Category Archives: Suburban Chicago

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer. Especially Hazy.

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Tuesday should have been a fine summer day, but it turned out to be our turn. For Canadian smoke, that is. I had a busy day at the word-processing table and didn’t notice anything besides increasing overcast skies as the day progressed. By late afternoon, I saw how strange the overcast was. Like light fog near the ground, but much thicker fog skyward.

When I went out at about 6 p.m., I thought I smelled a hint of wood smoke, but later, around 8 p.m., I couldn’t smell anything, and Yuriko couldn’t either. Acclimated by that time? Maybe.

From the NWS:

From 11:19 AM (CDT), June 27, until 12:00 AM (CDT), June 29

…AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT WEDNESDAY NIGHT…

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency forecasts Unhealthy (U) for fine particulate matter for the Chicago Metropolitan and Rockford regions on Tuesday June 27th. In addition, the Agency forecasts Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG) for fine particulate matter statewide for Wednesday June 28th. Smoke from wildfires in Canada is moving into the region, pushing air quality into the unhealthy or worse categories.

Because of my work, I have unlimited access to three major East Coast newspapers (NYT, WSJ and the Washington Post), so last night I checked them all. You might remember early in June when New York and environs was blanketed with Canadian smoke. That was a BIG NATIONAL STORY! When it happens to Chicago and environs? Of regional interest, way down the page, to go with the heat wave currently gripping Texas.

Today wasn’t as smoky as yesterday, though a light haze lingered. No distinct smell either. Could be that the smoke was worse in the city. Do cities capture smoke, or at least delay its movement more than suburbs? Could be.

It’s been a strange month for weather anyway. Early this month in Los Angeles (more about which later, maybe) instead of balmy summer days, it was in the 60s and misty most of the time. Las Vegas was very warm during the day, but not the blazing heat I expected. Back in northern Illinois, we had a run of about three days cool enough to be April or October in mid-June, and for the entire month, there hasn’t been much rain.

Deck Duty

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On a zoom call with a colleague today, I called (in passing) today’s weather here in northern Illinois the Platonic ideal of a spring day. I knew he’d understand the reference, a leftover from a liberal education that occasionally makes its way into movies. I suppose it counts as a kind of exaggeration since, by definition, I think, no actual spring day here on Earth could take the form of a Platonic form, but merely to aspire toward it.

Anyway, it was still warm late in the afternoon when I got the notion to clean my deck. Clear it of such things as broken pottery.

These metal grasshoppers have waited out the winter on an outdoor table. They were gifts, long ago, from Jay and Deb.

A new bird feeder, which I soon filled and hung on a thick tree branch. The brand name: Audubon. In the world of bird equipment, that’s like naming your product after Lincoln.

Our pink flamingo.

It’s cracked up top, so this might be its last summer. For a dollar store purchase, two years might be as long as you can expect.

Thursday Nodules

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Did a little shopping at a local grocery store (part of a grocery conglomerate) and saw this display.

The Fourth of July? Really?

The Kingston Trio did a version of “Seasons in the Sun,” in 1964, a song recorded 10 years later to vast popularity by Terry Jacks, one remembered for being as saccharine as a Shirley Temple. One that was on the radio all the time.

The Kingston Trio version has a bitter twist to dilute the sentimentality, which I suspect is closer to the French-language source material. Just another thing I happened across in the YouTube treasure cave.

Not long ago, Yuriko bought an article of clothing at a local store (part of a retail conglomerate), and the clerk forgot to take off the bulky security tag. In trying to avoid a trip back to the store to have it removed, I looked up the matter on YouTube. Musical selections aren’t the only jewels in the cave. Of course, often enough you find cubic zirconia.

One video suggested a technique using two forks that didn’t look remotely easy; another assumed you had a workshop of tools; and a third – my favorite – suggested you simply smash it with a hammer. Never would have thought of that.

Lots of people post images of their meals, usually while there’s still food on the plate. But what about the debris of a good meal? Evidence that you completed the meal, with the hope that you might have enjoyed it.

Chicken bones, in this case. The last leftovers of the Korean chicken we bought about a week ago, and we did enjoy it.

Brand name: bb.q chicken. It is an enormous chain, with more than 3,500 locations in 57 countries. Not quite sure when the northwest suburban outlet we go to opened, but it hasn’t been that long. We drop by once a month or so.

Weed Man

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Spring is here, which means lawn care circulars in the suburbs. Paper ads through the U.S. mail that is, which somehow doesn’t seem to be obsolete. Sure, I’ve edged into pre-dotage, but it can’t just be old people who still respond to advertising postcards.

Weed Man (registered trademark) promises weed control (I’d hope so), but also core aeration, lawn fertilization and all manner of other control: crabgrass control, grub control, and mosquito control, and I guess for all the other bugs not covered in those categories, insect control. Also, “landscape bed control,” which I can’t quite visualize.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen an ad from Weed Man, or ever heard of it, but I am woefully ignorant of the world of organized lawn care. The card has a professionally produced aspect, so I suspected that it is a large operation. So it is. Franchised.

Weed Man’s web site says (sic): “The first Weed Man turf grass Professional was Desmond Rice, who established his business in 1970 in Mississauga, Ontario. In 1976, he decided to grow the business through franchising. Today, there are more than 300 Weed Man franchises providing Professional horticultural services across Canada, the USA, and in the United Kingdom.”

Ah, Mississauga. Few other places in the world do I have such fond memories of a water treatment plant.

Sad to say, Des Rice, founder of the Weed Man empire, passed from this world of lawns back in 2011.

“He was 100 percent business. Every ounce of energy and every hour he was awake, he was thinking about business and about Weed Man,” his right-hand man Mike Kernaghan told Lawn & Landscape soon after his death.

For $30 + tax, a Weed Man tech will show up to assess my lawn’s potential for de-weedification. Probably they do fine work, but I must pass. They call them weeds. I call it biodiversity.

Still, the name Weed Man is inspired. It could have been the title of cheaply made flick for drive-ins and low-budget movie houses of the Eisenhower era. The name inspired me to go to a random AI generative site and ask the robot brain to paint me a picture.

“Weed Man” seemed a little too slender as a prompt, so I made it, “Weed Man emerging from the forest.”

Not bad. You know, I think I’ve seen him before. Well, Conifer Man anyway.

April Flowers

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Temps are expected to dip down to freezing tonight. Bah. But I expect our local April flowers are hardy enough to take it, unlike (say) July flowers that would wilt at a whiff of air below about 50° F.

April flowers at a park not far from where we live.

A lovely scene. Just needed a bit more atmospheric warmth to make an idyllic scene. 

Just carping about the temps, as I do. Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Among the new life of spring, a reminder of mortality.

A plaque I hadn’t noticed before. Because it’s all too new.

This young man, emphasis on young. Enough to set one’s teeth on edge, seeing that one of your children’s generation died so young. RIP, Jake.

Reasons to be Cheerful, Videos 3

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Back to posting around March 26. It may not quite be spring, and I don’t mean the equinox, but it is time for spring break, for my nonprofessional writing efforts anyway.

Captured a couple of flags in flight not long ago.

Illinois needs a new flag. Remarkably, it might get one. I didn’t know that until this evening, looking around for alternate designs for the state flag. Of course, with a committee working on the matter, there’s no guarantee of a better flag. Even if the state had a design competition, that might not work out either. Guess we just have to hope for the best, or at least the better.

Bet this rock is in the Suburban Boulder Database, which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Or it would be, if I hadn’t made that up. The database, that is, not the USGS, which I assume is real, unless it’s a Deep State trick to persuade us dupes that the Earth is round. Yet who else will give us volcano warnings?

I always take a look at plaque-on-rock memorials when I can. I like the economy of the things. No money, or room, for a bronze or marble statue? No worries, affix a plaque.

That one commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Batavia, Illinois, and was dedicated on September 3, 1933. It mentions the first settler in the area, one Christopher Payne, and lauds him and other early settlers “who here broke the sod that men to come might live.”

Maybe, but Payne and his 19th-century passel of children didn’t stay. They soon moved on to Wisconsin.

Never mind what the poet said, March could well be the cruelest month. So it’s time for cheerful tunes.

A wonderful cover of “Honey Pie” by the newly named The Bygones.

Admiration for one Dutch musician can lead to the discovery of others, such as Candy Dulfer.

And of course, a longstanding reason to be cheerful, “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3.”

It’s cheerful to recall the first time I remember hearing Ian Dury and the Blockheads — a spring day in Tennessee as I crossed campus. The year, long ago, though at the time it seemed to be the cutting edge of the future. A nearby frat house was broadcasting its musical tastes to all passersby, such as me. The tune: “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.” One of the kinds of things I went to college to experience, though I didn’t realize it at the time.

Beverly Lake ’23

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The snow forecast for Friday night didn’t show, though a little rain came the next day. Sunday turned out warmish, around 50 F., and mostly clear.Barrington and Golf roads

We made our way in early afternoon to Beverly Lake, which is on forest preserve land almost as far west in Cook County as you can go.Beverly Lake

The map’s misleading, or at least incomplete. It depicts the 22-acre Beverly Lake, but most of the trails are in open space to the west and northwest. The trails are marked for cross-country skiing, but on Sunday, they were merely soggy in a few places.

“We’ve been here before,” I said. Yuriko didn’t remember, since it was a while ago: a warm day in April 2004, when we got a break from the kids for a few hours. I probably wouldn’t have remembered if I hadn’t written about it.

The lake.Beverly Lake Beverly Lake Beverly Lake

Trails wide and narrow.Beverly Lake Beverly Lake

We came across a half-dozen volunteers removing invasive species and making a bonfire out of the debris. An older member of the party, maybe the leader, was keen to explain what they were doing. The enemy, he said, is buckthorn. Once he pointed it out, I started seeing it in a lot of places, including along some of the trails.Beverly Lake buckthorn

The buckthorn is the vine-like branches hanging and clinging every which way on the forest trees.

“… buckthorn species were first brought here from Europe as a popular hedging material,” explains the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “They became a nuisance plant, forming dense thickets in forests, yards, parks and roadsides. They crowd out native plants and displace the native shrubs and small trees in the mid-layer of the forest where many species of birds nest.”buckthorn

Even more menacing in black and white, I think.

Former Barrington Banks

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It’s an Irish bar now, but it once was the First State Bank of Barrington. Long ago.First State Bank of Barrington building 2022

Spiffy bank building from the pre-FDIC days. I passed by it on my short walk around downtown Barrington. Opened in 1916, closed in 1932, so in the financial world, the bank had a mayfly-brief existence, snuffed out by the Depression. Soon after its banking days were over, a series of popular local restaurants opened in the structure, starting with Last National Bank Tavern, “incorporating the teller cages and vault area into the dining area,” notes an Historic Barrington sign on the building.

Currently it is occupied by McGonigal’s, open only during this century. The mural on the wall – framed by a former window – is signed by one Alex Brubacher.First State Bank building Barrington 2022 mural

Looks like it was painted in anticipation of McGonigal’s, since it features the building; and its place in the neighborhood near a clocktower, commuter rail line and The Catlow, among the many shamrocks; and a date of 2009. According to a sign over the door, the pub opened in 2010, so close enough.

Across the street, another building originally housing a 1910s financial services entity: the First National Bank of Barrington. For those for whom a mere state bank wasn’t good enough. And who knows? Maybe that made the difference, because First National survived the Depression and First State did not.First National Bank of Barrington building 2022

Looks like an upmarket clothier on the first floor these days. First National moved out in 1984. (Odd, if I said “nearly 40 years ago” that somehow sounds longer ago.) It didn’t last much longer as an independent bank; a major regional swallowed it soon after.

Just north of Main St., which puts it in Lake County and not Cook, is a named gazebo.David F. Nelson Community Gazebo

The David F. Nelson Community Gazebo, to be specific, and to gave a name that most passersby probably don’t give a first thought, much less a second. This 2017 article is behind a paywall, but I could read the first paragraph, which tells me that “[Nelson is] known for many years of community volunteerism, as well as serving as the town’s village president.”

Not a bad idea for one’s retirement: become a gazebo

The Catlow Theater Marquee

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Recently I had a few minutes to walk around the smallish downtown of Barrington, Illinois, and I passed right by The Catlow.The Catlow, Barrington
The Catlow, Barrington

That’s the thing-itself theater, including its marquee. On the other hand, this is the theater’s online presence: a plaque saying that the theater would open soon, but in the meantime the marquee was for lease.

It took me a while to figure out that byfs.org isn’t the web site address on the marquee, since it goes to a (temporary?) dead end. Instead, the sign must refer to barringtonbysf.org — the address of Barrington Youth & Family Services. But tickets to what?

Just eyeballing the theater entrance made me think the place has that permanently shut look. I know movies were being shown there only a few years ago, before – ah, that must be it. Temporarily closing in early 2020 turned out instead to be the big sleep for the theater. Unless it actually closed in December 2019, as Cinema Treasures says.

Regardless, considering The Catlow’s location in a well-to-do part of metro Chicago, funds might be raised for a revival of some kind.

“Named for its original owner, a local businessman named Wright Catlow, this Tudor Revival/Jacobean-inspired theater opened on May 28th, 1927,” Cinema Treasures says. “It was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Betts & Holcomb.

Early on, the venue held live performances and showed movies, but within a few years, it was all movies, and somehow the theater survived into the 21st century. I went there sometime in the 2010s, not for a movie, but to look at the lobby and an adjacent small restaurant. Maybe. Or was that in the 2000s, when I took a photo of the exterior for my magazine at the time?

Never mind, the building seems to have changed hands more recently.

“The owners are currently in negotiations with the Village of Barrington to purchase the theater for use as a Community/Performing Arts Center. New owners took over on October 20, 2022,” Cinema Treasures says, a little cryptically. New owners? Does that mean the village, or someone else?

Questions, questions. If the theater ever starts showing movies again, I’ll make a point of going, provided the movie isn’t too stupid. And as long as the theater doesn’t decide to nickel and dime its patrons (more like quarter and dollar these days).

Thursday’s Theme: A Lot of Good Things Get Lost or Kicked Around

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March came in like – an emu? Golden retriever? – came in pleasantly, with temps nearly 60 F. That didn’t last, of course, and chilly air is back today, with snow forecast for Friday, which will melt over the weekend.

The other day, I found a Sears bag tucked away in a semi-storage corner of the house under various things. This made me want to look up how many Sears locations survive. As of November, anyway, when Sears Holdings Corp. emerged from Chapter 11, there were 22.

That’s not even a shadow of its former self. That’s dryer lint of its former self.

I don’t know when we got the bag, or what we bought at Sears that needed such a bag. It’s fairly large, though. About as tall as a kitchen trash bag, so I decided to take its picture and then use the bag for trash. Interesting trademarked slogan. One the company maybe didn’t think through. Where else?™

There’s a lot of possibilities, Sears.

Last week, as mentioned before, there seemed to be overnight microbursts in the area, to judge by the tree branches on the ground afterward. This was the only tree knocked down that I noticed, a few days later, after it had been chopped up somewhat before being cleared away. Note the crust of soil it took with it.

I suspect it wasn’t just the wind, but also the fact that the tree stood in a low-lying area that usually fills up during a rain and takes days to empty, weakening the soil. Besides, it might have been a sick old tree whose roots didn’t have the grip they used to, so bam! Down it came.

But even healthier trees can take a beating if the wind is aggressive enough.

Speaking of fallen things, I learned today that the Hotel Pennsylvania is being demolished. That isn’t news, just that I don’t keep up with everything happening in Manhattan. I stayed there a couple of times in the early 2000s, where the company I worked for at the time put me up. I thought it more solid than grand, but I’m still sorry to see it go.

What else to say but, Pennsylvania Six Five Oh Oh Oh

One more thing about time passage, destruction and decay. Something I found unexpectedly. An algorithm suggested it. Might as well be by chance, then.

A poignant song from the point of view of an abandoned house, included on an album called The Rat Plague of ’66. The kind of thing that happens in Australia. Don Morrison seems to be a singer-songwriter from Adelaide, South Australia.