32 Comments

Best choices and most difficult Tweet of the Week contest.

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EZ - re Let's Take a Mulligan - amen! i was so hopeful over the 'course' of 2016-17 - while attending several public meetings on the planned redevelopment - that the vision of a Tiger-designed combo of JP & SS could be realized. i was told by knowledgeable people at the time it would never happen - turns out they were right. but if JP could indeed be updated, at a reasonable price - and i think $3 mill is a reasonable price [Chgo Pk Distr ann'l budget: $546 mill] - then i believe it shd be undertaken. and how about spending what it would take - up to, say, $1 mill - to trim back the trees at SSGC? and maybe to do some redesign that would take advantage of the vistas of Lk Michigan?

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There may be a limit to the extent that the lake vista can be improved in the northern part of SSGC. A bad , windy thunderstorm parked over Jackson Park for at least 30 minutes one evening 10-15 years ago, following a day of heavy, soaking rain. The combination took out the line of trees overlooking the lake along SSGC just south of 67th Street. A few years later, when lake levels were the highest I'd noticed in 50+ years, the Park District, the Army Corps of Engineers, and/or perhaps the city took some bulldozers to that stretch of course-adjacent shoreline, building it up to stop recurrent flooding of the course and of South Shore Drive at 67th. The new berm is topped with a line of tidy black sacks (probably rock-filled) to stabilize it. Similar rows of bags appear elsewhere along the south lakefront. Lake views suffered for pedestrians and cyclists along the nearby stretch of the Lakefront Path, and for golfers on that part of the course too, I suspect. Thermal expansion of the lake from climate change, coupled with the related severity of storms while the atmosphere continues to be in disequilibrium, means we face one of those three-way conundrums where you can pick any two, but not all three: in this case, pick from among protection of vital infrastructure; restoration of the scenic balm of grass, trees, lake, and sky; and responsible use of the over-strained public purse.

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No state fair on the bingo card, so no butter sculpture on the flag😟

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founding

Also no Federal Prisons, which seem nearly essential for a state flag.

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023

My husband is a chemical engineer and used to subscribe to a magazine called Chemical Engineering monthly. As I have no interest in chemical engineering despite being married to a chemical engineer ( and giving birth to a girl who became one) I seldom looked at it, but every year I’d sit down and read the issue where they surveyed their readers. Hey, I said once to my husband, isn’t it interesting that 90 percent of Chemical Engineers say they are atheists? Wow, he said, that’s surprising! Who are this 10 percent of chemical engineers who believe in God?

Myself I’m an agnostic who doesn’t understand how people can believe in an all good Supreme Being who will be angry and will punish you if you don’t believe in Him. That’s such small -minded , fragile- ego thinking in my view. I do understand believing in a Supreme Being who cares about how you treat his creations though.

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I am a Jewish person. I have spent my entire life listening to Jew jokes and insults. Supposedly, I am identifiable by my big nose, extreme greed, and am an unethical businessman. I actually wish some of it were accurate. Perhaps I'd be doing better than a retired schoolteacher in a cramped apartment. I guess I'm probably a disappointment to those who feel I should be wealthy, living in a suburban mansion and swilling wine. Oh, well, I'll just need to be a disappointment.

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Re your taste in comedy, no sarcasm intended, truly!

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Today's "You gotta see these tweets" is the funniest group yet! I had a terrible time picking a favorite. They were all so good!

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Vote for as many as you like!

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Thank you! All this time, I thought I had to pick only one and there have been so many deserving ones that didn't get my vote.

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I'm suspicious of the golfer's tombstone.... what tombstone doesn't have the departed's name on it?

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Worse than "the wife?" "The little woman!" I used to work for a man who referred to his wife as "the little woman" and it drove me insane. I asked her why she put up with it and she replied that "he means it affectionately." Yeah, right. They are now divorced.

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My sweetie identifies as "an Apathist: I don't know and I don't care." Your remark was the first I'd encountered that uses the same phrase. I happened across "Apathism" on Google a few minutes ago. Did I care to click the link? No. This suggests that Apathism may be a widespread stance, and not just theologically.

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founding

Re belief. Just because something is made up by people does not mean it is not real. I happen to think what is most important is stuff that is made up. That includes the notion that life has meaning and it is important to live a good life. Other made up beliefs that we all share include money, borders, and laws. Tools to understand these things involve some measure of faith. There are plenty of people who identify as theists but do not subscribe to the invisible man in the sky version.

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"Uxor" shows up, perhaps not surprisingly, in property law as well. The deed on our first U.P. cabin was to my husband "et ux." I was the ux.

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I think everyone at one time or another thinks about God and what comes after life.

My senior in college -1972 - was a time to listen to anybody that had a religious viewpoint. So I invited all kinds of religious folks to give their spiel to me.I got Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Evangelical Christians, a mega church pastor, Jehovah Witnesses, and some occult folks into rocks and crystals. As I was Catholic, I invited various priests who informed me they do not make house calls to student dorms. Okay, so I visited them and asked my burning question - should I stay in the military and go to Vietnam or refuse based on my Catholic faith? Their answer - you decide. Okay, thanks for that.

As I was getting lectured to by these many faiths, I needed a break. So Friday night became Hari Krishna night. They would show up, I supplied cheap wine, got my finger cymbals and many dorm folks and we danced the night away. The smell of incense lasted all weekend.

Well, I did not get any answers, but discovered there are many ways to inquire about God.

To all the folks reading this, I do not intend to disparage any religion. It is just a tale of a goofy guy in search of answers in his youth.

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Your quest sounds a lot like the one undertaken by Woody Allen’s character in “Hannah and Her Sisters”. After failing to find any of the answers, he concludes that life is meaningless and decides to end it all, only to fail at that. His moment of awakening and deliverance is later provided, not by any man of the cloth, but by a Marx Brothers flick playing in an old movie house. Brilliant.

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I have not seen that movie. Probably a good idea to watch it.

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Yes, I highly recommend it, a totally engrossing film filled with interesting, vividly drawn characters who speak coherently , literately, and with complete humanity. A perfect balance of comedy and tragedy with a soothing, tasteful soundtrack of classical, swing, and jazz standards, funny, sad, thought provoking, and intelligent. In other words, it bears zero resemblance to any movies that are made today.

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As someone with German heritage, i have never been offended with jokes about Germans, 90 percent of which seems to relate to their supposed lack of a sense of humor. I am offended by any jokes related to the NAZI extermination of the Jews and other peoples. Not a thing to joke about.

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Harry Kalven, the First Amendment scholar, once wrote that not recognizing or punishing blasphemy, was one of the most important foundational laws of the United States. Joking about people who see their savior's face in their toast seems permissible.

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A wealth of choices in the Tweet of the Week contest!

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