penguins are pretty catchy

Story: Penguinistas (or Debian Chix) NGTotal Replies: 25
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cheshire137

Oct 09, 2006
8:36 AM EDT
I just returned from Chicago this past weekend, and I can say that I spent a good 15 minutes at the Shedd Aquarium's penguin section. My boyfriend and I just sat spellbound by the chubby little guys waddling around.
number6x

Oct 09, 2006
10:01 AM EDT
My grandfather was a carpenter on the crew that built the Shedd. (the original building built along with the 1933 worlds fair stuff).

Great place to visit. They really keep the museums up to date, and the lake front setting is spectacular.
bob

Oct 09, 2006
10:04 AM EDT
So cheshire, do we get to see your penguin pics?
cheshire137

Oct 11, 2006
10:57 AM EDT
number6x: Neat!

bob: Oh yeah, that's an idea. :) The whole Chicago set is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheshire137/sets/72157594320420...
tuxchick2

Oct 11, 2006
11:11 AM EDT
Squeee! and dolphins tail-dancing. Auggg, cute overdose! *thud*
wjl

Oct 11, 2006
11:15 AM EDT
First aid, first aid! TC just dropped unconcious... *g*
tuxchick2

Oct 11, 2006
11:23 AM EDT
...beer...quickly.....
dinotrac

Oct 11, 2006
11:48 AM EDT
6x -

And, let us not forget, one of the few (only?) aquariums anywhere to display a real honest-to-gosh Komodo dragon.
jimf

Oct 11, 2006
12:04 PM EDT
> Squeee! and dolphins tail-dancing. Auggg, cute overdose! *thud*

After your little bobcat pics, you got no right to that behavior :D
number6x

Oct 11, 2006
12:34 PM EDT
I work right behind that tall building.

It used to be the Standard Oil building (Big Stan). Its the # 2 tallest building in Chicago.

Looks like you visited when the weather was perfect!
dinotrac

Oct 11, 2006
1:01 PM EDT
6x --

For some reason, I never want to give the Aon credit for being #2. I keep thinking that honor goes to the Hancock center. However...no. Aon beets Hancock by 9 feet, but Hancock has 100 floors to 83. This tall building stuff never ceases to confuse me.
jimf

Oct 11, 2006
1:10 PM EDT
dino,

Hancock beats them all for clean aesthetic architectural design :).
number6x

Oct 11, 2006
3:05 PM EDT
With the Aon, you just have to dodge the fine Italian marble falling on your head.

:)
dinotrac

Oct 11, 2006
3:57 PM EDT
jimf -

Hancock is a brutally, beautifully honest building.
dcparris

Oct 11, 2006
4:38 PM EDT
Sounds like I need to see more of Chicago than O'Hare. :-)
dinotrac

Oct 11, 2006
4:51 PM EDT
Rev -

Chicago is an amazing city.

It's a lot more than deep dish pizza, Chicago dogs (NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER with ketchup), and Da Bears.

Not that those aren't wonderful things.

It's also about the World's largest (at least I think it is) Picasso, the "Bean" -- not to mention the rest of Milleneum Park, the Lake shore, the museums, the music, the....well we could go on a long time before we ever even reach Oprah.
jimf

Oct 11, 2006
4:59 PM EDT
> a long time before we ever even reach Oprah.

Hopefully, forever ...
dinotrac

Oct 11, 2006
5:52 PM EDT
Hey!!

No dissin' Oprah.
jimf

Oct 11, 2006
7:46 PM EDT
Ok, ok dino.... Maybe we need to put her on a pedestal... Like mount her on the tip of the radio antenna on the Sears Tower. That would do them both justice :)
number6x

Oct 12, 2006
5:59 AM EDT
jimf,

That might not be a bad idea. The top floor of the Sears tower is higher than the top floor of the Petronas towers. The top of the antenna on the Sears tower is higher than the top of the decorative spire on the Petronas tower. Still, architects say this means that the Petronas towers are taller.

How you might well ask?

Its a matter of definitions. The decorative spire on the Petronas tower is considered part of the building, but the functional add on antenna is not. If you or I put on a stovepipe hat, we wouldn't consider ourselves any taller. But if Andy Warholl put on a stovepipe hat and called it art, architectural bodies the world over would clap their hands, say "Ooooh!, Aaaah! Look how much taller Andy is!"

So, if we strapped Oprah up there and called it performance art, the Sears Tower would get taller! Maybe we could just have some of the kids from the Gallery 37 art program paint the antenna, and save Oprah the trouble.

:)
dcparris

Oct 12, 2006
9:06 AM EDT
Maybe one day, I'll get the chance. We'll see. I just want to sit in on an alderman's meeting one day. I've read about Chicago politics, and think it would be fun to sit back with a bag of popcorn and a soda and watch them wrangle over various issues.

Of course, visiting the museums and Lake Shore would be loads of fun, too. I need to get Bob cracking on drumming up more advertising revenue. ;-)
jimf

Oct 12, 2006
9:52 AM EDT
> would be fun to sit back with a bag of popcorn and a soda and watch them wrangle over various issues.

Better bring a good book too. Those meetings are 'a lot' more boring than you could ever imagine ;-)
dcparris

Oct 12, 2006
10:01 AM EDT
Oh. I had imagined otherwise. So what you're saying is, gone are the days of Daly and Washington?
number6x

Oct 12, 2006
10:04 AM EDT
Actually its pretty boring. My wife was at a meeting a few months ago, and could help but laugh.

Alderman Bernard Stone has a staff member sitting next to him whose job it was to nudge him awake whenever a response was needed from him.

Why the city needs 50 aldermaen is beyond me. L.A. is much larger and has a 12 person council.

With the taxes we could save in patronage based jobs handed out by the 50 alderman, Chicago could probably buy Gary Indiana!
jimf

Oct 12, 2006
10:44 AM EDT
> So what you're saying is, gone are the days of Daly and Washington?

No Don, I'm just saying that most of the normal city business is boooring... Always has been. The action sequences are few and far between. You could sit for days without seeing anything of much interest.

I remember going to a Kenosha city meeting and the feeling was like Chicago in miniature. I suspect that's true of any city. The nuts and bolts of government are usually pretty mundane. We only hear of it when something exceptional is on the schedule agenda.
Bob_Robertson

Oct 12, 2006
11:41 AM EDT
If it weren't for Chicago politics, Chicago would be a wonderful city.

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