Phone Messages

In the nineteenth century, phone companies began training operators to speak with a telephone voice. These vocal techniques soon became expected of all callers, but women especially were told to discipline their tendencies to be shrill.

In 1997, the Chicago City Council exonerated Catherine O'Leary for the Great Fire of 1871. For the fire's 150 year anniversary, the Chicago Historical Society has an exhibit that includes the model painting for a grand Cyclorama of the fire displayed in 1892.

Party lines, where more the one home shared the same phone line, required a certain telephone etiquette. Although they were phased out in cities like Chicago by the 1980s, as late at 2000, thousands in the U.S. still shared a line with their neighbor.

Democratic Socialism has become increasingly popular among young people, in part thanks to Bernie Sanders, whose activist career can be traced back to his time as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago.

Mervin G. O`Melia was the first director of the Illinois Local Governmental Law Officers Training Board. His driving skills were otherworldly.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago produced great artists like Ray Yoshida, great rock bands like Shrimp Boat and an artist's colony on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

In the 1920s Major General George Owen Squier designed the technology for piping muzak into homes and businesses. Ray Conniff's orchestra perfected this easy listening sound.

College wrestling can be nasty. Only a few triumph, and even fewer go on to become head coaches at Division I schools.

In the 1990s Barack and Michelle Obama could often be found dining at a Hyde Park favorite, the Medici on 57th, whose owner Hans Morsbach was also a carpenter, tree farmer and author of a book on sustainable forestry.

Spring Break in Florida is not always hot young bodies partying on the beach.

The 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health dramatically increased public awareness of tobacco's deadly consequences. But over two decades later, smoking at the University of Chicago remained popular, especially at the Regenstein library.

When it opened in 1926 The Shoreland advertised itself as The World's Finest Residential Hotel. From 1976 to 2008, the University of Chicago used it as a dormitory.

From 1962 to 2000, Ciral's House of Tiki was a popular late night hangout in Hyde Park. Its former location is now occupied by a luxury apartment tower.

Prank calls continue to be popular even though most of us have the ability to filter unwanted solicitors with caller ID and voicemail.

In November of 1988, Grant Hart visited Chicago to see an exhibition of William S. Burroughs' Shotgun Paintings at the Klein Gallery and Prop Theater's adaptation of The Last Words of Dutch Schultz.

Sometime around the release of the William S Borroughs album Dead City Radio, the Chicago based ensemble Nihilator, performed a piece inspired by the story Ah Pook the Destroyer.

In the 1980s Fakir Musafar helped popularize body modification. By 2017, 38 percent of young people ages 18 to 29 had at least one tattoo.

Ken Dunn, founder of Hyde Park's Resource Center, purchased a building at 61st and Blackstone to redistribute discarded goods. In the 2000s, as the Experimental Station, the same building became home to diverse community activities, including a union drive.

Ohio State has a notorious history of overenthusiastic football fans, especially when it comes to their rivalry with Michigan.

A high school disaster proves fruitful for a course on orality and narrative with Professor James Fernandez.

After the destruction of Flytown, the Short North became the name for the area just short of the Ohio State campus and north of downtown Columbus. Mike's Grill is the oldest bar in the neighborhood, and at one time had a very rough reputation.

A PK is a Pastor's Kid. A PGK is a Pastor's Grandkid. A Super PGK has grandparents and great grandparents as Ministers and Divinity School Professors.

A frequent trope in movies and TV shows, is for someone to give a potential suitor a fake phone number as a way to avoid further contact. One must be careful not to write the number on something of value.

Living in the city sometimes means dealing with neighbors whose music might be great at a club, but not so great coming from an adjacent apartment.

Before phone books emerged in the late nineteenth century, many U.S. towns had city directories. In recent years, cell phones and the internet have made printed directories obsolete.