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.

The Leaning Tower of Chicago

     If you were in River North early this morning, you may have noticed this peculiar sight:

     No, that's not some alien spaceship landing.  That is a water tower being taken down from the roof of a building at 409 W. Huron.  It sprung a leak on Friday afternoon, and spilled 18,000 Gallons of water on two neighboring buildings.  The tank was roughly 100 years old and had already failed an inspection, so it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.  Luckily, it was removed before it could cause any more damage.

Incompetence+Snow=Bad News for Bilandic

     We've just started crawling out of our holes we dug for ourselves to ride out the polar vortex, which seemed oddly familiar to the Blizzard of 1999.  A lot of us still remember slogging through piles and piles of snow during the Snowpocalypse.  But for those of us who've been around for a while, there is another year that looms large in the snow memories of Chicagoans, and that year is 1979.

     On January 13 of that year, the city was still trying to dig itself out from under 10 inches of snow that had fallen on New Year's Eve.  Those efforts were not helped at all by the fact that the city would be deluged with another 18.8 inches of snow over the next two days, including a record 16.5 inches just on the 13th.  This hindered many facets of the city, but most notably it impacted the efficiency of the CTA.  Several of the El cars were outfitted with plows that were capable of dealing with up to a foot of snow.  However, the combined total of 27 inches on the ground proved too much for the plows and the CTA had to think on their feet.  What they came up with was actually quite ingenious, and it consisted of cross-layered plywood planks up to 6" thick, which nicely circumvented the problem of running metal over the third rail.  The new plow cars were then released into the system, where they started clearing snow.  One hitch in the system proved to be the grade-level tracks, which were so clogged with snow that they improvised plows didn't so much clear the snow away as just pushed it under the car, which led to the majority of the snow actually being cleared away by the undercarriage of each car.  This wear and tear, along with the presence of salt on the rails, contributed to enhanced wear and tear on the motors of each car, which led to almost all of the motors blowing out within the next year.  The immediate toll on the CTA was burdensome as well, since some of the tracks didn't completely thaw out until the middle of March.  Beyond that, some lines didn't even recover mediocre levels of service until the end of January.

     The CTA was far from the only city department affected, with ripples being felt everywhere from the lack of plowing efficiency in the city, from the Fire and Police departments, to the streets team, to everybody in between.  Including Mayor Michael Bilandic.  Many folks blamed the ineptitude of the city's response on him(and it certainly didn't help when he gave an obtusely ham-handed response to the critics.)  His prime political opponent at the time was a woman by the name of Jane Byrne(who had been his colleague in the first Daley Administration), and Byrne took full advantage of this, because guess what?  1979 was an election year, and the primary was held less than a month and a half after the Blizzard.  Byrne managed to oust Bilandic, and went on to win the General Election.  Her administration featured typical Chicago business, the beginning of a legacy that still goes on every summer, and NO BLIZZARDS.

Scary Funny: The Svengoolie Legacy

     On April 30, 1954, KABC-TV in Los Angeles premiered a show featuring an unemployed actress named Maila Nurmi.  This show involved Ms. Nurmi playing a horror movie and providing selected commentary on it.  The idea proved to be a hit and was soon spreading across the country like wildfire.  Eventually, cities all across the country had their own horror movie hosts.  And then Chicago got its hands on the concept.

     In September of 1970, WFLD rolled out Screaming Yellow Theater, featuring former WCFL DJ Jerry G. Bishop as the host, Svengoolie.  The original show ran for 3 years before being cancelled in favor of The Ghoul from Cincinatti, but not before inaugurating its own style of humor, one that would be pretty much maintained even up till the present day.  To appreciate Svengoolie humor, you really need to see it.  And so, here you are:

     In 1979, the show was brought back with Rich Koz as the Son of Svengoolie, which ran until 1986, when it was cancelled amidst the founding of the FOX network.  On December 31, 1994 the show made its triumphant return to Chicago television on WCIU, where it remains to this day.  In 2011, Svengoolie was broadcast nationally for the first time as part of the Me-TV network.  In 2013, Svengoolie came out with an updated design for the coffin the character stays in during the show, ensuring that the show will go on tickling the funny bones of Chicagoans for years to come.

2014: A New Beginning and A New Plan.

     So it's January 10.  By now we've finished all those extra choruses of Auld Lang Syne, recovered from our New Year's Eve shenanigans, and put our my light-up Happy New Year hat[s](yes I really do own one, and yes it's pretty much the best thing ever) away until December 31, 2014.  Since we've finished ringing in the year, it's about time to start living it, wouldn't you say?  And to that end, Chicago 365 is gearing up for another successful year.  I've made a few minor tweaks for this year, so stay tuned.  First off, I'm keeping up with the same kind of content you've come to know and enjoy, and reflecting on a case of weather déjà vu, learning about one cause for the Cubs' future return to the Promised Land, and talking about one of our musical treasures seems like a good place to start to me.

     But we're going to be doing so much more this year.  The first difference you're probably going to notice will be at the beginning of next month.  To commemorate the Sochi Games, I will be running a companion blog solely dedicated to talking about the Games and what is going on with them each day.  Other than that, I'm planning on making this blog an even bigger deal, putting in more interviews, and putting out even more good content.  But the summer is what I am really excited for(and you should be too).  I'm not sure if I want to completely tip my hand at the current moment, but let me just say that if you want to know (and have) a Chicago summer like no other, then you should definitely plan to check my blog every day between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  With all of that laid out, 2014 promises to be yet another great year of learning and exploring about our great city.

Chi-Town's Dreamgirl

     If any of you happened to be watching the People's Choice Awards on Wednesday, you may have seen Jennifer Hudson get presented with the award for "Favorite Humanitarian".  That award was only the culmination in a long path which has taken Jennifer Hudson from the streets of Chicago to the red carpets of Hollywood.  In case you've been living under a rock since 2004(and if you have been, boy have you missed out on a lot) here is a quick summation of the career of Jennifer Kate Hudson:

• 2004: Auditions for Season 3 of American Idol, makes it to the Top 7 before getting eliminated(interestingly enough, she would later be cited by the LA Times in May 2010 as the 3rd best Idol contestant ever).
• November 2005: Hudson is cast in the upcoming movie Dreamgirls
• Fall 2006: Hudson announces plans for her first solo album, which would finally be released 2 years later.
• January 12, 2007: Dreamgirls hits theatres, earns rave reviews, and earns Hudson the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
• September 30, 2008: Hudson finally releases her self-titled debut album, which debuts at #2 on the charts.
• October 24, 2008: Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew are murdered in Chicago.  The assailant turns out to be William Balfour, the estranged ex-husband of Hudson's sister. This incredible tragedy is given a thin silver lining with the creation of the Julian D. King Foundation, which has served to improve the lives of Chicago's youth.

     Since her tragic loss, Hudson has soared to new heights, releasing a second album, having a child, an continuing her meteoric rise.  But it is her actions with her charitable foundation that have brought her her newest accolade.  As noted above, Hudson won the 2014 People's Choice Award for Favorite Humanitarian thanks to her work with the King Foundation.  But for those who knew her best, the award proved unsurprising.  "Even back in High School" her former music teacher said, "she would share things with other students."  Quite an auspicious start for a woman who continues to bless us all with her talent, grace, and generosity.