Jobs For The New Economy

I saw this guy at the corner of S. Dearborn & Monroe in Chicago Thursday. He was dragging that bundle of assorted cables down the sidewalk in The Loop. My guess is he had been "dumpster diving", or more then likely loading dock diving, gathering them. The enterprising man will likely take his collection of printer cables and cat 5 line down to the local scrap metal yard and sell the lot. I can't imagine how much he will get for it all, but the price of copper is not bad right now. It probably took him less then an hour to collect what I would guess, without insulation is about 7 or 8 lbs of copper, and that is just the current load. I can only assume he has more stashed near by.

I can't imagine that scrap metal reclamation is the best business to be in, but there are worse hustles. So if human resources needs to see you this Friday, you can always do this. Although if you are in The Loop you will have some competition.

Trying To Listen To Every Conversation In The Tea Shop At Once

Are used to it, but then schools like UIC, UFC, and DePaul all have programs that...like for example...connect all the dots...a part of the schools libraries...some how managed to be at least professional...that's very possible...they have to take her seriously...you have to understand that for various reasons...he said it perfectly...this year it's pretty limited...all the services that it does, though...it used to be it was money, it's recurring, telecommunications, telephone lines...What else can I do?...but it sounds like its going away...I told you I didn't think they would...it was kind of at that moment that he would say yes, that moment has passed...Barbara!...it just gets better and better didn't it..I can't wait til tomorrow...only 500 bucks...we heard, I heard...stepping up a little differently...don't send it to the house...I don't know...that is exactly what I was thinking...he put the offer out to me I feel like saying...so much so...what your saying is...what we're going to change the environment in such a way...putting rules around breaking up your own school district...deciding based on the numbers...its weird the balance between new schools and everyday schools...you have to tell him that...where is that going...I know...a new school area...you were talking about February...lets talk about that...but not the Cubs, the Sox suck...we should definitely talk about that definitely talk about that next week...black tea...black tea...solidly spoken...he said something that all of us...9 thousand dollar sale...the other players are minor in scope to Gates...sorry man...I've got his email...other systems can help out too...I know I have given you a lot more to think about, I don't know if I have given you a specific direction.

Chicago, Capital of the Great Lakes. New York City may be Gotham, but Chicago is Metropolis. A spider web of streets stretching out along the shore of Lake Michigan. A mix of old world hand craftsmanship and new world industrialization. Art Deco Roman goddesses perch atop skyscrapers while the serpentine steel L shuttles the cities inhabitants along. If you allow the hyperbole, the Superman of this Metropolis is Barack Obama. (sadly his name is still not in the spellchecker dictionary.)

So much is going on the city right now that I am having a hard time getting a full grasp of things. While, Obama continues to appoint cabinet members and iron out the plans to try and right the listing ship that is our country; the governor is being charged with trying to sell Obama's vacant US Senate seat.

In all of this the Chicagoans I have met seem unsurprised. The city and state have a history of corrupt government. Most of the people I have spoken to only shrug their shoulders at the most recent charges of corruption, it is not so much apathy as it is concern for the larger looming economic troubles.

Across town the Republic Windows and Doors Company is about to shutter its local factory and move operations further inland to Iowa. This can only be a sign of things to come. All along the Great Lakes industrial cities are collapsing under the weight of the unemployed left behind when their companies closed their plants and moved their offices. While it Chicago is surely insulated from a majority of the effects of large scale loss of industrial closure, no one thought Detroit would collapse so horribly either.

Surely the comic book Superman would be given pause at the enormity of the problems we now face. Although he only had to wait until his clever writers came up with some deux ex machina to cure his conundrum. Our superman will have to rely on his own intelligence and the ability to find long term solutions for our problems.