A few weeks before my birthday, Amy asked me, "do you want to do anything special?"
Steve's 36th Birthday
I'm usually pretty low-key when it comes to this type of thing, but after thinking about it for a little bit, presented this crazy idea: "I think it would be fun to get some folks together and watch the Back to the Future trilogy back-to-back-to-back!"
Amazingly, Amy pulled it off.
Over the weekend we hopped the "L" downtown to watch the traditional dying of the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day, something that has been taking place since 1961.
Steve & Amy with a GREEN Chicago River
The first coloring of the waterway happened by accident when a plumber used green dye to track a rouge waste line that was dumping sewage into the river.
Recently a tweet I wrote about Disney's release of Fantasia on Blu-ray was republished in a children's ministry-oriented magazine:
Tannerman tweets!
I'm flattered that it was included, even though it really didn't have much to do with ministry. For those curious about the censorship I mentioned, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:
The 1969 theatrical release of Fantasia included the removal of the Sunflower character, a centaur depicted as an African-American girl in the Pastoral Symphony segment.
Censored scene in "Fantasia"
According to The Memory Hole, "Performing menial duties for the blonde, white female centaurs, Sunflower is a racial stereotype along the lines of Amos and Andy, Buckwheat, and Aunt Jemima". John Carnochan, the editor responsible for the change, said "It's sort of appalling to me that these stereotypes were ever put in". The edit has been in place in all theatrical and home video releases since 1969.
These edits resulted in 3 short scenes being cut. They've never appeared on a DVD release, so there was hope that in the "restored" Blu-ray release these scenes would appear. No such luck.
Disney just continues to edit the film without saying a word. Of course, this isn't the only film they've post-humorously edited "for modern audiences." It's quite a long list!
The first Monday in March is always a school holiday here in Illinois, thanks to Revolutionary War hero, Casimir Pulaski. He was a Polish cavalry officer known for his contributions in training U.S. soldiers. On behalf of the large Chicago Polish population (myself included), I wish you a Happy Casimir Pulaski Day!
Corner of Pulaski & Addison
As a tribute to Pulaski, the city council voted in 1938 to rename the north-south running Crawford Ave. to Pulaksi Road.
Chicago also has a program for "Honorary" street names, which are denoted by brown signs that are hung along with the real green street signs. For some odd reason, someone found the need to create a "Honorary Casimir Pulaski Way"… on the existing Pulaski Road. I mean, the street is already named after Pulaski. Did you really need a honorary designation as well? Did someone not realize what Pulaski Road was actually named after? How idiotic is this?
Got to love Chicago politics!
I was recently looking at some old View-Master reels through my "new" viewer when I came upon this booklet for a Disney-themed set. Back when View-Master reels came in paper packets, they often included multi-page booklets that further explained each shot, such as this from a G3-style packet.
Walt Disney World Fantasyland View-Master Booklet Cover
Through various ownership changes, View-Master dropped the use of packets and shifted to bundling reels in blisterpacks, eliminating all included supplements like order forms and paper booklets. Today's View-Master sets ironically focus mostly on cartoon and preschool properties, but we no longer get to view the type of artwork featured on the cover of the Fantasyland set that I've shown here. So take some time to enjoy this nice 1970s montage of things found in the land, in great contrast to what we'd probably see today (i.e. there's only 1 princess featured!)
Can you identify the ride depicted in the image that is no longer found in WDW's Fantasyland?
Today is Steve's birthday and I'm celebrating! I'm so grateful to have him in my life. Here's a fun photo of him when he was a kid.
Isn't he cute?
Happy Birthday, Steve! 
Amy & I recently received this card in the mail from our alma mater, Taylor University.
If I read the text correctly, it sure does seem like they are trying to defraud their alumni giving numbers!
P.S. I still hate the new Taylor logo
If you follow Amy & I via social media like Facebook, or even keep up with our activities here on the blog, you know that we're big fans of the boardgame Ticket to Ride. Since first picking up the original game in the fall of 2009, we've added the Mystery Train and USA 1910 Expansions, Ticket to Ride Europe and its companion Europa 1912 Expansion, Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries, and Ticket to Ride Switzerland.
Ticket to Ride: Alvin & Dexter Monster Expansion
There are still other games in the series that we haven't explored, but our minds were sort of blown when back in December rumors started leaking about another expansion… involving aliens and monsters? Surely this wasn't the case of completely throwing the theme of a turn-of-the-century railroad game out the window. But in fact, it was true!
And you know what? It's a great idea!
Well, the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011 has come and gone. The "Snowpocalypse" hit us February 1-2, officially dumping 20.2 inches at O'Hare, making this the 3rd largest in Chicago history (following blizzards in 1967 and 1999). Heck, the Chicago Public Schools even canceled classes for 2 days… which never happens.
Amy stands next to a yardstick... yes, lots of snow!
We lost power for 14 hours during the storm, but luckily our condo retains heat very well. We just played boardgames in the dark and listened to the radio reporting all the crazy happenings in the snow.
Snow attempts to bury the fence
Speaking of our condo, because of the way it was built, we saw some pretty huge snow drifts piled up against the building, doors, and windows. It also took a few days to clear out enough snow to get Amy's car out of the garage… and many days later to dig my car out of the street.
Playing "Dominion" by LED and candlelight
Aside from vehicles getting abandoned on Lake Shore Drive when it was shut down during the storm, the city actually did a pretty good job of handling the blizzard… as is typical of a municipality where a snowstorm once determined a mayoral election!
Snow as viewed from our atrium
I should also mention that our 9th wedding anniversary took place during the blizzard… and it was an odd way to celebrate it!
Over the weekend, while shopping at a vintage toy store with some friends, I happened across a View-Master Model C viewer. I don't think the seller knew the value of the product, because I got a really good deal when I bought it!
View-Master Model C Viewer
As many of you know, I'm somewhat of a vintage View-Master collector (remember our Christmas trip to View-Masterville?), continued from my fascination with the 3D product as a kid. These days, I'm mostly interested in the real-life scenic reels of tourist attractions. It's very fun to look at images from Niagara Falls or Washington D.C. as they were depicted in an era long ago. The View-Master is still in production, owned by Mattel these days and marketed as a Fisher-Price brand. However, it's primarily targeted at the pre-school age group with reels based on cartoon properties.
