blog wrote:The opera shifted into hip-hop as a flock of birds flew overhead on this "windy night in the windy city." Bianca rapped while Sierra Casady sang through some effect that made it sound as if she was weeping. ... And finally, the first black musician of the weekend (at least the first I saw) stepped on stage and proceeded to beatbox expertly before doing a kick-ass, high-speed rap in French, and then fondling Bianca during a slow jam...

steve wrote:From a previously-linked blog:

blog wrote:The opera shifted into hip-hop as a flock of birds flew overhead on this "windy night in the windy city." Bianca rapped while Sierra Casady sang through some effect that made it sound as if she was weeping. ... And finally, the first black musician of the weekend (at least the first I saw) stepped on stage and proceeded to beatbox expertly before doing a kick-ass, high-speed rap in French, and then fondling Bianca during a slow jam...

There is no part of this description that doesn't make me seethe with hatred for someone. The Cocorosies, their audience, the expert beatboxer or the poor blogger. There's something to hate in every phrase!

Okay, I don't hate the birds.

steve wrote:From a previously-linked blog:

blog wrote:The opera shifted into hip-hop as a flock of birds flew overhead on this "windy night in the windy city." Bianca rapped while Sierra Casady sang through some effect that made it sound as if she was weeping. ... And finally, the first black musician of the weekend (at least the first I saw) stepped on stage and proceeded to beatbox expertly before doing a kick-ass, high-speed rap in French, and then fondling Bianca during a slow jam...

There is no part of this description that doesn't make me seethe with hatred for someone. The Cocorosies, their audience, the expert beatboxer or the poor blogger. There's something to hate in every phrase!

Okay, I don't hate the birds.

Arson Smith wrote:COCOROSIE fans! I am issuing a final challenge to win me over! Think it over, and please point me to what you think are the BEST TRACKS EVER of CocoRosie. Make me surprised with goodness, and I will eat my words in public - or else lose me forever...

zom-zom wrote:Chicago was not called "The Windy City" due to any meterological events.

...Having gotten Big Apple squared away, Barry turned his attention to Chicago's nickname, the Windy City. The average mope believes Chicago was so dubbed because it's windy, meteorologically speaking. The more sophisticated set (including, till recently, your columnist) thinks the term originated in a comment by Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun in the 1890s. Annoyed by the vocal (and ultimately successful) efforts of Chicago civic leaders to land the world's fair celebrating Columbus's discovery of America, Dana urged his readers to ignore "the nonsensical claims of that windy city"--windy meaning excessively talkative.

But that may not be the true explanation either. Scouring the magazines and newspapers of the day, Popik found that the nickname commonly used for Chicago switched from the Garden City to the Windy City in 1886, several years before Dana's comment. The earliest citation was from the Louisville Courier-Journal in early January, 1886, when it was used in reference to the wind off Lake Michigan. In other words, the average mope was right all along! However, when Popik attempted to notify former Chicagoan but soon-to-be New Yorker Hillary Rodham Clinton of his findings, she blew him off with a form letter--and this from a woman facing a campaign for the Senate. Come on, Hill, quit worrying about the Puerto Ricans and pay attention here. You want to lose the etymologist vote?

LATE NEWS

Barry has sent me a still earlier cite from the Sept. 19, 1885 Cleveland Gazette, in which one finds the headline "FROM THE WINDY CITY" over a story datelined Chicago. "We can now say that 'Windy City' was born in 1885 and was popularized in 1886," he writes. However, the fact that the term appears without further explanation over a story appearing in Cleveland suggests the term had already achieved regional notoriety by 1885 and originated sometime previously. Clearly the last word on this subject has not yet been written. We await further word from Barry.

LATER NEWS

Barry now (5/26/2003) reports a cite from the Sept. 11, 1882 Cincinnati Enquirer (page 1, column 2): "CHICAGO'S RECORD. Crimes of a Day in the Windy City." A multi-deck headline over a report of a baseball game from the Oct. 7, 1882 issue of the same paper includes the line, "We Will Try It Again To-day, and Will Perhaps be Generous to the Chaps From the Windy City--Perhaps Not." Barry reports sadly that Chicago institutions such as the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Public Library continue to give credence to the discredited story that editor Charles Dana coined the phrase in the 1890s (or 1889, in one version).

Barry, don't sweat it. You've persuaded the only Chicago institution that counts.

LATER AND COUNTING

Barry's still at it. As of June 2003 he was holed up in the newspaper room at the Library of Congress looking for "Windy City" references and had discovered a still earlier one. In the Cincinnati Enquirer for July 17, 1880, pg. 4, col. 5, under the headline "Off for Chicago," he finds the following report: "Maud S and Dream were shipped to Chicago last night in a special car, the property of W. H. Vanderbilt. Both nags were in apple-pie condition, and will give a good account of themselves in the Windy City."

FROM HERE ON OUT I'M JUST MAKING A LIST

Latest "Windy City" finds from Barry P.:

"CHICAGO LETTER--Gossip and Impressions of the Windy City" (headline), Cincinnati Enquirer, pg. 5, col. 2, Feb. 12, 1877.
"THAT WINDY CITY. Some of the Freaks of the Last Chicago Tornado" (headline), Cincinnati Enquirer, pg. 2, col. 4, May 9, 1876.
Barry has discovered that on two occasions in April, 1876 the Cincinnati Enquirer referred to Chicago as the Garden City, suggesting that the May, 1876 reference to the Windy City was an early usage and that the term had not yet become the standard epithet for the city.

--CECIL ADAMS