Thread: It's a great time for birding at Park 566, a 70-acre park. Looking at the entrance, you might not even realize it's a park. It's at 7901 S. Farragut Drive along DuSable Lake Shore Drive, on land that used to be part of U.S. Steel's South Works… chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-faciliti…


Visiting Park 566 on Saturday morning, I saw two bird species I've never seen before ("lifers" in birder lingo). One was a sedge wren.

There’s a bunch of these “I Support … My Andersonville” signs on Dover Street south of Lawrence Avenue. That’s Uptown or, if you prefer, Sheridan Park. Not Andersonville. Elsewhere in Uptown, I see a few “I Support … My Uptown” signs.

Work is underway on new landscaping around the Chicago History Museum, including an “interpretive path“ called the Jaffe History Trail. chicagohistory.org/history-trail/ Here's a map showing the planned Jaffe History Trail, opening later this year outside the Chicago History Museum. (I'm watching the Zoom presentation right now for museum members about this.)

I wonder if this is a remnant of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the "Current War"? This is on Jackson Park's Wooded Island. It says: "Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. Alternating System. Grimshaw Insulated Wire White Core." #ManholeCoverMonday The 1897 National Electrical Code manual includes a listing for "Grimshaw (White core) N.Y. Insulated Wire Co." linghunt.com/101Spearfishin…

Tonight’s “Fargo” had the season’s most obvious “Hey, that’s Chicago, not Kansas City!” moment — a big scene in Union Station. Here's how the TV series "Fargo" used Chicago's Union Station as the setting for a scene that was supposed to be Kansas City's Union Station.

According to @chicagotribune, Jim Oberweis has 558 more votes than Lauren Underwood in Illinois' 14th Congressional District, with 100% counted. chicagotribune.com/election-2020/… @chicagotribune The @Suntimes has the same numbers. "462 of 462 precincts reporting, or 100.0% precincts, according to Associated Press election results data." elections.suntimes.com/results/2020/

This wonderful image has been circulating — often without any credit about who created it. Here's the original Instagram post by artist Bria Goeller for Good Trubble: instagram.com/p/CHTJMbWBx6r/ A Google image search didn't show the original source. But I was able to figure it out because some people were crediting artist Kara Walker. She posted on Instagram, saying that it wasn't her. instagram.com/p/CHTX7x-LDQZ/…

THREAD: When I was researching this @WBEZCuriousCity story on Uptown's music venues, I delved into the history of North Clark Street. wbez.org/stories/from-c… Clark Street — formerly called Green Bay Road — was the main corridor through this area of unincorporated Lake View in the 1800s, lined by cemeteries, roadhouses, beer gardens, and picnic areas. Pictured: 1861 map loc.gov/resource/g4103…

I asked Little Richard a question at SXSW in 2004.
Q: "What's a typical day for Little Richard like these days?"
A: "Some days, it's 'whoa whoa.' Some days, it's 'woo woo.' Some days, it's 'boo boo.' It's hard being Little Richard. Sometimes I wonder how I made it." RIP Little Richard. I wrote this for @ThePioneerPress about his appearance at SXSW in 2004: web.archive.org/web/2004040401…

100 years ago next Saturday, July 27, was the beginning of Chicago's 1919 race riot, one of the most horrific events in the city's history. If you can get your hands on a copy of the August @chicagomag, you'll find a long narrative history I wrote about Chicago's 1919 race riot, including some never-before-published details. It'll be online later this week. Meanwhile, here are some other stories I recommend reading…

The University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis., plans to cease operations at the end of the month. I’m here to take one of the public tours — before my time runs out! “The Yerkes daytime tour programs end on Friday, September 28, 2018 until further notice.” astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/