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August 25, 2006

State Street Losing Another Piece of History – Carson’s Abandoning 1 South State

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street will close in March 2007. This is another blow to the State Street shopping district; a commercial landmark still reeling from the Macy’s/Marshall Field’s naming issue.
The restoration of the exterior of the Carson’s building was recently recognized by Chicago Magazine in their Best of Chicago issue. The four year project highlights many of architect Louis Sullivan’s trademark elements and reconstructs others that had been removed long ago.

Posted by hinsdalereference at 11:59 AM

August 22, 2006

The Polka King of Chicago is Dead—Long Live the Polka King

Walter E. Jagiello AKA Lil’ Wally the Polka King, passed away this week in Florida. Credited with the creation of the Chicago Polka, Lil’ Wally reigned over the West Division Street strip known as “Polish Broadway” from 1940s well into the 1960s. Lil’ Wally’s empire included a record label, Jay Jay Records, numerous radio broadcasts, and more than 100 albums.

Jagiello’s “Let’s Go Go Go White Sox,” inspired by the 1959 team, was reintroduced during last year’s pennant race.

Posted by hinsdalereference at 2:44 PM

August 16, 2006

Third Rock from the Sun Plus Three

The International Astronomical Union has changed the order of our universe, the definition of a planet and is suggesting a new classification of planets.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas-- one of many mnemonic devices used to remember the order of the nine planets will have to be scrapped or adapted to accommodate the three new planets.

Let’s meet the newcomers. Ceres, between Mars and Jupiter, has been promoted to planet status. Charon also gets an upgrade from moon of Pluto to planetary status and finally 2003 UB313, nicknamed Planet Xena, lies beyond Pluto.

Follow this link to the International Astronomical Union’s Web site, but be aware the site will be unavailable during their General Assembly, August 18-21, 2006.

Posted by hinsdalereference at 4:58 PM

August 10, 2006

Carnegie Mellon’s Guardian Angel

It trawls through cyberspace looking for you personal data. This scenario sounds like a cyber-thief preparing to steal your identity and mess with your credit rating, but in this case it is an angel. The Data Privacy Lab of Carnegie Mellon University has created Identity Angel. Identity Angel is a search program which searches the internet for links between personal data elements (name, date of birth and social security number). If the program finds a match it alerts the potential victim.

Posted by hinsdalereference at 8:13 PM