tfl: The Flatiron Life

Last night Robert and Kavitha joined Jocelynn and me at a small concert of north Indian Tabla music. After the concert we went to La Creperie. We intended to just enjoy some fine crepes. Little did we know we would make and lose a new friend.

Just after sitting down on the back patio, a man took the table next to us as some more tables were being pulled together for him. He asked us if we minded if he smoked. We told him we did not mind and he thanked us. We in turn thanked him for asking and we exchanged some mild pleasantries about this. The smoking situation being settled, our dinner continued.

As we picked out meals, Jos and I talked about how good the crepes we had in Paris were. This lead to me talking about Dana in France. I was telling a story about the ice cream parlor in Aix when the smoking man interjected. He asked how I would deal with teams of girls cheering at a concert and be able to not feel guilty in the morning. He said he was on tour and had just left a concert in Wicker Park.

We were still trying to continue our own conversation without the smoking man, but he continued to tell me about how he had to get out of the Wicker Park because the people he was seeing there were not what he stood for. Eventually, he asked me if I had heard of Staind. I said I had. He then gestured that he was a member in a way that was clearly supposed to impress me. After this he apologized for interrupting us and said out dinner was on him. We told him that was not necessary, but he insisted.

Like I said, I had heard of Staind but had no idea who were members and cannot name one of thier songs now after looking them up. There are a lot of people I would be impressed to meet, but none of them are rock stars. Aren’t rock stars kind of known for being mean? I am a fan of The White Stripes, but would probably run away if I saw Jack White coming at me. Also, I am less interested in meeting a rock star who wants me to be impressed. Staind’s hit songs are OK, but they are not in the realm of the people I would like to meet.

When our drinks came our friend told the waitress they were on him. She relayed this to us. I looked over to thank him again, but he looked lost in thought and I did not interrupt. In time, our meal came and we continued our conversation. After a while I noticed that our new friend was gone, I assumed to the bathroom as his cigarettes were still on the table. Then I heard the waitress tell another table who he was and our friend got a name: “Michael from Staind.”

We had finished our dessert and Micheal from Staind had still not returned. The waitress brought out our bill and told us she had bad news, Michael from Staind would not be covering our bill. She told us that he had gone to the bar and said he had to get out of there because we were too stuffy and had not thanked him for the drinks. And so ended our friendship with Micheal from Staind.

Outside of the Walgreen’s at Laurence, Lincoln, and Western there is a statue of Pres. Lincoln.  Inscribed at the base of the memorial is “Free society is not, and shall not be, a failure.”  The stores Lincoln has his back to are not sure that the PRChi is part of a free society.

Ben Joravsky in the Chicago Reader this week reports these shops have been sent letters of Eminent Domain intent from the City.  It is the Cities intention to transfer their property to another private owner.  Why does the city want to do this?  Higher tax revenue of course, but also for the small business owners own protection.

The acquisition letters set off a panic among the merchants affected. But their local alderman, Eugene Schulter of the 47th Ward, insists that the acquisition authorization letter’s part of a process he’s initiated over the last couple of decades to protect small businesses. Schulter says he’s routinely bombarded with calls from developers eager to buy up property and tear it down so they can build big-box monstrosities “like you see on Clybourn near North Avenue.” He claims the threat of eminent domain wards off that kind of development: if property owners can’t sell their property, big-box developers can’t buy it up.

Thanks Mr. Schulter, thanks for keeping people from keeping these business owners from making sound business decisions.  Good thing the city knows what is best use of land or we might just go around developing things people want to go to and turn a profit.

The city has not come to take their land away yet.  Just the treat isdamaging though.

But there are still problems for property owners under the threat of eminent domain. For one thing, it’s harder to get bank loans for improvements or expansion. “What bank is going to lend me money if they know the city might take my property?” asks Hidvegi. And even if merchants were invited to return to whatever gets built on the block, they’d most likely be coming back as tenants rather than tenant-owners. “We may wind up paying rent for less space,” says Hidvegi—not to mention no equity.

Silly Chicagoans, one day we will learn.  In the People’s Republic of Chicago we are all renters, deeds are childish attachments to the past.

This is a neat little chess playing app.  It actually shows you what the computer is thinking, but I don’t think will help me much.  Maybe it will give you an advantage.  Even if you don’t play chess, give it a look.

But today is an important day for the nation of Scotland.  Today marks the 10th anniversary of the successful passage of the Scottish devolution referendum.  This referendum asked the Scots 2 question: 1) if there should be a Scottish Parliament and 2) if that parliament should have the power to vary-taxes.  11 September 1997, the referendum passed ‘Yes-Yes’ and then next year the Scottish Parliament was created by act of the UK Parliament.

On Friday, Jacob and I went to see The Flaming Lips perform at a theater in our neighborhood. The concert was a great time, but towards the end a roving band of bona fide Dudes filtered into our area. We witnessed an onslaught of drooling, beer spilling, ogling of disgusted women, and ultimately a fantastic display of homo-erotica. The Onion has a spot on representation of the Dudversation that followed.

Today is Victory Day in the island nation of Malta.  This commemorates two events in Maltese history, neither involves falcons.

First, in 1565, Malta was under siege for nearly 4 months.  The siege began 18 May and “was the climax of an escalating contest between the Spanish and Ottoman empires for control of the Mediterranean.”  Although outnumbered, on 8 September the Knights Hospitaller’s forces of nine thousand forced out the 40,000 Turks.

Second, in 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies.  Malta lies just south of Sicily and one can imagine the relief of this British colony, especially after there had been another siege.  Tomorrow is also a related anniversary from 1943 in Maltese and world histories because the Italian fleet surrendered to Ike on Malta.

Today in 1968 Swaziland received its independence from the United Kingdom, via an act of committee.  The committee picked constitutional monarch as the form of government and parliamentary elections were to be held after independence.  About 4 year later, in May 1972 they were held and things did not turn out very well if you are a fan of the republican and democratic forms of government.  The King’s party, the Imbokodvo National Movement (INM), won 75% of the vote.  The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) one only 20% of the vote.  After that (as in the wikipedia)…

 In response to the NNLC’s showing, King Sobhuza repealed the 1968 constitution on April 12, 1973 and dissolved parliament. He assumed all powers of government and prohibited all political activities and trade unions from operating. He justified his actions as having removed alien and divisive political practices incompatible with the Swazi way of life. In January 1979, a new parliament was convened, chosen partly through indirect elections and partly through direct appointment by the king.

So maybe the king is a benevolent liberty loving king, right?  I don’t think so…

King Mswati III is often strongly criticized for living so lavishly in such a poor nation. He has a fleet of luxury cars, and has spent millions towards refurbishing his numerous wives’ luxury mansions.

Walter E. Williams reports it will soon be pontificated that tax avoidance is a sin.

Prof. Williams asks the Bishop of Rome

 Should the Roman Catholic Church support the welfare state? Or, put more plainly, should the Church support the use of the coercive powers of government to enable one person to live at the expense of another? Put even more plainly, should the Church support the government’s taking the property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn’t belong?

Catholics may be in the spotlight here, but all to often when I am at the Temple or read the Social Principles I wonder the same thing about the UMC.

Today does not appear to be a National Holiday anywhere. It is the day a nation was founded though. Today in 1870, Napoléon III was exiled as his empire collapsed as a result of the Franco-Prussian War. This inaugurated La Troisième République. As the name suggests the third republic of France and as the name does not suggest the longest lasting government since the 1789 French Revolution.  The Third Republic lasted 70 years until the Reich came marching in; The current Fifth Republic is the second longest and will only be 50 October next year.

In 301, a Christian stonemason named Marinus of Rad fed the religious persecution of the Roman Emperor. He had been working in the, now Italian, town of Rimini and fled nearby to Monte Titano. There he built a church and on 3 September founded a republic city-state. Today, the Most Serene Republic of San Marino is the oldest ongoing constitutional republic. Although it has seen many changes in its neighbors, San Marino has remained steadfast and holds tightly to its independence.