It’s cold in Chicago. I like that. It keeps me alert and humble; it reminds me not to take things for granted.

Chicago has great buildings, everyone knows that; but not just the old and famous ones. Visit and discover a shimmering forest of glass and steel rising west and northwest of the Loop, new towers rising over squalid old streets; and to the east on what used to be lake. On an icy clear night, the Loop sparkles and glows.

Chicago’s library system is arguably the best of any big American city and the new Harold Washington central library is its crown jewel. I chuckle with pleasure ogling the bronze gargoyle dragons flapping at the roofline. But my soft spot is for the Blackstone Branch, a Greek temple in Hyde Park, the first branch library built (in 1904) and still going strong. Its high-vaulted children’s reading room looks the same today as when I first cracked a book for pleasure in that very space (ca. 1946).

Chicago cuisine? Deep-dish pizza is wonderful, but the real deal is a Vienna Kosher red-hot with yellow mustard, raw onions, piccalilly and sport peppers — rare fruits that grow only in jars, only in Chicago. And Polish sausage slathered with grilled onions. But the Chicago delicacy without peer is the Italian beef sandwich, thin slices of roast beef on an Italian roll soaked – drenched – in “au jus”. Get ‘em wherever you see a red-and-yellow sign that says “Vienna Kosher.”

One can always hear jazz in Chicago. WDCB-FM, College of DuPage, a newcomer to me, lays down great sounds with a solid signal you can get in many parts of town. Radio in general is more refreshing and original in Chicago than in D.C. On this trip I discovered WLUW-FM, out of Loyola University, a free-form Pacifica-sounding voice that kept me on my toes.

Chicago under Da Mare was a repressive place. Restaurants, for example, could not put tables on the sidewalks because of a Fire Marshal rule (can’t block the hydrants, y’know). Da Mare liked things neat, tidy and under control; if you wanted to have fun, you could do it in the privacy of your own home like they do in Bridgeport. But Richie Daley, Da Mare’s son, is cut from different cloth. Go to the new Millenium Park on a warm June night and join the tens of thousands of Chicagoans enjoying the free concerts under the spectacular Frank Gehry bandshell, and wander in and around “The Bean,” world’s largest funhouse mirror. Downright subversive.

Chicagoans are nicer than Easterners. Easterners know that and make fun of it, but secretly they’re envious.

And finally, Chicago is a reading town. Always was. Still is.

Frank Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. Washingtonians-Baltimoreans alert! This Sunday I’ll be at the Washington Ethical Society (WES), 7750 16th St. NW (at Jonquil). I’m the Platform speaker. Platform starts at 11 a.m. Following Platform at 1 p.m., I’ll be addressing a WES “FunRaiser,” discussing To Love Mercy. The FunRaiser is $15 but Platform is free and open to the public. Hope you’ll come!

P.P.S. My just-ended Chicago trip was heart-warming (if nose-chilling). Thanks again to my gracious hosts – three Chicago Public Library branches, the public libraries of Evanston and Chicago Ridge, the Newberry Library, Wheeling High School, Barnes & Noble-Old Orchard, Borders-Oak Park, and Centuries & Sleuths-Forest Park.