#1 Boston - Keebler's Steak House - June 8, 2007

Well, now Chicago also knows about Petra-isms, in particular the bellhop at the Downtown Hyatt Regency, who I approached with a spring in my step, asking for a cab to take me to Keebler's Steak House. The young man looked at me with a pitiful glance, and said "Young woman, Keebler is a cookie. Keefer's is the steak house." I blushed a little, hoped in the cab, hoping that a quick escape would mask my embarrassment and told the cabbie to step on it before further clumsiness could take place. Looking back at the evening, I was actually glad that Keefer's culinary fare did provide hefty portions of dead meat for us non-vegetarians, as the conference had left me with an unamusing protein deficit - while Chicago is just a swell city and has the best food around, its conference center seems to have been out of touch both in time and place - 1950s, Eastern Europe are the first two thoughts that come to mind. Cavernous, concrete charm, with only limited places to sit down or get a decent bite to chow. After my first day's meal which consisted of the most anemic chicken noodle soup ever made, semi-wilted green salad with croutons (everything else at the "salad bar" looked more than suspicious) and a yoghurt for the exorbitant price of $12.50, I pretty much had it. Option Number 2 would have been to go to Starbucks and load up on coffee cake or to the adjacent Hyatt Regency, where two salads and two sodas put $29 on your credit card bill. There were of course numerous food stands with hot dogs, burgers, fries, chili, Reuben sandwiches, pizza and other artery-hardening goodies - nothing appropriate for that little sensitive stomach of mine. So I started bringing in trail mix, fruits, granola bars from the deli next to my hotel, which worked out just fine.

The steak at Keefer's (http://www.keefersrestaurant.com/index.html ), by the way, was absolutely phenomenal, and apparently even Playboy Magazine's Good Restaurant Guide (did you know that there was such a thing?) praised it to the high heavens. Phenomenal were also some of the other meals I had in Chicago - Nacional 27 you know about of course, which alongside Arola on top of the Hotel Arts in Barcelona (http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Barcelona/Default.htm ) has to be my favorite restaurant in the world. The Frontera Grill and Topolobampo (http://www.fronterakitchens.com/restaurants/restaurants.html ) -joined at the hip on North Clark Street are culinary gems worth exploring if you are latin-inclined - celebrity chef Rick Bayless dishes up Mexican food of the finest variety; I can honestly say that this was a more than pleasant experience for the palate.

ASCO, the conference I attended in the windy city, is a circus in itself, more than 30,000 attendees flock the halls of the McCormick Convention Center, all appear tired, broken down with a vacant look on their faces, jet lagged, overwhelmed with information thrown at them. ASCO has to be attacked with a plan; one cannot simply do everything that is interesting; there is just too much of it. The first day is homework, grab the program that weighs about 400 pounds, and come up with a schedule that makes sense for both mind and body, in particular the feet which have to walk along these concrete halls for extensive distances (2.2 million square feet of space to be exact). My destinations are the exhibit halls and the poster sessions, the realms that companies, eager and willing to talk to us, inhabit - comfy shoes are key; and a plan of action is essential. The good news is that after three years of doing this, it is less a matter of finding new connections, but fostering existing ones, checking in, greasing the wheels, get stuck deals unstuck. I enjoy this, I really do, and I am starting to see the results of my efforts.

Aside from walking to business dinners and an occasional jog along Lakeshore Drive in the AM, there was no time for exploring Chicago - so I will add a few tidbits I researched for you. If you have never been there, Chicago is a beautiful town; it has a little New York feel to it, but seems more open and is much cleaner. Beautiful architecture. It has about three million inhabitants (third largest city in the US), has two baseball teams (the Cubs and the White Sox), a football team (Da Bears!!!!), and of course, a very famous basketball team, the Chicago Bulls. It is located on majestic Lake Michigan (which Wikipedia tells me is just a tad larger than Croatia), and is not only known as "The Windy City", but also as "Second City", Chi-Town. The 312, "The City that Works" and the "City of Big Shoulders". The latter stems from a poem of American writer Carl Sandburg "Chicago", which I have attached for your reading pleasure. Its actual name supposedly stems from the Miami-Illinois language - Shikaakwa, which means wild leek, which is of course something all of us immediately associate when we think of Chicago.

Famous Chicagoans include politicians such a Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barak Obama, Deval Patrick (Massachusetts' current governor); athletes Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka, Sammy Sosa; musicians Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Chaka Kahn; actors Bill Murray, John Belushi (Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no coke, Pepsi....), John and Joan Cusack, Steve Carrell, Harrison Ford, Hugh Hefner, Bernie Mac - the list is endless. Architects Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, Mr Walt Disney, columnist Ann Landers, author Irving Wallace are native to Chicago, and our list would not be complete without a few criminals thrown in, such as Al Capone, John Dillinger, Ted Kaczynski - the Unabomber, and Jack Ruby (who killed Lee Harvey Oswald).

A few more fun facts - apparently the world's longest street is in Chicago (Western Avenue - no clue as to how long), the post office at 433 West Van Buren is the only post office in the world which you can drive a car through. Chicago has a most charming zoo, the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free. The Harold Washington Library is the world's largest library. Playboy started in Chicago in 1953. A Chicago firm, RS Ownes, manufacturers the ever popular Oscar statues. A few firsts - Adler Planetarium (first one in the Western Hemisphere); air travel (first commercial air passenger), atomic reaction (University of Chicago), Ferris wheel (1893), steel-frame skyscrapers, softball, Schwinn bicycles, zippers, Cracker Jacks, Butterfinger, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds, bifocal contact lenses, and of course,The Twinkie. Keebler (remember?) is located here, and so is Nabisco. The city has 54 museums, 21,000 restaurants, more than 200 theaters, three of the world's largest buildings and 15 miles of bathing beaches.

And apparently its name "Windy City" has nothing to with the weather either (even though it does tend to be windy there), it was coined in 1893 by Charles Dana of the New York Sun who got fed up with Chicago's politicians long-winded boasting of the city's Columbian Exposition.

Before I say goodbye, let me say I am happy to be back in the lovely town of Cambridge, Massachusetts - there are no immediate plans for air travel anywhere. This week I celebrated my 3rd year anniversary in the Boston area - still very happy about my choice. Oscar just chirped in the kitchen, saying he agrees wholeheartedly.

PetJ
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On that note, I'll leave you with something to giggle about:

Boston and Chicago apparently are related in more ways than one, so here is a set of rules from Chicago concerning life style and traffic, most of them could easily be applied to Boston with a few minor modifications.
If your road map is more than a few weeks old, throw it out and buy a new one. If in Naperville and your map is one day old, then it is already obsolete.
Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Chicago has its own version of traffic rules... "Hold on and pray." There is no such thing as a dangerous high-speed chase in Chicago. We all drive like that.

All directions start with, "I94".… which has no beginning and no end.
The morning rush hour is from 6 to 10. The evening rush hour is from 3 to 7. Friday's rush hour starts Thursday morning.
If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out and possibly shot. When you are the first one on the starting line, count to five when the light turns green before going to avoid crashing with all the drivers running the red light in cross-traffic.
Construction on Northwest Tollway is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment. We had sooooo much fun with that we have added Elgin O'Hare and I-355 to the mix.
All unexplained sights are explained by the phrase, "Oh, we're in Cicero!"
If someone actually has their turn signal on, it is probably a factory defect. Car horns are actually "Road Rage" indicators. All old ladies with blue hair in Mercedes have the right of way. Period.
First Ave, LaGrange Rd, NW Highway all mysteriously change names as you cross intersections (these are only a FEW examples).
If asking directions in Cicero you must have knowledge of Spanish. If in Bridgeport, Mandarin Chinese will be your best bet. If you stop to ask directions on the West or South side you better be armed.
A trip across town (east to west) will take a minimum of four hours, although many north/south freeways have unposted minimum speeds of 75. The minimum acceptable speed on the Dan Ryan is 85. Anything less is considered downright sissy.
The wrought iron on windows near Englewood and Austin is not ornamental.

The Congress expressway is our daily version of NASCAR. The Dan Ryan is called "The Death Trap" for two reasons: "death" and "trap."
If it's 100 degrees, it's Taste of Chicago. If it's 10 degrees and sleeting/snowing, it's opening day at Comiskey Park. If it's rained 6 inches in the last hour, the Western open Golf Classic is in the second round.
If you go to the Wrigley Field pay the $25.00 to park at the "Cubs Lot." Parking elsewhere could cost up to $2500 for damages, towing fees, tickets, etc.
If some guy with a flag tries to get you to park in his 'yard', run over him.