By J.J. Tindall

My final confession is this: There isn’t a single story in this series that I have not, at one time or another, told to my customers. Why? Because I enjoyed it? No. “Because Poor Training.”
This includes documented cases where the tour company chooses to train new docents into telling tall tales “Because Ticket Sales.” Real News: Sometimes customers actually complain when you don’t sling the shit. They know Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is “bullshit” (see what I did there?!), they just want to hear it anyway.
It all comes down to training. And leadership.

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Posted on October 5, 2020

By The U.S. Postal Inspection Service

Have you received a package in the mail, but didn’t order anything? Watch this video and visit our website to learn about brushing scams before you get taken.

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Posted on October 3, 2020

By CEC Entertainment, Inc

Chuck E. Cheese, the number one family entertainment venue, is bringing out all the tricks and treats to make this year’s Halloween celebration a truly safe and Boo-tacular delight.
“At Chuck E. Cheese, we know how much kids and families look forward to the Halloween season,” says CEC CEO David McKillips. “This year, we know celebrations will look a little different and want to make sure Halloween is as safe and special as possible for our families.
“We’re introducing a fully immersive Halloween experience that can be enjoyed safely in-store, at-home and online. This includes new entertainment content, exclusive menu items, touchless in-store trick or treating, daily online activities and exclusive party packages for dine-in, carry-out and delivery – to make it easy for kids of all ages to celebrate safely with Chuck E. Cheese this year and for many years to come.”

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Posted on September 29, 2020

By The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau

The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau announced last week the launch of its fall campaign, Something to Feel Good About.
Based on the concepts of Your Safety is Our Priority, Simple Pleasures Bring Joy, Take Some Time for Yourself, and Shopping Local Has Never Mattered More, the campaign encourages travelers to remember that, even in the midst of an unprecedented year, there is always Something to Feel Good About in Beverly Hills.

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Posted on September 28, 2020

By E.K. Mam

What is Nihilism? To the armchair scholarly young adult, an aesthetic above all else. Cashmere jumpers, turtlenecks, tweed blazers, sipping a coffee in a cigarette smoke-filled lazy cafe by the river, watching the people come and go (“ . . . talking of Michaelangelo“) with bitter resentment, for they have yet to take off their rose-tinted glasses and see the meaninglessness and absurdity of our world.
Aesthetics aside, what exactly is Nihilism? Stemming from the Latin ‘Nihil’ meaning nothing, this philosophy “labels all values as worthless.” It’s pessimism and skepticism taken to uncomfortable maximals. With a notable “impulse to destroy,” Nihilism’s key themes are “epistemological failure, value destruction, and cosmic purposelessness.”

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Posted on September 26, 2020

By Maker’s Clean Inc.

Maker’s Clean Inc. has officially released the newest addition to its roster of innovative cleaning products: The Maker’s Mop.
The taco (“U”) shape is no gimmick; it offers many benefits a flat-head mop simply cannot.
The base of the “U” features a precision edge that allows the mop to get dirt out of every sharp corner (think baseboards, ceilings), unlike any flat-head mop before it.
The unique “U” shape also allows for the microfiber mop pad to be used on two sides instead of one – clean with one side, flip over and continue to clean with the other.
The shape also allows for easy storage – simply flip it up against the mop pole to hide it away.

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Posted on September 24, 2020

By J.J. Tindall

“Satellite’s gone/way up to Mars/Soon it’ll be filled/with parkin’ cars.” – Lou Reed, “Satellite of Love”
After my first column in this occasional series, Busting The Myths Of Chicago Architecture, a Concerned Reader who is a crew member on a Chicago River tour boat e-mailed us that they had recently overheard a guide on yet another company’s passing boat claim that the open-air parking garages at the base of Marina City were designed, among other things, to accommodate the flying cars of the future.
It sounds preposterous and I suspect it is. I hesitate to be definitive only because Confessions is privy to contemporary promotional materials for what became Old Main Post Office which included a landing pad on the roof for “the auto-gyros of the future.”

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Posted on September 23, 2020

By The Silverman Group

The University of Chicago will debut a new public art commission by world-renowned artist and alumna Jenny Holzer (EX’74), YOU BE MY ALLY, premiering October 5 on the UChicago campus and worldwide through a web-based augmented reality app.
The text-based artwork is Holzer’s first augmented reality (AR) project using virtual projections in the United States and her first work created in collaboration with a university’s students and faculty. Holzer received UChicago’s Rosenberger Medal in 2019 in recognition of her wide-reaching impact on public art.

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Posted on September 22, 2020

By E.K. Mam

“The clouds above us join and separate. The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns. Life is like that, so why not relax?” – Lu Yu
According to cultural standards and influences, here’s what our day should look like: A joyous awakening at precisely 4:30 a.m., giving us exactly enough time to squeeze in a workout, journal about our feelings, work on our novel, practice our Japanese, iron our clothes for next month, work on our side-hustle, take a shower, fix a nutritious yet unusually delicious breakfast, and finally head to work, where we’ll bustle away the eight hours productively and meaningfully, only to come home to a delicious dinner, a clean house, and a delightful, yet complex piece of classic literature we’ll cozy up with after our warm bath.
A fantastic day indeed. The problem is, it seldom works out like that. The closest most of us get is consistently wishing we had such a routine. Some of us get a bit further; we’ll actually eat breakfast before work (the jury is still out on just how nutritious said breakfast is).
Complete a baker’s dozen of not-so-practical tasks before you’ve had your morning cup of tea; if you can’t, bathe in the guilt of being a lazy procrastinator who will never amount to anything. We are told to believe that a hyperactive, hyperproductive approach is the only way to lead a meaningful life. This mode, of course, can bleed into an unsustainable and unhealthy lifestyle. The results? Quite unfavorable. We’re left feeling the need to do all these fantastic things without ever really understanding why or how to go about them; worst of all, we never even get close.

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Posted on September 17, 2020

By Northwestern University

The locus of male sexual desire has been uncovered in specific regions of brain tissue where a key gene named aromatase is present, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in mice.
The gene regulates sexual behavior in men, and thus can be targeted by drugs to either increase its function for low sexual desire or decrease its function for compulsive sexual desire, scientists said. Aromatase converts testosterone to estrogen in the brain, which drives male sexual activity.

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Posted on September 15, 2020