September | 2026 | Been There, Seen That

This evening, Ann said she was going to see Coyote vs. Acme. I will ask her about it later. Good idea — and I understand its inspiration is the hilarious Ian Frazier piece — but it could be awful in execution. Happens a lot.

Could Road Runner cartoons be a Buddhist parable? The Coyote seeks satisfaction in the world, in pursuing goals, but is rewarded with constant frustration, since in a world of impermanence, simple peace of mind is impossible, much less nirvana. Acme, that is to say society, provides the Coyote tools for pursuing his goals that he inevitably believes will work, but which inevitably do not. He learns nothing from the experience.

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You could say that Dick Tracy considers Groundhog Day an upstart when it comes to Woodstock. The comic strip detective has a distinct place in Woodstock history, since DT creator Chester Gould drew all of them from 1931 to 1977 at his home in the town, where he also stayed until his death in 1985.

Previously, there was a small museum devoted to Dick Tracy in Woodstock. On September 26, 2005, I wrote: “It’s a handsomely restored 19th-century brick building, now housing an art gallery, a restaurant (in the former jail) and the Chester Gould-Dick Tracy Museum. Only $2 to get in that museum, but the family was waiting in the car during my inspection of the inside of the former courthouse, so I merely looked in. Even when I was a kid, Dick Tracy seemed like a comic in amber, so I didn’t feel a great urge to go in. Someday I’ll go, maybe, just for curiosity’s sake.”

That day never arrived, and I believe the demise of the museum was around the time of the economic disruptions of 2008 and ’09. On the other hand, the day did arrive for a visit, sort of, when we went into the old McHenry County courthouse on Saturday. Dick Tracy is even more of a bug in amber than ever, though it is still being published, with a small exhibit on the first floor given over to the comic and the former museum.

Including posters that detail character introductions through the run of the Gould strip from 1931 to 1977. I have to say that my knowledge of Dick Tracy characters is meager.

A detail.

Tracy also gets his Woodstock due on the same wall as the Groundhog Day mural.

Hey, there was a Dick Tracy movie too! Of course I remember it. Saw it on a transcontinental bus ride in ’91. A long-distance bus that had video. A novelty. That was in Australia. Madonna turned out to be the villain? The movie didn’t make much of an impression.

Back in 1858, someone bothered to take a photography of the spanking-new McHenry County, Illinois, courthouse – and what a bother it must have been, considering the state of camera tech at the time. Then again, it wasn’t like the photographer had to tell the building to be still.

Here in 2026, point and shoot.

The design of John Mills Van Osdel (d. 1891), described by Wiki as the first Chicago architect. Is that so, I wondered? Whatever I’d read about him – and I did a fair amount of reading about Chicago history when I lived in the city for the first time – had long since evaporated. Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men in Chicago, Photographically Illustrated by John Carbutt (1868) tells the Van Osdel story, and quite a story it is.

The first mayor of Chicago, William Ogden, hired him to build structures in the infant metropolis, and soon Van Osdel was designing them, too. This was back in the days when someone could learn to build buildings from a builder father and later reinvent himself as an autodidact architect, with all sorts of 19th-century ups and downs along the way.

Next door, a smaller building, but also handsome.

Formerly where the McHenry County sheriff lived, with a jail in the basement. Now home to KellerHaus, a local brewery and restaurant.

County government moved out of the building more than 50 years ago, to someplace less aesthetic but not too bad. Later, Woodstock Square (my guess would be late 19th century) took its present form, a green crossed by sidewalks.

The park is home to a gazebo. And a bandstand. Or two gazebos or two bandstands. Authorities disagree about which is which, and entire academic careers have been staked on determining the difference. Or not, I made that up.