sweet home Chicago

He is smiling from deep inside while doing this. He is showing us another side. 

a great duet for the show (last post)

This was the best song IMHO.

Behind the scenes - white house

Some great performers doing some great music.

Being that the theme is Motown, I initially thought all the performers would be African-American.  Not so, and that says a good thing to me.  The main thing should be the talent and music coming from the artist.  The color of skin should play no role in it.

how many pens does it take

Yesterday I watched on Cspan the historical signing of the health reform bill.  As you might expect there was a big crowd gathered around the President as he sat down to sign it.

Here's the full video clip with speeches and the signing.

"On Behalf of My Mother"

But what surprised me was the number of pens he used to sign it.  After searching around today I found the number to be 22. 

Do you think that's a record number of pens?

No, LBJ used more that 75 to sign the Civil Rights Act.  Here's where I found that - Times site.

Now I'm wondering what company makes those pens.

Here's a clip about the signing pens that the White House put out.

( Sure hope they never start using those difficult check-out electronic signing machines.  Nobody can sign those dumb things.)

government clean up

photos from White House flickr page

If it were only this simple.

President blocks - Reggie recovers evidence

The right wing will call this a foul.

Here's the picture:

not a job I would want

Looks like President Obama is having a good laugh over a picture of his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. With all the problems he faces everyday, I wonder how much he gets a good laugh.

I know I would not want to face the press daily and try to explain things to them.

Chicago Whitehouse

Note the statue in the above picture is not at Obama's house, but it's not too far away.

It's the Statue of the Republic that was erected in 1918 as a reminder of the 65 foot 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in the Jackson Park area of Chicago. A great way to learn about that 1893 fair is through the book, "The Devil in the White City".

So last Friday, my daughter talked me into driving into Chicago for an outdoor concert. I thought I could make the trip more worthwhile by finding Obama's Chicago house. My daughter's schedule failed to give me much time to research before I was on the road. I knew what general area it was in and was able to pin it down to the Kenwood neighborhood.

So on a rainy Friday I started driving around looking for it. I knew the street was blocked off, so I just needed to find police cars and barricades.

I first turned off Lake Shore Drive (anyone call it LSD?) at Jackson Park and proceed north through the Univ. of Chicago campus (reminds me of France).

I found the closed off block on South Greenwood.

After the trip, with a little internet searching I found this on the hydepark.org site.

About the time of Mr. Obamas' run for the U.S. Senate, the Obamas bought 5040 S. Greenwood, a large house in the historic Kenwood Historic District, near Hyde Park Boulevard across Greenwood Avenue from landmarked Congregation K.A.M. Isaiah Israel. Information about the house, gathered from Jean Block's Hyde Park Houses and Construction News - May 28, 1910 includes: Original owner A. R. Clarke, a contractor who also owned and was the owner/architect. The architect was Bishop & Company. Built in 1910. 5040: A Historical Georgian revival home built in 1910 with four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar…

You will be lucky to glimpse it and cannot take photographs. You have to keep walking on the other side of the street. The street is closed to through traffic and owners need special ID to enter. Those attending services or events at KAM and expecting to park in the lot must register a day in advance and have their names on a list. Traffic is also regulated on East Hyde Park Boulevard (5100) and when there is a motorcade or such, the street may be barricaded.

That above description is correct.

After driving by the barricades at both ends of the block, I decided I would venture on foot. Parking my car a house (the lots in this area are large) away from one of the parked police cars, I proceeded to walk up to the Chicago policeman guarding the north barricade.

Expecting he would just command me to move along, I was surprised he was willingly to talk to me. He confirmed that I could not walk down the block and noticing my camera told me where I could take some pictures. He also advised me that I would see mostly trees.

While I was talking to him, a young boy (guessing 11 yrs. old) came riding up on a bike. He was stopped and briefly questioned. Apparently, he was going to visit a friend on the block. He knew the right names and addresses so he was allowed through. It must be interesting living on that block.

Well the pictures I got are not that great. I suggest waiting until the leaves fall for a better picture. You can find better pictures than mine on the internet.

St. Patrick's Day and White House

If you look closely the fountain is green. Interesting, but maybe not that surprising given the Obama-Chicago connection and Chicago's tradition of green dye in the Chicago river. Of course the river was done this past weekend (Saturday) for the big parade.



Thanks to the Chicago Tribune site I discovered the green at the White house.

They also mention that President Obama was presented with a bowl of shamrocks by the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach).

I don't know how long the bowl of shamrocks have been a tradition but I recall former President Bush getting a bowl of them. After a little searching a I found a picture of President Clinton getting a bowl too.

A reminder, I posted an earlier note about Obama being Irish.

(Tribune photo by Abel Uribe / March 14, 2009)

needs to improve bowling

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

nice dance

When I first got the idea for this blog, I mistakenly thought the change.gov site was going to stay. Well it's still there but it's not active.

The whitehouse.gov site was switched over immediately but the interaction that change.gov offered is not up and running yet. You can only leave short comments on the site for now.

President Obama has certainly been busy and I imagine they are working on getting the interaction with the public going.