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I knew I wanted to do something on or around October 2 for my 75th birthday. I just didn't know what. Not a party. Definitely not a party. I don't like parties. Unless it's a party for somebody else, preferably a party for somebody else that I'm throwing, so that I can have the option of hiding out in the kitchen from time to time to grab a little solitude while occupying myself with the management of the food, drink, and other ongoing party logistics.  Still, my mate having indicated that he was agreeably on board with any birthday celebration idea I cared to pursue, I knew I had plenty of options. We could take a weekend trip, maybe to Cleveland, Cincinnati, or even New York, if I wanted. Or we could book a hotel here in town and spend a couple of days peregrinating around Columbus, where there are plenty of engaging things to do. Or there was always our reliable old fall back, a visit to Amish Country.  Or we could go out for a birthday dinner. Or a birthday lunch. Or a birthday breakfast. Or a birthday brunch. Or we could stay at home and do nothing, if that was what I wanted. Except that doing nothing wasn't what I wanted, either. I didn't know what I wanted. I was birthday blocked. But then one day, when September was winding down and October was on the horizon, I had a sudden epiphany on the source of my birthday block: it wasn't that I was having trouble coming to terms with what to do on my 75th birthday; it was that I was having trouble coming to terms with turning 75. On the one hand, it seemed such a milestone to have been kicking around the planet for 3/4 of a century that who wants to let that birthday go by without commemorating it? But on the other hand, 75 years old...that's really...old. Who wants to spend a day having it rubbed in? After giving both sides of the paradox a bit of thought, I decided to go with the side of doing something to celebrate my 75th birthday. It wasn't like ignoring it would make it go away.  To be continued...
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 Along with most of the rest of the country, I've been following the horrific and heart-wrenching story of Jane Doe, the Cornell student who was assaulted and brutally gang raped 2 years ago by seven members of the Chi Phi men's fraternity at their frat house on the Cornell campus. But while poring over the grueling news articles, the emotionally charged op-eds and the angry social media posts, I came across one Facebook entry that hit me like an epiphany :  How true is this! I thought. Oh, maybe not the part about how the man would be hydrated, fed, etc. by the caring women; but that first sentence, that being surrounded by a group of women, even if the women themselves were too drunk, stoned or annoyed to do anything to help him, would, for an intoxicated man, likely be the safest of all the places he could possibly end up. Because no group of girls would look at a helplessly impaired young man and see an irresistible opportunity for rape. A fraternity boy who goes alone to a sorority house and has sex with a girl he likes doesn't have to fear that the girl might drug him then snapchat an invitation to every other girl in the house to come down and help themselves to his body, to assault him, to rape him, to leave him injured, traumatized and devastated, all for fun. Not that all young men, or even most young men, would participate as those seven Cornell frat brothers did in the drugging and gang rape of an already intoxicated woman. Nor is it that women don't have their own pathology, their own shadow selves wherein lies the worst of human impulses, their own capacity equal to men's to commit terrible acts. Still, for the most part the danger arising from sexual aggression doesn't exist only for women; for, while a girl, intoxicated and alone, may be in danger of sexual assault, the danger for a young man is that he may find himself in with a group of intoxicated young men who come across a girl who is also intoxicated and alone. And, as those seven Cornell fraternity men have learned to their misfortune, that danger is far from insignificant.  References: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jane-doe-cornell-university-rape-allegations-text-messages-transcripts/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jane-doe-photo-cornell-rape-snapchat-group/?intcid=CNR-02-0623 https://abcnews.com/US/damage-control-phone-calls-records-suggest-cornell-frat/story?id=136987960 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/nyregion/cornell-men-university-discipline.html  Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who ruled the Roman Empire from 37 AD to 41 AD,  ...was better known by his nickname, Caligula. Caligula grew up pampered with wealth and status. When he was young his father procured for him a miniature military uniform so that he could pretend to be a soldier.  Caligula grew from a spoiled child into the psychotic Roman Emperor who kept his subjects alternately entertained by his hijinks and terrified by his tantrums.     Caligula's cruelty was as boundless as his disregard for the rule of law.  He was sexually promiscuous,   ...and slept with any woman he pleased, whether she was married or single. He took pleasure in publicly humiliating women, especially prominent women of the upper classes. He would make fun of their looks and make rude comments about their bodies. Caligula had multiple wives, whom he disrespected, mistreated, and discarded on a whim, except for his last wife, Milonia Caesonia,  ...who had a scandalous reputation before he married her, and to whom he was deeply devoted. Caligula loved luxury, loved to spend money, and had an obsession with gold. He dug into the Roman treasury to outfit his palace with golden walls and decorations.  And in spite of his heartless indifference to others, Caligula loved to be loved. He was known to hand out money from the treasury to the Roman populace to buy himself popularity,  ...and he would host grand spectacles to entertain his subjects.     Caligula renovated buildings sacred to Romans to glorify himself.    He considered himself a god, and would sometimes appear in public dressed as one.  He drew up plans for a magnificent temple to himself which, as if turned out, was never built.  The members of the Roman Senate despised Caligula, but they also feared to cross him or do anything that would risk them falling out of his favor, and so did nothing to stop him from increasing his personal power as ruler of the Roman Empire. During his four years as Emperor Caligula aggravated most of the populace, severely misused the Roman justice system for his personal benefit and gratification, launched an absurd and expensive war, drained the national treasury on his frivolities, and, by his ineptitude as a leader, ran the Roman Empire into the ground. And while Caligula's supporters thrived on his entertaining, outrageous and shocking behavior,  ...the rest of Rome, its citizens' sensibilities over-exposed to the glut of scandal and drama he churned out on a daily basis, came to accept Caligula's misconduct and misgovernance as the norm. The end of his rule brought much relief and rejoicing among the Roman people and the Senate. Caligula's reign was almost 2,000 years ago. Thank God today we in live in a democracy in which our leaders are of our own choosing.  References:
"I, Claudius," by Robert Graves, chapters 29-34 https://www.unrv.com/early-empire/caligula/caligula-architecture.php https://discover.hubpages.com/education/10-Weird-Things-you-Didnt-Know-Caligula-Did  ...Continued from previous post: I'd read descriptions of the Obama Museum calling it ugly, brutalist, an atrocity, and an intentional slight to God. But I still wanted to see it. And so the following day, a warm Monday, August 31, Tom, our daughter and I hopped a train to the Loop,  ...then we walked,    ...until we reached the stop from where we caught a bus to the South Side of Chicago. We de-bussed at Stony Island Avenue in Jackson Park, and soon thereafter the the most outstanding feature of Obama Presidential Center, the museum tower, rose up before us.  Our approach brought us to the north side of the building. From close up the patterns on the stone tiles resembled cirrus clouds on a soft grey sky, in the center - or rather, off-center - of which was a (as I later learned) 83-foot-high, 25 foot-tall stained glass window created by Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu called "Uprising of the Sun."  I didn't know this piece of glass art existed on the building, as I'd only ever seen pictures of the museum from the south, or front, side. From this side it evoked to me a soaring cathedral. Why, this isn't ugly at all, I thought. I thought from this view the museum tower looked quite beautiful. In fact I thought the tower was beautiful from all sides.  But I especially loved the building from the south side, at the top corner of which is a screen of 5-foot concrete letters over glass that wraps around two sides of the building and spells out part of Obama's "You Are America" speech that he gave in 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march. Also on the front of the south wall is a multi-story frosted glass panel that lets in light.  For me, with my admitted preference of the abstract over the classical, the combination of stone, glass, concrete cut-outs, and surprising angles soaring to the sky was wonderful and inspiring. In front of the museum was a long line of people waiting to take pictures of themselves in front of the statue of Obama and Michelle.   Had the line not been so long I would have gotten a picture of myself with Barack and Michelle. We also would have liked to visit the museum, but when my daughter tried to procure advance tickets for us online, she learned that there was a six-month waiting list for museum tickets. We decided that in February she could try again to get some tickets, and we'd come back to the Obama Center next August and visit the museum. And so for now we walked across the campus to the Obama Center branch of the Chicago Public Library.      The Presidential Reading Room  There was something about being in here with all these people, in this space that for me evoked Obama and the spirit of the times during his Presidency,  ...that lifted my heart and somehow gave me hope for the future.  After our tour of the the Obama Presidential Center grounds we headed back to the bus stop and caught the bus back to the Loop. However at a certain point along the way our bus driver stopped at the stop where, his shift being over, he was supposed to hand over his bus to the next driver. But the next driver wasn't there to relieve our current driver. As the minutes ticked past the mood in the crowded bus worsened, with people voicing their anxiety about being late for work, late for class, late for wherever they needed to be. After about 15 minutes my daughter noticed off in the distance a Metra station, where one could catch a commuter rail to downtown Chicago. We decided to abandon our bus and headed for the Metra station, from where we were able to catch a very comfy ride,  ...to the Metra hub in Millennium Station, which was in truth one of the most visually pleasing train stations I've seen.      The following morning Tom and I set out for home. Our daughter walked us to the Western train station,    ...though before boarding we stopped next door at Le Café Station Grille where Tom and I had such a good breakfast before our trip to Milwaukee (see previous post),  ...and where we had another good breakfast this time, as well.    After breakfast Tom and I said good-bye to our daughter, and soon after we were on the platform, waiting for our train to the airport, from where we'd catch our flight back home to Columbus.   ...continued from previous post: The following day, Saturday, August 29, the bikers were off by sun up,  ...for their 90-mile bike trek from Chicago to Milwaukee (see previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/the-cozy-corner-the-concrete-beach-and-other-things-chicago). Later Tom and I set out from the house for the Western train station,    ...to catch a train to Union Station for our 1 pm Amtrak train, also to Milwaukee, where we would unite Claire and Miguel with their overnight things. We stopped on our way for breakfast at Le Café Station Grill,   ...a cute little eatery next door to the Western train station,  ...where the food is good and the staff so friendly.     Soon after breakfast we were on a train that dropped us off a few blocks from our destination, Union Station.   As we had a couple of hours to spare before we needed to board our train to Milwaukee, we checked our luggage in the station and strolled around the loop for a while.      We then returned to Union Station and joined the long line for our Amtrak to Milwaukee.   An hour and a half after we'd boarded in Chicago we arrived at our destination, the pleasant, sparkling clean Milwaukee Intermodal Station.   From the station we walked several blocks,   ...to our hotel, the Marc,    A few hours later our daughter and son-in-law arrived in Milwaukee looking not a bit the worse for wear after their 90-mile bike ride from Chicago. After they'd settled in and tidied up we all set off to seek out some dinner at a place we'd heard of called the 3rd St. Market Hall. While walking the several blocks from our hotel to the Market, we noticed that the sidewalks were crowded with groups of people, all of whom appeared to belong to the same organization. Some wore international attire,  ...and some wore blue vests that identified them as volunteers,  ...and they all wore lanyards decorated with buttons. Tom asked one of the volunteers and learned that Milwaukee was hosting an International Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses. The blue-vested volunteers were the Way finders, whom we assumed were there to help folks find their way. They crowd seemed quite friendly and sociable.  We arrived at the 3rd St. Market Hall,  ...where we were greeted by an ad for the world's biggest mozzarella stick.  The hall was also crowded with conventioneers,    ...but the crowd seemed in good spirits, and we were, too, in spite of having to stand in line for quite some time for our food, me at Smokin' Jack's Barbeque,  ...where I procured some quite good barbeque for Tom and myself.  In the center of the hall was a quite unique feature, a self-serve beer wall.  Apparently one paid in advance for a sort of beer credit card. One then tapped one's card on the scanner above whichever brew one wanted, positioned one's cup, then pulled the handle that dispensed one's beer. It seemed to be drawing a decent crowd. After dinner the bikers left for their concert and Tom and I walked back to our hotel.   The following morning we walked to a nearby Dunkin Donuts for some breakfast. The streets were still busy with sunny conventioneers,   ...as was the Dunkin Donuts.  But it was all good.  Soon afterwards we were back at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.   After we returned to Chicago that evening we walked a nearby barbeque restaurant,   ...called Offset BBQ,   ...where the BBQ was out of this world,   ...as was the vegetarian fare my daughter had.  Then, once again, we walked back home.   To be continued...   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 |
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