Ideas for Saturday's CTA Tattler meet-up on Holiday (Santa) Train
Yes Virginia (and Martha and Kevin, et al), there will be a Tattler meet-up this Saturday on the Santa Train. Here's the schedule.
I'm inclined to board the first Orange Line train going north into town at Roosevelt at 1:23 pm. I figure we'll all meet in the first car, take photos, sing and in general be nutty little CTA Tattler elves.
Then we exit at Belmont (the Orange turns into a Brown on Saturday) and find a nearby watering hole to continue the meet-up.
What do you all think?
The alternative is to get the later afternoon Brown Line train south at Belmont at 3:31 and then take it into the Loop. Get off somewhere in the Loop and party downtown for a bit. I'm open to either plan.
Ideas? Thoughts?
UPDATE: OK, I've thought about it some more, and read some of the comments overnight. It sounds like everyone is OK with taking the early Orange Line train north and exiting on the North Side for holiday cheer. But I'm leaning now to exiting at Addison on the Red and going to Harry's Caray's, just south of Addison on Sheffield. That way, those with kids (KevinB) can join us since it's more family-friendly. Any other ideas for a family-friendly spot after the ride?
We could throw an effigy of Blago in front of the santa train. Could be symbolic. Symbolic of what I dont know, but we could justify it in the name public protest or something along that manner.
Posted by: johnson | December 09, 2008 at 09:24 PM
I'll be there with my Santa hat and hopefully my human shield nieces... :)
KevinB
Posted by: KevinB | December 09, 2008 at 09:39 PM
What would you be protesting, Johnson? You are, I assume, a resident of Illinois. We are the people that elected him to be governor (not me personally, I didn't vote for him). There is no reason for anyone to protest the governor. He didn't make it into the governor's office by magic. Somebody had to put him there. And that is all the voters in the state, who made this inexcusable and horrific decision. The people everybody should be protesting are their fellow voters. The type of protest you are suggesting is good when people have no say in what has occured. For example, people often burn pictures of dictaters or kings in countries where they didn't elect these leaders. Here in Illinois, the best thing to do is to look at each other and ask questions about how all of the voters made such an atrocious decision. The board of directors at places such as General Motors or Lehman Brothers have serious questions to answer for their horrible leadership. For the same reason, so does every resident of Illinois.
Posted by: MK | December 09, 2008 at 09:52 PM
Either option works for me!
Posted by: Jasmine | December 09, 2008 at 11:53 PM
Hope you don't get annoying announcer guy.
Posted by: fan | December 10, 2008 at 12:54 AM
Oh, I never had a good reason to do it. I guess just out of anger. He has given our state another black eye from corruption. I also don't think it will end with him either. It is kind of funny watching these politicians on TV denouncing him, when there is a good chance they have done similar things, probably not to the extent Blago did, but still...
Posted by: johnson | December 10, 2008 at 07:31 AM
Plus throwing something that large in front of the train would be more like trespass than a freakin protest.
Posted by: johnson | December 10, 2008 at 07:32 AM
I'll be there! Probably not with bells on though. :-) No effigies though... they'd only keep Santa from his appointed rounds! The sleigh must fly unimpeded!
Posted by: sabrina | December 10, 2008 at 07:35 AM
Oh, I suppose you probably wanted more feedback on which way to take the train. Either way works for me. Winding up in the Loop makes it a little easier for people who live north, south, or (gasp) west to get home, versus winding up at Belmont, though our watering hole options might be fewer. But I'm sure we can find something fun down here, and they might not all be completely packed with Cubs fans. (ducking, running...)
Posted by: sabrina | December 10, 2008 at 07:43 AM
Harry Caray's? Really? I shouldn't have made that crack about Cubs fans, should I...
Posted by: Sabrina | December 11, 2008 at 08:11 AM
YEA! SANTA TRAIN!!!
It's ok, Sabrina, Harry Caray was a Sox announcer long before he was a Cubs icon.
Excellent choice of venue, Tattler Kevin. Not only will KevinB be able to bring his human shield, we could all probably use a little food to keep the holiday cheer from getting too cheerful. Imagine the scandal if Tattlers were discovered vomiting on CTA vehicles on our return trips home. We'd never be able to mount our high horses again. :P
Posted by: Martha | December 11, 2008 at 11:56 AM