Let's Get a World-Class Thesaurus

By Margaret Lyons in News on Oct 17, 2007 5:35PM

Carol Marin is "a little worried about Chicago being a world-class city," given that that status tends to equal corruption and bullshit. No joke. You know what we're worried about? The phrase "world-class city."

The term — which means what exactly? — has been all over the place recently. RTA boss Stephen Schlickman's saying it. A "Chicago Reader driver." An Olypmic committee guy. Edward Keegan. The Sun-Times can't get enough. Mayor Daley says it, that stupid daily rant column has it. Some LexisNexising shows that in the last 90 days alone, the Trib has quoted Alderman Gene Schulter, the new head of the city's Department of Planning and Development Arnold Randall Jr, and Alderman Ed Smith saying it, and both Rich Miller and Laura Washington have used it in Sun-Times columns. Metromix jazzes it up as "world-class metropolis." And we weren't even looking very hard.

You stay world-classy, Chicago!

World-class skyline photo by Runfar.