« Beer running | Main | A gay old weekend »
May 25, 2006
My life has been enriched
I took the ole bicycle out for a spin today, and after a tasty lunch at Flat Top, I found myself on Irving Park Road near Clark St. As I lurched towards the Lake, I looked across the street and saw a big brown historical marker. As you all know, history gets my motor running, so I made a big U-turn and went to look at the marker. I will have a hard time forgetting - and indeed, through the power of blogging, this encounter has been preserved indefinitely - the sheer uselessness of the marker:
As it was, I was standing in front of the Jose P. Rizal Heritage Center, named for this Rizal guy, who happens to be the national hero of the Phillippines. I have never heard of this man, but Wikipedia sort of explains who he is.
Rizal sounds interesting, but his commemorative plaque sure isn't. So he arrived at 8:14, visited places of interest, and left 12 hours later? Couldn't this plaque say a little more, such as what the heck he was doing in Chicago, what he saw, and where he went afterwards? I mean, it's not like he could have hopped the next plane to Manila. Admittedly, my first reaction was Why don't they tell us why he's the national hero of the Philippines?, but then I figured that might be like asking somebody why George Washington is so important.
Nevertheless, I had to chuckle at this historical marker which basically said absolutely nothing at all. On the other hand, isn't the resolution on my camera phone totally awesome? I thought for sure the writing on the plaque wouldn't even come out!
Posted by oz115 at May 25, 2006 02:07 PM