MItten Mary

@mittenmary

Midwesterner. Looking for how our country gets back to normal. Following progressive politics, Chicagology, the arts, cats, and quirky stuff. Why are people following me? I’m here more to read than post.

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MItten Mary@mittenmary· 17d

756 N. Milwaukee Ave., home of the Intuit Museum. Guessing the first floor would have been retail with that big display window?

Three three-story brick buildings with wide windows on the first floor and three smaller windows each on the second and third floors. Nice ornamentation around the windows and at the roofline. The two buildings on the left are embellished with some art inspired by the collection.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· 23d

Here’s one of his bros from a few years ago:

Giant troll made of wood, hiding in the shadows next to a tree, prepares a net to catch unsuspecting prey.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· 27d

Hoping things are better for you today, @mrillinois.bsky.social. I thought of a non-Chicago scene for you: the Hosta Ravine at www.hornbakergardens.com/garden-center/ in Princeton. It looks like something you’d find at Morton Arboretum than a small-town nursery:

Ravine filled with a lush assortment of hostas. A tree stump is at right, and four women stand around enjoying the surroundings.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· 28d

Another one that’s obvious, but delightful.

Tiffany mosaic ceiling in the Marshall Field’s building in the Loop. Giant blue oval medallions over arches separated by ornate gold bands.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· 28d

This one is obvious, but still cheering.

Wrigley Field on a game day, with backs of people, outfield, and scoreboard under a cloudy sky.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jul 3

I can’t supply the link to this excellent piece from @willbunch.bsky.social because I read in as a gift link, but the last sentence is a killer.

Quote from Will Bunch in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

And yet, the fundamental essence of what can make America actually great someday remains intact: its people. This summer, millions of us are showing that Americans want things that can bring us together, and also to celebrate what makes us all different and all special, whether on a soccer pitch or a parade route laced with pink.

The question is, how do we take this positive energy and stop the whirlwind?
How do we celebrate a 250-year slow-bending of the are of the moral universe without losing our focus on the ongoing crime scene at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

When the president's Freedom 250 sets off 850,000 fireworks over Washington on Saturday, think of every single blast as about $2,000 that Trump pocketed for himself, and then it might be possible to comprehend the scope of his crime against our citizenry.

Don't let the president hijack the Fourth of July to rob the focus from what matters most, the things we need to write and discuss and march against every week: his unprecedented criminality. The bombs are bursting in air, but only when we unleash our people power and seek justice will we see the dawn's early light of a new nation again.

Happy birthday, America.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jul 3

Post a random picture or everything else will go bad in July.

Power strip with one outlet that got burned and melted when a transformer blew. This is something that went wrong in June.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jun 4

Visited the Intuit Museum recently. Loved the artwork on the exterior art.org/exhibitions/... as well as the exhibits. @dmercer.bsky.social, I thought with those large ground-floor windows and the location on Milwaukee, these must have originally been retail buildings. What do you think?

Three three-story red brick buildings, each with three windows on the second and third floors. Windows have some ornamentation (terra cotta?) over the windows and some interesting brick detail near the roofline. Two buildings on the left are embellished with artwork reflecting the museum collection. Building on the right looks forbidding and possible vacant, with a security gate over the entrance. One and a half cars are visible in the foreground.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· May 6

@chicagovtfloor.bsky.social, what do you think? This kind of floor was everywhere in my long-ago youth, but this building is being remodeled, so I thought I should get a snap.

Section of floor with tan, brown, and light blue square and rectangular tiles. If there is a pattern, I can’t discern it. There is a floor mat to the right, terrazzo on the bottom, different terrazzo and the bottom of a door to the left, and the bottom of another door on top.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Apr 16

Saw some splendid Victorian-era monuments at a Vermont cemetery. The steps were hand-cut by a Civil War veteran! Extraordinary detail on the little girl, especially the eyelet trim of her dress.

A flight of steps, slightly curved, hand-cut into granite. A marker at the bottom says 1897. Background includes grass, trees, and a cloudy sky.

Highly detailed granite monument depicts a pensive girl in old-fashioned clothes. She is leaning on a horizontal log propped up in two other logs with climbing flowers. “Margaret” is inscribed on the horizontal log.

Carved granite monument of a nice-looking dog on a base which is inscribed Ned. Background includes other monuments, grass, and a cloudy sky.

Bronze monument of a mournful looking seated woman (?) swathed in cloth. This is surrounded by granite. There are shells, stones, and a purple hair tie on her lap.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Mar 30

My family’s first house was this suburban MCM, built in 1961. It was fun to see it again, and good to know that’s it’s being well maintained. I thought my mom was calling it a “wreck” room because we didn’t put our toys away.

Builder’s flyer for a suburban MCM split-level house, with drawing, floor plan, and text.

Photo of tan brick split level house with large tree in right foreground.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Mar 29

EVERYONE takes pictures of the Rookery, so I’ll spare you mine, with a couple of exceptions. One is dedicated to @chicagovtfloor.bsky.social, from whom I’m learning to look down. The other is an almost-hidden civic device on the bottom of a sconce next to the elevator from the 1931 renovation.

Intricately patterned floor tile border, making an obtuse turn.

Civic device at the bottom of a cylindrical wall scone. Art deco elevator and white ornate ceiling in background.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Mar 18

There was a new whimsical touch in Produce today:

A bright Caution/Wet Floor sign in the shape of a banana, with open peels forming legs on the bottom, on a grocery store floor. Produce displays are in the background.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Mar 3

I don’t have any terra cotta, but here is a shimmery wall at the Old Post Office. Happy Birthday!

Shimmery gold tile set in a marble wall, with a bronze plaque honoring railroads at the top. Elevators are visible on both sides.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Feb 18

Just because it’s a dreary day, a little visual stimulation from the Roanoke Building. I love these grand mailboxes. The tile isn’t colorful, but those swirls!

Splendid shiny gold-colored and ornate lobby mail box.

Border of a tile floor, with elegant black swirls on an off-white background.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Feb 12

Awww… I wondered whether it was going to be too much about the dress, and not enough of Michelle, but it was perfect. Hope you get to see it soon. I saw them together in Chicago, which was thrilling!

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jan 21

Medicare email with “Stay Healthy with Dr. Oz” in banner. No thanks, I’ll get my health information from a reliable source.

Banner from a Medicare.gov email reads:

Make 2026 your healthiest year yet
Medicare.gov
Stay Healthy with Dr. Oz
Make 2026 your healthiest year yet

With an image of two older people and two children washing vegetables.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jan 14

Don’t know if this counts, but it’s what I got, so… This installation at the Art Institute has colored gels that look different depending on the weather, time of day, etc. The colors are stunning on the floor as well as the skylight. www.artic.edu/exhibitions/...

Several people, including a woman with a stroller, walk on a wooden floor in a large space. Multicolored skylight panels cast a ribbon of color on the floor.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jan 11

It’s cold and windy, my sign didn’t turn out right, and I would have been happy to stay in and read. But I’m so glad I went out to protest. Thanks, @saline-indivisible.bsky.social, for organizing so well. We have to keep trying.

Group of people bundled in winter clothes holding up signs on a street corner. One sign is a photo of Renee Good. Some signs read:

Honk for Renee Good
Hands off U. S. Democracy you fascist traitor
Making good trouble

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Jan 1

Wise words on boots:

Photo of a gray-bearded man in a black wide-brimmed hat with text:

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness."

- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 31

Book cover. The title, The Golden Gate, is at the top. A brushy painting of a bridge is in the center. The text “A novel by Vikram Seth” is at the bottom.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 28

Terrible photo, but it was exciting to spot a Cooper’s Hawk in our backyard.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 20

From the kitchen cabinet people, listing on Wikipedia.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 13

This reminds me of an old favorite book.

Cover of a vintage children’s book showing a boy and a robot that looks like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz carrying a large box. A smaller robot is in the foreground.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 5

Nellie stayed Nellie, although she became Dame Nellie in her later years. The good thing about this name is that we could greet her singing, “HellOO Nellie, oh hellOO, Nellie, it’s so nice to have you back where you belong…” Also, “See you later, Nelliegator” when leaving the house.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Dec 1

I scored a sheet of Chris Ware stamps, but now I don’t want to use them. Such an excellent illustration.

A sheet of U. S. Postal Service stamps with “250 Years of Delivering” title. It portrays a city scene with people walking around, eating in a restaurant, partying on a rooftop, etc. while a postal carrier makes her rounds.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Nov 17

Probably my last view of Regenstein Hall at the Art Institute before they convert it into the Conservation Center. It was strangely open to display a large piece, but had a very under-construction look, with bare walls and some old cards on the walls. This still seems like an odd move for the AIC.

Empty museum exhibit space with light shining in through dusty windows. Parquet floor is in the foreground.

Faded museum description card with “Paris on the street and from
the Balcony” title.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Oct 24

Spotted the charming pair in the left photo on South Jefferson earlier this year. Don’t they look as though they’d have stories to tell? Photo on the right is a Google street view of the much grander building across the street. The entrance makes me think of the Wrigley Building.

Three-story brick building on the left, with white paint peeling off the brick. Large windows on the center of the two upper floors with smaller, slightly arched windows on either side. Ornamental brickwork over arches and at roofline. There is a restaurant at street level.

Red brick building on the right has (terra cotta?) name over fouth floor windows: 1878 O’Donoghue 1892. Ornamental recessed brick between the third and fourth floors. Red awning over street-level restaurant.

Cars and trees in the foreground, obscuring the view, and more buildings in the background.

Multistoried building with generous windows and a variety of architectural ornamentation, including white glazed terra cotta and brown brick.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Oct 21

Anyone else thinking of this moment in Chicago history? No particular reason. (Sun Times file photo)

Airplane runway, surrounded by water, juts off to the left. Several Xes are bulldozed out.

MItten Mary@mittenmary· Oct 20

@chicagovtfloor.bsky.social, have you already covered the Reliance Building? You’d probably get a better shot of this spectacular floor.