Our Roommates Left Us

We spent the weekend moving Patrick and Paul Jr. into their campus apartments. Friday (August 18) was move-in day for Patrick for junior year at University of Arizona. He’s staying at Sterling apartments west of campus (information here). We loaded up the Bonneville and our small-ish SUV and had an easy trip down to Tucson and back (minus Bonneville, which is staying in Tucson (keep your fingers crossed)). Plus we had a chance to have a late lunch with Patrick at Barrio in downtown Tucson (information here). We had been meaning to try the place. I ordered the fish taco, it was v. good.

Moved Paul into “The Village on University” for his sophomore year at Arizona State University on Saturday (August 19). These apartments (information here) are located less than a mile east of campus. Very nice except the carpeting could use a major cleaning (or replacement). The third-floor location is great except lugging stuff up there made Saturday’s humidity quite noticeable. Patricia and I went back down to Tempe on Sunday for some finishing touches and basics like grocery shopping.

Unlike last year, we failed to get any photos of the move-in. So I’m posting a photo showing these two guys starting school 14 years ago (August 1992).

We’ll miss having our two roommates around (even if they did tend to treat the house like a dorm every now and then). We’ve had several years or summers now with just the two of them around, our older three being all independent now. It’s a neat opportunity to live together in a smaller group, which I guess is something that often happens with the younger children in a larger family.

More on our Chicago trip (August 3-7, 2006)

Here is some info about our Chicago trip (Patricia, Patrick, Paul Jr. and me).

1. Food was v. good throughout. #1 food event was Arnie’s breakfast. Blackbeans, eggs, tortillas, potatoes with chorizo, coffee. And a Serrano pepper to nibble on plus a beer to sip on. Wicked good combination. (The Serrano pepper is pretty hot, read about it here.) Additional winners were deep-dish pizza (Gino's beats Lou Malnati’s, sorry Nicole), Sunday night dinner featuring Argentine meats at Tango Sur, and BBQ: a massive BBQ pork sandwich at the Pit, and BBQ everything at Patio.


2. On Friday (August 4), we parked at Nicole’s house and did some fun tourist things in Chicago. Check out the video below as we take the El and visit NikeTown and Millennium Park. Then we had a beverage at a bar right outside Wrigley and lunch at Lou Malnotti’s. And saw WiggleyField (a dog park, as you might guess).





3. Also on Friday (August 4), we drove out to Joanne’s place and then on to a rock-climbing wall at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Check out the video below. Only Patricia and Joann made it to the top. My personal effort was not impressive.






4. Saturday (August 5) was the morning of the major breakfast noted above. And a big get-together at Joanne’s house, which included lots of volleyball. Very nice.


5. On Sunday (August 6) we went bowling. Two games: Arnie was high score in game one (155) and Nicole was lights out in game two (189). Danny’s six-mile-per-hour rolls were amazingly effective. Said goodbyes on the south side and drove up to Nicole’s house. Walked to dinner at the Argentine place (the five of us plus Nicole’s boyfriend). It was interesting seeing the neighborhood on foot, lots of restaurants etc. Stopped at the neighborhood Walgreen’s for water and Nicole spotted somebody loading up a handbag and heading out. Clerk’s chase was short and futile. Some video below.






6. Joanne had a dog named Daisy. Pretty big, but still a puppy and ridiculously full of life. Daisy loved to go after the cat, and the cat loved to slap Daisy around. This was endlessly amusing. Daisy also chased around inside the house, especially when Patrick blew in her face.






7. Beautiful weather. Easy flights (except one passenger said we owed him a dinner, I think because EPG was chatting three hours with his seat-mate). Hotel also very nice, take a look here.

Mr. O'Donnell Testifies on Capitol Hill - 1933

Nicole found something really neat during a Google search the other day.

Who knew? Way back in 1933, a committee of the United States Senate turned to a true expert for advice about gangsters (in this case, how to discourage young people from becoming gangsters). This expert was none other than Patricia’s grandfather, (Mr.) Spike O’Donnell.

The video clip below – included in an archive of old newsreels findable via this link – includes a few seconds of Spike addressing the committee. The introduction to the video clip describes things thusly: "Chicago: 'Spike' O'Donnell, a former South Side beer baron, who bears the title of 'the most shot-at gangster in the country,' tells members of a Federal committee investigating crime, of his reaction to the latest Federal drive on kidnapers and other lawbreakers." Spike’s advice – which focuses on gangsters and the consequences of putting young folks in prison – seems reasonable enough; he falls into the camp of those recommending rehabilitation instead of incarceration. One would think he knew what he was talking about it. He apparently had quite a bit of experience with gangsters and even a brief experience with the inside of a prison, (though his political connections were good enough to keep his prison experience really brief).

The timing of this Senate committee is interesting. Prohibition started in 1919. Spike’s activities, whatever they were, had landed him in prison in Joliet in 1923. That’s when a corrupt Illinois governor had him released. (More on that in a future post.) His return to Chicago ignited some territorial wars among gangsters (at least per what I read online). Prohibition ended in 1933, and one would presume that some folks were trafficking illegally in liquor right up to repeal. 1933 also is the year in which this committee was convened. It would be interesting to know how a businessman like Mr. O’Donnell was publicly perceived at the time that he faced the committee in 1933.

In fact, it would have been truly great to talk to Spike about all sorts of things. The Prohibition era spawned all sorts of non-standard activities, and he must have been a tremendously talented guy; certainly he was right in the middle of lots of history.

I’ve also posted some still photos taken from the video. You can read more about Prohibition right here.






(The back half of the video is some entertaining footage from an Al Smith campaign stop. Not sure why it’s included in the clip, and I’m not sufficiently tech savvy to delete it. So enjoy. Al was a pretty interesting politician in his own right, as this article details.)

Blog anniversary #1; introducing blog #2

I noticed that my first post to this website was published exactly one year ago today. It featured a Gambel's Quail. You can visit that post by clicking here and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

I recently started a second blog. You can visit blog #2 by clicking here, or by clicking on "PMG Reviews" on the right side of this page under the heading "Links." This post explains why blog #2 was started.

I forget what I don't write down, so am glad to have a convenient place to keep track of interesting (to me, at least) things.

Tourists Return to AZ

Patricia, Patrick, Paul Jr. and I visited Chicago and various of its suburbs from Thursday (August 3) through Monday (August 7). I'm including a photo from our visit to the new-ish Millenium Park in downtown Chicago, plus a photo of three tourists and one Chicago resident standing near the Chicago River.

Millenium Park was a neat place. One area was set up for performing arts - on the day of our visit, it was some "Silk Road" music. In another area is the famous "bean" - a source of a wide variety of reflections (click on the photo to better see the reflection of our tourists and a bit of skyline). Plus the park has other stuff, including your basic urban bums hogging all the best shady spots. And you can ice-skate in this park in winter. Click this link for an impressive panoramic view of Millenium Park (including the reflective "bean" and ice skaters). (When viewing the panorama, use the "shift" key to zoom in and the "ctrl" key to zoom out; just move the mouse to see the 360 degree panorama plus full up/down views.)

We had a good trip. I'll post more details and some video this weekend.