Restaurant Critic Obama

A long lost clip from a local Chicago television show called "Check, Please!" has surfaced. Here's Barack Obama reviewing "Dixie Kitchen":

Obama Family's Food Drive Visit

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife took their daughters to work at a food bank on the day before Thanksgiving, saying they wanted to show the girls the meaning of the holiday, especially when so many people are struggling.

Ten-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha joined their parents to shake hands and give holiday wishes to hundreds of people who had been lined up for hours at the food bank on Chicago's south side:

Obama Has Lunch At Manny's Deli

The Three-Million Dollar Projector

John McCain made a huge deal out of an earmark that Barack Obama requested for an "overhead projector" in last night's debate. Turns out that it actually was a huge deal:

McCain's phrase suggests Obama spent $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment that projects charts and text on a wall screen. In fact, the money was for an overhaul of the theater system that projects images of stars and planets for educational shows at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. When he announced the $3 million earmark last year, Obama said the planetarium's 40-year-old projection system "has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience."

The Adler Planetarium, which I visited on a school trip along time ago, was disturbed enough by McCain's bogus claims that they issued their own statement:

To clarify, the Adler Planetarium requested federal support - which was not funded - to replace the projector in its historic Sky Theater, the first planetarium theater in the Western Hemisphere. The Adler's Zeiss Mark VI projector - not an overhead projector - is the instrument that re-creates the night sky in a dome theater, the quintessential planetarium experience. The Adler's projector is nearly 40 years old and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It is only the second planetarium projector in the Adler's 78 years of operation.

Science literacy is an urgent issue in the United States. To remain competitive and ensure national security, it is vital that we educate and inspire the next generation of explorers to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Senator McCain's statements about the Adler Planetarium's request for federal support do not accurately reflect the museum's legislative history or relationship with Senator Obama.

It should be noted that Senator Dick Durbin and six Chicago-area Congressman, three of whom are Republicans, also agreed to sponsor the $3 million earmark, which went unfunded anyway. Planetariums in New York and Los Angeles recently replaced their Zeiss projection systems with federal funding. As usual, the right-wing noise machine is revealed as short on facts and long on spin.

Jeff Tweedy & Friends with Barack Obama

Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, and Glenn Kotche of Wilco perform at a fundraiser for Barack Obama, and talk about their support for his campaign and what's at stake in this election:

Pizzaria Uno in Trouble

As I reported last fall, I was a latecomer to the Pizzaria Uno fan club - I likely would have never even darkened their door if not for my Chicago pizza experience at The Exchequer in the loop. As it turns out, the chain has fallen upon even harder times than I imagined when I penned my lovefest for them last year:

Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp., owner of the Uno Chicago Grill chain of more than 200 pizzeria restaurants, will have its credit ratings cut to ``default'' if it goes ahead with a plan to miss a bond payment due this week.

The company said yesterday it will delay paying interest, making use of a 30-day grace period allowed in the terms of its $142 million of notes due 2011, according to a statement from Standard & Poor's. S&P lowered Uno by two levels to CC and said it would downgrade again to its lowest rating of D if the West Roxbury, Massachusetts-based company fails to pay on Aug. 15. Moody's Investors Service cut its rating to an equivalent Ca.

Fewer diners as the economy slows forced Buffets Holdings Inc., the operator of 127 restaurants, to file for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in January. Independence, Ohio-based Midland Food Services LLC, which runs 92 Pizza Hut restaurants, sought protection from creditors this month because of ``substantial'' increases in raw materials as well as increases to the minimum wage.

Oh well, at least we'll always have. . .hmmm. . .Chicago? We dropped by there a few weeks ago on our way to Wisconsin. Not very practical on the average Friday night, but still within reach. . . (sigh)

The more things change...

I was listening to some old music I have stored on my hard drive and I ran across this old tune by the band Chicago that really hit me. Written some 36 years ago, it's still as poignant today as it was then.

Dialogue

Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going?

No, I never ever think of it at all

Don't you ever worry
When you see what's going down?

Well, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all

When it's time to function as a feeling human being
Will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?

I hope to study further, a few more years or so

I also hope to keep a steady high

Will you try to change things
With the power that you have; the power of a million new ideas?

What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change?

I always thought that everything was fine

Don't you feel repression just closing in around?

No, the campus here is very, very free

Don't it make you angry the way war is dragging on?

Well, I hope the President knows what he's into, I don't know

Don't you see starvation in the city where you live
All the needless hunger all the needless pain?

I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine

My neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time

Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes of things to come

Well, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb

You'd always think that everything was fine

We can make it better
We can change the world now
We can save the children
We can make it happen
We can make it happen

DAMN IT!!

A Boston-based restaurant chain has extinguished its local pizza ovens. Uno Chicago Grill’s two Fort Wayne locations – 4820 N. Clinton St. and 10460 Maysville Road – were closed Friday.

It figures. . .I'd never even tasted their pizza until this summer. They've had a presence here since 2002, but were off of my radar. After partaking of some authentic Chicago pizza in the Windy City this summer, I was looking for a local outfit to feed my new addiction, and these guys did a pretty damned good job of it!

We just ate at the North Clinton location before the Mellencamp concert - little did we know it would be our last time. . .

Chicago Mobilization - October 27,2007

Robert Rouse filmed the following videos from the mobilization in Chicago yesterday.

Friday Nite Retro

Good evening and welcome to this week's edition of Friday Nite Retro! Tonight's band du jour is. . .Wilco! One of the many great sounds to come out of Chicago -No long bio tonight, just some great music. To those of you who are familiar with these guys, no introduction is needed. For the rest of you. . .enjoy the tunes!

Box Full of Letters


Heavy Metal Drummer


Theologians


Jesus Etc.


Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Back Home Again in Indiana

We're ba-a-a-a-ck! Returned to Fort Wayne at 4 pm this afternoon - had a nice, long-overdue break from the real world, and just went with the flow of things.

We arrived at 11 am on Saturday and dropped our luggage at the Palmer House (couldn't check in until 3 pm), and set out in search of some lunch. We enjoyed some awesome pizza burgers and deep-dish Chicago-style pizza at Exchequere, a nice little tavern near our hotel. We were all on our own until our time to meet for our cruise at 6:15. Several of us decided to take a double-decker bus tour that was available. For $25 apiece, you can ride the tour bus around the greater downtown area with unlimited "hop-on's/hop-off's". The tour guides were informative and witty, and we laughed as we learned. This is supposedly a statue of Sigmund Freud that hangs from atop this building:




And here's a fountain that my fellow fans of the TV show "Married With Childen" may recognize from that show's opening credits:


At 6:15 we boarded our respective buses and headed out for our adventure on the lake. This was our vessel du jour, The Spirit of Chicago:


We boarded here at the Navy Pier, which we had visited earlier in the day during our bus tour. Here I am on some sort of large spinning wheel created by a guy named George Ferris:


The "Spirit" didn't really go out in the lake very far, but most of us landlubbers had to get acclimated to the motion regardless. We set sail just before we were served dinner! Fortunately that turned out fine, despite many early complaints of dizziness that were eventually calmed by alcohol. A few shots from the deck:


We enjoyed the fireworks from our vantage point near the Navy Pier before it was time to head back to our rooms for the night:


We called it an "early night" at 1:30 am (our time) so we could enjoy some sleep and a nice breakfast before catching our return ride home at 10:15.

This was our weekend spent apart from our daughters since April of 2004; it was long overdue. I think we'll try to do these sort of things more often!