Off topic - Rut, I need your help
 

Rut - I need some advice from someone like you who lives in the Chicagoland area. A co-worker of mine is going to Chicago in a few days to attend a trade show at McCormick Place. She has never been to my home town before. She asked me for some "safety tips". Here's what I came up with:

1) never talk baseball unless you know if the other person is from the south side or the north side
2) never put ketchup on a hot dog - you'll get smacked
3) if you want a glass of pop, don't order soda - you'll get something else
4) never say "y'all"
5) it's not "The Bears" - it's "Da Bears"

Any other words of wisdom I can impart to her to make her trip safer and more enjoyable? Thanks.

6) If anyone gives you directions that include "Go to Buckingham Fountain, and head east...", they're bogus directions.

Sorry to butt in but I couldn't help it as I just got back:

Keep her car doors locked

Dont ride eastbound on 79th

Watch for the pass-you-by move at redlights/stopsigns on the right shoulders

Stay off the low end

Don't pull out her money in public

NO PARTICULAR ORDER BUT EQAULLY VALUABLE SAFTEY TIPS

True story

A number of years ago I went on a business trip to Chicago. We had meetings all day then piled into someone's rental and headed out to dinner. After dinner we decided to go to some club someone heard about. So we're driving around having a grand time, 5 people in our finest business outfits crammed into a ford escort or something like that and got lost. We're sitting at a light in an "urban" part of town by a fire house. This guy walks out of the house, taps on the window and says "Youz guys aint from around here, are ya?" Nope we laughed. He then told us to make a left, a right at the next light a right after 2 more blocks and don't stop the car again until we get on the highway. We all laughed and said thanks.

Later I found out from a native where we were. Maybe you've heard of the area...Cabrini-Green?

:)

A few years ago I was in the Loop at a hotel for a trade show. A bunch of us from Portland and Seattle went to lunch down the street at a restaurant in the Wrigley building. When we came out, it was pouring down rain. The light was red at the corner, but myself and a guy who was also originally from Chicago walked against the light right in front of a police car. The others stayed on the corner. When they finally got into the hotel lobby, totally soaked, they told us how stupid we were to jaywalk in front of the cops. The other guy and I just laughed. I told them there was no way a Chicago cop was going to get out of his patrol car in the rain to give a jaywalking ticket. My friend said that for a Chicago cop to leave the car in the rain, there would have to have been someone murdered on the hood of the car - and then he'd only get out if he had finished his coffee - and his lunch shift was over. :D

Oh geeze, dueling stories.

Even before my Chicago trip I was living in LA (California, not that hurricane place).

So I'm downtown crossing the street. I run in front of a LAPD car and he waves me ahead to the sidewalk. I wave back thanking him...as I walk away Mr LA's finest (to protect and serve) jumps out of his car and stops me. He wrote me a jay-walking ticket...as a recently relocated NYC resident I had no idea "jay-walking" was illegal anywhere. If you make it across the street alive then you're good to go...

Luckily "WTF is wrong with you?" is not reason enough to get arrested in LA, I paid the $10 fine and lived to tell the story.

Mark,

I like the list. Not sure I can add anything.

But having said all of that, the things that Ch1town listed are not entirely true. Not only have a lot of things changed in many parts of the city, I have gone to some of the worst parts of Chicago and never had a single problem. The city in the last few years has changed because of construction and newer business developments that many parts that once were problem areas have changed almost entirely. If you just go over by where U.S. Cellular Field (where the Sox play), that area looks very different than it used to. You can even say the same for the Cabrini Green area as well.

Not to say that there is not crime in the city of Chicago. I have spent time in many cities and crime is a problem all over the country.

Peace

Thanks, Rut. Very good comments. BTW - did you know that when Cabrini Green was first built, the televisions commercials to promote it were hosted by Jesse Owens? I think it was in the late 50s or early 60s. Also, once leaving Comiskey Park, I stopped for gas right near the park and some guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy a watch. He rolled up his sleeve and he was wearing about a dozen of them. I wish I would have known then the Cheech and Chong line about what to say when someone asks you if you want to buy a watch - "No thanks man, I'm not into time."

As to crime in Chicago, my first experience with it was when I was about nine years old and a friend of mine and I got robbed of our quarters by some "big kids" (probably 12 years old) who had big sticks. We were on our way to a drug store on 100th street to buy some candy.

I should have told them that my grandfather used to work for Al Capone (absolutely true)!

What's wrong with ketchup on a hot dog? :confused:

I remember the Dirty Harry line from "Sudden Impact", but that was in San Fransisco....;)

It's an American thing.

Same for me in Dallas.

Are you kidding? In Chicago, that's like wearing a Packers jersey to a Bears game. You're asking for trouble.

Ketchup was invented to put on hamburgers and fries. Brown mustard was invented to put on hot dogs. If you don't believe me, ask Mike Ditka. :eek: