Jason Hasselkus

So I’m here this week in Chicago on business, and so far the trip has been enjoyable. Yes you heard that right, my trip to Chicago really hasn’t been that bad. One of the reasons I really like coming to Chicago is the fact that I don’t need to get a car when I’m here. The public transportation system here is awesome. I walk right from baggage claim, to the CTA, sit down for 45 minutes and relax, then walk two very short blocks to my hotel room. Not bad for $2 and almost no hassle. But one thing has struck me odd. Chicago, “The Windy City”, doesn’t really seem that windy, if anything I would call it the cold and rainy city, but I guess Seattle probably has that one pretty well sewn up. Hmmmm, what else could we call it? How about “The Dirty and Under Construction City”? Nah, New York and even Boston are constantly doing some type of construction and neither are particularly clean, so Chi-town isn’t dirty or under construction enough to take that title (personally I’d give it to New York).
From where my room is located and by the noise that I heard all night, how about “The City that Never Sleeps? From what I hear Las Vegas has taken that title away, which I also believe has taken “Sin City”. Or maybe it was Seattle since I heard Tom Hanks was sleepless there and so was Meg Ryan, oh well one may never know.
Well one thing I have noticed about Chicago is that the people here love to talk about themselves and their sports teams. Yes the Bulls are giving it to the Heat in the 2007 NBA playoffs, the Cubs finally won a game and the Sox have already thrown a no hitter this year. Of course there is always “Da Bears” and I heard that they have a hockey team called the Blackhawk’s, but nobody on the street will confirm that or not. So maybe that’s it. They were calling Chicago the windy city because there is so much hot air here coming from the locals. Even the guy at the Chicago Sun Times is famous for ripping on the Microsoft Zune and then ended up eating his words. It looks like Chicago can keep the title “Windy City” since I now know where it comes from, and all along I thought it was atmospheric event. Thanks Chicago for having me, I love your pizza and your hot dogs. I can’t wait to come back!