We've spent the last two weeks in the midwest, specifically Iowa and Illinois. Our purpose was to warm Dan's
recently purchased home in Holy Cross IA and celebrate US Thanksgiving with him. Holy Cross is a small town in the northeast
corner of Iowa, near Dubuque. The countryside was particularly beautiful this time of year: It was sunny, the air crisp and dry, the
harvest completed, so the fields were tidy, and with the season over the farms were buttoned up for the winter.
This area of NE Iowa, SW Wisconsin and SE Minnesota is called the "Driftless Region" because, inexplicably, the recent glaciations
missed it. It was especially lovely in its autumn colors.
With the Harvest Over, NE Iowa is Buttoned Up for Winter
News & Notes
When we got to Iowa, the partying started immediately. We weren't sure what a house-warming entailed, so we went for house occupant-warming, which seemed to require a toast of single malt whisky. We all liked his place, comfortable and well outfitted. The kitchen is large enough we could all pitch in preparing the Thanksgiving dinner. And, his friends in Holy Cross and environs were very welcoming.
Warming the Occupants of the New House: Dan, L and Dave
Before rendezvousing with Dave and driving to Iowa, we chilled for a few days in Chicago. Besides enjoying the Glühwein under the watchful (and beady) eyes of Picasso's creature at the Daley Plaza Christmas Market, we toured favorite museums, the Garfield Park Conservatory, and hung out at the Millennium Park.
Opening Day at the Daley Plaza Christmas Market
The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank has a nice display on money and the money supply. A neat interactive exhibit lets visitors be Chairman of the Fed. In their imaginary economy the cupcake industry is tanking -- people aren't buying. It's dragging down Frosting; Big Muffin is getting battered; unemployment is rising. How can manipulating interest rates fix the problem? J correctly adjusted interest rates to solve three scenarios, earning her a cover story in U.S. Economy! It was fun. They even passed out shredded money we could use as confetti.
Fed Chair Julie Saves the Economy
Perhaps the best art exhibit we saw was a retrospective of Faith Ringgold's career at the Museum of Contemporary Art. (No worries, we went to AIC, too.) Ringgold was familiar to us from a very memorable work owned by the Whitney Museum in NYC. Her development from early protest graphics to the recent sophisticated work in textiles exhibits her characteristically bold, forceful and intense qualities. Her struggle to achieve standing in the Art World was revealing: "I believed I was just a Black artist, I didn't know I was a Black (woman) artist, and That's a Black of a Different Color."
In Ringgold's "Stamp" Graphic, White Power is On Top of Black Power
Following the super Thanksgiving in Iowa, the family returned to Chicago for a sightseeing weekend and a performance of "A Christmas Carol" presented by the Manual Cinema Company. The show was a delight! Our stop at the observation level of the iconic John Hancock Building came with the ridiculous news that the building's official name is now -- wait for it -- "875 North Michigan Avenue." Seriously.
Looking South From the Least Imaginative Tower's Observation Floor
With everyone home for the holiday, we had dinner with L's brother Alden's family, a rare enjoyment. From left, L, Dave, J, Laura, Nora, Anna, Dan, Miggie, Alden. Notice that if this were the Supreme Court, the decision in Beer vs Other Dinner Drinks would loose in a 5-4 opinion.
Two Families
