Day 8: Chicago (text only verson)

Another big day in the big city, and we were out a little later than usual tonight, so I and the rest of my staff is a bit exhausted. Since we were at neither the Cubs game nor the Bears game, we seemed to have most of the town to ourselves. Last I saw, the Cubs were winning and the Bears were losing, but to those of us who only think in terms of 80s movies, the score in the Cubs game was 0-0 and the Bears were winning.

Back at the hotel, due to a technical mix-up, I'm not able to upload any photos of today's activity. I do have photos, and promise to have them up as soon as technically feasible.

I can't tell you how many people have taken me up on my invitation to correct mistakes, so I thought I'd use this time to first make a couple corrections to the last post, which was not as thoroughly edited as I might have liked. First, in one of the photos I identified a grain as "wheat" when it is, obviously, corn, which is arguably a more important part of the American lifestyle. I had originally intended to describe it as "amber waves of grain," but somehow "wheat" was what came out. There is neither an excuse nor an explanation for that.

Secondly, I was a bit unclear when described the Pritzker Pavillion as "Gehry-inspired madness." The Pritzker Pavillion was, in fact, designed by Frank O. Gehry. If it were in fact designed by someone else, it would undoubtedly have been panned as a cheap Gehry knockoff. It was really the "madness" I was referring to as Gehry-inspired, which is still perhaps not the right phrasing but it sounded right to me at the time.

I also thought I'd point out that as much time as I spend illustrating my journey for the benefit of the viewing public, there is no way I can possibly describe all of the amazing, and sometimes tragic, and often just bizarre things I've seen in this great country. For instance, we drove through Seneca Falls, New York, where we got to see the sites that witnessed some of the origins of the women's rights movement. As inspiring as it was, nearby we passed a closed-down gas station with a sign reading, "CLOSED DUE TO INDIAN COMPETITION: 6 MORE JOBS LOST." I wish I had the time to relate all of these things, if for no other reason than I don't want to forget them a few days later, which I nearly always do.

I'll leave you with one interesting thing I learned today by listening to the recordings coming over the speakers at the Field Museum. It was a fossil exhibit, and they were listing "Steps to becoming a fossil.

"Step one: Die."

'Till the next time.