Category: Uncategorized
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“Chicago, Chicago, That Todd’ling Town”
Stef and Stan in the Second City, Part 6 August 29, 2026 Last day in Chicago. We’d made a date with Kris (a fellow Road Scholar we met on a tour of southwest France four years ago). Kris, and her husband, Jim, live in a Chicago suburb and agreed to spend the day with us.…
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“Chicago, Chicago, That Todd’ling Town”
Stef and Stan in the Second City, Part 5 August 28, 2026 The official Road Scholar tour was over this morning, and we took advantage of the opportunity to have a leisurely breakfast, use the hotel’s gym, and schedule only one touristic activity. This was a visit to the International Museum of Surgical Science. The…
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“Chicago, Chicago, That Todd’ling Town”
Stef and Stan in the Second City, Part 4 August 27, 2026 At long last, today was the day to get our Frank Lloyd Wright “fix.” After breakfast, we headed out to the suburb of Oak Park, where it all began. Oak Park was where well-heeled Chicagoans fled after the Great Fire of 1871, ostensibly…
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“Chicago, Chicago, That Todd’ling Town”
Stef and Stan in the Second City, Part 3 August 26, 2026 Tony, our tour leader, told us that Chicago’s population is roughly 30% Caucasian, 30% Black, 30% Hispanic, and 10% other ethnicities. Today we focused on the Hispanic part. There is a neighborhood in Chicago called Pilsen. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, it…
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“Chicago, Chicago, That Todd’ling Town”
Stef and Stan in the Second City August 24, 2026 Let’s get this over with: Here is the usual hommage in my intro blog post, this time to Fred Fisher, who composed the above-referenced tune in 1922. And to the performer, Frank Sinatra, who made it famous in 1958. Apologies to my subscribers under the…
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Abroad at Home, Part 4
The Wright Stuff Tuesday, August 4, 2026 Back in 2018, Stef and I took a mini-vacay to Chicago. We took in the South Side, visited the campus of the University of Chicago and toured the Robie House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. (Some of the photos in this post are not mine.) It was totally…
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Abroad at Home, Part 3
Home is Where the Art Is July 23, 2026 The last time we did one of these “Abroad at Home” posts was (you may recall) when we visited Boston for the John Singer Sargent exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in December 2023. Full disclosure: none of the photos in this blog are mine.…
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If You Knew Sushi Like I Know Sushi #12
Osaka & Kobe, Monday, May 18, 2026 We opted to play hooky this morning with respect to the udon noodle-making class at Iricosky. From what I could gather from our tour mates, it was something of a hoot, as well as delicious, involving kneading the noodle dough (in plastic wrapping) with the feet. I guess…
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If You Knew Sushi Like I Know Sushi #11
Osaka, Sunday, May 17, 2026 Nearing the end of our Japan soujourn. Before we get into today’s activities in Osaka, a reference to our last dinner in Kyoto the day before. Dinner was at a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant called Il Ghiottone, run by Chef Yasuhiro Sasajima. He initially came to the professional culinary world through…
Something to Declare 