ChicagoScope

I recently rode Amtrakâs Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle, a trip of more than 2,000 miles across three time zones and seven states. Whether I was exploring a chilly platform during a brief layover in St. Paul (above) or enjoying the clean, stark views of an unexpectedly long stop in Shelby, Montana, (right), I had a great time -- and talk about it in this latest podcast. Taking the train isnât for everybody. I know itâs a clichà to say so, but in long-distance train travel, itâs the trip that makes the experience worthwhile. If you want to get there quickly, fly. What's especially fun for me is seeing all the small towns -- and reading some of the small-town newspapers you're able to get at station stops. In jobs gone by, I occasionally had to edit school lunch menus. Once, a local school district got a nasty letter from Ore-Ida because although "Tater Tots" were constantly listed in their menu, the company had somehow determined that the school cafeteria's side dish was not, in fact, genuine Tater Tots brand potato product.  That's why I read small-town newspapers' school lunch menus with a great deal of interest. Whether it's fun dishes like "Chef Betsy's Special Surprise" or "Same as Tuesday" (I've actually seen those over the years), these simple yet vital lists provide a wonderful culinary glimpse into those thrilling meals of yesteryear. When the Empire Builder pulled into Minot, North Dakota, all of us sleeper car passengers received a fresh copy of the Minot Daily News. After reading about the rodeo news and that high school gal who bagged a moose, I turned to the school lunch menus in the Education section. Once I got back to Chicago, I surfed more of the Minot menus online and discovered something remarkable: These folks have more than one way of making tacos for kids. Check it out: Taco, Taco in a bag, Taco on a tray. Minot schools are versatile with ground beef, as well. They serve cheeseburger, sloppy joe -- and then something called a slushburger, which sure sounds like a sloppy joe to me. They also make references to Tater Tots, spelled in a variety of styles -- including Tator tot hotdish. Speaking of Tater Tots, anybody want to try Tater Tots Tuna Pie? Maybe Amtrak should try serving that in the dining car. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

One of my favorite pleasures is reading On the Bi-Level, a monthly newsletter distributed to customers of Metra, the Chicago suburabn rail service. The newsletter is a riotous collection of commuter train news and bitchy complaints from riders outraged by the behavior of others. Check out the current issue. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Every since my disappointing experience with the Amtrak flat iron steak, I've wanted to know more about beef cuts, flavors, how meat is aged, and so on. Thanks to Leah Zeldes, I now know a great deal about these somewhat arcane subjects. Those of you following along at home might want to consult this chart that explains beef cuts. It's courtesy of the Cattlemen's Beef Board & National Cattlemen's Beef Association's BeefRetail.org site. Also check out "Raising Steaks," an article Leah wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. And yes, the photo above is what I had for dinner before recording this podcast. I opted for the original version of Hamburger Helper on the left. It still tastes great, and is almost as good a comfort food as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner. PRODUCTION NOTE: I promise to do a better job with Skype next time. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

For many years, I was a devoted shortwave radio listener. Even on worknights and schoolnights, I'd be up until the wee hours scanning the high-frequency bands for unusual signals, pirate transmissions, numbers stations, clandestine broadcasters and other fringe emanations from the ether. One of my favorite pirate broadcasters was Alan Maxwell's KIPM, which usually took to the airwaves on holiday weekends. Many pirate broadcasters simply played rock music and subjected listeners to vulgar humor, but KIPM produced professional-quality science-fiction dramas that could last an hour or more. Like many pirate broadcasters, KIPM responded to listener reception reports. Much to my delight some years back, I received a QSL card from KIPM. Shown above, the card confirms I picked up the station's signal on Oct. 27, 2002, on 6950 kHz. Maxwell also included some bizarre artwork and an audio CD of the shows. About this same time, I began listening to the eclectic programs on WBCQ, a shortwave station owned by Allan Weiner that courageously embraces the First Amendment in a way that would make most mainstream broadcaster defecate cinderblocks. Although WBCQ's programming has always run the gamut from extreme vanity to extreme politics, I found some shows to be fascinating. Radio Newyork International with John P. Lightning was a favorite of mine. It's a potpourri of pop culture and politics that's best described as Howard Stern without the punchbowl -- and without the turd. Another great WBCQ show I enjoyed listening to was "Marion's Attic," which featured an elderly lady playing Edison cylinder and old 78 RPM records from the dawn of commercially recorded music. But not all of WBCQ's programming smelled so good. Weiner's commitment to free speech also meant that some genuine weirdos, goofballs and nutjobs gained access to the airwaves. Among those was Hal Turner, who bought time on the station for several years to espouse his anti-Semetic and racist views. Turner was arrested just the other day amid accusations of threatening public officials. I disagree with nearly all -- if not all -- of what Turner stands for and says, but this is still America and he has the right to espouse those views. But if Turner did try to incite violence, however, then he does need to answer for that. An even more interesting fringe broadcaster active around the time Turner graced WBCQ was "Colonel" Steve Anderson, a self-styled militia leader who operated clandestine shortwave station United Patriot Radio from a site in Kentucky. Anderson broadcast nightly diatribes against the federal government for far longer than most shortwave listeners believed possible. Here in Jefferson Park, his shortwave transmissions came blasting across my radio with such strength you'd have thought the transmitter was just up the street. See a reception report of mine from April 2001 (scroll down to the USA logs). The colonel's rhetoric usually began at a seemingly sane level, but quickly progressed to mouth-frothing talk about New World Order conspiracies and Jews being the spawn of Satan. Interspersed among his Christian Identity pontifications were references to his love of baking homemade bread. Anderson, a former Kentucky State Militia member who got the boot when he refused to stop his illegal transmissions, definitely knew how to keep his audience riveted. United Patriot Radio's hit parade included "You Can Take My Gun From My Cold, Dead Hand," "Onward Christian Soldiers" and a taped interlude featuring a guy firing a machinegun and yelling, "Janet Reno! Get some! Get some today!" The broadcasts ended one fateful night in October 2001 when a county mountie pulled the colonel over on a routine traffic stop for having a broken taillight on his truck. One thing led to another and Anderson whipped out an automatic weapon and swiss-cheesed the officer's patrol car. (Initial newspaper reports noted that Johnny Law had a 15-year-old girl in the squad car with him, but if this fascinating detail was ever explained in subsequent coverage, I missed it.) Anderson took it on the lam until he was arrested after his mugshot appeared on "America's Most Wanted." He's now doing time. The interwebs have occupied much of my spare time the past few years and I haven't monitored the shortwave band for bizarre stuff for a long time. I ought to see what's up and start listening again. After all, it's like having kids in the next room: If they're too quiet, you know they're up to something. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

This time out, I recorded the podcast with a Livescribe Pulse smartpen. What the audio lacks in fidelity, it makes up for in convenience, I think. Topics include Jefferson Park, neighborhood festivals and some suburban high school administrators who have a stick up their fundament over an innocent yearbook prank in which a photo showing a student holding a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer made it into print. To hear New Trier Township High School spokeswoman Laura Blair tell the tale, Western civilization is on the brink of destruction. "It's clearly defiant and subversive and intentional," Blair declared to Chicago Tribune reporter John Keilman. Talk about an overreaction. Judging by her credentials, Blair looks to be a sharp public-relations professional, so she should have had a much more measured response when journalists came calling, as Tribune columnist Eric Zorn points out. When I worked at a certain small-town daily newspaper I won't name, we had a similar problem. Each year, the paper would print two full pages with an alphabetical list of all graduating high school seniors. This page was put together and proofread by students from the school's paper. The paper usually painstakingly proofread the list before printing it, but one year somebody slipped up and thousands of readers found the following names among the graduates: Hugh Jass, Lilac Arug, Seymour Butz, Mike Hunt and (my favorite) Buster Hyman. School officials and our publisher publicly made the requisite comments about how sad it was that a few pranksters had ruined it for everybody -- but everybody I met thought it was pretty funny. Although not as funny as the time the paper supposedly printed an ad that promised a sale on "Men's Tapered Shits." And then there's the time that Chicago's very own Lerner Newspapers ran an ad -- in the Skokie edition, I believe, which surely qualifies as icing on the cake -- whose typo announced the opening of the "Nazi Car Wash." But to get back to subject of yearbook mischief, the sad reality is that it isn't always funny. Pranks are definitely not funny in cases like this. MORE INFO Here's information on Jeff Fest. And click on the Flash player below to see and hear the pencast version of the show. Jefferson Park brought to you by Livescribe ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Leaving Ottumwa, Iowa from Leigh Hanlon on Vimeo. Here's a brief video of the view out my Superliner roomette window as Amtrak's California Zephyr pulls out of Ottumwa, Iowa, eastbound for Chicago. NOTE: If you're viewing this page on an iPhone or other mobile device that does not support Flash, you can still view the video by clicking on the POD logo to the left of the headline, or on the filename that appears after "Direct download" at the end of this text item. PRODUCTION NOTE: Sorry about the previous posting, which I've now deleted. I had saved the video in HD format, which will not display on iPhone. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

I love steak and I love traveling by train, but so far I haven't had good luck with the flat iron steak served on Amtrak's California Zephyr. I tried this relatively new cut last October 2008 on the Zephyr and wasn't especially impressed with it. But I figured it was probably just me, so when I was on the train again in early 2009, I gave the flat iron steak another chance. Same result. This, I asked myself, is a $21 meal? Last week, I spent a week's vacation out in Colorado, so I decided to relax and take the train again. Meals are included if you book a sleeper, so I tend to eat with reckless abandon. This trip, however, I decided to play it safe with the pork tenderloin -- which was quite good. As for why I just don't get along with the flat iron steak, Leah Zeldes tells me that some, but not all, flat iron steaks can contain myglobin, which imparts a liverlike taste if the steak is cooked well. I'm not sure if that's why my two Amtrak flat irons failed to excite, since I ordered both cooked medium. Maybe it's just me. When I mentioned my Amtrak steak experience to several friends in Colorado, they told me that they really like flat iron steaks -- especially when used to make sandwiches. In any event, the rest of the stuff on the Amtrak menu was just fine. External links and opinions about flat iron steak and Amtrak food: Flat iron steak is a hit with consumers, researchers say. Chowhound pretty much raves about this cut. Flat iron steak is the result of muscle profiling research. Here's a photograph of the flat iron steak by Jeremy! on Flickr. Does Amtrak substitute beef shanks for the flat iron steak? Blogger declares "There are some inconsistencies." National Association of Railroad Passengers provides information about Amtrak menus. Gemma Petrie's Gapers Block account of dining on Amtrak's Empire Builder. Railroad.net asks, "What was your best meal aboard an Amtrak train?" ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

The Chicago Transit Authority's beloved Holiday Train brought Santa Claus to Jefferson Park on Saturday, November 29. Parents, children and railfans of all ages turned out along the Blue Line right of way to join in the festivities. The event is especially fun for photographers, as it's the one time of the year when they're not threatened with arrest by CTA personnel gauleiters. Watch the video all the way through to learn who Santa contacts on the "Green Phone." There's still time to catch the Holiday Train. Check the CTA website for Santa's schedule. NOTE: If you're viewing this page on an iPhone or other mobile device that does not support Flash, you can still view the video by clicking on the POD logo to the left of the headline, or on the filename that appears after "Direct download" at the end of this text item. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

I had my compact digital camera with me the other night when I walked to the CTA Blue Line to head home. As I passed by the State Street Macy's, I shot some video of the holiday windows. Is it just me, or do this year's holiday windows suck the big one? Being an adult isn't the reason these displays disappoint me. I seriously doubt these relatively static, uninspired "Fraggle Rock" things would appeal to any child. I'm not the only one who thinks the windows blow chunks this year. Writing in The Huffington Post, Mike Doyle declares, "Macy's State Street has cost-cut its Chicago Loop holiday windows and Christmas tree so deeply this year, I personally don't believe it's worth bothering to make that time-honored family foray downtown to see them." Perhaps the real problem is that Marshall Field's was always something special, but Macy's is really nothing more than just a store. Uncle Mistletoe has got to be spinning in his grave. Don't ask me about Aunt Holly. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

The iPhone has become a life-changer for me. This little device has become such an extension of everything about me -- work, home, whatever -- that I would be absolutely lost with it. That's why I've been anxious to try several recording applications to see how they fare at helping me create podcasts. As a test, I used an app called FourTrack to do an entire podcast recently. I then decided to evaluate several other recording applications by placing test recordings online. The result is this latest podcast. There's actually very little difference among them. The apps tested were: iTalk from Griffin. FourTrack from Sonoma Wire Works. Recorder from Retronyms. SpeakEasy from Zarboo Software. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

At work we have something called the "free table" where anything that comes in over the transom goes that's up for grabs. Today, I found a copy of the just-published "Rules of Thumb: A Life Manual." Author Tom Parker's tome is about the size of one of the Big Little Books and is just the right dimensions to cram into a day pack or purse. The book is described by Workman Publishing as "a mix of folk wisdom, common sense, shared experience, the advice of experts, and the kind of group think that's made websites like Wikipedia so vital. 'Rules of Thumb' is the impulsive compendium of 1,000 general principles that apply to every facet of life. Collected by Tom Parker for over 25 years, these are rules that are practical, quirky, and as entertaining to read as they are relevant to the reader." The book is a fun read, whether on your commute or on your commode. My favorite rule of thumb is this one: Two out of every three magazines tossed along the roadside will be pornographic. That's absolutely true. Back when I was in junior high, I was walking my grandmother back from the Miller's supermarket at JCRS shopping center along Pierce Street in Lakewood, Colorado, when she noticed a magazine at the curb and picked it up. We stood there speechless for an embarrassingly long moment as we each read this gay publication's title to ourselves: He's Hard, I'm Lucky. (Although on second thought, it might have been Him Hard, Me Lucky.) Grandma held the magazine carefully between her thumb and forefinger until we reach a dumpster at the next alley. Be sure to have a look at the "Rules of Thumb" website, and contribute some of your own rules. And for more information on the FourTrack application I used to record this podcast on my iPhone, visit Sonoma Wire Works or check out this MarketWatch story. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Pop culture guy Brendan Shultz is back -- with a solid suggestion that you check out Science Chicago, a yearlong celebration and promotion of science. As Brendan points out, the United States graduates nearly 10 times as many lawyers and accounts than scientists and engineers. Is that a problem? Listen to Brendan's assessment and tell us what you think. DOWNLOADS Brendan takes a look at Google's new Chrome browser, which promises to give Internet Explorer and Firefox a run for their money. He's especially impressed by Chrome's stability, its "incognito mode" that hides your browsing tracks and how the application displays recent history within tabs. If you have some time on your hands and are handy with your hands, Brendan says you should take a look at the blockheaded pop-cultural icons at Cubeecraft. Imperial Stormtroopers, Indiana Jones -- even Mr. Stay Puft can emerge from your printer and grace your work area. Rounding out our list of fun downloads is Fantastic Contraption, a Flash-based online game that makes players construct devices to deliver a pink ball into a pink square. The devices can become quite complex -- and you can see and learn from what others have built. One of Brendan's favorites is "Redneck Truck." Warning: The Cubeecraft website loads with annoying background music, so if you're surfing in stealth mode at work, turn off your sound first. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

I was anxious to visit Jolane's Cafe & Wine Bar. The place is a side project by the folks behind Abt Electronics & Appliances, which is the indisputable king of Chicago-area consumer electronics. I haven't heard anybody say a bad word about Abt -- and I recently bought a Toshiba HDTV from the store. Jolane's is located in the Abt "campus" -- translation: big box shopping center -- out in Glenview. We give it mostly high marks. If you've been there, let us know what you think. Read Leah's published review Other assessments Centerstage Chicago Yelp Metromix Restaurant contact info Jolane's Cafe & Wine Bar 1100 N. Milwaukee Ave., Glenview, Ill. 60025 847-375-6986 ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Desktop snacking is the scourge of my efforts to diet. This is compounded by the easy availability of a cornucopia of piggy-boy dee-lites at the Walgreens across the street. My latest discovery at the Walgreens is Burger King Ketchup & Fries, which is supposed to taste like french fries smothered in ketchup, I suppose. That's not exactly the taste that comes through, but I found myself eating half the bag. So, I guess that means they're good. While searching for other assessments of Burger King Ketchup & Fries, I found a great site devoted to snack called Taquitos.net. They really liked this snack. Technical note: I recorded the audio on my iPhone using a killer application called Recorder. What I really like now is that even when I don't have my Marantz recorder or Canon PowerShot with me, I can still create podcasts on the fly with my iPhone using Recorder for sound and iPhone's camera for the visual. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Pop culture guy Brendan Shultz weighs in with his opinion about "The Rocker," a film that just opened across America. Brendan also has a few things to say about families and how they behave at the movies. Basically, if your kid is still in diapers, the child doesn't belong at the theater, he says. I agree completely. If you're going to encounter feces and noise in the cinema, these should be provided by the filmmakers. ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.