Evanston: outside
Evanston: outside
When I walked to the lake on Thursday, I was surprised to find that it is not frozen. The air temperature was 3ºF when the above photo was taken near noon. Wearing long underwear, Levis, a long sleeved shirt, Polartec, an insulated parka, insulated gloves, and boots, with only an inch or two of skin exposed around my eyes, I was comfortable.
The snow in the foreground covers Evanston’s South Beach, which differs slightly from Miami’s.
Although I saw only two other people out--both walking dogs--there were many tracks in th
e snow, which crunched pleasantly as I made some of my own.
The snow is only a few inches deep, and the combination of prolonged cold and lack of insulation from a deeper layer of snow has resulted in the highest number of burst water pipes in the area for more than ten years. One of the buildings in the development Carol is working on was a victim, with several feet of water in an auditorium; as was a high rise along Lake Shore Drive, which had to be evacuated.
To their credit people are not complaining much about the weather. The attitude generally is that it is winter and cold is to be expected. This differs from Boston where most people complained about the weather most of the time, and winter seemed to come as a surprise each year. A good many people there also complained when temperatures got above 70ºF. This didn’t leave much to be happy about.
On the thirteen hour flight over the Pacific a week ago, I watched two movies: BABEL and THE DEPARTED. Both were good; THE DEPARTED the better.
It is set in Boston, and those who have lived there will recognize that in part it is based on the life of a real criminal, Whitey Bolger; but with a very different ending.
Whitey Bolger was an Irish mob boss and a killer of particular brutality, perhaps to make examples and instill fear, perhaps because he enjoyed it. He was also an FBI informant, and when he was about to be arrested was tipped off and fled. This was fifteen years ago, and he still hasn’t been caught. There are those who say that the FBI doesn’t want to catch him. He is now well over 70 and has won the game.
Whitey has a brother, William, known as ‘Billy’, who followed a different path. He went into politics, became the most powerful politician in Massachusetts, retired from the state senate to the sinecure of being President of the University of Massachusetts, and after a few years, retired from that with another generous pension. Although he was investigated repeatedly, no charges were ever brought against him. In 1992 I saw him interviewed on Sixty Minutes. He was dapper, intelligent, and handled himself impeccably. He too has won the game.
The direction by Martin Scorsese and acting by Jack Nicholson were excellent as expected. Matt Damon was good in an unsympathetic role, and Leonardo DiCaprio as a cop working undercover, exceptional.
Presidential campaigns for an election twenty-one months from now are getting underway. Another excellent reason to go sailing next year.
Sunday, February 11, 2007