al-in-chgo's definitions
The late Chicago journalist and author Mike Royko (BOSS) said that loving Chicago was like loving a beautiful woman with a broken nose: once you're used to her, other merely beautiful women don't quite look right.
Some of the "broken noses" of Chicago:
1. North Side pro baseball team, the Cubs, who perpetuate an execrable win/losss record but are nonetheless idolized as the "cubbies";
2. Weather: coldest major American city other than Minneapolis, snowiest outside Buffalo, steamiest summers outside the Mississippi River Valley or Deep South. Winter days are so short that evening rush occurs in the dark. Even on the best spring days, "San Francisco sweater weather" is practically nonexistent.
3. Political corruption, which is awesome due to its extent, its reach, its resourcesfulness and the apathy with which it is greated by most Chicagoans.
more pleasant phenomena of Chicago that still have a slight eccentric or "broken nose" quality:
1. Italian beef, which is roast been marinated in gravy, garlic and giardinera, served on Italian-crust sandwich bread, and almost unobtainable outside Chicago.
2. the conviction (and it still actually works) that if you place old dinette chairs in the spot from which you just extricated your hitherto snowbound car, that spot will be waiting for you when you get back.
3. Refusal to call the 'Willis Tower' anything other than its original name, the 'Sears Tower.'
"Is this a great city or what"?
1. North Side pro baseball team, the Cubs, who perpetuate an execrable win/losss record but are nonetheless idolized as the "cubbies";
2. Weather: coldest major American city other than Minneapolis, snowiest outside Buffalo, steamiest summers outside the Mississippi River Valley or Deep South. Winter days are so short that evening rush occurs in the dark. Even on the best spring days, "San Francisco sweater weather" is practically nonexistent.
3. Political corruption, which is awesome due to its extent, its reach, its resourcesfulness and the apathy with which it is greated by most Chicagoans.
more pleasant phenomena of Chicago that still have a slight eccentric or "broken nose" quality:
1. Italian beef, which is roast been marinated in gravy, garlic and giardinera, served on Italian-crust sandwich bread, and almost unobtainable outside Chicago.
2. the conviction (and it still actually works) that if you place old dinette chairs in the spot from which you just extricated your hitherto snowbound car, that spot will be waiting for you when you get back.
3. Refusal to call the 'Willis Tower' anything other than its original name, the 'Sears Tower.'
"Is this a great city or what"?
by al-in-chgo January 2, 2011
Get the Broken Nose mug.(Sometimes "Glibbertarian") From GLIB + libERTARIAN. A well-off or self-made individual who offers easy nostrums for complicated social and economic problems, usually centered around such premises as "A government program never helped anyone," or "Government is the cause of, not the answer to, America's problems."
A glibertarian response is frequently preceded by "Oh, just let this happen" or "Oh, all we need to do is . . . " Sometimes these statements elucidate libertarian principles, if a bit superficially, but more often invoke knee-jerk responses that offer snappy, painless solutions from anything but government.
A glibertarian response is frequently preceded by "Oh, just let this happen" or "Oh, all we need to do is . . . " Sometimes these statements elucidate libertarian principles, if a bit superficially, but more often invoke knee-jerk responses that offer snappy, painless solutions from anything but government.
"We have to get manufacturing back into this country."
"Oh, just let the magic of the market take care of that."
"What are we to do about illegal immigration?"
"Oh, all we need to do is get these folks onto a market-driven salary and off all these government programs like public schools and health care."
sarcastically: "Where on earth did you get all these wonderful solutions?"
"Oh, I'm a self-made man."
Original speaker sotto voce "A Glibertarian worships his own maker."
"Oh, just let the magic of the market take care of that."
"What are we to do about illegal immigration?"
"Oh, all we need to do is get these folks onto a market-driven salary and off all these government programs like public schools and health care."
sarcastically: "Where on earth did you get all these wonderful solutions?"
"Oh, I'm a self-made man."
Original speaker sotto voce "A Glibertarian worships his own maker."
by al-in-chgo March 18, 2011
Get the GLIBERTARIAN mug.Legoland is that place in your town or urban area where medium-height buildings (10-25 stories) seem to have sprouted almost overnight between about 1985 and today. Such an area with a high Legoland factor will boast modestly asymmetrical offices and hotels, and a fair degree of dark gray window glass, set among multilane roads and parking garages. Because of zoning designed to benefit large corporate builders, there will be an absence of such attractive nuisances as billboards and strip malls. Public transit will be close to nonexistent.
--What's the most Legoland place in the Chicago area?
--Many people would say Schaumburg but I would nominate the area west of Chicago at the intersection of the I-88 Reagan Toll Road and I-355. The buildings are all modern and were probably considered modestly daring in the past 25 years when they were built, but in reality are unchallenging and dull.
--Why doesn't Schaumburg qualify?
--It has some newer buildings but also lots from the mid-Sixties to the mid-Eighties, a style more Judgment City than Legoland.
(see "Judgment City").
--Many people would say Schaumburg but I would nominate the area west of Chicago at the intersection of the I-88 Reagan Toll Road and I-355. The buildings are all modern and were probably considered modestly daring in the past 25 years when they were built, but in reality are unchallenging and dull.
--Why doesn't Schaumburg qualify?
--It has some newer buildings but also lots from the mid-Sixties to the mid-Eighties, a style more Judgment City than Legoland.
(see "Judgment City").
by al-in-chgo June 19, 2011
Get the Legoland mug.How a person travels (frequently impromptu) who uses no special-affinity credit cards (that tie into retailers, hoteliers, etc.), keeps no priority accounts with hotel chains, does not accumulate airline miles, nor qualifies for rebates or discounts, nor contributes to add-a-dollar or round-it-up programs.
"When I travel I go where I want to go when I want to go. I don't travel often, but when I do I pay standard fare or phone ahead. I don't rack up hotel points, airline points, Amtrak points, cruise-ship points, department store points, major-league team points, hotel/motel points, rent-a-car points or charity points. I pay what I pay and if it's too much, I shop around or don't go. Nobody needs to know my password or log-in, and I don't get a dozen e-mails a week. I get bumps and privileges like you wouldn't believe. Nothing influences my choice of company or chain when I travel. That's called flying Priority None."
by al-in-chgo May 10, 2010
Get the Priority None mug.A useful neologism, but one that is frequently misunderstood and misused.
1. Most literal meaning -- tending to engage or arouse sexual interest, or imply an erotic connection, by one man for another.
2. Extended meaning, sometimes misused (see Example 2 below): a coded type of homosexual reference invisible to heterosexuals. This is fine as far as it goes, but it should not exclude heterosexuals.
3. Similarly, if used carelessly, "homoerotic" can be misused to imply an environment in which same-sex attraction exists simply because of same-sex affiliation. In other words, a judgment is made regarding sexuality where none should exist, allowing the speaker to practice psychology without a license.
4. Often the butt of malapropisms.
1. Most literal meaning -- tending to engage or arouse sexual interest, or imply an erotic connection, by one man for another.
2. Extended meaning, sometimes misused (see Example 2 below): a coded type of homosexual reference invisible to heterosexuals. This is fine as far as it goes, but it should not exclude heterosexuals.
3. Similarly, if used carelessly, "homoerotic" can be misused to imply an environment in which same-sex attraction exists simply because of same-sex affiliation. In other words, a judgment is made regarding sexuality where none should exist, allowing the speaker to practice psychology without a license.
4. Often the butt of malapropisms.
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1. The "Calamus" section of Walt Whitman's book of poetry LEAVES OF GRASS is frankly homoerotic in message and in symbolism. (It was also one of the sections 'banned in Boston').
2. Saying that Marlon Brando has "unique homoerotic appeal" is literally true, but should not be used in a context that would exclude the legitimate experience of erotic appeal that so many straight women felt.
3. To say that eight straight men in an office constitute a "homoerotic environment" implies a judgment that simply may not be true. Where's the attraction? "Homoerotic" should not be used as a pretentious and wrong substitute for "same-sex" or "homosexual" used literally.
4. "Al's dabbling in those homoerotic medicines." Tim Allen, on HOME IMPROVEMENT; his character should have said "homeopathic."
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1. The "Calamus" section of Walt Whitman's book of poetry LEAVES OF GRASS is frankly homoerotic in message and in symbolism. (It was also one of the sections 'banned in Boston').
2. Saying that Marlon Brando has "unique homoerotic appeal" is literally true, but should not be used in a context that would exclude the legitimate experience of erotic appeal that so many straight women felt.
3. To say that eight straight men in an office constitute a "homoerotic environment" implies a judgment that simply may not be true. Where's the attraction? "Homoerotic" should not be used as a pretentious and wrong substitute for "same-sex" or "homosexual" used literally.
4. "Al's dabbling in those homoerotic medicines." Tim Allen, on HOME IMPROVEMENT; his character should have said "homeopathic."
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by al-in-chgo March 13, 2010
Get the homoerotic mug.Pre-Sid Vicious, pre-any stringy young male, "Punk" referred to the passive or "bottom" partner in a male-on-male prison sexual relationship. (The dominant or "top" man was called the "jock" or "jocker".) Since the punk was usually the scrawnier and younger of the two, that meaning of the term escaped into the general culture and eventually became attached to young, rebellious men fronting kick-ass rock bands.
(Description of a prison killer in Truman Capote's IN COLD BLOOD 1966): "Just two jockers fighting over a punk."
by al-in-chgo June 14, 2010
Get the punk mug."Your mouth is writing checks your ass can't cash," is something TV Dr. Phil McGraw's father said to him as a boy when he would voice wild plans or notions. It means that talk is cheap relative to performance, or that promising something and delivering on it are two different things. A phrase similar in meaning is "Money talks, bullshit walks."
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"I'm going to get a job selling fuzzy dice door-to-door. I'll be rich!"
"Boy, your mouth is writing checks your ass can't cash."
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"Boy, your mouth is writing checks your ass can't cash."
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by al-in-chgo March 13, 2010
Get the Your mouth is writing checks your ass can't cash mug.