Vacation and oil spills

Got back last week from our family road trip vacation to Chicago.  Don't know whether vacation and the oil spill has kept me from blogging.  But those two events came right after - or in the case of the spill, intensified after - the US lost in the World Cup AND the Nats stopped hitting.  Those four events contributed to an even quieter blog than usual.

A few random notes to get me back in the swing, on a variety of topics:

• If you are in Chicago - a great town anyway you look at it, but especially for it's excellent public spaces and art - make sure to visit Hot Doug's, one of America's funkiest and coolest sausage places. They serve a variety of hot dogs and sausages, including antelope, rattlesnake, and alligator.  I was provincial, and had a gyro sausage with artichoke spread and haloumi cheese (from Cyprus).
• The other highlights of Chitown included: a 4th of July Cubs game at Wrigley.  We sat in the Bartman Section and watched the Reds dismantle the Cubbies 14-3. Third time we've seen the impressive Reds in person - they can hit.  Wrigleyville is also a blast - even for a traditional loser the North Side fans treat each game like a festival; dinner at my excellent cousin's house in Naperville; and walking on the glass sky walk/balcony off the top floor of the Sears Tower - you know you are walking on solid glass but that first step onto the clear platform is freaky as you look straight down to the street from the 101st floor.
• On the way back to DC we stopped at a fabulous ice cream place, Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, in Zanesville, OH (reportedly named after famed western writer Zane Grey).  It's an old timey ice cream parlor with good food and fantastic ice cream, complete with bow-tie wearing soda jerks.  
• We found Tom's on Yelp, the best iPhone App (at least on this trip).  We also found the outstanding 11th Street Diner in Chicago via Yelp, and great diner near the museums on the Chicago water front.
• Finally, Primanti Brothers and Pamela's P&G Diner, both in the Strip District of underrated Pittsburgh.  Primanti Brothers is famous for stuffing their sandwiches with french fries and cole slaw between two slices of thick cut Italian bread, served on wax paper.  It's sounds cheesy and contrived and etcetera, but it tastes fantastic.  And the crepe pancakes at Pamela's were fantastic.
• Of the three cities we visited the saddest was Cleveland.  Unlike Chicago, which was vibrant all day every day, and downtown and the Strip District of Pittsburgh - both districts full of thriving locally owned businesses and people and sporting goods stores - Cleveland was empty.  So three cities that were industrial giants built near transportation hubs but Cleveland, much more aligned with the Detroit auto industry, has not made the transition very well.
• But Cleveland does has the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is worth a visit to the Cleve. At the Hall of Fame, Ariadne purchased a vinyl Aretha Franklin album, they had a small but interesting display on Joy Division and New Order, and an excellent but temporary exhibit/retrospective on Bruce Springsteen.  The HOF also does a great job acknowledging the contributions of non-rock music - blues, soul and country - and there are lots of displays devoted to Johnny Cash, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, etc.
• I was also reminded how much crappy rock music has been made in the last 50 years.  There were quite a few exhibits devoted to Queen, Ted Nugent, Pink Floyd, and other non-punk rock dreck.  For instance, the guest that day was one of the guitarists from Molly Hatchet. 
• We were in Ohio the night LeBron James stiffed the Buckeye State.  No one begrudges moving on via free agency - but DO NOT hold an hour-long narcissism festival to stiff your home town team.  And I question joining someone else's team - in this case Dwayne Wade's and Pat Riley's Miami Heat, (two folks I dislike; Wade is a soccer player-style poseur always preening, and Riley is a right-wing asshole who learned coaching from a racist) rather than proving you are THE MAN with Cleveland.  Is LeBron a star, as he claims, or a complimentary player following in Wade's wake?  
• The good news is Cleveland has FINALLY made room for Danny Green at the 2 spot.  Green and Wayne Ellington had nice runs at the recently completed NBA Summer League.  Ellington averaged 16 points a game, Green 12.   
• Greek-American Kosta Koufos also averaged 12 points a game.  And he wasn't the only Greek in Las Vegas.  Sofoklis Schortsianitis, aka Baby Shaq/Greek Shaq/Big Sofo, made his LA Clippers debut 7 years after he was drafted.  Baby Shaq, born in Greece to a Greek father and Cameroonian mother, is most famous for dominating Dwight Howard in the second half of Greece's upset of the US in the 2006 World Championship final four.

That's enough for now.  Look for a depressing Nats blog soon!