Saturday, November 04, 2006

Not So Much Lazy As Preoccupied- Nice, Huh?


This Bionic Bigfoot toy ties in the children and Sasquatch and even Chicago, thanks to the Left Behind Child blog which notes sightings in Seneca, Illinois reported in the Trib from 2005. To tie in my last theme, you'll just have to imagine this action figure, from the era of joyfully hazardous products, wreathed in happy flames.

There are exciting things in the works with which I've been alternately busy and giddily unproductive. I hope to have concrete announcements soon, but until then, here's the normal casserole that I hope will temporarily give you a cozy feeling of familiar comfort, even though I've been wearing higher heels and bringing home people for you to call "Uncle."

1) Discussion in the Grauniad of why celebrities write children's books. I make some exception for Jamie Lee Curtis, whose books I hear are good, and for Julie Andrews, who, because of her legacy I'm willing to extend some credit, sight unseen. I believe, inclusive of self-aggrandizing or financial motives, it happens because writing a book for adults seems a lot tougher and is, undoubtedly, more time-consuming. The simplicity and length of kids' fare convinces many it's a piece of cake to do well. However, it'sssssssnot.

2) There's been a tragic run of fires this at historic, Louis Sullivan-designed buildings. Preservation Chicago has the scoop on the decimated Pilgrim Baptist (important for much more than architecture), the Dexter Building, and now, the Harvey House, likely the last wooden Adler & Sullivan structure standing after two other cottages were lost in Katrina. PC also explains the kind of incautious "repairs" which keep torching edifices of import. Is it a bad-luck trio that's now completed, or is some architecture-hating brownie just getting started?

3) When you're the lone professor studying Bigfoot, even if you're trying to perform serious anatomical research, life in academia can get lonely. But with all the new and assumed-extinct species we keep finding in the deep oceans and artic climes, why couldn't there be marvels yet to be discovered atop mountainous crags, within impenetrable forests, or beneath the jungle canopies? Worry not, Professor Meldrum. I'm sure neither Copernicus nor Galileo were invited to share coffee in the faculty lounge either.

3 comments:

April said...

The Harvey House fire I kinda gotta wonder about. The owner wanted to demolish it and sell the land to a developer who wanted to put condos there.

But I guess if it was being restored...it had been landmarked already?

Something seems a bit fishy, this being Chicago and all.

Rusty Hinge said...

I hear ya.

April said...

Heard on NPR that the fire at the Harvey House was suspicious, and that Bomb & Arson were investigating.

Also that the woman who owned the house, and wanted to demolish it and sell the land still owned it.

She was "renovating" it. She sure did.