FlaSoxxJim

I'd be right there with you if I was in town. Great cause. I'd rather be in warm water, but having to get into cold-ass water is sometimes one of the hazards of my occupation. I spent an hour trudging around waste deep in 51ºF water without a wet suit a couple of weeks ago looking for a certain species of crab for a new display at our public visitor center. Of course that crabs were smarter than was and had all moved into warmer water! My legs were numb for a couple of hours after that.

Zelda Rubinstein, the 4-foot-3-inch character actor best known as Tangina, the psychic who tries to calm a family inhabiting a haunted house in the 1982 horror film "Poltergeist," has died. She was 76.

I totally miss wrapping my newborn kids up as tight little baby burritos in those hospital blankets. My wife couldn't roll a baby burrito for s***e, but but I rolled 'em up good and snug, they stayed good and snug.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 11:02 PM) Amazing Diner. Ingredients always made from scratch, never out of the freezer, quite possibly the highest quality 24 hour diner i have ever been to. Went to high school just up the road at Ignatius, so we'd hit it up regularly if we weren't already blowing our money on Al's Beef or Mario's Italian Lemonade. I've never had grilled hash browns as good anywhere else as White Palace. I miss Chicago food so much right now.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:35 PM) What about places for when you're drunk? I am jonesing for a slinger right now from the Diner Grill on Irving Park... White Palace Grill on Canal and Roosevelt and Lawrence's Fish Market were first choice. Harold's Chicken or Rosie's Gyros worked as well. Fox's thin crust was not me favorite but it's right up there, and the one on Western used to be open late enough for a drunk pizza.

Cheating and going off the diet a little before the weekend, the wife and I just did a little bit of a margarita throwdown. I couldn't locate any Marie Brizard but I did trade up from DeKypur to Bols on the Triple Sec. In side-by-side tastings, I give a slight nod to Bols, but it mar not be worth the $5 difference. Then again, a bottle of triple sec gets used an ounce at a time or less so $5 more won't kill me. For kicks, we mixed up a cheapo happy hour 'rita with decent tequila — El Jimador Blanco — which is a bargain 100% de agave tequila at $20. The good tequila made the cheapo-rita drinkable, but just barely. Next we compared two hand-mixed fresh lime margaritas in a 2:1:1:0.5 proportion of tequila:lime juice:triple sec:agave syrup, with the difference between the two being the tequila we used. Used the El Jimador Blanco in one, and Sauza Commerativo Anejo in the other — which I think is another decent $20 tequila but it's not 100% de agave. On tastinge the two, my wife immediately figured out it was the aftertaste of the Sauza that she wasn't liking the other night. I think aftertaste has negative connotations so I ill talk about the finish flavors of the drink, but I did agree that I liked the finish of the El Jimador mix better than the Commerativo. In the admittedly limited scholarly sipping of god tequila that I've done (being the rum guy and all), I know I usually prefer reposado and anejo teqilas to the young blancos, so I don't know if the preference for the blanco here is because it's 100% agave or not. El Jimador also makes a value-priced 100% agave reposado, so we'll have to get a bottle of that and make the more meaningful comparisons of he two El Jimador tequilas. I wish good tequilas were not as expensive as they are, because I just can't afford them unless I gave up the rums. I'm enjoying the brief margarita detour at any rate, even if it's not on the diet.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 03:12 PM) That ending was classic. What's not to love? I sort of agree on the ending, mostly due to the fact that it was too abrupt to be suspenseful like other Hitchcock films. Contrast that ending with the Mt. Rushmore ending in North by Northwest, or the Statue of Liberty ending from Saboteur (Dang, Hitch really did like precarious heights and long falls in his film climaxes) and I'd say Vertigo's ending was the weakest and least suspenseful of the three. Saboteur was done in 1942. What a phenomenal job they did on that Statue of Liberty set for being almost 70 years ago.

J D Salinger dead at 91

Swingtown

Urbana

Wiltshire

"Otisburg...? Otisburg!?!!"

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:05 AM) Phil's Pizza on 35th and Aberdeen. I'm used to how good it is by now, but whenever I have people in town from other areas of the country, they love it. Flaxx, what the hell is a fried ketchup taco? It's what I call the Janson's/Snyder's taco. . . seasoned ground beef, lettuce and pump cheese in a soft taco shell with a sauce that I'm pretty sure is just ketchup that they fold up and pop into the fryer. Sounds nasty I know, but they are really good! Oh, I need to ad Al's on Taylor Street near UIC as my pick for best Chicago beef. Then walk down the street for an Italian Ice at Mario's. Mmmm.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:04 AM) Only if they take California with them... The Pacific Ocean has dibs on California when it breaks away from the rest of the country.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) thanks flaxx but i wasn't talking about soxtalk mgmt. Rather the incessant posting from Rongey criticizing anyone who doesn't think the white sox management is acting in the most rational sane course, and when he gets a chance to, he acts for ESPNs. My mistake, I thought you were fomenting dissent in order to start some sort of mob riot.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 07:16 AM) Ranger is there any topic where you don't completely defer to management? Maybe I'm just a company shill, but I think management around here does alright by us and it wouldn't hurt to follow established posting guidelines to keep them out of any possible trouble. I for one embrace our new insect overlords.

Glad to have you back home, and sincere thank you for your service to our nation. Man, we all love these threads when they pop up. I'd probably be 400 pounds if I didn't move away from Chicago 20 years ago. Many of my recommendations are from way back in the day, so others can jump in if places have gone downhill or disappeared altogether. For good lowbrow eats here are some of my favorites: Burgers and Shakes: Top Notch on 95th St. in Beverly Hotdogs: Fat Johnniies, 74th and Western Crazy fast food joint with good dogs, burgers, banana shakes, cheese fries, fried ketchup tacos, etc.: Janson's Drive-In, 99th and Western. Seafood, mostly fried with killer breading and hot sauce: Lawrence's Fisheries, 21st and Canal St. Pizza: Everyone ha their favorites (See the current "Don't Like in Chicago" thread) , but Lou Malnati's seems to be a universal fave here. My favorite burrito and gyro joints have closed, so someone else can fill in those gaps. Lindy's Chili at 36th and Archer is worth a pilgrimage if you haven't been. I'm a Harold's Chicken nut, but it's not everybody's cup of meat. Mmmm gizzards in hot sauce with white soppin' bread. . . Athena or Greek Islands in Greektown if you've never been. A must do Sox Fan pilgrimage to Miler's Pub on Wabash if you haven't. Walking around the city with a big bag of hot caramel and chedder mixed popcorn from Garrett's popcorn on a cold day is something I miss. That's al I got off the top of my head.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 11:35 PM) Why can I find anything apple makes, for like half the price from other places? Why would I pay 1000+ for a macbook when I can pay like 600 for a laptop from Dell with windows. They overprice everything they make, but I can't blame them because for some reason people buy the stuff. What I meant by no one needing it is I don't need a new ipod everytime a new generation comes out. I'm sure Ipad 2.0 isn't that far away because they always come out with new stuff for people to buy when the old ones are still perfectly capable. Because if you didn't you'd be stuck running Windows.

I like Midori in some things but I haven't had a Midori margarita. A margarita made with a splash of Chambord is nice. And I had one at the killer Tequila Cava at EPCOT made with St. Germain elderflower liqueur that was exceptional. I'm almost out of Triple Sec so I'll splurge on the next bottle and get Marie Brizard and not cheapo DeKuyper. Then if I make up a straight-up classic 'rita and the wife makes her icky face, then I know I should just stick with Cuervo and the lime-aid antifreeze-looking margarita mix for her.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:28 PM) Meters? You communist. Eh, I translated into English units for the unwashed masses.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:33 PM) I wouldn't think it was that long ago. How far did they get down? ~10,900 meters (6.7 miles).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:04 PM) Man, and I was actually planning to be there for those. Guess we'll hit up a Sox game instead. They're in Texas on July 3rd/4th.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 01:23 PM) Challenger Deep? Yep, Piccard and Walsh in the Trieste, 50 years ago last week.

Been doing the same thing — no drinkies during the week to cut calories, and then rewarding ourselves on the weekend. Then stoopid Alton Brown had back-to-beck Good eats episodes on Sunday that spotlighted margaritas and traditional punches and so of course we had to mix up and compare several things for scholarly . . . *hic!* . . . purposes. I'd actually like to talk margaritas with any folks who have dabbled more extensively than I. An all-juice/no orange liqueur margarita that Alton made was very good. My wife usually dislikes the overly orangey margaritas (which is fine because I don't have to keep expensive Grand Marnier stocked at home), but she liked the Alton one. And she'll suck down the cheapo happy hour margaritas out at restaurants unless they're awful. On the other hand, I much prefer a straight-up hand-mixed margarita with blanco or reposado tequila (100% agave if the price is right), fresh lie uice, triple sec, and agave syrup to sweeten — that just tastes like a "real" margarita to me compared to the happy hour lime-aid mass mixed deals my wife likes. Still, when she tries scratch margaritas that I think are very god she usually complains about this or that aftertaste. Drives me nuts. So anyway. . . triple sec, Cointreau, or Grand Marnier. . . what do others see as the more traditional liqueur for a margarita?

12 human beings have walked on the moon, while only two human beings have traveled to and spent time at the deepest spot in the oceans. Is that effed up or what?