff wasn’t bad for a second choice, and not nearly as crowded, at least in the woods. A lot of people were climbing the stairs — they’re now billed as “exercise stairs,” as if there were any other kind — but most apparently didn’t continue onto the trails.

Thursday Crumbs

Posted on May 20, 2021 by admin

Warm and windy today. The wind died down some in the evening, and I had a pleasant time sitting on the deck drinking tea and reading. At advanced middle age, these are pleasures you appreciate.

Speaking of an advanced age, I’m glad to see Elvis Costello is still recording catchy tunes. He released an album in October — his 31st — called Hey Clockface, with the title track, “Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?” The video is as charming as the song.

He shares writing credit for the song with Fats Waller and Andy Razaf, since it incorporates part of “How Can You Face Me?” Not the sort of music Elvis Costello did 40 years ago when I saw him at VU, but I wouldn’t have appreciated it then anyway.

I left YouTube on autoplay after Waller’s “How Can You Face Me?” and left the room for a few minutes. When I came back, the Bratislava Hot Serenaders were playing, a band I hadn’t heard of before.

A word I hadn’t heard of before.

Clearly a commercial coinage in our time. But who knows? It might evolve over the decades or centuries into something unimaginably perverse.

The U.S. birth rate might be declining, but there are some births. I knew that the Social Security Administration keeps track of baby names, but I didn’t know until recently that the agency maintains a web page devoted to them, new and old.

Not a bad list in 2020, mostly traditional names, such as Olivia, Charlotte, Sophia, Elijah, William and James, rather than some of the trendy names of recent decades, none of which I’ll cite. I’m mossbacked when it comes to a few things, and baby names is one of them.

I’ll Add It: No Air Horns Please

Posted on May 19, 2021 by admin

Ann will be attending an actual in-person high school graduation ceremony next week. We’ll be there too. Detailed instructions arrived today via email.

ARRIVAL OF GRADUATE

6:00 p.m. Enter the N Arena at Door 11

Arrive dressed in business casual, with their cap, gown, tassel (right side) and mask already on — no flip flops.

Bags, purses, flowers, balloons, cell phones, etc. are not allowed and students will not be admitted with these items, no exceptions.

Graduates must wear their mask and keep it on for the entire ceremony.

Graduates will walk through metal detectors and have their gown unzipped to expedite the screening process.

Graduates will be directed to the main floor and report directly to their assigned seat.
All graduates’ names will be read as some may be viewing remotely. Please wait to hear your name before walking forward on the stage.

ENTRANCE FOR GUESTS

Beginning at 6:00 p.m. – Main Entrance

Guests will enter at the Main Entrance of the N Arena

Please be mindful of social distancing guidelines as you approach the entrance.

All guests must have your mask on and ticket(s) ready as you approach the door.

Please note: The N Arena has implemented a Clear Bag Policy, which is detailed at nowarena.com. This limits the size of bags entering the Arena and requires the majority of bags to be clear to streamline the security screening. Exceptions made for medical, family or child care bags or small clutches, no larger than 4.5’” x 6.5”.

Note: there’s more, but nothing in there about air horns.

The Pond at Dusk

Posted on May 18, 2021 by admin

We walked the 0.7-mile circuit around Volkening Lake on Monday evening just as the light was fading. But there was still enough light to illuminate the dog.

On the other side of the lake — which is really a large pond — we spotted geese and goslings crossing the path.

We wisely held back as they waddled across, since we didn’t want the geese to get any wrong ideas about what our dog was up to.

Sunday at the Forest Preserve

Posted on May 17, 2021 by admin

I thought about going to a new (to us) forest preserve on Sunday, which turned out to be warm and pleasant, unlike Saturday. But I decided that I didn’t want to drive too far, so we went to Poplar Creek FP instead.

That’s the dog, sitting under a tree. We were doing the same. A little context:

After a walk of about a mile and a half or so, we found a shady spot to rest. Just another of spring’s delights, when it actually gets warm.

Wright Flyer III

Posted on May 16, 2021 by admin

During our visit to Dayton five years ago — has it been that long? — we saw this downtown sculpture array, depicting the Wright Brothers and the Wright Flyer III, which the brothers built and first flew in 1905, a much improved version of their two earlier planes.

Sometimes I’m curious to keep up with places I’ve been, so I checked and the sculpture group, by Dayton architect and sculptor Steve Brown, has been removed, reportedly for re-installation elsewhere at an unspecified later time. Hope that unspecified time doesn’t stretch out so far that it becomes “never,” and the works remain in storage somewhere or gets lost in some future decade. Sidewalk sculpture this kinetic deserves to be out in public.

Thursday Extras

Posted on May 13, 2021 by admin

This was in a window we walked by in west suburban Wheaton not long ago. I like the neon. Who doesn’t like neon? Who doesn’t like gelato? I’d never had any gelato until I went to Florence. That was a great place to experience it for the first time.

We didn’t stop by for any gelato. We did buy a couple of most delicious pastries at a nearby place called Suzette’s.

I found this card in Peoria recently. Near Bradley U. Not at the store itself, but while picking up food at Jerk Hut, where we bought some tasty jerk chicken.
Interesting that the students of Bradley, some of whose parents weren’t around for the original iteration of hippies, would support such a business. Then again, the key might be in that now-obsolete code term tobacco accessories.

I heard a few seconds of an ad on YouTube recently featuring a young Brit walking along the Thames, with the Tower Bridge in the background, to make absolutely sure we know he’s British, as if his dialect didn’t tell us that. He said something along the lines that such-and-such was going “redefine the way you think about men’s makeup.”

Fat chance, ya limey bastard. I can sum up my thinking on men’s makeup in one pithy sentence that isn’t going to change: I’m never wearing any.

Got a press release the other day from someone — some automated mailing list — that doesn’t appreciate my commercial real estate beat.

“With #chlorophyll and #chlorophyllwater trending on social media, I wanted to put Chlorophyll Water® (the only bottled, pre-made chlorophyll drink on the market) on your radar, as it’s selling out in retailers across the country,” the release asserted.

“A favorite amongst Kourtney Kardashian, Rosario Dawson, Mandy Moore and Aly Reisman, Chlorophyll Water® is a plant-powered purified water enhanced by nature with the addition of Chlorophyll, a key ingredient and the distinct green pigment in plant life.”

I probably won’t be a consumer of that product, but who knows? Chlorophyll might be tastier than I think. Also, glad to report that I’ve only heard of two of those celebrities, only one of whom I can acknowledge has some talent.

Received some direct mail the other day promising better lawns through chemistry. It is spring, after all. As chilly as temps have been, it’s still green out there. Anyway, on the outside of the envelope, it says:

Dandelions. Crabgrass. Weeds.

Act now to stop those lawn problems and receive your 20% neighborhood discount.

Plus a FREE Core Aeration. See details inside.

Problems, you say? I say it’s biodiversity. The suburbs need it, too.

This is a gimme letter envelope I had to scan, from a statewide advocacy org with its eye on utility rates. I suspect the risk is pretty small, considering the distinct history of the two states.

You know, in some other context, some other organization might be sending letters screaming, Texas Cannot Become Illinois.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling

Monthly Archives: May 2021