View from a Hotel Window, Chicago, April ’14
Posted on April 24, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
I don’t care what the official name of it is, it will always be the Sears Tower, damn it.
And yes, if you have knowledge of the local geography, it’s fairly easy to guess where I am. Please don’t stalk me anyway. Thank you.
Whenever tourists ask me where the Willis Tower is, I give them a blank look and then go “Oh, you mean the SEARS Tower…” Yes, I’m one of those locals. I also still refuse to refer to it as Macy’s, it’s Marshal Fields, damn it.
*yes, that should be “Marshall Field’s” – damn keyboard.
Welcome back to my (your) fair city, fellow U of C alum!
I’m pretty sure I know where you’re staying, but I’m in Ohio and stalking really isn’t my thing.
I sympathize. Local example: the Bank of Nova Scotia can pay whatever they want to the Ottawa Senators. It’s still the Corel Centre to me.
It’s weird looking at that pic and knowing if you removed one of those building you’d be able to see mine. Haven’t lived in current place long enough to be used to it.
And agreed GeekMelange, always Marshall Field’s.
Don’t think of it as staking. Think of it as us all being drawn inexorably into your gravity well.
@Mai – well, at least they haven’t stopped selling the Frango Mints. My inlaws would be up in revolt if I wasn’t sending them their annual holiday stash!
My triangulations reveal you’re in…Chicago. Won’t come and stalk you, as I might miss the summer in BC. I missed it last year – I was in the bathroom….
I hear you, back when the Charlotte Motor Speedway was Lowe’s Motor Speedway for a while I don’t know of anyone who called it Lowe’s Motor Speedway except the dadgum media. Bloody media.
I worked in the Sears Tower for a couple of years.
Never once called it “Willis Tower”. Always the Sears Tower.
I can tell my fellow natives (or long-time residents) of Ann Arbor, Michigan, by the fact that they can understand the terms I use to refer to certain locations, because the new names of buildings never seem to overwrite the old ones.
I find the renaming of huge landmarks according to new sponsors really, really weird.
Yes, here in Seattle Macy’s will always be the Bon Marche (wish I knew how to make the accent over the e)
I remember when it was the Sears Tower. Buy, hey, Willis Tower works for me.
Though these name changes are driven by marketing, it seems to be the kind of marketing that causes avoidable hostility. Kinda like marketing in general.
John-
Some people like the government to provide things. My government stalks you so I don’t have to. I can continue with my lazy ways. If only I had taken stalking as a personal responsibility rather than as a government provided necessity, what a different world this would be.
If the government does fail me though, you can rest assured that the unfettered world of tech company business will rise to the occasion.
My own privacy is such a small payment, for what I am sure the level of stalking I am sure you are being subjected to.
It wouldn’t be hard to figure out your hotel ,but I have to ask. If I am to stalk you, would it not be easier to do it today at McCormick place? You should get some doughnuts for breakfast, I hear dorite is amazing. I have had glazed and infused and their old fashioned is amazing.
@ Dwight Williams – it’s still the Palladium to me!!
Annabel, the website http://notengoenie.com/ is just the thing for all your accented character need…
ALWAYS going to be the Sears tower. Who the hell paid to build it? I don’t know what a Willis is (except for Arnold’s brother).. so screw them.
As I’ve mentioned before, I take the name change very personally.
I feel the same way about the Pan Am building in New York.
It will always be the Sears Tower to me as well. Just like it will always be Comiskey Park, and not U.S. Cellular Field.
Tim, I don’t think we have long to wait on Comiskey; US Cellular hasn’t even been in IL for 2 years and I can’t imagine they want to stick around with that naming contract.
I went to college in Chicago like John did… seeing that picture makes me hungry for an ‘Italian Beef’ sandwich. I have been living in the DC area for 18 years and have not been able to find them out here. You could get them all over the place in chicago.
If you don’t know… its a roast beef sandwich on a hoagie and then they dunk the whole hoagie into au jus sauce and wrap it in tin foil so it doesn’t drip on you. I can feel my arteries congeal just thinking about it, but I really want one for old times sake.
I used to live about 2 blocks from where you seem to be staying! The view you have is almost identical to the one I had for 4 1/2 years.. :)
I also used to live near there, just north of the low, wide building, from 1997-2002.
I don’t know that dipping is actually required.
At Portillos, they don’t do it unless you request it.
I’ve never groked Itallian beef. I didn’t grow up in the Chicago metro area. There are many yummy sandwiches involving roast beef, and I don’t consider that sort to be particularly desirable one. I know, I’m a Philistine. There are friends and family who have demanded a tribute of Portillos beef when we went to visit.
I know I am late but it is still the National Airport. Not any President’s. Also, yeah, Sear’s tower it is.
Dwight and Karina – I’m loking at the Canadian Tire Centre from my window – and have been known to go through all four names in one conversation. Enh, whatever, locals know what I mean. *shrug*
Of course it’s still Field’s. The big clock is even featured in a Norman Rockwell painting, for crying out loud.
And I never noticed the pun of Sears and Ceres (on top of the Board of Trade, immediately to the right in this picture) before.
I take comfort in assuming the “Willis” in question is Wesley Willis.