Results tagged “history”

The Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance has put together an impressive program this weekend looking at the evolution of beef production in the Midwest over the years at Kendall College. "Beef: From Plains to Plate" includes a butchering demonstration; a visit to Naval Culinary "A" School at Great Lakes Naval Station, which is scheduled to close early next year; seminars on feedlots, animal husbandry, and the past, present and future of beef production; consumer confusion over certified Angus beef; the re-discovery of the benefits of grass-fed beef; an oral history on the Union Stockyards; an overview on the differences between kosher and halal-certified beef; and an overview of how ground beef became a household staple.

Not all weizens are alike. A Berliner weisse is a sour take on the popular German style. The late Michael Jackson (beer historian, not the entertainer) traced the origins of the style back to the 16th century Hamburg. A brewer named Cord Broihan copied the style and brought it north. Berliner weisses are known for their extreme tartness and low alcohol content. The sourness is caused by bottle fermentation or by adding lactobacillus yeast bacteria. By the 19th century there were over 700 breweries in northern Germany specifically brewing Berliner weisse. Now, only a few breweries remain; 2 of those are in Berlin proper. The term "Berliner weisse" is protected in Germany. to combat the sourness, Berliner weisses are often served with raspberry syrup or woodruff.

Polynesian Pop expert James Teitelbaum is looking ahead at the same time he's looking back. His previous book, Tiki Road Trip 2, has proved invaluable for scouting out tropical vibes no matter where we happen to be. Thanks to Teitelbam's advice, during a recent trip we spent a wonderful evening at Los Angeles' legendary Tiki Ti (an upcoming Properly Sauced post will feature a facsimile of a drink we imbibed there.)

Hey, remember Margaret Hicks, our once intrepid literature writer and reality-TV lover? There's an article on her in today's Chicago Tribune! They feature the tour she gives through Old Town that centers on the history of Second City and the surrounding area. Chicagoist ... we discover tomorrow's superstars!

              

A little over a year ago, if you had a subscription to the Chicago Tribune, you would have come across a nine-page spread in the Sunday Magazine (you can see a PDF of it here). That nine page spread, published as a photo portfolio was a rare glimpse into the world of Chicago's the South Side nightclub scene, 1965-76. It was as much a visual document of the music and culture scenes in the city as it was about how a passion for photography and music brought photographer Michael Abramson and musician Corky Siegel to know Pepper's and Perv's House.

"The effect of the Machine's systematic repression [of the urban poor] is the muting of protest, incalcuable stagnation of the general citizenry, and the loss of progress in Chicago," former 5th Ward Ald. Leon Despres told political scientist Milton Rakove in Don't Make No Waves... Don't Back No Losers., published in 1975. Rakove, went on to say, "Despres lead a band that made a valiant, often futile, but occasionally successful fight against the leaders of the [Richard J.] Daley organization."

     

Google recently announced new capabilities for Google Earth that will change the way you look at Chicago. Michael T. Jones, chief technology advocate for Google, was in town this week so we sat down with him to check out some of the new tricks they created, and what Chicagoans can look for now. Besides roving the land, you can now also cruise water, space, and even time.

One person who probably loves beer more than us is Bob Skilnik. If you haven't read his musings on beer, you're missing a real treat and may actually learn something. Skilnik delves deep into the history of beer, with a particular emphasis on Chicago's history with the suds. Example: did you know that the recipe for Miller Lite was purchased by Miller from Meister Brau?

When we covered the Wright Plus tour organized by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust last spring, a number of readers commented that they'd wished we'd mentioned the event before it took place and before tickets sold out. So consider yourself put on notice.

Ahhhh, the Schwinn Stingray. Our first real bicycle at 7 years of age was a Stingray in blue, with a five-speed gear shift on the top tube, banana seat, coaster brake, sissy bar and baseball cards fitted between the spokes. That Stingray sparked a lifelong love affair between the bicycle and us. Over the years we've saddled atop a seeming score of other Schwinns, including our current bike, a 2000 Mesa GS that's logged over 40,000 miles in eight years of riding.

The Illinois Railway Musuem in Union has all kinds of vintage treasures, including dozens of old rail cars and street cars, some of which sport amazing vintage ads.

These photos of the abandoned Michael Reese Hospital are haunting, occasionally creepy ("vintage gynecology"), and all imbued with an intense sense of loss. Beyond the pictures of the building itself, though, we were drawn to these before and after photos of the pool.

These vintage Stereoviews from the 1933 World's Fair are mesmerizing.

On this tour, we'll show you every remnant of the former street, and discuss the reasons for its extension and removal. We'll take a look at the surrounding environment, including a portion of a demolished bridge, a former coach yard, marginalized and "converted" industry, and one of the most notorious public housing projects in the world.

Continue reading "Ogden Walking Tour Sunday"

OMG, history boner. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism is staging a reenactment tour of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the events. Chicago-area festivities are still TBD, sadly, but the tour recreates the duo's stops in Ottowa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, and Quincy.

Today is National Piña Colada Day. Naturally it makes sense to focus on the Colada for this installment of "Properly Sauced." Originally, the piña colada was nothing more than ripe pineapple juice, either strained (colada) or unstrained (sin colar). Visitors to Pilsen's Fiesta del Sol sample it in this version annually. According to Wikipedia, the earliest known reference to the piña colada as a rum-based cocktail was in a Travel magazine article about Cuba from 1922:

U of C grad student Matt Friedman has discovered a new species and reclassified two previously discovered fossils, thus helping clear up a centuries-long confusion about the evolution of flatfish, those bad boys with both peepers on one side of their heads.

The Chicago Cultural Center is restoring its Tiffany dome, which will finally be illuminated by natural light as intended, rather than the color-draining flourescent light that's been keeping it aglow since the 1960s.

But if terrifying vintage dolls aren't your bag, maybe you'll enjoy some old Cubs gum. Never opened! [eBay]

I can’t really figure out what’s going on in the picture, to the best of my abilities it seems like somebody is falling while water skiing.

Continue reading "Amazing Found Photo"

Mike Kelley's new show Swingtown was supposed to premiere last winter, but the writer's strike shut down production. Instead the hour-long drama debuted on CBS last Thursday, and Kelley actually sees the delay as a blessing in disguise. The show is set in the summer of 1976, and as he astutely points out, it parallels this summer in the sense that tides seem to be shifting. Politics are reorganizing, minds are changing, and our ideals are in a state of metamorphosis. For that reason, Swingtown, though set in the past, works well alongside today's pop culture.

Man, Chicago is a city of criminals and asshats, of mismanagement and lying, corruption and inertia. Just ask the AP! Today's "Corruption fighters find Chicago a challenge" says shady dealings in this town are part of the patchwork we lovingly refer to as Chicago history.

Happy birthday, elevated electric railways! On this day in 1883, Thomas Edison and Stephen D. Field tested out their demo train before unveiling it at the Chicago Railway Exposition, where it was a smash hit.

Industrial workers faced long hours, low wages, and unsafe conditions in 1936 as the Steelworkers Organizing Committee reached out to Chicago's steelworkers. After a year of organizing, U.S. Steel agreed to recognize the union in 1937, but other, smaller steelmakers refused, and on May 26, the workers struck. On May 30, the union held a picnic in front of Republic Steel, at 117th and Avenue O, to support the strike. After a round of speeches, the strikers marched toward the steel mill. As they crossed the field, they were met by a line of Chicago policemen. When the day was over, 10 strikers were dead, and dozens more had been beaten by the police.

"Climb aboard Chicago's only restaurant in an airplane." Oh, that we still could....

The Cubs' pace of winning has certainly slowed in recent decades, though. The Cubs won their first game on April 25, 1876, and reached 5,000 on July 19, 1940. That means it took the Cubs 64 years to reach 5,000 wins, and another 68 to win the next five grand -- in spite of longer 162-game seasons since 1961.

Weatherwise, it's a hell of a lot better out there today than it was last week, and the Sox are on a roll after snatching three games away from the Tigers this weekend. And it looks like it was a nice opening day 52 years ago, at old Comiskey in 1946.

Baseball is always about statistics, numbers, charts and rankings, but this season of Cubs baseball is going to be all about one number. That number, of course, being "one hundred." Be prepared to hear about the hundred World-Series-Championship-free years at least a million times this season. So as the Lovable Losers get ready to tear the scab off of another season, we thought now would be an opportune time to look back at the park from when things like "naming rights" were a long time off.

Al Capone's IRS records are finally being made public, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. (The IRS says, "All Federal tax records are confidential by law. The availability of historical records is highly unusual. However, the records of the criminal investigation of Al Capone below are of historical significance and of interest to the public.") The files are pretty amazing.