(Not So) Balmy Chicago

"Don't Worry, They're From Minnesota"

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?

--Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice"

What recalls the quote above is Chicagoans' assumptions -- OK, my relatives' -- about how Minnesotan fare in very cold weather. While it was about ten degrees warmer there -- a not-so-balmy 15 degrees or so -- the wind chill was easily below zero.

Contrary to everyone's belief that we have antifreeze in our veins . . . we were freezing, just like everyone else!

Given that, plus the exigencies of traveling with small kids, we did what any rational Minnesotans would have done under the circumstances: skipped the L (Chicago's subway) and popped for the (very) expensive underground parking. Heated, of course.

P.S.: it could just be an urban legend, but I recall hearing a story about someone in the Twin Cities who was upset that their neighbor didn't provide an outside shelter for their dog, a Siberian husky. The neighbor ultimately involved the authorities, who ordered the dog owner to provide said shelter. The husky slept on top of it.

New Year's in Chicago

Dispatches from the Road, Cont.

If a true Minnesotan heads north for their winter vacation (see earlier post), what qualifies for runner-up status?

Heading to Chicago.

With an air temp of about 25 degrees today, my 7 year-old noted (correctly) that "it's a lot warmer here than Minneapolis."

Kowalski vs. Anderson

The other thing you notice as a Minnesotan in Chicago is that people here seem a lot burlier.

Best guess: it's got to do with all the surnames that end with "ski" and "cik" rather than "son" and "sen."

In other words, more Kowalski's, fewer Anderson's.

Other quick observations:

--the two iconic Chicago skyscrapers, the John Hancock and Sears Tower (now Willis) are now joined by a third: the Trump Tower (given all the variants, "a Trump Tower" would be more accurate).

At 90-plus stories and with a strikingly small footprint, it's hard to miss between the other two.

--At first glance, the elaborate, block-long awning covering the steps in front of The Field Museum looks like an architectural flourish, or maybe some sort of "red carpet" greeting. Once you're underneath, you realize what it's really about: keeping the steps ice-free.

--Lots of residential Chicago looks like the area around 36th & Portland in South Minneapolis: block after block of classic, pre-war brick apartment buildings. Solid and gritty, not sexy -- in keeping with "the city of broad shoulders," I suppose.

As a native Minnesotan who's also lived in Manhattan, Chicago has always struck me as a hybrid of the two.

By contrast, my native New Yorker wife's take on Chicago is that it's much more like Minneapolis than Manhattan..

"You say to-mate-o, I say to-mah-toe" . . .