Crosswalks to Nowhere

Second time's the charm.

When I moved into my condo, most of the place was painted in this cheap, chalky white paint (except for the main bedroom, which was a lovely lilac). I don't have a lot of wall space in my kitchen, which is why I decided to do something a little bolder in there.

The designer guy I talked to a couple years ago recommended red or green for the kitchen, but I couldn't find the color he suggested. I decided red was the way to go, and I found a paint that I thought would look good. After it was up, though, I realized it was too orange. Then I discovered the color I wanted was already on the walls at Chipotle, so Lisa found a bunch of paint chips at Home Depot and on a Saturday afternoon we took them over and compared.

Chipotle's walls are very close to Home Depot's "Cinnamon Cherry" Behr paint. So a couple coats went up, and you can see the result above.

Now I need to get over to Farmer's Pride for some fresh guac.

Here are Lisa's and my iBooks showing off some tricking out.

It appears the old-style rainbow Apple stickers fit perfectly over the glowing apple on the lid of the latest generation iBooks.

Neat.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to stop in at Cereality, which is billed as a "cereal bar and cafe."

I call it the place with the sugar buzz that won't die.

Cereality's concept is very similar to Cold Stone Creamery's or Starbucks': take something you can make at home, mix it in a certain way with some fairly common ingredients, and charge a premium for it.

You can choose from one of their pre-defined cereal mixes, or you can create your own from their menu of about 30 different cereals (both hot and cold) and dozens of toppings, ncluding bananas, raisins, chocolate chips, yogurt, rainbow sprinkles, marshmallows-- beginning to sound familiar? Your concoction is served in a mid-sized chinese carryout container, accompanied by a half-pint carton of milk of your choice.

For the purpose of this review, I chose the "You Snooze, You Lose," which was made up of Cinnamon Life and Golden Grahams cereal, a shot of espresso, and crushed malted milk balls. When I topped it with a half-pint of skim milk, it turned into an edible latte. This amalgamation cost me $3.89, about the same as a Starbucks mocha, only this made me a lot jittier.

Cereality also offers cereal bars, mini coffee-cakes, and parfaits, smoothies, coffee, and something called Überpudding, which is a combination of yogurt, oatmeal, orange, and honey. I didn't try any of these yet.

The store is set up very much like Starbucks and Cold Stone, with a glass case at the front and tables off to the side. There are also tables outside, overlooking the Chicago river. There's also a sign advertising free WiFi, which I may take advantage of one of these days. A "cereal barista" (my term, used for lack of something better-- maybe "cerealista?") takes your order and creates your item.

I spoke with one of the owners, who told me business was good. I see a steady stream of people moving through the store when I walk by every morning, so here's wishing them continued success.

Can we kids try this at home? Sure. But like Starbucks and Cold Stone, Cereality is also about the experience.

Yesterday at noon, WZZN-FM ("The Zone") dropped their "Alternative" format and became "Chicago's True Oldies Channel," thus filling a hole in the formats of Chicago's FM stations.

I find it unusual that they chose this time of year to make the change. Typically, people want to hear the Beach Boys and Motown hits while cruising around with the windows down. Maybe they would have made a bigger splash had they launched in June or July, when tempers were still high over WJMK's replacement with "Jack FM."

In any event, this is yet another in a looooong series of format changes for the 94.7 spot on the FM dial. Check this site to see everything it's been.

I wish them luck-- they're the only oldies player in town with a decent signal (I usually have trouble picking up WRLL-AM 1690, the other oldies station here), so they can't munge this up too badly. According to Robert Feder's column they intend on having a wide playlist, so that's a good thing.

Now maybe they can lure Fred Winston and Dick Biondi away from WJMK online.

This morning I took the train from Mt Prospect because I had to drop my car at the dealership for some work.

Taking a different train is the sort of thing that keeps you on your toes. Typically, you get into a routine that allows your brain to get into a cloudy, auto-pilot kind of mode. You follow the same path from the car to the station, see the same people standing in the same crowd, you head to the same spot, pass the same guy who works on the 25th floor ("Hey George"), and wait for the same train to come to the same spot where you board and sit in the same seat and take the same ride in.

That's why sometimes I like to mix it up, so today it was Mt Prospect.

While on the platform waiting for the 7:38, everyone shifted into their positions as the train approached. I was observing the overall zombiness of the crowd when some dude ran across the tracks and the train, less than a block from the spot where the guy was, blasted its whistle.

The train stopped and people started boarding.

Once everyone was on the train, a conductor came on the P.A.: "To the guy who ran in front of the train, you'll have to get off because we're not moving until you do" and that they would have the police remove him if he didn't go nicely.

We sat there for a few minutes while the trainmen looked for a guy in a brown jacket. We started moving again, and I figured they found him, but for the rest of the ride they went up and down the aisles of each car, still looking. This was accompanied by several announcements concerning Metra's annual safety awareness program which starts on October 1.

I've always believed in Natural Selection and that stupid people are the most likely to create their own undoing, but I just don't want to see it happen before I have breakfast.

I don't know if they ever found the guy, but here's hoping he'll realize that being a few minutes late for work is better than not going at all ever again.

People are resistant to change. And people in Chicago seem to be especially resistant to change.

With all the hand-wringing surrounding Marshall Field's name change to Macy's, you would think someone was suggesting painting the Water Tower blue, moving the U505 Submarine to Schaumburg, or opening a McDonald's at the Field Museum.

Oh.

Well, you get my point.

Petitions have been started, web sites overflow with sentimentality about how Field's = Chicago and Macy's = New York, and what's next? Steinbrenner's buying the Cubs? Oh, why oh why does this have to happen to us?

I'll tell you why: it's business. The reality is that Marshall Field's stopped being a Chicago institution when it was sold to a British firm in the early 1980s. In fact, at that time the name changed when they dropped the "and Company," and nobody said a word. It was then bought by the company that owned Target (who eventually spun Field's and its other department stores off because they weren't doing as well as Target). Changing hands again, it wound up in the lap of the people who want to make Macy's a national brand name.

And that's...... bad?

Everyone who has memories of Field's always points to the same things: the State Street store, the Christmas windows, lunch in the Walnut Room under the big tree. It's not about the merchandise or the service at the store, it's the fact that State and Washington is a destination. I've yet to hear a single complaint about the Marshall Field's at Old Orchard changing its name. ("Oh, Sylvia, remember those pumps I bought for the New Year's party in 1975? What am I going to do now that it's Macy's for cryin' out loud?")

Hence, my proposal to all the lamenters out there: go out and assemble the brightest among you, come up with a business plan, find some venture capitalists, and buy the State Street store and the Marshall Field's name. Then you run the store and tell us how easy it is to survive in a retail environment where people will come and browse but then drive out to the suburbs to go to Kohl's and Old Navy to buy things.

(Interestingly enough, this is what some people did in the mid-1980s with the Frederick & Nelson store in Seattle. They failed after six years.)

(Also, to continue parenthetically, Frederick & Nelson were the inventors of Frango Mints-- Field's got them because they bought Frederick & Nelson, so Frangos are a Seattle tradition, not Chicago.)

Field's new owners have committed to keeping the Clock, the windows, the tree in the Walnut Room, and all the other things the weepy hundreds say they'll miss. I even heard they're going to leave the "Marshall Field & Co." nameplate on the building.

So what's the real complaint? Have any of these people actually stepped into a Marshall Field's recently and purchased something they couldn't get at Carson's, Nordstrom's, J.C. Penney, or Lord & Taylor?

Now, there are weblogs and newspaper columns with lists naming all the Chicago businesses that went under in the last 50 years. These lists are fascinating and real memory-joggers, but what gets me is the fact that some people are using these lists as illustrations of why the Field's name shouldn't be changed. The truth is that stores like Montgomery Ward and Lytton's are gone because of a changing marketplace, bad management, a tough economy, customer demand, and/or technology. And let's not leave out the desire of one company's management deciding to cash in on their investment by selling out to a larger company.

I am as nostalgic as the next guy-- in fact I would say moreso than the next guy-- but nostalgia has its place: in your memory. Let's allow the businesses of today succeed today, and on today's terms.

Good luck, Macy's.

This morning, the AHPD were at their posts at the Arlington Heights train station, handing out tickets to people who walked around the gates and in front of oncoming trains. And sure enough, in the time I was standing there I saw three of 'em get caught.

As one of the officers said, it's not worth $250 to walk around a closed gate.

There's your public service announcement for today.