Going to Chicago

[darbs]

Check out The Purple Pig!!! The menu has some more interesting items, but it is sooo good! The best meal I ate while in Chicago by far. There was a wait when we went for dinner. They said it would be an hour plus, but I think we only ended up waiting like 30 minutes if that. The tables are all crammed together, but the food is amazing. Do NOT get the milk braised shoulder roast though! It is the dish they are supposedly most well-known for, but it was mediocre at best. There are tons of better things to try.

[Janine]

Here's one detail I'm ready to spill now: going to Avec. Not pre-Klingon on apres-Klingon, sadly.

Wow. I don't see any nuggets on the menu. Classy!

[TavaPeak]

Already mulling which Bihn bag goes with me...

[Badger]

That's the only Klingon I know! I'll be doing a low-residency creative nonfiction MFA program in Tacoma. Which may mean a trip to Bihn Mecca at some point...

What wonderful news! I'm looking forward to reading your essays.

[Badger]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

NO WAY!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Where?

[TavaPeak]

I don't actually speak Klingon, so how would I tell you congratulations, TavaPeak? That's wonderful news. Where is it, and when will you start?

That's the only Klingon I know! I'll be doing a low-residency creative nonfiction MFA program in Tacoma. Which may mean a trip to Bihn Mecca at some point...

[ncb4]

Hi Nancy,
I'm so excited about going to the Newberry, I can't even tell you. The project does not have anything to do with children's literature (and if you met me and Kiddo, you wouldn't want us within ten miles of the genre), but if I see any amazing picture books or YA novels on display and I'm allowed, I'll get a (craptastic) photo for you.

We are. Um. Considering spending an evening with the Klingons. But then, I'm also a stingy, humorless petaQ. (Is this the first time someone's used Klingon on the forum? If so, I demand admiration and applause, and please don't break my glasses.)

My sister and her family are going to be in Chicago right before Christmas, so since I can't attend, I forwarded her the link and suggested they go. They did not respond with the same effervescent enthusiasm with which I wrote. Hmm. I am so different from my three sisters that they've always joked I might have been switched at birth. But after my email they are acting as if they want to hire a PI and prove that I am some sort of changeling and not a blood relative. All because I truly think it would be amazing to attend the Klingon Christmas Carol.

Of course, I might have to actually learn some Klingon first. So although I can guess from context that being a stingy, humorless petaQ is the same sort of epithet that might be flung at Ebenezer Scrooge in the KCC, I'm still not sure precisely what the word means.

And don't be so sure that I wouldn't want you and Kiddo near the YA genre. It's not all Beatrix Potter, thank goodness. Jack Gantos, who has received two Newbery medals—his middle grade novel won the Newbery Gold this past January—says he learned to write when he was incarcerated in a federal penitentiary at the tender age of nineteen. [He says he spent eighteen months there instead of going to college—or sailing around the world, which was his original plan—all because of a slight misunderstanding about whether it was a good idea to accept packages with unknown contents from so-called friends and transport said parcels on one's boat. How do you say "oops" in Klingon?] I've had the privilege of having lunch with him, and of hearing him speak a couple of times, and he is one of the few people on the planet who can literally make me fall off my chair laughing—and this is when he simply tells stories about his life. Kids love his books, so I'm betting that kids would really respond to your sense of humor as well.

~Nancy

[ncb4]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

I don't actually speak Klingon, so how would I tell you congratulations, TavaPeak? That's wonderful news. Where is it, and when will you start?

[TavaPeak]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

[Badger]

My ears picked up at the mention of the Newbery Library: would this project have something to do with children's literature (my bailiwick)? Your trip sounds awesome, and you should most definitely go see the Klingon Christmas Carol: you have to do it for me, as my proxy! I'm stuck here in Georgia with my Franken-neck.

~Nancy

Hi Nancy,
I'm so excited about going to the Newberry, I can't even tell you. The project does not have anything to do with children's literature (and if you met me and Kiddo, you wouldn't want us within ten miles of the genre), but if I see any amazing picture books or YA novels on display and I'm allowed, I'll get a (craptastic) photo for you.

We are. Um. Considering spending an evening with the Klingons. But then, I'm also a stingy, humorless petaQ. (Is this the first time someone's used Klingon on the forum? If so, I demand admiration and applause, and please don't break my glasses.)

[ncb4]

My ears picked up at the mention of the Newbery Library: would this project have something to do with children's literature (my bailiwick)? Your trip sounds awesome, and you should most definitely go see the Klingon Christmas Carol: you have to do it for me, as my proxy! I'm stuck here in Georgia with my Franken-neck.

~Nancy

[Badger]

NoMI looks fancy, and legit: they have a Corpse Reviver on the brunch menu, and you can get all sorts of hooch in the foo-foo hot chocolate they serve in the afternoon.

Here's one detail I'm ready to spill now: going to Avec. Not pre-Klingon on apres-Klingon, sadly.

[conversa]

My recent sunrise breakfast at NoMI (Park Hyatt) was at once majestic and serene.

[TavaPeak]

Like the Assyrian style bas-relief for the Klingon thing. Guess you'll have to watch some Big Bang Theory episodes and bone up on your Klingon.

[gochicken]

I'll believe it when I see a picture of you wearing it in front of a famous Chicago landmark.

Ed Debevics! Wow... forgot all about it!
And then there's the Wrigley building, or Water Tower, or on Navy Pier with the skyline in the back, or in front of the Drake Hotel, or next to the Lions at the Art Institute? It's all bringing back memories for me... I spent 6 years there way back in the 80's! Enjoy your trip, Badger!