The Former McLean County Courthouse

Posted on January 31, 2023 by admin

Now we’re in the pit of winter. Temps last night and into the morning dipped below zero Fahrenheit for some hours and didn’t rise much higher than positive single digits afterward. As of posting time, it’s 3 degrees F. hereabouts. But at least the roads aren’t iced over, as they are in parts of the South.

As far as I’m concerned, zero Fahrenheit is the gold standard for cold, as 100 F. is for heat. Thus demonstrating the genius of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit when it came to thermometry, though I don’t disparage those other men of science, Anders Celsius or William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin or even William Rankine.

Temps (F) weren’t quite as cold when I took Ann back to Normal on Sunday, and there was no snow, so the traveling along I-55 was easy enough. Once I’d dropped her off, I took note of the fact that it was still light. So I headed to downtown Bloomington, where I’ve spent some wintertime moments, and took a look at the former McLean County Courthouse, now home to the McLean County Museum of History.

Impressive. Design credit is given to a Peoria firm, Reeves and Baillie, who were busy in their time, it seems.

This is the third – or fourth – building on the site, depending on whether you count the restoration following a major fire 1900 (the small image is post-fire). Whatever the count, the building took its current form in the first years of the 20th century, and remained an actual courthouse until 1976.

For the last 30 years or so, the museum has occupied all four floors of the place. Ann told me she and some friends went there one day earlier this semester and found it worth the visit. I would have gone in, but it’s closed on Sundays. So I had to content myself with the sights to be seen circumambulating the building.

Such as war memorials.

It took considerably longer to get around to this one.

In Illinois, Lincoln Was Here plaques are plentiful.

Looks like Lincoln is still in Bloomington. Bronze Lincoln anyway, and those are plentiful in the Land of Lincoln too. Of course they are.

By local artist Rick Harney and dedicated in 2000. That’s the bearded, presidential Lincoln, so one that never actually would have made an appearance in Bloomington, but never mind. Lincoln is Lincoln.

Ddukbokki &c

Posted on January 30, 2023 by admin

Heavy snow on Saturday, but not a blizzard. Not so much that we couldn’t visit the Korean barbecue restaurant Koreana at Ann’s request, just as we did last year.

We had barbecue, of course, cooked on the grill that the waiter is lighting above, but we also ordered a dish we didn’t have last time, ddukbokki. Glad I made note of that name.

“These days, ddukbokki most often refers to spicy stir-fried rice cakes: pleasantly chewy logs smothered in a fiery red, gochujang-based sauce, often accompanied by sliced fishcakes or crunchy vegetables, dotted with scallions and sesame seeds, and topped with an egg,” the Food Network explains.

Despite the national egg shortage – I like to think the chickens are on strike, but actually a lot of them are simply dead — the restaurant didn’t short us on the egg.

“It’s commonly found at street food stalls or bunsik shops peppered all throughout Korea’s neighborhoods, granting hungry citizens easy access at any time of day,” FN continues. “Stateside, it’s been popping up at Korean food courts, pubs and even at local corner shops.”

Good to know. It’s a fine food for winter, spicy but not too spicy, chewy but not too chewy.

On the way to Koreana, we stopped at a favorite grocery store source for pie (and the birthday candles for the pie). While passing the liquor section, I noticed this.

That’s a thing? Apparently so. More than one brand. I didn’t know that, but I’m not a whiskey-drinkin’ man. In any case, I’m not planning to buy any.

Two Decades for Ann

Posted on January 29, 2023 by admin

Ann came home for the weekend, riding Amtrak from Normal to Summit on Friday night. I drove her back today. We’d be glad to see her any time, but there was an occasion: the weekend closest to her 20th birthday.

Her birthday pie.

The cliché is that children grow up fast, but it’s just a cliché. Twenty years is a fair chunk of time for anyone.

“Maybe you can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain, but there are a lot more interesting places to go in later decades, metaphorically and literally,” I wrote about Lilly five-plus years ago. The same goes for Ann.

Stepping Off the Orange

Posted on January 26, 2023 by admin

Since I gave generative AI a whirl in creating text last week, it seemed only reasonable that I give one of the image-oriented generative AI sites a try too. First I consulted its FAQ page about copyright. The verbiage is weaselly indeed, but since this is such a new frontier in copyright, I suppose that can’t be helped. It said:

AI-generated images may not be subject to copyright protection in some jurisdictions.

You will have the rights to sell the images and use them privately or commercially (provided that they do not include any third-party content that is protected by copyrights or trademarks), but you might not have the exclusive right to use them and to exclude others from doing so. For more information about your specific rights, we advise you to contact a local counsel.

What local counsel would know? Anyway, with that in mind, my prompt was a bit of nonsense that I dreamed up in college, not anything borrowed from anyone else. How did I come up with it? After 40+ years, that eludes me. No matter.

Playing shot glass checkers at a bowling alley while watching [an old horror movie] on big-screen TV.

The original phrasing actually included the title of a well-known mid-century B&W movie, but to be absolutely sure I’m not stepping on any copyright, I’m omitting it here. Considering the images the AI made, it would be impossible to guess the title, unless there’s something I’m missing.

Anyway, the AI brain spit out three images, which are posted here unretouched.

Underwhelming, I’d say, but give the brain time. The faces are especially bizarre. Still inhabitants of uncanny valley, looks like.

Then I pulled another bit of nonsense from my past – a little after college, I think – but I don’t remember the context. The phrase stuck with me, though.

Death is like stepping off the orange.

So I fed that into the AI. With a little adjustment, the first one could be an album cover.

Again, give it time. What we really need, though, is an AI 3D printer that will make anything and everything. A replicator. Talk about disruption.

Arthur C. Clarke posited such a machine in his book Profiles of the Future, as I recall. Once you made the first one, you could have a limitless supply of them, as they replicated themselves. As he says in this 1964 clip, such a machine would sink the world into “gluttonous barbarism,” though he also notes that human beings are “almost infinitely adaptable.”

Interesting that he used the term replicator. Just another thing that Star Trek borrowed, unless it was a coincidental naming.

It Reminds Me That Winter Will Last A Good While Longer

Posted on January 25, 2023 by admin

Sure enough, overnight as forecast, the first sizable snow fell since the fun we had around Christmastime. I packed a camera when I was out shoveling this morning.

Been documenting snow on plants for quite a while now. Nothing quite compares to the towering honey locust in the back yard.

Not much wind. That makes it tolerable. Winter winds are sharp, but not quite as much as certain other things, as we’re reminded in As You Like It.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
  Thou art not so unkind
     As man’s ingratitude;
  Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
     Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
  Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
     This life is most jolly.

  Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
  That dost not bite so nigh
     As benefits forgot:
  Though thou the waters warp,
     Thy sting is not so sharp
     As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly…

It Reminds Me That Summer Will Be Back

Posted on January 24, 2023 by admin

Flickering out in the night in my back yard, near the deck, is a solar lantern. I’m a little surprised it glows in the winter, but apparently it gets the juice it needs from the limited amount of sunlight that the day provides.

Back in the summer of 2021, we acquired a set of lanterns, one a tabletop light, the other designed to top out a pole of about three feet. Same box, same manufacturer. They both glowed by night for a few weeks, but then the tabletop unit failed. Being a cheap Middle Kingdom-made item, we didn’t bother with a return.

The stick stands with a lean that has proven hard to straighten, so I let it lean.

The light itself has soldiered on this year and a half.

Rubble on Lunt Avenue

Posted on January 23, 2023 by admin

Less than two weeks ago, we got word of a fire in Schaumburg, in a part of the village populated mostly by light industrial, vehicle repair shops and the like. This nondescript building, seen in 2019 by a Google imaging vehicle, had burned.

This weekend, just out of idle curiosity, we drove by to take a look at the site.

I don’t want to be pessimistic about this, but it looks like a total loss to me.

Ty Warner Park

Posted on January 22, 2023 by admin

As Januaries go, this one has been fairly mild so far. Some days of rain, though we got a little snow early this morning that partly melted during the day. No blast of cold air is predicted for tomorrow, but there will be a deeper chill soon enough.

Two years ago, we took a walk in Bemis Woods, which displayed more snow then than it would this year. On the way home, we stopped at Ty Warner Park in Westmont. I can’t remember why. Just feeling nostalgic, I guess, since we used to take small children to play there, and in more recent years, return for the July 4 fireworks.

Ty Warner, as in the Beanie Baby billionaire, who once had his HQ in Westmont and who made a sizable donation to help create the park.

Our personal nostalgia really kicked in at the spray park and the play trains. The girls enjoyed both, though typically in the summer.

I’d forgotten the gazebo.

Shows you how old I’m getting. How could I forget the gazebo?

More Fun With ChatGPT

Posted on January 19, 2023 by admin

Question (entered January 16, 2023): What does Dees Stribling write?

Generative AI Answer (all sic):

Dees Stribling is a journalist and author who writes about real estate and related topics. He is known for his work as a reporter, editor, and commentator on the commercial real estate industry, covering a wide range of subjects including real estate finance, property markets, and commercial property development.

[So far, so good.]

He writes primarily for Bisnow, where he covers commercial real estate news and trends, including office leasing, retail, industrial and multifamily markets, commercial real estate finance, and investment trends.

[Correct.]

In addition to his journalism, Stribling has also written several books, including “The Rise of the Creative Class” and “The New Urban Crisis” which look at the economic, social and cultural changes that shape the nation’s cities.

[Books? Books? Where on Earth did — never mind, I’ve never written any books. In this paragraph, AI has gone off the rails, confusing its facts in a way no human would, except on purpose. The Rise of the Creative Class, incidentally, is a 2002 book by Richard Florida. I don’t think I’ve ever been mistaken for him before. Or will be again. The New Urban Crisis is a newer work (2017) by Florida.]

Overall, Dees Stribling writes about commercial real estate and related topics, including property markets, real estate finance, and commercial property development, for various publications and also authored books on the topic of urban development and real estate.

Correct, until it isn’t.

Also note, no mention of any of the many other pubs I wrote for as a freelancer for a dozen years, or my writing before that — much it is probably still online somewhere. Or BTST for that matter, which may be nonprofessional, but it’s had my name on it for nigh on 20 years, or since the Internet bronze age, I think. And nothing about my many postcards. Of course, that would be hard to know unless you know me well. AI would have to contact me, or some of my friends, to ascertain that, but how would it know to do that?

The Bronze Giraffe

Posted on January 18, 2023 by admin

Took Ann back to school on Sunday. Mostly a straightforward shot down to Normal and back, with one small detour. A stop to see Maybelline and Charley.

At least, that’s what paper signs taped to their necks called them. They can be found at the Bronze Giraffe Antiques.

The shop is in a grocery-anchored strip center just off I-55 in Normal, next to the grocery store in fact. Ann needed a few items for her room, so we stopped at the grocery. Then we took a peek at the antique store.

I liked the place. Not only stuff in profusion, some neatly arrayed on shelves and tables between partitions – as you often see at antique malls – but some spots as cluttered as an old-timer’s garage. Was there ever any mention of a garage on Fibber McGee & Molly? It surely would have shared some jumbled characteristics with the famed closet.

To be fair, most of the cubicles were less cluttered. But whatever the organization, there were oddities to see. For instance, a bath toy of some vintage.

The bartender in Hell.

“Horseshoe ornaments.”

A Nativity set with a few additional characters.

And Whiz Kids. It was a publication I’d never heard off.

In a rack of third-string titles? I don’t know comics well enough to know for sure, but I have my suspicions.

TV Tropes has a short description of Whiz Kids.

“The Tandy Computer Whiz Kids series was a series of promotional comics published by Radio Shack from 1980 to 1991, and produced initially by DC Comics, then later by Archie Comics. In them, the two titular Whiz Kids, Alec and Shanna, teach their class (and by extension, the audience) about Tandy computer products and occasionally other topics (substance abuse, child kidnappers, environmentalism, etc.).

“They [the Whiz Kids] love school and learning, spend their summer vacations doing charity work and/or something educational, and help the police catch criminals out of a sense of civic duty.

“Alec and Shanna seem more interested in the educational software for the computers they promote than any video games that the computers may have.”

Well, that sounds bad. Nothing I saw in my quick look at the issue made me think otherwise.

Just before we left, I asked the clerk about the bronze giraffes, which are prominently placed at the front of the store. A whim of the previous owner, she said. If you don’t have some whimsy at your antique store, you might as well hang it up.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling

Monthly Archives: January 2023