Michael Hinko Jr

Over the decades of our marriage Donna and I shared many traditions. Not anything big, just small things we cherished and made a part of our lives. One such thing was a Sunday afternoon celebration of sorts; we would enjoy Italian food and watch a movie. My late wife Donna coined the phrase, 'meatball and a movie.' I've continued that tradition, and I keep a list of all the Sunday afternoon plates and films.   Meatball And A Movie    

 "I think coffee is one of the best things about being alive."                                                                                           - Steven Wright   As he often does, Steven Wright hit the nail on the head. Drinking coffee is so much fun, the best way to start the day. But it has to be good coffee. Certain cultures get this; the Italians, for sure. Americans were very late to the game.  When I started looking for craft roasters in 1970s Chicago, there were few choices. Steve Siefer and Peter Longo's Coffee and Tea Exchange roasted the best beans, in my opinion. When they started roasting in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, some, but not all, residents were delighted. A few people...

  I took the L down to Jackson and walked east to Buckingham Fountain. Such a great fountain and a familiar sight. Next I walked to Marshall Field to see the Tiffany ceiling. Beautiful, and from a different era. Then I continued on to the public buildings and their associated sculptures; Dubuffet, Miro, Picasso. I was standing by the Picasso (now a favorite slide and skateboard ramp) when a tour group gathered next to me. I decided to listen in, and then I mingled with the group and joined their walking tour. I gathered the theme of the tour was Chicago's famous crooks; mobsters, crooked politicians, serial killers. The guide put on a pretty good show and projected his banter over the din of the city. He used a nasally Chicago accent - Chi-cah-go, cah-fee shop. Whether this was his own or an actor's portrayal, I don't know. But it was effective. The stories were sometimes engaging and pointed. At other times they only vaguely applied to the walking stops. But it was an ente...

A Blu-ray disk of the 2011 film, "Thin Ice" arrived in the mail. And with that, I was finally able to watch director Jill Sprecher's original cut, "The Convincer," included on the disk in its entirety. The re-edit and re-titling of "The Convincer" by distributor ATO Pictures and production company Werc Werk Works was controversial, to say the least. Jill Sprecher said she was "heartbroken and devastated." In a note to Roger Ebert, Jill Sprecher said she doesn't even claim “Thin Ice” as her own: "Nearly 20 minutes were cut; the structure rearranged; out-takes used; voiceover and characters dropped ...  Although our names contractually remain on the film, my sister and I do not consider 'Thin Ice' to be our work." Now I have Jill and Karen Sprecher's third (I'll refrain from saying, "... and final") film in my DVD collection, and I am sure I'll watch it many more times. Actress Michelle Arthur on the ...

One more spin around the lake.   One more afternoon in the park. One last splash of color.

   

   

    The familiar view from the entrance to Diversey Harbor.

 A delicious Cuban sandwich served on the patio of 90 Miles Cuban Cafe in Logan Square. One of the best Cuban sandwiches I've enjoyed. And so much fun to dine outside at the end of October in Chicago.

  Students standing at the end of the Memorial Union Pier prepare to jump into Lake Mendota. One student concluded this empirical research by exclaiming, "It's cold."

  A sandhill crane at Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.

  A menacing shadow quietly approaches a tragically unaware shadow. This won't end well.

  A sidewalk chalk drawing said, "Dance Here." So they did.

‘Don’t say anything unless you have to; and if you have to say something, don’t say nothing.’   --- Parky Cullerton   P.J. “Parky” Cullerton was the County Assessor for Cook County, Illinois from 1958 to 1974. Before being elected as County Assessor, Cullerton served on the Chicago City Council, to which he was elected in 1935. He was chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, where it was rumored that he would bring his committee to Florida every winter to relax and enjoy refreshments while they worked on the city’s budget. A member of the Cullerton family had been on the Chicago City Council since the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 until Alderman Tim Cullerton retired in 2015.   -- https://www.buttonmuseum.org/

 

  There's a building across the street from my apartment that has mirrored glass windows. It offers ever changing reflections of the surrounding buildings and sky. I thought I would get tired of looking at this glass and steel structure, but it always shows me something new.

This terminology essentially means 'speaking while breathing in.' People in some parts of Scandinavia will punctuate their speech with an inhaled 'ya.' Here is a quick example of the inhaled 'ya.'  That's a preface to a story of Donna's I want to share. Donna would sometimes visit a seamstress who was an immigrant from Scandinavia. While the seamstress was marking the hem of a garment, she'd hold straight pins between her lips. She continued to talk while doing so, and would also use the inhaled 'ya' as she spoke. Donna wondered how the seamstress could do this without swallowing the pins.  

  UW Madison Memorial Union Terrace "Mopery is a vague, informal name for minor offenses. The word is based on the verb to mope, which originally meant "to wander aimlessly"." -- from Wikipedia Mopery appears in William Shakespeare's works. I first read it in a Mike Royko column from the 1980s. In a subsequent column, Royko gave it more of a criminal spin by referring to a Chicagoan's actions as "aggravated mopery." Enjoy these summer months, via mopery or any of your favorite pastimes.   

 

 An April dip in Lake Mendota is only for the brave. The lake temperature was 40 degrees on the day these photos were taken.