Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Friday, July 18, 2025
Yippy, New Backpack! Finally :-)

Almost 2 years after original purchase (link): And of course it wasn't till this week that the 'older baby' finally fell apart (zipper -- totally busted). Happy to move everything over to the new baby!
Friday, July 11, 2025
DQTD (dumbest question of the day)
DQTD (dumbest question of the day): guy comes up to me on the street, shows me a ring (supposedly gold) and asks me where he can go to sell it. Um, right...
Monday, July 07, 2025
Friday, July 04, 2025
Grant Park Music Festival
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Chi-town Summer Day
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Monday, June 09, 2025
'Get the App' (#FamousLastWords)
'Get the App' (#FamousLastWords)-- From the same crowd that would've told you to get a new record player for each new record ...
Friday, June 06, 2025
Incredible Weekend
Amazing events happening in Chicago over the weekend:
- Ribfest Chicago (Fri., Sat. Sun)
- Chicago Blues Fest (Thurs., Fri., Sat. Sun)
- Old Town Art Fair (Sat., Sun.)
- House Music is Home at Navy Pier (Sun.)
Wow! (I'll be going to the Blues Fest on Sunday!)
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Big Crowd Outside of Music Box Theatre
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Gallery Bookstore Closing
Monday, May 19, 2025
The Problem With #UICDental 🙁 ???
- The problem with #UICDental: They only do what interests them 🙁 ...
- All they want to do is remove your teeth and replace them with implants 🙁
- Wrong place if you need your teeth cleaned (for me 1st time in 5 years) fuhgeddaboudit 🙁
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Rent My Apartment at a Pretty High Rate
Wow, Redfin says I could rent out my place (2 bd) for up to $3k per month -- who knew!
Redfin: "[Your Apt Address] could be making you $2,916-$3,203/mo in rental income. List your home today"
Monday, May 12, 2025
Thursday, May 08, 2025
Chicago Pizza Is Real Pizza!
Oy, here we go again (link)...
Deepdish pizza (popular in Chicago & around the world) originally comes from the tradition of thick-crust pizza in Rome and elsewhere in Southern Italy. There they call it 'pizza rustica'.
The crust is so thick that they take a plain version (i.e. just the crust with no topping), they slice it in the middle and stick in things like eggs and bacon -- for breakfast!
Hai capito? :-)
Thursday, May 01, 2025
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Email for Auto-Delete
Wednesday, April 09, 2025
Don't Tear Down My Library
Disturbing discussion of what looks like the current administration's intention to "cut federal funding for libraries and museums":
"Libraries are strong, trusted institutions, and it’s really unfortunate to hear that the federal government would think otherwise," said Cindy Hohl, the [library] association's president. "We have 125,000 libraries in this country, and that's more libraries than McDonald's restaurants. That's how prevalent and important they are. And so when we see that attacks on libraries are happening, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Americans love their libraries." [link]
Sunday, April 06, 2025
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Library of the Future
Interesting look at predictions and the eventual realities of future libraries by PressReader: The Library of 2025: How Does It Compare to Past Predictions? (link)
Some predictions were good -- some were a bit inaccurate. As we all know (hopefully), information is an extremely valuable product. Shape may change over the years but access remains something we simply cannot do without.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Saturday, March 08, 2025
You Know You're Getting Old ...
The #1 Exercise for Balance (link)Okay, okay, I'll follow the instructions -- now, where's my drink? 😉
This simple exercise can help prevent falls, improve how well you age
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Am I Still Dancing? You Bet!
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Monday, February 10, 2025
Pizza Rome/Chicago
Saturday, February 08, 2025
Crowd of People at Riviera Theater
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
Prohibition 2.0
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'.
Monday, February 03, 2025
Mentioned in Der Spiegel Magazine Article
"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.']
Friday, January 31, 2025
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 :-(
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Secrets of Library Science (Academic)
Secret Part 1 -- They Call It 'Teachable Moment':
Important to remember: the student is there to learn something. You don't look up the article -- the student does! You're there to make looking up anything a 'teachable moment'. That's your job, that's your responsibility. We all come out better for it!
Secret Part 2 -- Problem Finding Something?
If you're helping a student search for something and nothing turns up: Encourage the student to try another search term or database. Things can be hard to track down but there are a variety of sources to look up -- and a variety of search terms one can use to find them.
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Nice Lunch on a Nice Day
Monday, January 20, 2025
New Year's Dinner
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Addition to the Collection: 'Complete Home Medical Guide'
Found this hefty tome ('American College of Physicians Complete Home Medical Guide') out on the street in one of those book boxes. It's from 1999 but in almost new condition -- so I just couldn't resist ... 🙂
Full title: "American College of Physicians Complete Home Medical Guide", 1st ed. (1999) with CD-ROM.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Just Call Me ... Health Care?
Here's something we learned from the Europeans: You don't go to a ‘Dot-Com’ for Healthcare!!!
P.S. Just call me, Carl Marks ... 😉
Friday, January 03, 2025
Famous Last Words
- 'Download Our App' -- Offer I generally tend to avoid (1)
- 'Artificial Intelligence' -- Phrase at which I stop reading and leave the room
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1) I mean I gotta download a separate 'WebApp' for every website I go to? No thankyou! So user-unfriendly! So unnecessary!
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
1st & 2nd Thoughts of the Year
Polish sausage with mustard, relish, grilled onions & pickle ... 2 please :-)2nd Thought of the Year (this one was obvious):
From now on only eat fried-chicken ... :-)