Profiles in Shrinkage: New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge
By Chuck Sudo in Miscellaneous on Jan 3, 2011 8:00PM
We spent noon on New Year's Day sealing drafty kitchen windows in plastic, making our traditional good luck hoppin' john and watching a Three Stooges marathon on the WGN's newly launched Antenna TV network. So let us be the first to offer kudos to those of you who jumped in Lake Michigan in what has now become an annual tradition at North Avenue Beach and in Waukegan. We're also glad that, after the balmy temps of New Year's Eve, the weather cooperated in a big way Saturday.
We ran a couple of shots from the Chicagoist flickr pool in yesterday's "Around Town" post and found a ton of photos from flickr pool contributors "jennabraunstein" and "Tommy6unz." We thought of stretching these shots out over the rest of the week but then decided, screw it, we'll go live with them all.
If you feel bad on missing out on dipping your toes and beyond into the frigid lake water, you'll get another chance in a couple of weeks. The Lakeview Polar Bear Club has a scheduled plunge on Jan. 29 at noon at Oak Street Beach. Make sure you get there a half-hour early. There's another polar plunge set for 11 a.m. on March 6 at North Avenue Beach, this one is set to raise funds for Special Olympics Chicago.