Am I Still Dancing? You Bet!

Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy (Moreno J Remix)

Ducks Winter Swim

Can someone please tell these creatures to get out of the water -- it's chilly outside 🙃 ...

Pizza Rome/Chicago

They call it 'deepdish' in Chicago and 'pizza rustica' in Naples or Rome (source):

Crowd of People at Riviera Theater

Crowd of people stretching down the street waiting to get into the Riviera Theater to see the group Psychic Fever (Sat. 2/8).

Prohibition 2.0

Well, I guess it's the 20's all over again (looking at my calendar). The Chicago Suntimes comes out with a repeat prohibition article:

Gen Z Is Drinking Less — And It's Changing Chicago's Social Scene Chicago was once dubbed the “Greatest Drinking City in America” by GQ magazine. But Gen Zers are putting down the booze and seeking out nonalcoholic options instead. (Link)

Psss, don't tell anyone but as teens, the only way we could acquire alcohol was to hang out in front of the liquor store and ask people going inside if they could buy us a bottle. Eventually someone would say 'yes'.

Mentioned in Der Spiegel Magazine Article

It's been a while but I just noticed a mention in the German weekly Der Spiegel:

"Hönkel jedenfalls hat Spuren hinterlassen, sogar in Chicago: Dort erinnert der Publizist Leo Klein aktuell an den „Summer of Hönkel“ in Berlin 1987". (link)

[Translation: 'Honkel in any case left traces, even in Chicago: there publicist Leo Klein remembered the period in the blog entry: "Summer of Hönkel in Berlin 1987.']

Talk About Robbery (Soc. Sec. Edition)

Lot's of talk about the Social Security increase for goverment workers (NPR article). Love how it focuses on pension recipients -- and completely ignores those of us who got tricked into signing up for the State's 401k option. I mean, once they got you to sign up for that, there was no possibility to ever go back to the state pension plan. I know -- I asked!

Even worse, not only would you be cut off from the state pension plan but there was no possibility to sign up for Social Security. I know because I asked if I could make voluntary payments to Social Security. They laughed.

What a double whammy :-(