Fourth of July weekend means only one thing to those three million-or-so residents who live in Chicago full-time - the Taste is coming. Sadly, because of all the "events" of the past week, I missed this year's Taste completeyl for the first time since I came back to Chi-town in 2002.Up until I left for the funeral, though, I had been asking around my friends to try and find someone to come down for dinner - but with no success. In any other society or time the thousands of people flooding grant park would be called barbarians and their ravaging of our foodstores would be described as "pillaging". But now we call them "tourists" or "from the suburbs" and describe their actions as "economic stimuli".
It makes one wonder whether coastal villiages in the middle ages might have turned plundering Viking raiders into an economic gold mine by simply setting up tents along their main street and offering herring, porridge, and thick-crusted bread from the best merchants in the village in exchanged for overpriced tickets.
Anyway, because of the hordes of people that typically attend* I wasn't able to get anyone to go with me before I left. Oh well, I probably would have been kidnapped and hauled back to the longboats anyway - maybe it was for the best.
Plus, there's always next year!
* Read: Push around their Stroller-Utility-Vehicles full of shrieking toddlers in a desperate search for the Eli's Cheesecake tent
Comments
Sorry you didn't get a chance to go to the Taste. It sounds like a good time. Even with suburbanites and their mega-strollers.