Chicago

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Chicago Skyline

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(Source for Chicago Skyline picture - JOHNNYROADTRIP.COM - http://www.johnnyroadtrip.com/cities/chicago/images/skyline1.jpg )

CHICAGO

.....HOG Butcher for the World,

.....Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

.....Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

.....Stormy, husky, brawling,

.....City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I

.....have seen your painted women under the gas lamps

.....luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it

.....is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to

.....kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the

.....faces of women and children I have seen the marks

.....of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who

.....sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer

.....and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing

.....so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on

.....job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the

.....little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning

.....as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

.....Bareheaded,

.....Shoveling,

.....Wrecking,

.....Planning,

.....Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with

.....white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young

.....man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has

.....never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.

.....and under his ribs the heart of the people,

...............Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of

.....Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog

.....Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with

.....Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Carl Sandburg

(Source - Carl Sandburg - Chicago Poems - http://carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm )

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PS There were no poems about Indianapolis, IN.

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Congratulations COLTS!!! SUPER BOWL CHAMPS

WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!

Dear Jerry,

Yesterday, as I was taking Janess and Julie (her cousin) to school. Janess piped up and said, "So, Harding was the worst President then?" I said I think Nixon was and Julie said I think Bush is the worst. I revised my answer to say Bush too.

Anyway they are really studying the Presidents. You would be so proud of their effort. But, I never did study them. Why would she think Harding is so bad??? I didn't have an answer for her.

Stymied in Riverside

(Source for Warren G. Harding picture -http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=199

Linda - Here’s what I gleamed about Harding from the Web:


Warren Harding, U.S. President
Born: 2 November 1865
Birthplace: Corsica, Ohio
Died: 2 August 1923 (heart attack)
Best Known As: President of the U.S. 1921-23

One can almost feel sorry for Harding, who consistently gets ranked as one of the worst presidents of all time. A former newspaperman and senator from Ohio, Harding was ill-suited to the presidency but was chosen as a compromise candidate on the 10th ballot of the 1920 Republican convention. He was inaugurated in 1921 and took over the White House from two-term Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Harding's administration is chiefly remembered for the Teapot Dome scandal, a messy tale of bribery, fraud, and federal oil reserves. . .

(Source - Answers.com - http://www.answers.com/topic/warren-harding )

Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy", a term he coined to reflect three trends of his time: a renewed isolationism in reaction to World War I, a resurgence of nativism, and a turning away from the government activism of the reform era.

In June 1923, Harding set out on a cross-country "Voyage of Understanding", planning to meet ordinary people and explain his policies. During this trip, he became the first president to visit Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington by this time, and Harding was profoundly shocked by a long message he received while in Alaska, apparently detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him. At the end of July, while traveling south from Alaska through British Columbia, he developed what was thought to be a severe case of food poisoning. Arriving at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35 p.m. on 2 August 1923, at the age of 57. The formal announcement, printed in the New York Times of August 2, 1923, stated that "A stroke of apoplexy was the cause of death." He had been ill exactly one week.

(Source - Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_G_Harding )

His Person: A well-built six-footer, Harding had the face and bearing of a matinee idol. His white hair and blue eyes complemented his smooth, dark complexion. With his massive black eyebrows, firm, full mouth, and finely chiseled Roman nose, it was said that Harding was the only senator who could wear a toga and not look ridiculous. He dressed with dignity and great care and loved to use his clarion voice for pompous political oratory, which he himself called "bloviating."

One of the most persistent rumors about Harding alleged that he was actually part Negro. For more than a generation, Ohio neighbors had looked down on the Hardings because of suspicions of mixed ancestry, and at the time of Warren's marriage, his furious father-in-law publicly called him "a nigger." In 1920 several observers pointed to Harding's swarthy complexion as evidence that his blood was "tainted," and a racist professor at a small college in Ohio published a celebrated pamphlet proving the senator's "African" ancestry and asserting that his candidacy was part of a Negro plot to take over the country. When asked about the rumors by a friendly reporter, Harding replied, "How do I know, Jim? One of my ancestors may have jumped the fence." Historians have been unable to add much to Harding's uncertain reply.

(Source - Trivia-Library.com - http://www.trivia-library.com/b/u-s-president-warren-g-harding-early-life-and-physical-description.htm )

(Source for stamp picture - Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women )

What I recall from my high school American History class:

1. That the 1920 Presidential Election was the first national election that allowed American women the right to vote. (Didn't really remember this fact)

2. And that some people feared that Harding would gander the women’s vote because of Harding’s “Matinee Idol Good Looks”.

(This is Warren Harding not Warren Beatty we’re talking about. Right!!!)

(Source for Warren Beatty picture - vh1movies -http://www.vh1.com/movies/person/71376/personmain.jhtml )


Gee -What will people say about Hillary!*

(Source for Hillary picture - BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON (ANOTHER TAXICAB CONFESSION - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1655366/posts )

*Hillary is Hawt!

PS - More about Hillary later. ;-) GC