by Pa Rock
Traveling Fool
Most of the tall buildings in Chicago are awe-inspiring edifices to the ever-expanding imagination of humanity, and it's easy to spot tourists because we are the ones walking along the busy sidewalks while staring up to the heavens between the skyscrapers. Today I stumbled through several blocks, mostly while gazing up in wonder at the giant buildings lining my path. I was essentially doing my best Gomer Pyle and saying "Well, gollleee!" as I stopped randomly and without warning to stare up at the amazing structures which seemed to reach forever into the sky, and the Chicagoans coming up from behind and in a hurry to get to where they were going, stepped around the rube from the sticks and just kept on trucking - usually without comment.
There is a building downtown on the Chicago River that we drove past a couple of times yesterday that is worthy of comment. It is a very impressive glass structure that was completed in 2009 and at time was the second tallest building in the city and in the nation. As it was going up there was apparently some secrecy as to what it was actually going to be, and as it was being completed there was a large space on the side of the building where a sign would eventually go, but again with secrecy being the order of the day. After the tower and hotel complex were completed five large silver letters were brought in and slowly affixed to the side of the new building. Those letters were "T - R - U - M - P"! The narcissistic megalomaniac had struck at the heart of the "Windy City"with his expensive graffiti.
That was fifteen years ago, and the controversy still rages over the garish vulgarity imposing itself on what would otherwise be a postcard-perfect urban scene of distinction and progress.
There is something terribly wrong with a person who constantly has to try and place himself above others and smear his name all over the skyline, but we already knew that, didn't we!
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