Harry Truman

Another dead president. Harry Truman is buried (with his wife Bess) at his presidential library in Independence, MO. I'll give Harry about a 3 on ostentation of his burial site, really one of the simplest I've visited.

His library was interesting, I wasn't sure what was going to be highlighted as the high spots of his presidency. Three things stood out as pivotal: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, the Truman Doctrine/Marshall Plan, and the Red Scare.

While watching his bio film (narrated by David McCullough, not Martin Sheen who has done several others I've seen [I later found out McCullough wrote a book on Truman] I was struck by the similarities between Truman's challenges and those of our current president - then as now there are some serious partisan splits that ensures that no matter what the president does someone will be seriously unhappy. All the talk lately about how the two sides have in extreme directions really doesn't take history into consideration. Joe McCarthy anyone?

There's an interesting plaque in the courtyard where Truman is buried. It basically thanks him for giving permission for the military to use the atomic bomb on Japan. I understand the two sides of the issues: it saved millions of American military lives on the attempt to invade the Japanese mainland; and the Japanese would have surrendered soon anyway so everyone killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima were killed violently for no reason. My thoughts have always been: it's kind of good we used it when the bomb was as weak as it was. We (humanity) learned what a terrible weapon it was and have so far not used it again - especially now that the weapon has been developed to be so much stronger. But then again, since we haven't learned our history about the continued partinsanship of the Democrats and Republicans through history we'll probably forget this too. Or am I being too cynical and preachy?

Geocaching

I bought myself a nice GPS for my birthday and found a new sport in the bargain. Apparently there are a whole bunch of people in the world who find and seek little caches of basically nothing just for the fun of it. Basically it involves getting the coordinates and maybe a little hint for what you're looking for and heading out to find a little canister (sometimes one as large as an ammo box) with a log to sign and sometimes tokens others have left behind.

The Cook County forest preserves are littered with them, so more than once I've found myself seemingly out in the middle of nowhere covered in mud and scratches looking for a piece of paper to sign. So far I've found 17 and not found probably twice as many. I can't figure out how much of this is luck and how much is skill - but the thrill of the hunt and the feeling of victory when the elusive prey makes it fun.

I was really surprised to find out how many of these are hidden pretty much in plain sight in the middle of the city. The challenge with most of those is being able to retrieve the cache without anybody noticing.

Changing Architectural Landscape: The Good News

And now some good news about Chicago architecture - someone is fixing up a local historic skyscraper that needs some love. The Old Colony Building has been black since I've known it. We are starting to see now that it should be white.The Old Colony is a "Chicago School" skyscraper built in 1894, it not only has elements of the Chicago Style skyscrapers of the late 1800's but also shows the influence of the popularity of the classical (Beaux-Arts) style of architecture of the "White City" that was the Chicago Worlds Fair (Columbian Exposition) of 1893.

Vanity Plates III: The Stupidity

Another reason not to have vanity plates - if you break the law, bystanders will find it easier to remember your tags.
This woman was feeding the pigeons - not just throwing bread, but spreading pounds of different kinds of seed on the sidewalk. This is not only against the law in Chicago, it makes for a serious nuisance because of how the birds gather and shit on tourist friendly areas (in this case the railings along the Wacker river walk), and attracts other pests like rats. Feeding the pigeons is a huge pet peeve of mine.

A Lost Gem

The architectural environment of Chicago is ever changing, and needs to be. But sometimes we lose little gems that people hardly notice. The Showmen's Building is being pulled down to make a park for a neighboring condo building that is going up.



I can imagine the Showmen's League is no longer a large group (they were basically a trade union for the "outdoor amusement industry" (circus, carnival and amusement park) workers, so I guess they had to sell their headquarters building, but because it's decorated with their logo elephant, it's a one of a kind gem that will never be seen again.


I first noticed the building because a colleague (who knows I love architecture) asked me about the "Elephant Building," with the elephants over the windows.

Also a sad loss, Harry's Hot Dogs, which was in the building (you can see the awnings in the top picture above). The shop made it 100 years, and closed when the building was slated to be destroyed.


A local cemetery has a memorial to circus people killed in a train accident, called "Showmen's Rest" - I'll blog about that at some point, I'm sure.