:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 ::

Taxi change update

It seems that the Sun-Times covered the rule change on March 14, 2006.
:: Ray 12:16 PM [+] ::
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Taxi change

Since before I moved to Chicago in 1989, taxis here have had taxi lights consisting of a backlit car number with "NOT FOR HIRE" signs on each side, switched separately from the number light. There were variations on how peaked or square the plastic housing was, but the basic configuration was uniform.



While it was sometimes annoying to try to flag a cab from a distance, only to notice that the "not for hire" lights were on as it got closer, these taxi lights were one of the subtle things that differentiated Chicago streetscapes from other cities, notably New York, with its backlit billboard taxi lights.

These distinctive lights are going away. Recently I have seen increasing numbers of taxis with the "not for hire" lettering blacked out. This, by itself, is not a terrible thing, and it certainly reduces any confusion over whether a cab is available or not: light on, yes; light off, no.



A change like this requires a change in city regulations. Sure enough, Crain's Chicago Business reports that on February 8, the city council passed a fairly sweeping taxi ordninance. Unfortunately, its taxi light provision wasn't aimed at reducing confusion for Chicago citizens so much as increasing revenue for taxi companies by permitting backlit advertising for the first time. Now, more and more of our taxis look look just like the ones in New York.



The taxi companies may make more money, but if you ask me, Chicagoans are worse off for it. As I have written about before, we already endure such a constant barrage of advertising in our lives...do we really need yet another bit of visual clutter to have to filter out of our consciousness? I do not suggest that taxi roofs are sacred ground, or that we should somehow cloister ourselves in a commercial-free environment, but I can't help but wonder if one day we will wake up completely surrounded by advertising, unable to escape it and its influence.
:: Ray 1:48 PM [+] ::
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Raspberry cake

Yesterday, Mary and I helped a friend bake a cake from scratch for a family event. AJ doesn't cook, so by "help" I mean that I baked two layers of yellow cake, while Mary and she made raspberry buttercream frosting.

I have never made cake from scratch before, so I went to the FoodTV site and found a basic yellow cake recipe. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. I will definitely try it again soon, if only to see how it tastes. The cake was for an occasion and needed to remain whole, so we didn't get to try any!

By the time the cake was frosted, it was obvious that it was not a store-bought cheat, but just to make sure there was no doubt, AJ had a little bit of fun decorating:


:: Ray 11:56 PM [+] ::
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Nasty wings

Yesterday, while out and about in the car, I needed a quick lunch. On occasion in such a situation, I buy fast food (but not McDonald's, which I have avoided since reading Fast Food Nation). I had seen TV ads for KFC's new "boneless buffalo wings" and decided to try them. Silly me.

Right after pulling away from the drive-up window, I sniffed a few times and thought, did my wife put a bag of trash in the car? I kid you not, the new KFC wings smell like a plastic bag of warm, stale garbage, with a bonus of cigarette ashes.

I was hungry, so I ate them anyway. They tasted inoffensively enough, like mcnuggets coated in syrupy, black peppery "barbecue" sauce, but the smell really was fetid. KFC needs to have a chat with the flavoring guys in New Jersey that designed this product. I don't see how it ever got to market smelling like that. Yuck.

In summary, KFC's boneless buffalo wings: highly disrecommended.
:: Ray 3:58 PM [+] ::
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Democracy, not aristocracy

Today's Sun-Times carries this article: Todd Stroger to replace his father on ballot. The Tribune's version is headlined "Todd Stroger to replace father on November ballot". For the uninitiated, Todd Stroger's father is long-time Cook County Board President John Stroger, who defeated democratic primary challenger Forrest Claypool this past spring, while completely incapacitated by a stroke.

Cook County government is a train wreck of bloat and patronage, a local example of what happens under one-party rule (a larger scale version can be seen in the federal government at the moment). I live in Cook County, and I resent having to pay for all this feasting at the trough. Forrest Claypool is a reformer who would have begun to clean house, but the local democratic machine, quaking in its boots, reelected a guy virtually in a coma instead of allowing this to happen. Now after months of stalling, during which it was not entirely clear who was running the county, the democratic kingmakers have selected Stroger's son to replace him. Will anything change under Todd? I would be stunned if it did.

I am a hardcore liberal and Democrat, but enough is enough. In the general election for Cook County Board President, this November, I will vote Republican. I don't even know the guy's name, only that he is a current Board member with reforms in mind, and that is enough for me.
:: Ray 2:12 PM [+] ::
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Bittersweet

Bastille Day, 2006, marks the fifth anniversary of my marriage to Mary Clevidence. Time has dulled the grief that I felt after her passing, but I still think of her often and wonder what might have been. Whatever the afterlife consists of, I am sure she is there, lightening things up with her laughter, her sarcasm, and her dead-on impression of the Beijing Opera.
:: Ray 2:23 PM [+] ::
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This is what democracy looks like!

Today, Mary and I attended an anti-Bush protest from about 11am to 1pm, outside the Drake Hotel, where he was raising money for Illinois gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka. We took pictures. To see what my sign said, you will have to look at them or read on.

I enjoy protests, but I have to say that this one was a bit disappointing. Not as many people turned out as I would have liked to see, and our effectiveness was reduced by two factors. First, we were stuck out of the way in a "designated area," a park with limited visibility, one full block away from the entrance that president used.

But second and worse was the nature of the protest itself: uncoordinated. Organizing liberals and progressive can be like herding cats, and it showed. There were two different locations where people were speaking, and in at least one case they contradicted each other, not to mention rambling on about countless things that are irrelevant. We were supposed to be there to protest Bush, not every single wacko liberal agenda under the sun. Seriously, we all have far greater concerns right now than the Cuban Five.

The contradiction thing was the worst. At one point, a speaker denounced Judy Baar Topinka and lauded Governor Rod Blagojevich for their respective positions on reproductive rights (where the governor really is a hero) and the minimum wage. Five minutes later, a different speaker condemned Blagojevich for not doing enough to advance gay rights, specifically gay marriage. This is not productive. It makes us look and sound stupid, not that anyone was listening. In our designated area, we were safely concealed from sight by anybody but a few cars driving by, many of which honked in support.

A few TV cameras were around, but I suspect that the footage will make it to air is that of some idiots who burned a flag. That will really endear voters to our cause.

In the end, I think more people saw my sign as I carried it back up Michigan Avenue, crowded with shoppers and tourists, to where I work than did at the protest itself. There was quiet power in expressing a handwritten message that resonated with so many people: "WORST...PRESIDENT...EVER!" Some nodded and grinned, some gave the thumbs up. One said, "Amen." Another said, "You can say that again!" A third, "I like your sign!" They were young, they were old, they were of every race, but most importantly they outnumbered those that displayed negative reactions by about 10 to 1. I was discouraged by the protest, but I haven't lost hope.
:: Ray 11:53 PM [+] ::
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One kind of dilemna

President Bush plans to show his face in Chicago on Friday. As you may know, I am not a fan, and I plan to join other protesters in letting the president know what I think. Here is my dilemna: how do I sum up 5 years of frustration at the worst, most dishonest president this country has ever had, in a few words on a sign? The possibilities are mind boggling:

IMPEACH!
WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.
MISERABLE FAILURE!
GO BACK TO CRAWFORD WITH YOUR UNCLE CHENEY!
STOP! JUST STOP! EVERYTHING YOU DO MAKES IT WORSE FOR THE REST OF US!
DON'T MESS WITH REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS!
CONSTITUTION ABUSER - THE FRAMERS WOULD PUKE IF THEY KNEW!
2500 AMERICANS DEAD. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS DEAD. WHY, EXACTLY?
WHAT PART OF "SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?
THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS NOT A SUGGESTION!
MERITOCRACY, NOT PLUTOCRACY!

You get the idea. I'll let you know what I end up with.
:: Ray 5:36 PM [+] ::
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Wither Roe v. Wade? Not if I can help it.

Recently I escorted at a clinic for the first time. More specifically, I dragged myself out of bed at an obscene hour to get to an abortion clinic, which has become the target of protesters, in order to help make certain that they do not impede patients arriving for appointments.

In case you have never seen them, abortion protesters are a caricature consisting of sacrosanct, self-righteous hysterics carrying knives behind their backs. They lie, to whomever will listen to them, about the procedures and doctors who perform them. They misrepresent gruesome photos of late-term aborted fetuses as the result of first-term procedures. They engage in race-baiting and hateful speech, and generally behave in an unchristian manner, all the while praying, singing out of key, and claiming that they are full of love and that we are sinners.

The most entertaining of their tactics is to hold semi-scripted "conversations" among themselves, which are used like daggers, intended to be overheard. One female escort with close-cropped hair was called a lesbian, while an African-American escort got to hear about how millions of "his people" have been killed since the seventies.

They use any plea or tactic that they think might make a woman hesitate or stop (even attempting to give away "gift baskets" with baby items in them), yet they take an amazingly patronizing attitude toward the women themselves. "There goes another sex-toy slut for men," one of them said, after failing to stop a patient from entering.

Against this, we do...nothing. We don't counter protest. We don't attempt to engage them. In fact, we do our best to ignore them and concentrate instead on providing the least threatening environment for patients, directing them to the entrance. If patients want to talk with the protesters, we don't try to stop them, beyond informing them that they don't have to if they don't want to.

It doesn't mean I don't entertain fantasies, though. I long to break out into song with Every Sperm is Sacred in front of the protesters, or to use the intended-to-be-overheard conversation technique to tell a particularly disgusting version of The Aristocrats for the their benefit. But as much as I would like to do those things, I think that what I did Saturday (and will do again when called upon) is more important: quietly helping women get access to the health care that they have every right to receive.

PS In the name of anonymity I will not reveal more in this venue. But if you know me, please ask...I have true stories to tell that paint an even less flattering portrait of the protesters than what I have recorded here.
:: Ray 3:12 AM [+] ::
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