STL DPB On The Road: The Chicago Marathon

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For my money, anyone who deliberately runs 26.2 miles - just over 42 km - needs to have his or her head examined. That includes my son, Andy, and 45,000 of his closest friends who ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday. Above, our pride and joy picks it up 150 m from the finish line with couldn't-be-worse backlighting. Below, the mob at the first milepost.

Back home after a long drive. It's late; I'm pooped. We must have marched maybe 6 or 8 miles around the city trying to follow him. Not nearly what he did, but more than enough for my old legs and feet. Some more of this tomorrow, and back to commenting on my friends' blogs.

STL DBP On The Road: Chicago

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We drove to Chicago Friday afternoon, about 300 miles or 500 km, across the broad Illinois prairie. A bit of downtown touristy stuff yesterday, including the much photographed Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. At the Art Institute of Chicago, I feared that these young men, upon order from their sergeant, might pee in unison on George Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

The Chicago Marathon is today. Pix of my son battling his way through tomorrow. We have a long drive home this afternoon so the post may not go up until the morning U.S. Central Time.

I Wish It Were So SImple

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I'm writing this late Friday night in a suburb of Chicago. Long drive from STL, bad construction and traffic delays, and now I'm just tired. So, a few more scenes from the Occupy St. Louis encampment in Kiener Plaza. The viewer may draw his or her own conclusions.

Free day in Chicago today. Besides the usual museums, I may go find where the Occupiers hang out in this city. I hear it's by the Board of Trade, the country's major commodities exchange.

But most important of all, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1 - 0 to clinch the first round of the baseball playoffs. Philadelphia had the best record of all during the regular season. The Cards now advance to the National League Championship Series against Milwaukee. Happy happy joy joy.

Occupied

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I went by Kiener Plaza before going home from work yesterday. The plan was to talk to the Occupy people, hear what they had to say and get some more snaps.

Those with whom I spoke had a general sense of anger at the far right, corporations and the rich, and against the government itself. I share at least the first two but isn't part of the idea to protect the state's ability to do what it can do best, to do what only it can do (like universal health care? hmmm?). Lots of us want a functional state, not see it marginalized. There was much earnestness and a strong sense of social morality, but the locals - perhaps the movement in general - had not yet defined goals and a strategy to achieve them. The sign below suggests a bit of naivete. I sincerely wish these people well but I hope they can move on from idealism to, as they say in Congress, ways and means. There is a very interesting discussion of these questions in today's New York Times here. Some commentators are encouraged by the fact that there is not yet a rigid set of commands.

The earnestness was leavened with art: the guitarist below played oh so sweetly.

Up to Chicago today to cheer on son and heir to the St. Louis Daily Photo fortune, U "R" Us, in Sunday's marathon. Again, that will limit comments. (I'm just full of excuses, aren't I?) We may have some more on this topic tomorrow, followed by the great city of Chicago.

Thursday Arch Series

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As promised, I went down to the Arch last weekend to get some new snaps. (I am a man of my word.) You've heard me whine about how hard it it at this point to get something fresh. This is an old theme: standing down the stairs from the monument to the river, looking back up into the sunset. It worked out okay.

Didn't get back to meet the Occupy St. Louis people yesterday. Too much work. Maybe later today. But, hey, the Cardinals beat the Phillies last night, forcing a decisive fifth and final game Friday. Hope springs eternal.

You Say You Want A Revolution

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The Occupy Wall Street movement comes to St. Louis. They have been hanging out around Kiener Plaza with their signs and leaflets. Hundreds of people passed them by on their way to the Cardinals game, mostly ignoring them. (The Cards lost 3 - 2.)

I find this so refreshing. I am sick of Tea Party rant and ready to hear some good old-fashioned left wing rant instead. Candidly, our household's politics are left of center, although not extremely so. We are outraged by the growing stranglehold on our country by the very rich, whether individuals or corporations. We are appalled by Republicans who characterized moderate tax increases on the wealthy as class warfare. Holy bleep, who's been screwing whom?

This blog advertises its own occasional rant and, there, you got one. You can check these folks out online at http://www.occupystl.org/. I think I'm going to go visit them tomorrow during the day.

There are still more pix from the Highland Games. Maybe we'll get back to them.

What's A Caber?

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Well, you can toss it, but not like a Frisbee or your cookies. Wikipedia tells us that:

The caber toss is a traditional Scottish athletic event practised at the Scottish Highland Games involving the tossing of a large wooden pole called a caber. It is said to have developed from the need to toss logs across narrow chasms to cross them. In Scotland the caber is usually made from a Larch pine tree. A caber typically is 19 feet 6 inches (5.94 m) tall and weighs 175 pounds (79 kg).

There were plenty of bulky competitors for this event at the Scottish Games last weekend. The strongman shown here was one of the best. The top picture shows him at the moment of release, the bottom two just before and after. (Thank heavens for burst mode). Ideally, the top of the pole should hit the ground first and the part the contestant was holding should fall forward and away from him. Can't be good for the spine and shoulders but he pulled it off.

Apologies in advance - I'll be leaving few or no comments today and tomorrow. Our hometown heroes, the baseball Cardinals, made the playoffs on the last day of the season. The first series with mighty Philadelphia is tied one game each as play moves to St. Louis. There are games late this afternoon and tomorrow. I plan to attend both and will have little extra time. It will all come back.