A Taste of Chicago

Buses must be the hot topic today. First the train-shutdown that sent me a on a bus today, now I hear about the warm welcome to Chicago that some tourists (and a handful of city-dwellers and suburbanites) received on Saturday afternoon. I have always wondered why the lift bridges over the Chicago River had open slots. Now I know - tourist elimination. I am sure that tourism in Chicago will skyrocket when these people return home to Evansville, Indiana or Cedar Rapids, Iowa and tell all the folks how they got human waste dumped on them while visiting the big city.

Speaking of tourists, have you ever noticed that people usually say that all the great shopping is one of the reasons they visit Chicago? Where do 90% of these people shop? The Gap on Michigan Avenue, Abercrombie in Water Tower Place and Borders on State Street. You know, the exact same stores that are in your typical American mall, but with a 2-3% higher sales tax rate. Stay home, buy the same damn clothes, and stop walking down the street 6 across on the sidewalk at the same speed as a '74 Ford Pinto low on gas, blocking me from getting somewhere I really need to go.