Mighty Bob

I just discovered the El Mont Liquors and Tap, at the corner of Elston and Montrose, which has three qualities that I have always found compelling in an establishment:

1. It’s an Intersectionym, named after the intersection of Elston and Montrose.

2. It’s an acute “flatiron” retail space built right up to the vertex and out to the sidewalk .  You don’t see much of that.

3.  It’s a classic Chicago liquor store/tap room.  You see fewer of these every year.  You walk in, it’s a liquor store; in the back of the joint is a bar – an air conditioned bar.  I’m not sure if it’s the same as having the “Packaged Goods” license, which I think applies only to bars who are allowed to sell you booze to go; I think it’s more likely a special license or a combination of two others.

Bonus Awesome: Did you see the phone number?  Do you know what that is?  Oh yes it is!  It’s an old telephone exchange name.

I just finished The Face in =
the Frost, John Bellairs’s third book, though (from what I can =
gather) his first full-fledged novel, a blend of fantasy, whimsy, and =
horror, in which two wizards gather that a third wizard is up to no =
good, and go off to confront him.  It was also his last book to be =
published for the adult market, before The House with a Clock in its =
Walls was asked to be re-written for young readers, launching the =
career writing juvenile horror novels for which he is better =
known.

=

Often I’m not in my dreams – I =
often dream entire movies or TV shows, where me watching them may or may =
not even be part of the dream.

=

“Prospero and Roger Bacon, the two main characters in a story that
seems crammed with wizards, were wizards.”

-John Bellairs, The Face in the Frost, 1969.

-Bob Conrad
Sent from my iPhone.

12 OMFGs and 5 WTFs. Have you been to lasagnacat.com? “Thanks” to
vince for sharing this with me.

http://www.lasagnacat.com/EyesWithoutAFace.mov

“I can parachute me there.”
-illinois governor rod blagoevich caught on wiretap allegedly
discussing option of appointing self to president-elect obama’s vacant
senate seat

Taken from Sarah Palin and Mark Halperin’s complaints of “liberal media,” Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com:

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation about Palin yet appeared in the [Sept. 2, 2008] Time article – that one of the very first things she did after being elected Mayor was pressure the librarian to ban books which she found offensive in some way:

 

“Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor.”

 

Indeed, while reading through the early accounts of Palin’s tenure as mayor, the most mystifying aspect was that she not only immediately fired people like the Police Chief and Finance Director — one could argue that a new Mayor would want loyalists in those positions to carry out her new agenda — but also the City Librarian. From the January 31, 1997 edition of Anchorage Daily News:

 

“Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin fired the city’s police chief and the library director without warning Thursday, accusing them of not fully supporting her efforts to govern. Irl Stambaugh and Mary Ellen Emmons said letters signed by Palin were dropped on their desks Thursday afternoon telling them their jobs were over as of Feb. 13 and that they no longer needed to report to work.

Emmons has been the city’s library director for seven years. Stambaugh has headed the police department since it was created in 1993. Before that, he served 22 years with the Anchorage Police Department rising to the rank of captain before retiring.”

Other than banning books which Palin disliked, what possible agenda could a librarian be expected to serve upon pain of firing? Community anger over Palin’s attempt to fire the librarian was apparently intense, forcing Palin to reverse her decision. From the The Anchorage Daily News on February 1, 1997:

 

“City librarian Mary Ellen Emmons will stay, but Police Chief Irl Stambaugh is on his own, Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin announced Friday.

The decision came one day after letters signed by Palin were dropped on Stambaugh’s and Emmon’s desks, telling them their jobs were over as of Feb. 13.

The mayor told them she appreciated their service but felt it was time for a change. “I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment …” the letter said.

Palin said Friday she now feels Emmons supports her but does not feel the same about Stambaugh.

As to what prompted the change, Palin said she now has Emmons’ assurance that she is behind her. She refused to give details about how Stambaugh has not supported her, saying only that “You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.””

Thereafter, Palin fired the City Attorney, who was replaced by Ken Jacobus, the counsel for the Alaskan state Republican Party. Between this behavior almost immediately upon becoming Mayor and her subsequent firing of the State Police Commissioner while Governor, Palin has a rather clear pattern of trying to use her power to advance personal grievances and fill government positions with political hacks, cronies, and those who are loyal to her politically — exactly what has infected so much of the Federal Government over the last eight years. Far worse, shockingly little is known about what she actually thinks and believes, and what little is known suggests some rather extremist and even bizarre leanings, beginning with an attempt to ban books from her local library, even firing the head librarian for refusing to comply.

Can’t wait to find out what books she was trying to have banned for her “Christian” right-wing base, but if it was Harry Potter or any of the other things that usually turn up on banned book lists, then I imagine her moment in the national spotlight will come to a screeching halt.  By the way, Banned Books Week is coming up, September 27–October 4 2008.

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Most Amazing Wallpaper – detail 2, originally uploaded by bobobobob.

The French ’75 was a house drink at my New Years’ Eve Party, thanks to Karen L.  I’ve also enjoyed the Manhattan, Martini, Scotch Sour (aka Whiskey Sour), and Brandy Alexander.  I will be whipping up Banana Cows and Ann Sheridans by the end of the week for the cocktail hour celebrating my sofa’s debut.

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Most Amazing Wallpaper – detail 1, originally uploaded by bobobobob.

Needless to say I’ve had the Manhattan, Martini, “Marguerita,” and Bloody Mary.  (I have especially fond memories of the Bloody Marys at The Green Mill and at The Twisted Spoke.)  I know I’ve had a Bronx and a Sidecar though I can’t remember them.  Of course Fish House Punch has become the designated poison at my Groundhog’s Day parties.  The rest I will have to give a whirl.  Give me a call if you’re in for a spin.

P.S.  Too bad the Sazerac did not make the cut on this wallpaper.  A fine drink if ever there was one.  And a nifty thing to do with rye if you don’t otherwise care for rye.

Except for Intersectionyms, my favorite shop signs in Chicago are those which incorporate several non-English languages, especially if such languages are written in non-Roman script.

When you add bunny slaughter to the mix, you’ve won my heart, mind… and stomach!

“If I didn’t know this was hassenpfeffer, I’d swear it was a carrot!”

Here we see English, Spanish, and what I presume to be Arabic (but possibly Farsi or another language written in an Arabic script). In the window is Vietnamese, which since the 1600s has been written in a Roman script modified by a truckload of beautiful, almost musical diacritics necessary to represent the tonality of the language. All the bunnies and chicks in the window could lead an illiterate Christian to believe this was an Easter goods store. (But it isn’t.)