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Trying To Square The Christmas Circle

12/29/2025

When I came down on Christmas morning I caught a quick glimpse of the New York Times sitting on the kitchen table.

My first thought was that this was some contemporary artistic rendition of the Nativity story, in which Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with their newborn baby Jesus to save him from certain death at the hands of Herod, the King of Judea.
But upon taking a closer at the newspaper I saw that this was in fact a photograph of Sudanese refugees who fled their homeland to save themselves from certain death at the hands of a violent militia group known as the Rapid Response Forces.

I wondered if the Times editorial board purposely chose this photograph for its Christmas Day edition on the hunch that its readers would likely make the same connection that I did. And perhaps to hand their readers the challenge of squaring how we celebrate Christmas,

...with circling back to that first Christmas, which, if we are to believe what the the Gospel tells us, has much more in common with this image,

...than with any of the things we do to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
But here's an idea. Supposing we gave ourselves permission to brighten up the dark, cold, winter days to our heart's content with lights, gifts, eating, singing, celebrating with family and friends, and spreading a spirit of joy, while the rest of the year we live the message of Christmas by caring for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters on the planet.

If only.

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The Spirit Of Christmas In Columbus, Ohio

12/24/2025

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It's Christmas Eve here in Columbus, Ohio.
Some of us spent the day getting our homes ready for this night,

...putting the finishing touches on our baking,

...burning our Christmas Eve bayberry candles,

...for some of us the celebration of Christmas with friends and family beginning on this night.
Some of us were out during the day doing some last minute shopping or enjoying the festively decked-out stores and malls,

...and some were in their homes, cowering in fear, unable to put together Christmas for their families, unable to console their frightened children, too terrified to leave their homes to visit with loved ones, or even to shop for food.
This is because during this season, the overarching themes of which are peace, joy, goodwill, letting all contention cease, and recalling the story of the baby who was born in a stable and whose parents became immigrants who had to flee with their newborn child across the border into a foreign country,

...Donald Trump chose to bring his theater of cruelty,

...under the direction of his cold-blooded, plastic surgery-skinned overseer of brutality,

...to Columbus, Ohio for Christmas.

But Columbus, Ohio, has chosen during this Christmas season to live the message of kindness, brother-and sisterhood, and caring for the least among us preached by the one who was born on that first Christmas day:

Matthew 25:35 – “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

 Leviticus 19:33-34
33 “ ‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and carry a whistle.

Merry Christmas, Everyone. May the Lord keep your city safe from ICE.

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Chicago Is The Kindest City

12/21/2025

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A few years ago I wrote a post on my impression that Chicagoans are the nicest people. The basis for this post was an experience I had almost half a dozen years ago when visiting the city in the icy, frigid, mid-winter weather. (https://www.ailantha.com/blog/chicagoans-are-the-nicest-people).

I had taken a train from the airport, and when I reached my stop I had problems with my suitcase, first getting it through the turnstile, an old-fashioned contraption that looked like this,

...then getting it down the steep flight of stairs from the train platform to the sidewalk.

However, one nice young man stopped and helped get my suitcase through the turn stile, then another stopped and hauled my suitcase down the steps for me.
Then, as I was making my way on foot from the train station to my destination I got a little directionally confused, and a nice man on the street helped me find my way.
And so it was during that visit that it struck me how nice Chicago folks are.
And it was during my most recent visit the second week in December of this year (See post from 12/16/2025, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/walking-and-walking-and-walking-in-a-chicago-winter-wonderland), that I began to take notice of how kind a city Chicago is.
Everywhere I went there were signs of tolerance and acceptance. I saw signs such as these on public restrooms.

In shop windows everywhere I walked there were signs standing up for the immigrants who were given refuge in Chicago only to be cruelly persecuted by Donald Trump's heartless ICE gangs.

For me all these signs brought a a spirit of Christmas feeling, a bit warmth to the cold winter air, a bit of solace in the midst of woe,

...and made me feel that Chicago is my kind of town.

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The Car Mitzvah

12/19/2025

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Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"   http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
   "Hail Mary"    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression"       https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

The Car Mitzvah

...Continued from previous post:
Mitzvah: A word that in Judaism, and also in the Liszkay family vocabulary, means a good deed.
The following day, Tuesday, Claire decided to rent a Zipcar so that she and I could replenish her pantry with a trip to Costco and run a few other errands.
Zipcars are vehicles that can be inexpensively rented by the day, hour, or minute, and picked up then returned to any number of Zipcar lots around Chicago. Zipcars also tend to sport their logo, which makes it helpful to find them after you've parked them in a parking lot.

And so whenever Claire and Miguel, who don't own a car, need to make a sizeable acquisition, they conveniently rent a Zipcar.
However we decided to start off the day with breakfast at the Bongo Room where we'd eaten the day before since, 1: the Bongo Room happened to be in the general direction of a Zipcar lot, and 2: the food there is so good. (See previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/walking-and-walking-and-walking-in-a-chicago-winter-wonderland).
On this day the temperature was a little over half a dozen degrees warmer than the day before, just warm enough so that the ice and snow were was starting to melt a bit. Once again we walked the mile from Claire's house in Logan Square,

...to the Bongo Room in Wicker Park.

Claire again ordered her Bongo Room favorite, the avocado toast,

...this time with an artfully presented side of fruit.

...while I tried the yummy breakfast croissant again with a side of those fabulous Bongo Room potatoes.

After breakfast we walked close to another mile to the Zipcar lot.

Claire was feeling a weence anxious about the Zipcar. It had been a while since she'd driven, but mostly she was nervous about the prospect of having to maneuver the car out of the particular lot we were headed for, which was rather small and cramped, especially in the slushy, still potentially icy condition of the pavement.
However, when we arrived at the parking lot Claire saw to her elation that whoever last returned the car she'd been assigned had been thoughtful enough to back it into its space so that she wouldn't have to deal with backing out, but could more easily pull straight out.

"Look at this," she said, "somebody did a mitzvah!"
"A car mitzvah!" I said.
Thus Claire was able to extract her Zipcar from its spot without nearly the agita she'd feared.

After running her errands and dropping off her purchases at home, Claire returned her Zipcar, both of us wishing one of us had the savoir-faire to back the car back into that space for the next user, but, alas, "from each according to their abilities."
We then walked home from the lot, passing along the way the circus school in Claire's neighborhood.

I love the idea of the circus school. It sounds so whimsical, though I suppose circus folks must get their training somewhere.

That evening for dinner Claire, Miguel, and I decided to go to Belmont Cragin, the Chicago neighborhood that is home to the large Hispanic immigrant community that was under attack while ICE was in Chicago (and sadly, will likely be under attack once again now that ICE has swarmed back to that city). We wanted to support one of the neighborhood businesses. Claire and Miguel suggested a restaurant that they'd gone to before called El Azteca.
And so we took the bus into the heart of Belmont Cragin,

...and made our way to El Azteca, a wonderfully charming little place all decked out for the holidays.

I had a steak burrito that had sort of a coleslaw filling, which was a delicious twist,

...while Claire had an equally yummy veggie burrito,

...and Miguel had a dish of pork nestled beneath a corn cake, which he also declared delicious.

The following morning I said good-bye to Claire and Miguel's cozy little house,

...and the three of us set out in the drizzle,

...to a wonderful Logan Square eatery called the Cozy Corner,

...located conveniently next door to the train station.

The Cozy Corner ambiance is pleasant and friendly,

...and the server was kind enough to offer to take a picture of us.

The food was, as always, wonderful and plentiful.

After breakfast the drizzle had turned to snow, and Claire and Miguel saw me off to the train.

Surprisingly, I had the train pretty much to myself this morning,

...and soon I'd arrived at O'Hare,

...where this time my flight back to Columbus was delayed only 2 1/2 hours.

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Walking (And Walking And Walking) In A Chicago Winter Wonderland

12/16/2025

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Walking (And Walking And Walking) In A Chicago Winter Wonderland

...Continued from previous post:
After my 6 1/2-hour-late flight from Columbus to Chicago, I took the train from the airport to the Western stop,

...where Claire was waiting to meet me. (See previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/a-remedy-for-high-anxiety-at-the-columbus-airport).

From the train station we walked about 3/4 mile to Logan Square, where the snow and the lights gave the streets a magical look,

...to Claire and Miguel's cozy home,

...where the fire was so warm and welcoming,

...and where Miguel had a delicious pasta dinner waiting for us, mine and Miguel's topped with chicken, vegetarian Claire's topped with oven roasted tofu.

The next morning Claire and I headed out into the 20-something degree weather which Chicagoans seem to take in stride,

...and we walked a mile from Logan Square to Wicker Park,

...to a cute little eatery called The Bongo Room.

...that has the best breakfast food.
Claire ordered her Bongo Room favorite, the avocado toast,

...while I had eggs and bacon with some of the best fried potatoes on the planet.

After breakfast we walked several blocks to the Damen station,

...from where we took a train to Daley Plaza in the heart of the Chicago Loop to join the bundled-folks visiting the Christkindlmarket, the city's annual outdoor Christmas market modeled after the Christkindlesmarkt of Nuremberg, Germany.

For all the times I've been there, I never tire of visiting the Christkindlmarket at Christmastime,

...to look at the cheery displays and get into the holiday spirit.

After our tour of the Christkindlmarket we walked a few blocks,

...and caught a bus to our next destination, the Shedd Aquarium.
The walk from the bus stop to the Aquarium was about a mile but offered some scenic views along the way,

...among them the Chicago Field Museum.

...Lake Michigan,

...the Navy Pier,

...the Chicago skyline,

...and a statue of a guy holding a fish at the aquarium entrance.

Now, I don't know if the Shedd Aquarium is the most wonderful aquarium in the world,

...but it's the most wonderful aquarium I've ever seen.

Claire and I spent several sublime hours gazing at the mesmerizing sea and fresh water creatures living in the aquarium.

Among the aquatic wonders we saw were an extraordinary reef exhibit,

...a tank full of piranhas,

...which apparently get a much worse rap than they deserve,

...a group of sociable penguins,

...a pool of playful belugas,

...with a beautiful view,

...and these creepy little critters that I'd kind of like to unsee, worms that rise up from the sand, have a look around a little, then sink back down under the sand,

...reminding me of the sand worm in Beetlejuice, but fortunately without the extra head.

Though it had been early afternoon when we entered the aquarium, by the time we left the sun was setting,

...and it was dark by the time we walked the mile back to the bus,

...which we took back to the Loop, from where we caught a train back to the Damen stop.

From there we walked 3/4 mile,

...to Barnes and Noble.

Here we caught with Claire's hubby Miguel, then we all walked a block to a little Palestinian restaurant called Rumi,

...where we sampled the wraps, pitas, stuffed grape leaves,

...and yummy feta French fries.

After dinner we walked a couple of blocks to Crumbl Cookies for some dessert.

While we waited our turn it occurred to me that when a place has a product as excellent as Crumbl Cookies, they can get away without putting any effort into the decor.

We were about a mile from home, but decided that rather than walk the whole way, we'd walk a few blocks and catch a bus the rest of the way,

...which left us with just a few more blocks to cover 'til we were back home.

To be continued...

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A Remedy For High Anxiety At The Columbus Airport

12/10/2025

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A Remedy For High Anxiety At The Columbus Airport

Last Sunday, December 7, I was at the Columbus airport at 7:00 am to catch a 9:00 am flight to Chicago for a visit with my daughter, Claire and son-in-law, Miguel.

The terminal was decked out for the holidays,

...and wasn't crowded,

...and had a kind of nice Sunday morning feel.
Even the Starbucks wasn't crowded for a change, and so I decided to stop there for a croissant and an ice tea.

I sat at a table next to a young blind woman who was traveling with her service dog. We chatted about traveling and about her dog and I told her about how back when I used to teach piano in peoples' homes one of my student families adopted a dog who had for some reason flunked out of guide dog school. When the family first acquired the dog he was so calm, the calmest, most well-behaved dog I'd ever met. But after a few months of life with kids he was as excitable and over-enthusiastic as every other doggie on the block.
The young woman laughed and said that when her dog was out of harness he went back into full doggie mode, too.
After my pleasant Starbucks encounter I strolled around the airport for a bit, enjoying a feeling of gemütlichkeit and looking forward to a good, that is to say uneventful, flight. Then I headed over to my gate to wait.

And wait. And wait with everyone else until our flight's departure time came and went and we received an announcement that the new departure time would be 10:30 am. There was a line of folks who needed to reconfigure their Chicago connections,

...but most of the travelers seemed cool enough, under the circumstances,

...and the airline even offered us a cheerful little spin on the situation.

In any case, I myself was cool enough over the hour and a half delay. I just texted my daughter that instead of meeting up for brunch when I landed we'd meet up for lunch.
As our new departure time approached another announcement arrived that now our departure time was 11:30 am. But I was still okay with the two and a half hour delay. Everyone seemed pretty much okay. Until the next announcement that our flight would be departing from a different gate.
The problem wasn't so much that our flight had a new departure gate as that the screen at the gate we were sent to posted information for a flight to Chicago with a different flight number and departure time than ours.
Now people were confused and I wondered if everyone else was starting to feel as anxious as I was starting to feel. Time went by and people were checking their phones, I expect for updated information, but I also expect their information was no more updated than mine was.

A group was loosely congregated around the podium but there was no gate agent there to give out any information even as our supposed departure time of 11:30 am approached.

I was worried that I'd gone to the wrong gate. A couple of people I talked to were worried they'd gone to the wrong gate. (Of course, if we'd been thinking calmly we would have concluded that if we were all at the same gate then it must be the right gate). But anxiety was in the air. And it was high. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just me who felt like grasshoppers were mixing it up in the middle of my chest.
Suddenly I was jonesing for a Diet Coke with ice. But I was afraid to leave the gate in case some announcement would be made about my flight. However there was a Wolfgang Puck a few gates away,

...and so I zipped over to the restaurant's counter and asked if I might be able to have a Diet Coke to go. The kind server got me my Diet Coke and when I asked her how much I owed she smiled sympathetically and said, "It's okay, Sweetie, it's on me." I thought, Geez, I must look like one hot mess.

Then finally help arrived at our gate.
It came in the form of a Newfoundland the size of a small pony,

...whose job was to flop down on the floor and let us pet him,

...which I did,

...and he was so soft and fluffy and docile that I just stayed there petting him for the longest time. And it did make me feel better,

...though in truth I don't know whether it was petting the Newfi that calmed my anxiety or my thought that, while we hadn't yet received any updates about our flight, somebody among the airline powers that be knew about us because they sent the dog over to keep us calm.
Of course, eventually we received a quite apologetic announcement that weather conditions in Chicago had kept our potential take-off time in a state of flux. We were given a new departure time of 12:20 pm. Which later changed to 1:22 pm. Then to 2 pm, with the caveat that we might be put on a different plane, or passengers from a different plane might be put on our not-full flight. But now all was fine, as far as I was concerned, because at least now I knew we were in the system.
Eventually a departure time was posted for our flight and the flight that had been posted was moved to a new gate.

My flight would subsequently be changed to 2:30 pm, then 3 pm. then 3:30 pm, but I did finally make it to Chicago, where I took a train from the airport to the city,

...and met up with my daughter, only 6 1/2 hours late.

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Racey Cupcakes?

12/1/2025

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Racey Cupcakes?

A few days ago I was shopping in my neighborhood Kroger,

...when at the end of one of the aisles I came upon this cardboard display stand.

I did a double take. Wait, Seriously? They made a chocolate cupcake topped with green icing and filled with white creme,

...to depict a black character under green makeup,

...who is portrayed in her cupcake representation as being white on the inside?
I pondered this thing for a moment until I caught sight of the other side of the display stand,

...which showed the corresponding white character as a pink cupcake with pink icing and a likewise white creme interior.
Between the two the sides were the shelves of pink vanilla white witch cupcakes and chocolate green/black-on-the-outside, white-on-the-inside witch cupcakes.

I thought, Is it just me? Or is this cupcake display awful?
Okay, I haven't seen either of the "Wicked" movies or seen the musical. I've only listened to the Broadway soundtrack a few times and gathered from the songs that the purported good (white) witch who's not actually all that good, and the purported wicked (green) witch who's not actually all that wicked, were originally friends, then they weren't, then by the end they sort of were again, though the green witch ended up getting the short end of the...broom. So I can't say whether there are extenuating circumstances in the movie that might mitigate those racial cupcakes. Especially this one.

Still, I wondered who in the world came up with that marketing campaign?
"It had to be the idea of some some Gen Z PR consultant," offered my mate, Tom. "Nobody of our generation who grew up in the 1950's and 60's would find that poster and those cupcakes acceptable to put in a supermarket."
I think Tom may have nailed it. But I don't really know, times being what they are and people being how they are. However I think now I'll stop trying to explain my problem with the "Wicked" cupcakes. Because I guess either you get it or you don't.

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​The Car Mitzvah

​Racey Cupcakes?

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