Are you in love? It’s not a question I expect to hear while kicking it around at a street festival. But it was asked of me by the girl applying a (temporary) Celtic cross tattoo on my forearm at Chicago’s Pride Fest. I was taken aback a bit and wanted to know why she asked. It turns out she was unfamiliar with the Celtic imagery and thought being in love was tied into it. And something else about “the vibe” I was giving. “Not right now,” I said. “But check back with me later. There are a lot of beautiful women here.” Are you in love? It reminded me of the time I attended a party on Chicago’s north side. There I was introduced…
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The city of Gary has announced that all vacant buildings will be used to sell fireworks. Some will operate through July 4 while others will remain open year-round. In other news, neighboring Hobart says its opening a new fireworks store on Route 30 inside one of its existing fireworks stores. “Hoosiers were calling for this,” said Hobart spokesman Dan Trillo. The Indiana General Assembly just convened an emergency session where it will allow all liquor stores, closed on Sundays by law, to be open on Sunday strictly to sell fireworks. “No Miller Lite for you, but feel free to purchase Cherry Bombs, Roman Candles and shells,” state Sen. Randolph Gerry said. Indiana is embracing itself as the Fireworks State. Back to Gary, the city…
Spider can often be seen working on cars in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. That’s when we don’t take our vehicles to his homestead in Indiana, near a cornfield, where three or four non-operational vehicles sit in the driveway. They’d probably be in his garage but he has a lot of junk in there. Engine blocks, three riding lawnmowers (one that works), a motorcycle with no gas tank or seat, and various scraps of metal and car parts. There are several posters on the wall featuring women wearing bikinis and high heels (I never understood that look). There’s also a Sex and The City poster (TV show version) and on one shelf what Spider calls “a Japanese motorcycle helmet.” Spider has been mentioned once…
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