We entered an immense low-ceiled room and followed a vista of dead swine, upon their backs, their paws stretching mutely toward heaven. Walking down to the vanishing point, we found there a sort of human chopping machine where the hogs were converted into commercial pork. A plank table, two men to lift and turn, two to wield the cleavers, were its component parts. No iron cog-wheels could work with more regular motion. Plump falls the hog upon the table, chop, chop; chop, chop, chop; chop, chop fall the cleavers. All is over. But, before you can say so, plump, chop, chop; chop, chop; chop, chop, sounds again. Amazed beyond all expectation at the celerity, we took out our watches and counted thirty-five seconds, from the moment when one hog touched the table until the next occupied its place.
Frederick Law Olmsted, from A Journey Through Texas, 1857, describing a slaughterhouse in Cincinnati. Quoted in William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.
[In the 1880s] Armour and Company sold meat to all comers at whatever price it took to gain a foothold in the market. A butcher in Akron, Ohio ruefully described it:
‘Upon opening these markets they were supplied in enormous quantities with the best the country produced in everything that was made out of meats and all the finest appliances of the markets of our largest cities. These markets were advertised throughly throughout the city to sell at never-before-heard-of prices. Long before they opened at 6 a.m. people were waiting for the doors to open. After they commenced business the crowd seemed to grow with each passing hours until the markets would not contain the people, and the waiting crowds on the sidewalks almost, if not entirely, obstructed travel. So great was the crowd that it was necessary to call policeman to preserve order and permit travel.’
From William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West
"It was a clear and eyeblue day, that day, as was the first day of this story, a few years ago in January, on Chicago’s North Side, in the opulent shadow of Wrigley and with the wind coming low and searching off the jagged half-frozen lake."
— Dave Eggers - mandatory January Chicago sentence no matter how unseasonable.
Publicly, Rahm Emanuel has only committed to being noncommittal about changing marijuana policy. After months of silence, the mayor briefly weighed in on marijuana at a press conference after the November 2 council meeting.
“I’m banning it for all reporters,” the mayor said. He appeared to be joking. The reporters in the room laughed.
You sat down next to me at the Charles Bernstein reading. We chatted a little but then I ran out for no good reason, maybe because I didn’t want to assume you’re available. I’m kicking myself for not chatting with you more. Care to continue the conversation over coffee?
When: Sunday, November 13, 2011
Where: Poetry Foundation
I saw a: Man
I am a: Woman
Date posted: Sunday, November 13, 2011
This week’s Time Out Chicago publishes a (cliche) rape joke on page 2.
Page 6 has the dismissive Occupy Wall Street article.
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