Chicago: You’re Within Striking Distance of a Great Time Our city should do more to celebrate its rich legacy of labor activism and unrest. In 1894 Pullman Palace Car company workers went on strike, resulting in the deaths of thirty protestors when government forces fired into the crowd. Two years later, a peaceful rally in Haymarket Square turned violent when someone threw a bomb at police, leading to eleven deaths from the explosion and resulting gunfire. This September the Chicago Teachers Union continued our proud labor tradition with a successful seven-day strike for better pay and benefits, and less emphasis on student test scores for teacher promotions. Makes you want to belt out a rousing chorus of the labor anthem “Solidarity Forever.”
Audience choice: Chicago: Come and Live Your Wild West Dreams Other audience choices that amused us, at least somewhat: “Not Just for Mobsters Anymore”; “You won’t die hungry”; “It’s not Detroit”; ‘Chicago: At least we’re not Syria”; “Chicago: It ain’t Kansas”; “Chicago: Over three million living people”; “Chi Chi Bang Bang”; and “Chicago: We’re Number 1!”
Paper Chase: The Fabulous World of Tom Greensfelder's Model Life The Greensfelder Design Studio is a childlike page in the story of our city. His studio is filled with 175 vintage and replica paper models of fairgrounds, gas stations, boats, trucks, castles, a chicken in a coop, and more. They are carefully constructed with eyes cast on history and fantasy.
