Don't You Forget about Maine North High School

     I was cruising the interwebs(aka: Facebook) today and happened upon this picture right here:

     That is a picture of the establishing shot of The Breakfast Club, and while I will admit that at first I thought this might have been another Back To The Future situation(no matter what anybody tells you Marty McFly does not come back to the future until OCTOBER 21, 2015) but then I went ahead and checked it for myself, and this is 100% true.  Roll tape:

     In the pantheon of films shot in Chicago, The Breakfast Club is a member of the Hall of Fame.  It was one of the John Hughes Brat Pack films, which means that this is about as stereotypically 80s as you can get.  Originally the studio didn't want Hughes to even direct the film, as they didn't feel him experienced enough(even though this was after Sixteen Candles had come out, so go figure.)  Eventually they relented, and the film was shot.  As had become Hughes' trademark, the film was shot in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago.  This time the action took place at "Shermer High School", which was actually the decommissioned Maine North High School over in Des Plaines.

     Built in the middle of a population surge in Maine Township, the school was built in 1970.  After things had leveled off, the school district had too many schools and too few students.  After a furious push by the other high schools in the district to stay open, Maine North was left the odd man out and closed after the 1980-81 school year.  When John Hughes wanted to film his new film there, he was given access to the empty building to do so.  After production on the film wrapped, Hughes came back again 2 years later to film Ferris Buehler's Day Off.  Today the building still stands, and is in use as an office for the Illinois State Police, among other things.

The Year of The Cub

     If you're in Wrigleyville, and you happen to be looking at the vatrious rooftops along Sheffield Avenue, you may notice one in particular.

     This is its story.  The Lakeview Baseball Club has been a Wrigleyville staple since the 1980s.  In the mid-90s, they started hanging a sign out in front of the club(visible from Wrigley Field)  One of the signs reads "Eamus Catuli!", which is an approximate Latin translation of "Let's Go Cubs!"  But then there are also a series of numbers right next to the phrase that have their own significance.  As of now they read AC0568105.  What do they mean?

     First off, AC is an abbreviation for Anno Catuli(yup, more Latin), which means "In the Year of The Cubs".  The first number signify how long since the Cubs have won their division, the second number tells how long since they made it to the World Series, and the third number signifies how long since they've gone all the way.  So, 05 represents the number of years since 2008, our last division title.  68 represents the number of years since 1945, our last world Series berth.  And 105 represents the number of years since 1908, our last...you get the idea.

     So on that glorious night when we finally do win it all, Cubs fans everywhere will be dancing in the street, toasting those players of old, and thanking Chiune Sugihara.  But they will also be milling about the Lakeview Baseball Club, waiting for the glorious moment those numbers read AC000000.

Swimmy Fallon

     In the summer of 2013, somewhere in between Corey Crawford's open-mike spectacular in Hutchinson Field and Neon Trees tearing it up in Butler Field, the city of Chicago held its annual reading program.  At that point, Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to heat up the competition a little bit and vowed that if the members of the program read more than 2 Million books he would jump into Lake Michigan. At a Polar Plunge. In March(brrrr).  Well, the little kiddies held up their end of the deal, so Rahm had to hold up his end of the deal.

     Fast forward now to February, when Jimmy Fallon takes over the Tonight Show.  Word reaches Mayor Emanuel that Fallon wants him on his new show, and so he got on the horn with Fallon and invited him to plunge alongside him.  Fallon took him up on the offer, and he did.  Yesterday the annual Polar Plunge was held to benefit Special Olympics Chicago.  Fallon was there, Emanuel was there, and so were about 3,000 other brave and hardy souls.  But not just that, there were also throngs of spectators present to try and catch a glimpse of Fallon and Emanuel jumping into the lake.  To start things off, Emanuel took a dip, and this is what he looked like when he came out:

     After that, Jimmy Fallon's turn was up, and he went into the lake in a full suit.  Here he is coming out:

     All told, it was a successful morning, and yet another occasion to put Chicago on the map.