High from Chicago. It’s 2020. Recreational cannabis is now legal in Illinois. The law took effect on January 1st. Happy New Year! You could bring in the new decade by catching a buzz without fear of being arrested. The only problem was getting inside a dispensaary to buy some weed….and it was a big problem.

My first try was on New Year’s Day. Whether it’s baseball or marijuana, I like opening day. And like opening day at Wrigley Field, opening day at my local dispensary drew a crowd…a huge crowd. I knew it was going to be packed, but I figured if I waited until later in the day, the crowd may have thinned out. Maybe the stoners would have got their shit and been off to watch the Rose Bowl. No such luck. At 3 pm, there was still a line around the block. Security told me to come back the next day.

I did go back the next day. Same time, same place, same thing. I was told to come back at 6 am…that’s right SIX AM!!…and be prepared to wait for up to eight hours. There’s very little I’m going to wait eight hours for and it’s certainly not weed. I could wait a week or so.

When I did return ten or so days later, the lines were down to about four hours. Besides the wait, there was no guarantee that they would still have product. I decided I could wait a little longer to check it out. February wasn’t that far away.

A couple of weeks ago, I was running errands and passed by the dispensary. I didn’t see anyone waiting. No lines. Hmmm….maybe this was my lucky day?

I walked up to the door thinking I was going to cruise right inside….BUZZ! The security guard said that the line was now inside a restaurant across the street. Okay, I can walk one hundred feet to check it out. I get inside the restaurant and see the line. It looks manageable. I’m told the wait is only thirty minutes. One half hour!! That works for me. I can handle that. It looks like it might finally happen!

I’m handed a menu which tells you what they have for sale that day. There are all kinds of choices. Edibles, vapes, concentrates and good old fashioned rolled joints. The names are funky. Wana Mango Gummies. Island Lime Haze. Pineapple Express. It’s really no different than the olden days. Remember Maui Wowie? Acapulco Gold?

While I’m reading the menu, I notice the line isn’t moving all that fast. We’re past the half hour mark and closing in on sixty minutes. . By the time I make it to the front, the wait time is two hours. It’s nice that they have chairs. 

There was one good thing about the long wait time. I was able to talk with my neighbors and ask some questions. The guy in front of me was making his fourth trip here. He gave me some advice about the edibles. I admit that this scares me more than a little. I see dosages of two, five and twenty mgs. How much is too much? What amount sends you to the hospital? His advice is to take it slow and ask questions of the experts when we get inside.

Finally, it’s go time. Finally, we’re inside the building. This dispensary has one counter. The sales people are behind it and you have a short time to make your purchase. I guess that’s why they give you the menu, so you can figure out what you want before you get inside. It’s a lot different than the dispensary I went to in San Diego, California. That store was a lot more casual. You could walk around, chat with the workers and other customers. No rush, no hurry. Here, it was more of a wham bam thank you maam kind of experience. Be quick, be gone.

When I did get my chance to buy, the guy behind the counter did answer my question. I told him my apprehension about edible doses and he brought out the bag of picked berries gummies that you see in the photo at the top. Twenty pieces/2 mgs. each/$26. All of that worked for me.

I’d like to tell you more about the gummies, but I haven’t tried one yet. The bag has been sitting in my medicine cabinet for the last two weeks. I admit I’m still a little nervous about this, even at the lowest dosage. Maybe I’ll use it, maybe I won’t. I just like having it available, just in case. So that’s my story about my Chicago cannabis dispensary experience. While I’m not likely to be going back any time soon, at least I can say I’ve been there.

It’s too bad these gummies weren’t around in the Cheech and Chong heyday. Can you hear it now…..
No stems, no seeds that you don’t need. Picked berries gummies is bad ass weed.

Related Post– I tried medical marijuana: Was it a health experiment or just wanting to get high?

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You may have missed Chicago Restaurant Week (January 24-February 9), but no worries, there’s more.

Not unlike the Jimmy Buffet song, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” it seems, if it’s winter in Chicago “it’s restaurant week somewhere. Restaurant Week specials can be a great time to try new spots–often at bargain prices. Here’s five to try running now through mid-March:

Andersonville Restaurant Week

Andersonville is a hotbed of good restaurants. From February 21 to March 1 many of Andersonville’s finest including the popular Bar Roma and will be participating in Andersonville Restaurant Week with $10, $20, and $30 menu specials and prix fixe offers throughout the 10 day “week.” Big Jones will be celebrating  Mardi Gras all week with $10 hand-crafted daiquiris, hurricanes, sazeracs and a Cajun Mardi Gras Table for $30 per person family style.

Lake Forest Lake Bluff Restaurant Week

Starting February 28 (through March 8) head north to Lake Forest and Lake Bluff for their Restaurant Week. Some of the best deals are at Inovasi (28 E. Center, Lake Bluff) with a prix fixe 3-course dinner (with 3 choices in each course) for $35 and The Gallery (202 E. Wisconsin Ave, Lake Forest) offering a 3-course dinner for $35. Both are upscale fine dining restaurants. Looking for something more casual, there’s lots more including The Otherdoor (28 E. Center Ave) where you can buy one burrito and get a second for $1 and wash it down with one of their $4.95 house margaritas or head to Lake Bluff Brewing Company (16 E. Scranton Ave) for a flight of their fine craft beers, a burger & fries for $20.

Rosemont Restaurant Week

Restaurant Week returns to the Village of Rosemont March 1 through March 7. Visitors are invited to take advantage of special prix fixe, three-course lunch and dinner menus at participating Rosemont restaurants.

Rosemont has a huge lineup of very good restaurants—some are siblings to city favorites like Gene & Georgetti’s (9421 W. Higgins Rd., Rosemont). Others are Rosemont originals like Hofbrauhaus—a replica of the legendary Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany–at 5500 Park Place in Rosemont.

LaGrange Restaurant Week

Specially-priced menus are featured at $20, $30 or $40 per person (excluding tax and gratuity) at brunch, lunch and/or dinner at LaGrange Restaurant Week. LaGrange is an easy trip from the city—only 13 miles west of downtown or a quick ride on the Metra that stops in downtown La Grange.  15 restaurants will be dishing up multi-course, value-priced menus from a variety of diverse tastes including Italian, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, contemporary American or casual dining starting February 21 through March 1, 2020

Chicago Northwest Restaurant Week

Northwest Restaurant Week is the perfect excuse to check out the great line-up of restaurants in the Northwest suburbs including Arlington Heights and Schaumburg from March 6 to March 15.

There’s a large line-up of participating restaurants with some real deals like Kuma’s Corner (1570 E. Golf Rd., Schaumburg). How about a 2-course lunch, including one of Kuma’s award winning burgers plus a draft soda—all for $15. What could be better? Maybe only their special 3-course dinner menu with a choice of a fried pickle or Edamame for starters, followed by their over-the-top burgers, finishing with a choice of Tempura Fried, a Banana Stuffed Twinkie, or Chocolate Ganache & Powdered Sugar. PLUS your choice of a draft soda or beer or a Kreature Brand Cocktail—all included for $25.

Lake County Restaurant Week

Disotto in Highwood.

75 restaurants from Highland Park to Grayslake and in between are participating in Lake County Restaurant Week, February 28 through March 8.

One of our favorites, Disotto, named one of the best on the North Shore is offering a 4-course prix fixe menu that includes a 5oz. glass of wine for $40.

St. Charles Restaurant Week

Download the coupon here and get 20% off at all participating St. Charles restaurants from February 24 through February 28.

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Introducing Forest Pullman, a brand new intake. This guy is a sweetheart in need of lots of love! He’s about 2 years old.

Forest P is vocal and attention-seeking. He starts meowing as soon as he would hear his fosterer come home and will not settle until she greeted him.

He is very affectionate and will hold a conversation with you.

He is very charming and his sweet demeanor will make him easily adoptable. Also, he likes belly rubs.

For more information on meeting foster cats like Forest email us at [email protected] !

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $95 for the adoption of one cat or $190 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

Findley is friendly and very talkative. He’s about 1 year old.

He almost constantly makes these sorts of grrrrow noises, almost as though he’s talking to himself.

He weighs about 15 pounds. His face is earnest and his teeth are sparkly white. He has a healthy appetite and likes to play.

He adamantly dislikes being alone, but will bear it if he has to.

He likes plants, not so much for eating, surprisingly, as much as for the atmosphere.

He likes being picked up and carried around and doesn’t mind belly pets of the nice kind.

His holiday wish was to have a very best feline friend and a best human friend with whom he could do everything all day and cuddle with at night.

Recently, he has taken to wrapping himself around his fosterer’s head while she is watching tv on the couch and gently thumping her. It’s very silly.

Findley is an ancient name derived from Scottish Gaelic and is anglicized/translated to mean “fair hero” – ‘fair’ as in ‘attractive’, not ‘just’. He has always been a good soul. He’s a brave little adventurer, with an open nature, who generally takes things in stride.

Let us know if you’d like to meet him at [email protected] !

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $95 for the adoption of one cat or $190 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

It’s the second most popular post in the past year on this website, and it’s top five all-time in the three-year history of this blog. As February 14 neared in 2019, we examined how the site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is absolutely nothing today (it’s just a green space with a couple trees next to a senior center parking lot), and why that’s conflicted and complicated.

While it’s obvious that the city would not want to celebrate gore and crime, this notoriously dark incident is still a big part of what many tourist cottage industries do in marketing their Al Capone-related wares to tourists. However, when it comes to Capone related buildings, the one that’s truly missed is the Lexington Hotel (which used to be located at 2135 S Michigan Ave), and Ward Miller, Executive Director for Preservation Chicago, told me why.

“It’s one of the many places where he (Capone) lived and had his operation, but more maybe importantly, it was a marvelous building, it was also a designated Chicago landmark,” he said by phone in advance of “Daytime Talk: Chicago’s Most Endangered Buildings of 2020” at the Chicago Architecture Center presentation on Wednesday.

“Because it was open to the elements, and it was empty for so long, and because the Democratic National Convention was coming to Chicago in 1996, the city really wanted to clean things up, and unfortunately that was demolished. “

Before being demolished in 1995, the hotel served as the backdrop for the infamous Geraldo Rivera special, The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults, which received 30 million viewers, but didn’t yield anything newsworthy.

While the Lexington couldn’t be saved (a high end luxury residential complex called The Lex sits at that location today), this event at the CAC will focus on past successes and the currently endangered.

Miller’s presentation will unveil Preservation Chicago’s 18th annual “Chicago 7” list.

The list identifies seven architecturally significant structures that preservationists hope to save from the wrecking ball. Since 2003, Preservation Chicago has announced its annual list to draw attention to important Chicago historic resources threatened by demolition due to development pressure, neglect, or a lack of resources. 

Miller spent two decades on the issues committee for Landmarks Illinois and served as vice president of Logan Square Preservation for 15 years.

He also helped the City Club of Chicago in its efforts to save the Chicago Theater, the Page Brothers Building and several buildings on Block 37.

“We focus on the individual building in each of the Chicago seven, we do tell its history and we do remind people why it’s so important,” Miller said in previewing the Preservation Chicago program on Wednesday.

“Sometimes we even offer a remedy or a solution. Often times we provide a solution. It’s really remarkable, a lot of time and research goes into thoughtful ways of framing this.”

“It’s not about shaming people, it’s about trying to grow a healthy city through research and historic preservation.”

For more on Preservation Chicago go here, for more on last year’s Chicago seven most endangered list go here.

“Daytime Talk: Chicago’s Most Endangered Buildings of 2020” FYIs

Wednesday, February 26 at noon Free with registration (registration link)
Gand Lecture Hall at the Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No,  I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation. 

You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.

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Full disclosure: I voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Illinois primary. When I thought he didn’t have a chance at the Democratic presidential nomination, I wanted to show support for his positions.

That was before we had a President Trump. Now I’m fearful that Sanders will get the nomination.

I like Sanders. I find him refreshingly authentic for a politician. In an fairy-tale scenario, I’d favor many of his positions.

But I can’t see a self-described democratic socialist garnering enough Independent and Republican votes to win the presidency.

There’s something wrong with the nominating process. Democrats overwhelmingly tell pollsters that their main goal is defeating Donald Trump. Then a candidate who mainstream Democrats think is unelectable rises to the top.

After Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada, only the third state to select its delegates, Sanders has been declared the frontrunner. Before more than 90 percent of the states vote, news outlets are asking whether Sanders is unstoppable.

Many voters clearly prefer Sanders. But not the majority. Moderates have the most delegates in total, but they’re splitting the moderate vote among them. None looks willing to drop out to unite behind one of them.

There’s a lot of discussion about fixing the process — including a same-day national primary and weighted voting — but it’s not clear how to make states go along. Each state makes its own rules.

The Republican Party faced a similar scenario in 2016 when insiders didn’t want Trump. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have little in common except that they do not represent their parties’ mainstream. Four years ago Trump railed against the establishment and beat a slew of establishment candidates in the Republican primaries.

Maybe leaders who promise to blow up the system are what the country wants. Just as I was shocked by Trump’s unexpected win, I could be clueless again. If Sanders is the nominee, I hope so.

And if he were able to defeat Trump, I hope he could somehow ease our divisions. More divisiveness across the country, and gridlock in Washington, would be ruinous.

*****

AUSTEN ADAPTATION ENDS BADLY

PBS Masterpiece’s broadcast of Sanditon, an eight-part series based on an incomplete Jane Austen novel, ended Sunday night. As were viewers in the UK, where the ITV production was shown last fall, I expect American Janites are outraged by the un-Austen-like unhappy ending.

Austen had finished only 11 chapters of Sanditon when ill health forced her to put it aside four months before her death. As one critic of the television production wrote, only about the first half-hour — one-sixteenth of the whole — were Austen’s. At first I scoffed at screenwriter Andrew Davies’s sexually explicit script — so different from Austen’s subtlety — but then forgave him for bringing the 19th century into the 21st.

But the finale’s 180-degree turn from Austen was inexcusable. As Charlotte and Sidney moved toward a traditional Austen happy ending, Davies threw an impediment in their way in the last half-hour: Sidney must marry a rich woman in order to save Sanditon, the town on which his brother Tom has staked everything.

The ending reminded me of a midway point in Sense and Sensibility, when Edward, though loving Elinor, feels that he must be honorable and keep a long-regretted prior engagement. But the impediment is overcome, and Edward and Elinor are husband and wife at the conclusion. Perhaps, as rumor has it, Davies didn’t end Sanditon’s series one happily because he hoped for a series two. ITV cancelled the show in the UK because of low audience numbers, however, and hinted that a series two might depend on its success in the US.

If series two doesn’t come off, we’re left with a so-called Austen dramatization that PBS would be wise not to add to the Masterpiece rerun schedule. I doubt that any Austen fan, knowing how it ends, would want to watch.

*****

ANTI-TRUMP QUOTATIONS: 101ST IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“Thanks to Donald Trump, we have a new definition of a criminal justice reformer: a rich person who is shocked to see his felonious friends punished as though they were poor.”

— Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman, February 20

Gavin Edwards’ eighth “way to live more like Mister Rogers right now” is to “Always see the very best in other people.” (For more ways, from his book “Kindness and Wonder,” see posts like these on previous recent Mondays.)

“In modern culture,” Edwards writes, “we tend to reduce complicated people to just one or two attributes: that rapper is unhinged, that politician is insincere, that guitarist is a cad.” But Fred Rogers, says Edwards, tried “to be the public representation of kindness and concern for children.” That left him very vulnerable to caricature in pop culture, Edwards adds.

Even the ’80s TV show “Family Ties,” in which a character worked for a public TV station, joked about Mister Rogers by asking “Why can’t he change his shoes before the show?” according to Edwards.

Young viewers would have thought that was impossible. “Sometimes Mister Rogers was evoked as an impossible ideal, one that people can mimic but not live up to,” writes Edwards.

But mostly, Fred Rogers lived with comics poking fun at him, in what Gavin Edwards calls “an unhappy echo of the childhood days when other kids taunted him and called him ‘Fat Freddy.’ “

But he could put ministry to others ahead of his feelings.

Personally, even decades after I watched “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” I disliked the “comic” parodies of the show and its host. One of several things I’ve underlined in the book is that “many Mister Rogers impressions are based on other impressions, not on actually watching the show.”

Edwards reports that during the time when Eddie Murphy was doing a parody on “Saturday Night Live” called “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood,” Fred Rogers surprised Murphy at NBC’s Rockefeller Plaza offices, where Rogers had once worked. “It’s not every day that someone you’re parodying shows up on your doorstep,” Edwards observes, but Rogers did — and they “hugged and posed for a Polaroid together.”

Later that day, Rogers appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman,” Polaroid photo in hand. Speaking of parodies, Rogers said, “Some of them aren’t very funny. But I think a lot of them are done with real kindness in their heart.”

Edwards adds, “The evidence suggests that was untrue, but it wasn’t just a story that Fred told himself to make the mockery sting a little less.”

Parodies being talked about as kind is a new twist on Jesus’ advice to “love your enemies; do good to them that hurt you” (Matthew 5:43-44).

But maybe that’s just me seeing the best in it.

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.

9-month-old Gracie loves belly rubs and scratches behind her ears, on top of her head and by her tail.

She gets along with other cats, loves to play and when you go to pet her, falls on the floor and rolls over to get belly rubs.

She loves the laser toy and chasing other cats up and down the hallway.

To meet her, write to us at [email protected]!

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $95 for the adoption of one cat or $190 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.