Stand-by Unit 10
jump street POV – woman with camera
Most people know that Chicago is called the Windy City. After I relocated here a few years ago, I invoked its name (with extra f*adjectives) every time my hat blew away down the street – everytime my hair stuck to my fresh A.M. glossed lips as I waited for the bus, I sputtered anew…
One day a native brusquely kicked me to the curb with the news that the phrase Windy City was in reference to its Gasbag Politicians NOT the freakin weather. By then, after witnessing many a Metropolitan Scandal, I could only take my whipping and nod my head.
WITNESS that AIR: Unless you’re pushing up the daisies this Spring, you would be hard pressed to miss the mess that is the trial of ex-Governor George Ryan down at the Federal Building. Old School Campaign Fund Fraud Walks into New School Cyber Invetigative Wall. RESULT: a gathering of the gassiest, baggiest, co-mingling of politician and attorney species, the likes of which we will probably witness soon never again.
The Media, in a long tradition of loving to give names to stories, sporting events, and gangstas, has named the raggedey group of assorted scribes, TV reporters, shooters and groupies – (yes, there are always court groupies but that story is for another day) – who attend the proceedings “Camp Ryan”. They mostly hover in a waiting room on the same floor as the courtroom, eagerly awaiting the verdict.
But almost forgotten, until they are in your face, are the Other Camp Followers.
That would be me. And my ilk.
The Photographers wait in a cordoned off area in the gargantuan lobby. We have been relegated there by the order of the Chief Judge who proclaimed that “Cameramen with cameras who stampeded and trampled the public” would be coralled off so they could no longer poach the Free Range (my interpretaion).
This is Bad but (oh yes) Good. Because these members of Camp Ryan are actually, well, a Camp! Here behind the ropes along the 3 story high glass exterior walls, you see folding canvas chairs behind a row of cameras connected to every cable ever invented for the transmission of electronic broadcast.
The Geeks will not go quietly or will they?
Here you will see people warming themselves with a virtual campfire of iPods (regular, nano, mini (including my beloved Keanu who I thought I electrocuted yesterday OH NO!) and the most coveted of all – the guys with the video ipods watching MOVIES! How I lust for this option). Also represented are laptops of all shapes and sizes; books, newpapers; magazines; cell phones and devices emitting every chirp sequence under the sun.
[Lest you think this is the Best Job Ever, let me indicate that at a micro-moment’s notice, the Camp must and will SPRING into action and throw itself on the Grenade of Coverage as soon as the pin is pulled. NOW one must heave the 25-30 lb. camera on the shoulder and run for six blocks, up and down stairs through traffic backwards and around and through anything in the urban landscape in all types of weather. WINDY trumps windy.]
But I worship most of all the LoTech Device I always have with me:
This little number is good in all weather, windy
or otherwise, and will never need a battery.
I love my little Old School Heel…
… read more
The sock looks awesome. I have a question regarding the heel flap. I have made many socks in the last few years, and can never, ever seem to make the side I ssk look nice and tight. Do you do anything special when you are working back and forth on the heel flap? Or is it during the decrease rounds that will help tighten the stitches?
Hope I am clear how I am explaining my problem.
Thanks!
Damn, with that camera, you must be strong like bull. ;)
Gorgeous sock! I love Ye Olde School Heel Flap, too.
Long time reader/lurker delurking.
Did you see that your beloved #66 bus made the front page of the Trib today? I thought of you as soon as I read the article but there was no mention of knitters.
I love your (my) Old School Heel as well, but I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna try the Short Row heel! I figure it’s time, along with the toe up sock, we are gonna tackle the short row heel!!
Come on B-Marie! Do it with me!!
I’m old-school, too, when it comes to sock heels. :-)
Knitting helps us through it all…the ups and downs, the good and bad, the windbags and fair friends. No wonder you look so good…you have to be fit to do your job!
Oh, it may not be the Best Job Ever, but it still sounds like fun. Better than sitting in a boring office all day.
What a circus that trial has been – I feel for you!
Oh boy, do I understand your pain. Sorry that the media stakeout hasn’t changed a bit since my short stint.
At least you have River Sock and Keanu to keep you company during the wait time. Keep up the good work on both the job and the knitting front, kid!
The suspense of the Ryan trial is palpable for those of us who are news junkies. And I will confess, when I watch “another network” I always look to see if you – getting your shot – appear in the other guy’s shot. To my dismay you seem to do a good job of staying out of the way.
Love the socks!
Ahhh…Chicago politics! In 1977, when we moved to the Windy City, I tried to find what in every other state I have lived in (9!!) has been called the Department of Motor Vehicles, to see about getting an Illinois drivers license. No DMV in the phone book….the Secretary of State’s office issued all licenses back then: drivers, hairdressers, etc. But I didn’t know that, and finally asked my husband to check with a co-worker to find out “How do you get a drivers license in Chicago?” The answer, I kid you not, was this: “Call your alderman.” Explains a lot about Chicago politics, doesn’t it?
What a great striping sequence on that sock.
Hell would be that camp with no knitting. No amount of iPod heaven would compensate.
Is that the sound of your needles dropping and your sprint across the lobby of the Federal Building? Just in time for the mid-day news – how convenient for all of you at Camp Ryan. :)