GRAAR.
Re: tonight's Doctor Who: those weren't real dinosaurs, right? They were holograms or genetic constructs or something? Maybe it was all taking place in Amy's head! Yeah!
I can't think of any other reason why there would be VELOCIRAPTORS with NO FEATHERS that were THE SIZE OF DEINONYCHOSAURS on an EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION PROGRAM in 20-freaking-12.
...anything involving Silurians continues to be adorable though. My first DW episode ever was a re-run of The Silurians when I was about ten. Adorable.
In unrelated news, I am 4000 words into a Community AU where they're all werewolves. No, your eyes don't deceive you, that isn't one of the fics I said I would be working on, but most of you've been around here long enough to know how my brain works, right?
I blame Teen Wolf fandom.
In other other news, on Monday we're leaving for Chicago to help get![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stellar_dust settled in at Northwestern / take advantage of free crash space. In the time when we aren't moving furniture, I have to decide what to do. Help please?
1. You probably know at least a little about Dresden Files if you've been reading here. It's that book series about the lady policewoman and the wizard apprentice and the fairy queens and the little-girl Archive etc. (If I did this one it would probably lean less to 'places that appear in the books' and more to 'places that are relevant to fic', let's be honest.)
2. dueSouth is that one with the Mountie! And the wolf! I probably don't need to explain much there actually.
3. Do you guys need an explanation of Pinkwater? I'm not sure there is one. But his classic books, while they don't take place in Chicago, do take place in large multiethnic industrial cities on the shores of Lake Mishagoo, so I am pretty sure I could patch together something if I had too.
4.copperbadge lives in Chicago and has been writing about his quest to get out of his apartment and have adventurs in the city, all of which sound fascinating.
5. Supergranny probably does need explanation. Okay. Supergranny is this series of children's mystery stories about this brother and sister who befriend the senior citizen who lives next door. An older lady (Sadie Geraldine Oglepop) who happens to have a very intelligent Old English Sheepdog, a superintelligent robot powered by gumdrops, a very very awesome Ferrari, a secret laboratory hidden behind a steel door in her mansion, very strong opinions, and lots of interesting friends.
They are kind of seriously awesome.
Unfortunately, afaict, they were put out by a very tiny publisher sometime in the early 80s, and are almost impossible to find. We only had one, that we picked up used somewhere, #5: THE CHARACTER WHO CAME TO LIFE, but it's the one where Supergranny takes the kids on a visit to a Famous Black Female Writer friend of hers in Chicago wherein they all end up solving some very strange non-murders among the artistic crowd. I read it about fifty kajillion times before I turned 10 and my impression of Chicago is forever based on it.
(Maybe the best way to explain this book is imagine if you took the Dowager Duchess of Denver, dropped her in the American Midwest in the late '80s, gave her a bunch of James Bond technology and some sidekicks, and then let her go. Or maybe it's kind of like Pippi Longstocking if Pippi was American and in her late '60s. It's just sort of concentrated amazing really.)
Anyway, whenever Sadie Geraldine Oglepop goes to Chicago, there is the list of Regulars (which she *must* do) and the list of Major Optionals (which she must work through as much of as humanly possible.)
Here are the lists:
Regulars:
1. Rent bikes and cruise the lakeshore.
2. Have tea with Victoria Charmain at the Mayfair Regency Hotel. (this one is plot-related and sadly fictional, we'll have to make do with dinner with archeologists from Northwestern.)
3. Watch poison frogs at the Brookfield Zoo
4. Visit "Paris, A Rainy Day" at the Art Institute.
There are 147 major optionals, but the book only lists 14, and of those, I am mostly uninterested in the performances and the sports games (although seeing Wrigley Field might be cool):
6. Yeah, this one probably doesn't need *any* explaining. :P
I can't think of any other reason why there would be VELOCIRAPTORS with NO FEATHERS that were THE SIZE OF DEINONYCHOSAURS on an EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION PROGRAM in 20-freaking-12.
...anything involving Silurians continues to be adorable though. My first DW episode ever was a re-run of The Silurians when I was about ten. Adorable.
In unrelated news, I am 4000 words into a Community AU where they're all werewolves. No, your eyes don't deceive you, that isn't one of the fics I said I would be working on, but most of you've been around here long enough to know how my brain works, right?
I blame Teen Wolf fandom.
In other other news, on Monday we're leaving for Chicago to help get
stellar_dust settled in at Northwestern / take advantage of free crash space. In the time when we aren't moving furniture, I have to decide what to do. Help please?Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21
Things To See and Do In Chicago
View Answers
Do a tour of Dresden Files-relevant sites.
2 (9.5%)
Do a tour of dueSouth relevant sites
3 (14.3%)
Do a tour of Pinkwaterian relevant sites
0 (0.0%)
Find cool things from copperbadge's adventur posts
6 (28.6%)
Work through Supergranny's list of Regulars and Major Optionals
3 (14.3%)
Go to all of the used book stores. All of them.
5 (23.8%)
Something else I will tell you about in a comment.
2 (9.5%)
1. You probably know at least a little about Dresden Files if you've been reading here. It's that book series about the lady policewoman and the wizard apprentice and the fairy queens and the little-girl Archive etc. (If I did this one it would probably lean less to 'places that appear in the books' and more to 'places that are relevant to fic', let's be honest.)
2. dueSouth is that one with the Mountie! And the wolf! I probably don't need to explain much there actually.
3. Do you guys need an explanation of Pinkwater? I'm not sure there is one. But his classic books, while they don't take place in Chicago, do take place in large multiethnic industrial cities on the shores of Lake Mishagoo, so I am pretty sure I could patch together something if I had too.
4.
copperbadge lives in Chicago and has been writing about his quest to get out of his apartment and have adventurs in the city, all of which sound fascinating.5. Supergranny probably does need explanation. Okay. Supergranny is this series of children's mystery stories about this brother and sister who befriend the senior citizen who lives next door. An older lady (Sadie Geraldine Oglepop) who happens to have a very intelligent Old English Sheepdog, a superintelligent robot powered by gumdrops, a very very awesome Ferrari, a secret laboratory hidden behind a steel door in her mansion, very strong opinions, and lots of interesting friends.
They are kind of seriously awesome.
Unfortunately, afaict, they were put out by a very tiny publisher sometime in the early 80s, and are almost impossible to find. We only had one, that we picked up used somewhere, #5: THE CHARACTER WHO CAME TO LIFE, but it's the one where Supergranny takes the kids on a visit to a Famous Black Female Writer friend of hers in Chicago wherein they all end up solving some very strange non-murders among the artistic crowd. I read it about fifty kajillion times before I turned 10 and my impression of Chicago is forever based on it.
(Maybe the best way to explain this book is imagine if you took the Dowager Duchess of Denver, dropped her in the American Midwest in the late '80s, gave her a bunch of James Bond technology and some sidekicks, and then let her go. Or maybe it's kind of like Pippi Longstocking if Pippi was American and in her late '60s. It's just sort of concentrated amazing really.)
Anyway, whenever Sadie Geraldine Oglepop goes to Chicago, there is the list of Regulars (which she *must* do) and the list of Major Optionals (which she must work through as much of as humanly possible.)
Here are the lists:
Regulars:
1. Rent bikes and cruise the lakeshore.
2. Have tea with Victoria Charmain at the Mayfair Regency Hotel. (this one is plot-related and sadly fictional, we'll have to make do with dinner with archeologists from Northwestern.)
3. Watch poison frogs at the Brookfield Zoo
4. Visit "Paris, A Rainy Day" at the Art Institute.
There are 147 major optionals, but the book only lists 14, and of those, I am mostly uninterested in the performances and the sports games (although seeing Wrigley Field might be cool):
1. Rest of Art Institute
2. Chicago Cubs game
3. Field Museum
4. Aquarium
5. Museum of Science and Industry
6. Water Tower Place
7. Bears game
8. Schubert show
9. White Sox Game
10. Ballet
11. Tribune and Sun-Times newspaper tours (do these still exist?)
12. Cheeseburger at Billy Goat Tavern under Michigan Avenue
13. Top of John Hancock and/or Sears Tower
14. "El" train.
6. Yeah, this one probably doesn't need *any* explaining. :P
no subject
I was totally thinking about that when I was watching it but I'm not up on my Current Dinosaur Theories so I wasn't sure if I was wrong or they were.
no subject
And yeah, pretty much all two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs are pretty well proven to have been well feathered; there's still some debate on the huge ones (like T. Rex) over whether they might have lost them secondarily like elephants and rhinos lost their fur, but velociraptors *definitely* had feathery things. (And were never very big - the Jurassic Park ones were altered for cinematic reasons.)
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I am now regretting failing to do a Pinkwater tour. At minimum, The Education of Robert Nifkin is really set in Chicago.
no subject
And whether I do an organized Pinkwater tour or not, I know I will be bringing some Pinkwater to read, because, yes.
no subject
Re bookstores: Myopic Books in Wicker Park is the best. Large SF section. Friendly people. Cats.
no subject
yeah, that one is somewhat made difficult by the fact that dueSouth doesn't actually take place in Chicago. :D
no subject
Hot Doug's (there will be a line)
The Oriental Institute
The Museum of Science and Industry (this is quite close to the Oriental Institute)
and if you're up by Northwestern, I always really liked eating at Cozy (thai place with robots! On Davis St in between Oak & Maple)
no subject
no subject
Try this...
Also if you're sensitive to mystical energy and/or stupendous architecture, I highly recommend the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette. The gardens are probably beaten to death by the drought, but they may still be blooming a bit, and there are fountains outside as well.
Re: Try this...
Re: Try this...
Oh, and if you need to talk with the Divine, there's a direct connection in the center seat under the seal. It works for any religion.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Re: Raptors. Well, Utahraptor was big and I thought they had some pasted on feathers... of the pasted on kind. I'm pissed no one can ever get the hands right on theropods, though. REMEMBER KIDS, DINOSAURS WERE CLAPPERS NOT SLAPPERS.
no subject
however, this was the list I had, if you'd like some ideas:
Sue the dinosaur! (this is the #1 thing on the list)
O'Hare and Chicago Midway Airports
Chicago Police HQ
ball park (the one used in "Death Masks" - not sure which it is, so any would do)
park (not sure which park - if I find a specific name, I'll add that)
Field Museum and Native American Center
McCormick Place Complex (convention center)
North Avenue Beach
Northwestern Univ
Graceland Cemetery
North Shore Dr
St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church
Cook County Hospital (*which i think has a new name now)
Chicago skyline - any time of day
Bonus points if you can locate a 'Blue Beetle' that isn't so much 'blue' anymore as it is red and green and white and blue. ;)
-- obviously there could be quite a few more items in the list now that there are more books. =)