There's 11 new artworks in unmoo's ebay store. You can read his blog post about the AIN'T series.

$3.00 each. What a deal!

Both the Rockford News Tower and Elgin Tower appear to have been built recently, however it's amazing that they were both built just a few years after the Tribune Tower.
Tribune Tower: 1922; News Tower: 1930; Elgin Tower: 1929
-------------------------
Rockford's News Tower

News Tower (photo under creative commons license from rocketjim54)	Tribune Tower photo by me

It's rather striking the similiarties between the News Tower in Rockford, Illinois and the Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

"The structure was built in 1930 along the Rock River in the art deco style of its time by its first female publisher, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms. Simms was a member of the McCormick family who founded the Chicago Tribune. She had the News Tower designed to look like the Tribune Tower in Chicago." from gannett.com

I've been working in the Tribune Tower for over six years. I'd love to inside the News Tower and see if there are any similiarities. News Tower is now on my 43places list.

-------------------------
Elgin Tower

Elgin Tower (photo under creative commons license from sethgaines)	Tribune Tower photo by me

Then there's another sibling to the Tribune Tower --the Elgin Tower in Elgin, Illinois.

Completed in 1929 by the St. Louis Bank Building & Equipment Company, this 15 story 186 foot Art Deco building was designed to house Home National Bank & Home Trust and Savings Bank. Gray granite and Bedford Indiana limestone are used on the exterior surfaces.

Sites like friendster, myspace and livejournal have you list interests. But there's never enough room for everything. Here's my growing master list of things I like. After making this list, I realized that this is a helpful list that I can pray to God and thank Him for these things.

24 (tv)
57 degrees (the temperature)
acronyms
Adium (program)
adjectives
Adobe Illustrator (program)
Adobe Photoshop (program)
aesthetics
affiliate marketing
air hockey
alphabets
Alyssa Milano (actor/actress)
Analog (program)
analytics
anarchie basketball
Andre Dawson (baseball player)
Angel Hernandez (baseball umpire)
Antarctica
Apple
Apples to Apples (board game)
Applescript
architecture
Armageddon (movie)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor/actress)
art
artists
ASCII art
At First Sight (movie)
Atari
A-Teens (music)
audio tours
autumn
For the rest of the list, click here. I'll continually update the list as more things come cross my mind.

In the TV show "Lost," there is a character called Mr. Eko who carves Bible verses into his Scripture stick. Here's what they are (All translations are ESV version).

Genesis 13:14

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

John 3:5

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

Acts 4:12

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Romans 6:12

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

Habakkuk 1:3

Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

Then there's the other side of the staff:



Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Revelation 3

To the Church in Sardis

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Philadelphia

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Laodicea

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Titus 3

Be Ready for Every Good Work

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Final Instructions and Greetings

When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

We vote on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. There's so much chatter on the news about the candidates, but all I want is a simple one-page chart that shows where they stand on the issues.

So I made a chart with the issue stands of the candidates running for Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Comptroller, and Treasurer in Illinois at: http://www.spudart.org/2006/illinois-vote-issues-chart.html.

It's not a complete list yet, please help me. If you have any additional endorsements, issue lists, or links please leave them in the comments below, and I'll add them to the chart. Please help to make voting easy for everyone. Thank you.

It costs about $98,157.89 to build/renovate one mile of bicycle path in Illinois. (There's a total of 26.98 miles of trail to be built/renovated for a total cost of $2,648,300).

Wow. $98,000 bucks per mile. Imagine lining up a row of dollar bills for one mile. Now do that nine times. And you still have $5,061.89 left over in your pocket from the $98,000 in one mile.

• Frankfort Township (Will County), $200,000, to construct 2.1 miles
• Lake County Forest Preserve District, $200,000, to construct a 1.25 mile trail.
• Lincolnwood, Village of (Cook County) $158,000, to renovate one mile of trail
• Orland Park, Village of (Cook County), $197,000, to develop 1.9 miles
• Rock Island, City of (Rock Island County), $134,500, to construct .33 miles
• Romeoville, Village of (Will County), $182,200, to construct 2.2 miles
• Will County Forest Preserve District, $200,000, to construct a one mile
• Champaign Park District (Champaign County), $200,000, to construct .90 mile
• Granite City, City of (Madison County), $200,000, to construct 2.0 mile
• Madison County Transit District, $200,000, to construct 3.5 miles
• Madison County Transit District, $200,000, to construct 1.3 mile
• Metro East Park and Recreation District (Madison and St. Clair Counties),$576,600 for 9.5 miles

But it's all definitely worth it.

Sources:
--upstate illinois bike trail grants
--downstate illinois bike trail grants

In case you're wondering, it's $130,030.67 per mile for upstate Illinois and $80,034.88 per mile for downstate Illinois.

Presenting the gallery of yarn monsters!

Here's some fun interjections for giving directive to go forward:
--Go!
--Green light!
--Full steam ahead!
--Pedal to the metal!
--Heel to the steel!
--Floor it!
--Charge!
--Attack!
--Geronimo!

Can you think of any more?

And why do we read left to right?

When we face north, the sun moves the opposite direction--right to left.

Look down at the earth's north pole from above, the world spins counter clockwise. Yet our clocks spin clockwise. Baffling!

The following hula hoop advice from hooping.org:

Many people try to move their hips in a circle with the hoop. This actually makes hooping much harder. Try this: put one foot in front of the other and just shift your weight back and forth from foot to foot. It's less of a circular hip motion and more of just a rocking or pumping motion.

Now don't I feel like an idiot. I was moving my waist in circles for my entire life and it never worked!

Smackless
definition:
(adj) Spelled Pronunciation[smack-lis]

Origin: Starting in 2005 Yahoo Fantasy Football allowed competitors to have "smack talk" appear by their team name. Smack is comments either boasting up oneself or against another team. When one of the teams don't have any reply to the other team's smack, they are rendered smackless.

1. temporarily deprived of smack by strong emotion, physical weakness, exhaustion, etc.: speechless with alarm. Example when a players is so overcome by the smack delievered by another player, one may become smackless and have nothing to say.

The icon Yahoo uses to indicate new smack is kinda interesting when it's blown up big:

It literally looks like something is getting smacked.

How easy is it for someone to jack a Segway? Considering that you can run faster than the top speed of a Segway, you can't just jack one and ride off with it.

The top speed of a Segway is 12.5 mph. How fast can an average person run? The fastest speed for the 100 meters is 9.77 seconds. That's 22.89 mph. But that's the fastest ANY human can run. Let's take the 1000 meter dash. That's a long enough race where we should get a general idea for a good sprint. The fastest 1000 meters is 2 minutes 11.96 seconds. That's 16.9 mph. So I think if you jack a segway, the person will be able to get up and jack you back, jacker!

Mayor Daley and Chicago unveiled their logo for the bid to have Chicago host the 2016 Summer Olympic games. VSA Partners' Chicago office designed the logo. Here's my critique of the logo:

Flame
It's said that the skyline seen in the olympic flame represents how Chicago rose out of the ashes of a fire. That's really cool. They did a very fine job of making it look like a flame first, and our skyline second. When I first saw this logo, I totally thought it was a flame, and THEN I saw our skyline. Great effect. However, does it disturb anyone that when you really look at this flame and the building that it's kinda ghost-like? Or that our city is make of flames? Ah well, you can't be that literal with it, because it's got a fantastic metaphor about our city's history.

Handle
The blue and green in the handle are supposed represent the lake and green parks. That is one thing that people around the world should remember about chicago--our fantastic unencumbered lakeshore. It was a great part of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago in 1909. in Personally, I think the green really represents how sustainable chicago is).

Pencil marks
The entire logo is composed of pencil-like sketch marks, which show action and energy. It also shows the real grit of Chicago. We're not some slick city. We play it real. However, the sketchy style is reminiscent of many logos from the 1980s, but hey, this is the logo for an event 10 years from now, maybe that sort of style will come back around and be back in by then.
Actually, I wouldn't mind this style coming back in, because it would really help erik's and my pencil rubbing cause.

Font
I'm not sure what the font is. My first guesses were Avenir, Frutiger, and Vectora; however, they aren't quite it. If anyone knows the name of the font used, please leave the font name in the comments below. At any rate, it's a nice clean font. I'm thankful that the font Optima (found in parts of the CTA underground stations) was not used here.

Reproducibility
It appears that this logo is a raster file, but lately i've been amazed by some of the effects vector art has been able to achieve. Maybe this was created with individual vector lines, which would have helped them fine tune the exact look of the logo.

Conclusion
Chicago is the city that works. We have a Mayor that totally gets things done. This IS our time. It's time to live that same Chicago pride that SHOCKED THE WORLD with the 1893 World's Fair. Daniel Burnham the legendary city planner said a century ago, "Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood." That IS Chicago. We have the vision. We have the blood. We have the sweat. We should have the Olympics.

This is a fine logo that should make the city of Chicago proud. Many years from now we will look back on this logo with happy nostalgia. This fire will continue onward to the future to ignite the Olympic games in the Windy City.

I liked yesterday's photo so much, that here's a blog post dedicated to just this photo. You can find it on the MLB website selling a "Property of Bonds" tshirt.

It's interesting the depth of committment MLB has towards Bonds--a steroid user. They made four different logos each for a different feat accomplished by him.

They even look like they were designed by a different designer. They even have a special subdomain just for Bonds. http://barrybonds.mlb.com.

The rooftop of a downtown building in downtown Chicago just got a curious addition built this morning. A white bulbous alien ship/water slide just landed down on top of the Realtor Building on 430 North Michigan Avenue. I work on the 14th floor of the Tribune Tower, so it gives me great curiosity what this thing will be, so I emailed the owner of the building, the National Association of Realtors:

====================
This morning I noticed the new construction on top of your building at 430 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago. I am an employee of Tribune Company right across the street from you, and I am curious what that new construction will be on top of your roof. (Don't worry, I'm not anyone official representing the Tribune company. I'm just a curious fellow neighbor).

We have several theories about what it will be. 1) It will be a rooftop garden. Chicago loves its rooftop gardens, so it makes sense that the National Association of Realtors would decide to go green on its property. 2) Waterslide. The white tubeous shape resembles a water slide. Can you imagine the fun sliding around in a water park on top of a downtown Chicago building? 3) Roller coaster. Again, that would be great fun. Will you charge admission? 4) Alien welcome center. The tall sharp spires look like some sort of calling beacon for passing-by aliens. The white rounded arching metal shape resembles an alien ship alerting aliens that is it safe to land there. If this option is indeed true, then it was great foresight on your part, because when aliens invade our planet, they will inevitably need a place to live and work. What greater place to start than the National Association of Realtors?

So those are our four theories so far for what the construction will be on top of your building. Any clarity in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
====================

Anybody else have any theories on what this will be? Or maybe you might even know what it will be for real.

Major League Baseball players with more walks have longer at bats, allowing announcers to talk about them more, therefore they become more famous.

All-time walk leaders:
1. Barry Bonds 2426 L
2. Rickey Henderson 2190 R
3. Babe Ruth 2062 L
4. Ted Williams 2021 L
5. Joe Morgan 1865 L
6. Carl Yastrzemski 1845 L
7. Mickey Mantle 1733 B
8. Mel Ott 1708 L
9. Eddie Yost 1614 R
10. Darrell Evans 1605 L
11. Stan Musial 1599 L
12. Pete Rose 1566 B
13. Harmon Killebrew 1559 R
14. Frank Thomas (38) 1547 R

Oh, Eddie Yost? Darrell Evans? Not exactly brand names. Maybe my theory dosn't work too well. But it's interesting that of the top 11, 8 of them are lefties. Funny how Frank Thomas is #14 on the list. Even more funny is that Lenny Dykstra lead the NL in walks in 1993.

They say you should take 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. You can even count non-walking activities as steps. For instance, universalhealthcare.com says sawing firewood is the equivalent to taking 113 steps a minute.

Here's the top ten activities:
1) Squash (348 steps)
--Squash at number one? It's kinda like raquetball. But raquetball is ranked all the way down at #24.

2) Karate (290 steps)
3) Tae Kwon Do (290 steps)
4) Shoveling snow, heavy (278 steps)
5) Stair climbing, vigorous (267 steps)
6) Skiing, cross-country rapidly (256 steps)
7) Running a 6 minute mile (247 steps)
8) Jumping Rope, moderate/fast (244 steps)
--Jumping rope at #8? Who knew!?

9) Skiing, downhill rapidly (244 steps)
10) Hiking, 21-42 lb. load (232 steps)

It should be noted that all these activities are not actual steps taken in the activity, but it's all built on the baseline of walking being 100 steps per minute. So canoeing leisurely is considered the equivalent to walking (both 100 steps per minute).

Here's the rest of the list:
11) Volleyball, game (232 steps)
--Volleyball edges out basketball? That's crazy!

12) Basketball, game (230 steps)
13) Running a 7 minute mile (222 steps)
14) Swimming, vigorous effort (222 steps)
15) Water Polo (222 steps)
16) Soccer, playing competitively (218 steps)
17) Hiking, 10-20 lb. load (217 steps)
18) Boxing, in a ring competitively (213 steps)
19) Elliptical trainer (203 steps)
20) Rowing, vigorous effort (203 steps)
21) Scuba diving (203 steps)
22) Bicycling (moderate, 12-13.9 mph) (200 steps)
23) Running a 8 minute mile (200 steps)
24) Racquetball, playing competitively (198 steps)
25) Football (189 steps)
26) Judo (187 steps)
--Judo at #26 is much less work than Karate (#2) and Tae Kwon Do (#3). Personally, I always thought of them as the same thing. But now I know Judo people are pansies.

27) Running a 9 minute mile (184 steps)
28) Aerobics (high impact) (182 steps)
29) Snowboarding, moderate (182 steps)
30) Stair climbing, moderate (180 steps)
31) Rowing, moderate (179 steps)
32) Circuit Training (178 steps)
33) Hockey (178 steps)
34) Jumping Rope, slow (178 steps)
--Now I can see why jumping rope was at #8, cuz that must be some INTENSE jump roping. INTENSE. RAWWWWRRR!

35) Skiing, downhill moderate (178 steps)
36) Snowshoeing (178 steps)
37) Tennis, singles (178 steps)
--Note: Tennis, doubles is listed at #73, 102 steps.

38) Gardening, heavy (174 steps)
39) Shoveling snow, moderate (174 steps)
40) Swimming, moderate effort (174 steps)
41) Hiking, general (172 steps)
42) Skiing, cross-country moderately (164 steps)
43) Ice skating, competitively (162 steps)
44) Mowing (160 steps)
45) Dancing, choreographed (158 steps)
46) Running, jogging (156 steps)
47) Aerobics (moderate) (154 steps)
48) Orienteering (151 steps)
--What is this? Ain't this just hiking? Oh wait, maybe it is like hiking, but there's some stop and go, cuz you have to orientate yourself.

49) Snowboarding, light (150 steps)
50) Softball (145 steps)
51) Yard Work, general (145 steps)
52) Soccer, recreational (144 steps)
53) Handball, recreational (142 steps)
54) Aerobic dancing, strenuously (140 steps)
55) Line Dancing (139 steps)
--Line dancing is apparently more work than fencing.

56) Fencing (133 steps)
57) Shoveling snow, light (133 steps)
58) Swimming, leisure (133 steps)
59) Boxing, non-competitive (131 steps)
60) Raking leaves (125 steps)
--Apparently raking leaves is more work than sawing firewood (#66).

61) Rollerblading, moderately (125 steps)
62) Golfing, without a cart (122 steps)
63) Aerobic dancing, low impact (118 steps)
64) Gardening, moderate (116 steps)
65) Skiing, cross-country slowly (114 steps)
66) Firewood, sawing (113 steps)
--Sawing firewood with 113 steps at #66 should be much higher on the list. Maybe this person is just breaking little kindlewood.

67) Cricket (111 steps)
68) Fishing, from river bank and walking (111 steps)
69) Rowing, light (111 steps)
70) Skiing, downhill slowly (109 steps)
71) Water Skiing (104 steps)
--Water skiing with 104 steps is only just a bit more work than walking at 100 steps?

72) Horseback riding, trotting (102 steps)
73) Tennis, doubles (102 steps)
74) Housework, vacuuming (101 steps)
75) Pilates (101 steps)
76) Badminton (100 steps)
77) Bicycling (leisurely, 10-11.9 mph) (100 steps)
78) Canoeing, leisurely (100 steps)
79) Walking at a normal pace (100 steps)
--Here is the main baseline, walking.

80) Water Aerobics (100 steps)
81) Yoga (100 steps)
82) Badminton (98 steps)
--Uh, badminton is listed twice? Here it's 98 steps, it's also listed at 100 steps.

83) Hoeing in a garden (96 steps)
--Hoeing in a garden. That's funny.

84) Dancing, socially (93 steps)
85) Stair climbing, slow (90 steps)
86) Curling (89 steps)
87) Firewood, stacking (89 steps)
--Gotta love these firewood references.

88) Gymnastics (89 steps)
89) Bowling (87 steps)
90) Housework, washing windows (87 steps)
91) Volleyball, leisure (87 steps)
92) Washing the car (87 steps)
93) Weight lifting, moderate (87 steps)
94) Ice skating, leisurely (84 steps)
95) Golfing, with a cart (78 steps)
96) Painting/papering (78 steps)
97) Billiards (77 steps)
98) Gardening, light (73 steps)
99) Housework, light (72 steps)
100) Frisbee, general playing (67 steps)
--Where is "Frisbee, hard playing?"

101) Grocery Shopping (67 steps)
102) Weight lifting, light (66 steps)
103) Fishing, from boat, sitting (56 steps)
104) Housework, mopping floors (51 steps)
--HEY! Mopping floors is hard work. This list must be made a man who plays squash all day long, that never chops any wood.

105) Swimming, treading water (49 steps)
106) Horseback riding, walking leisurely (31 steps)
107) Tai Chi (8 steps)
108) Stretching (6 steps)

I am greatly disappointed that croquet is not on this list. I'd put it somewhere between Bowling (87 steps) and Billiards (77 steps)

I have a new piece of art in the art gallery on spudart.org. Feel free to leave a comment at the lego mosaic robot page.

A chalk drawing on a sidewalk will dissolve when it rains. So if you leave a piece of chalk outside in the rain, will the chalk dissolve?

That's a logical connection, but I think when it rains on a chalk drawing, the water acts to disconnect the chalk from the sidwalk. I'm not sure that the rain dissolves the chalk.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports in the 1993 Census and You * Second (10,866)
* Third (10,131)
* First (9,898)
* Fourth (9,190)
* Park (8,926)
* Fifth (8,186)
* Main (7,644)
* Sixth (7,283)
* Oak (6,946)
* Seventh (6,377)
* Pine (6,170)
* Maple (6,103)
* Cedar (5,644)
* Eighth (5,524)
* Elm (5,233)
* View (5,202)
* Washington (4,974)
* Ninth (4,908)
* Lake (4,901)
* Hill (4,877)
It's funny how "second" is first on this list. That's because there's a bunch of other names for "first" like main, center, state, etc.

It's neat to break this list out into the most popular trees:
* Oak (6,946)
* Pine (6,170)
* Maple (6,103)
* Cedar (5,644)
* Elm (5,233)

Or by geographical features:
* Park (8,926)
* View (5,202)
* Lake (4,901)
* Hill (4,877)

Out of the existing 720 wrestling names, the most common word is: "Mr."

Here's the 20 most common words in names of wrestlers:
--Mr (13 occurances)
--Big (12 occurances)
--Jim (10 occurances)
--Kid (10 occurances)
--Great (9 occurances)
--Johnny (9 occurances)
--Von (9 occurances)
--Chris (8 occurances)
--Erich (8 occurances)
--Giant (8 occurances)
--King (8 occurances)
--Super (8 occurances)
--Man (7 occurances)
--Mike (7 occurances)
--Paul (7 occurances)
--Black (6 occurances)
--Jimmy (6 occurances)
--John (6 occurances)
--Kevin (6 occurances)
--Masked (6 occurances)
--Scott (6 occurances)

Here's the top 14 adjectives:
--Big (12 occurances)
--Great (9 occurances)
--Giant (8 occurances)
--Super (8 occurances)
--Black (6 occurances)
--Masked (6 occurances)
--New (3 occurances)
--Yellow (3 occurances)
--Borne (2 occurances)
--Cold (2 occurances)
--Dirty (2 occurances)
--Flying (2 occurances)
--Mad (2 occurances)
--Red (2 occurances)

The top 14 nouns:
--Kid (10 occurances)
--King (8 occurances)
--Man (7 occurances)
--Dog (5 occurances)
--Master (5 occurances)
--Tiger (5 occurances)
--Chief (3 occurances)
--Destroyer (3 occurances)
--Dragon (3 occurances)
--Machine (3 occurances)
--Patriot (3 occurances)
--Samurai (3 occurances)
--Stud (3 occurances)
--Wizard (3 occurances)

While riding the CTA red line this morning, there were three advertisements in succession on the train. They said:
1: BORED? PASS THE TIME WITH A WORD JUMBLE.
2: ULOQOSYIL HRSPIM NUJOROS EENRSE LSAIOABT
3: HINT: THEY ALL START WITH 'S.'
Nice ads, I couldn't figure it out on my own, but it gave me something to think about during the 15-minute ride.

It's shocking that there is no official National Firefighters day. There should be one!

Since 2001 there has been a circulating email petition, which is nice, but it doesn't get anything done.

To really get the ball rolling on National Firefighters day, please email your senator. In Illinois: Barak Obama and Dick Durbin. If you are not in Illinois, check out this site for other senators: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/.

Here's what I wrote, feel free to use it in any way:

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Did you know that there is no annual National Firefighters Day? We should have a day to honor these brave men every year. Please consider starting a bill institute a permanent National Firefighters Day. A little bit of background: In 1991 President Bush and in 1993 President Clinton both declared a National Firefighters Day, but neither of these proclamations established a permanent, annual day of honor for firefighters.

Sources:
1991 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20079
1993 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=62510

Please give us a National Firefighters Day to remember firefighters every year, not just 1991 and 1993.

Sincerely,
Matt Maldre
Feel free to contact me at 773-xxx-xxxx, xxx@xxxxxx.com
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