“A very expressive word,” Walpole concludes, and I agree.Nestled into the mountains of the Upper Valley in New Hampshire, up a semi-paved road in a house next to a tiny cemetery lined with white picket fencing, Fergie Chambers, 38, leans over his kitchen island, worrying over his commune. 28, 1754, citing a Venetian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip,” the heroes of which “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” For instance, being home now, I pulled down “S-Soldo” of my 12-volume Oxford English dictionary and learned that “serendipity” was coined by Horace Walpole in a letter dated Jan. But also work at home, because wonder can be found there too. Go downtown, when need be, because you literally never know what you’re going to stumble across. Gruen died in 2006, but his hammer is still sitting on his anvil, as if he stepped away for a moment. He invited me in, and wonder of wonders, the blacksmith shop is still there in the basement. They never came for the skilled Messerschmitt engine mechanics.Ī man was unloading pallets of water - Michael Gerber, current owner of the gallery. Turns out, even murderous Nazi fanaticism had its limits. And second, he was the rare German Jew who lived openly in Berlin during the entirety of World War II. First, he had the only fully functioning blacksmith shop in River North, with anvils, forges, tongs, rasps, gorgeous tools. I knew Erwin Gruen, a man of double rarity. I hadn’t thought about the place in years. But why not walk? So I’m trucking along Superior Street, when what hoves into view but Gruen Galleries. Was our conversation worthwhile? I can’t speak for him, but for me, there was one memorably queasy moment, when I was enthusiastically explaining The Problem with his country’s approach, and caught myself short, wondering, “Are you really giving advice to the Chinese Communist government?” I thought I was acquainting them with the wonders of liberal democracy, but maybe I was really giving them pointers on how to be more savvy and effective totalitarians.Īfter the meeting I had a lunch in Ukrainian Village. A few months back, I went downtown at the invitation of the Chinese consulate, to talk to an embassy official in town from Washington. While let me share a shopping trip to the Northbrook Aldi, and the online world goes berserk, vibrating for days. But truth is I can spend the day crawling around Lower Wacker Drive with the Night Ministry, write a column vibrating with tragic urban experience, and the readers yawn and flip the page. I wish I could draw a line between going into the city and writing something effective. I once had a front page exclusive literally fall out of the sky, in the form of a chunk of Union Station ceiling that hit a woman in the head as we waited in line for the Madison Street exit, fracturing her skull. Since I don’t know what my job entails - that is, no beat, no topics I’m supposed to cover - I never know whence my material might come. I found that, go in twice week and you are nevertheless considered “Always there.” But even though I haven’t been required to go into the office, I still went, ritualistically on Tuesdays, because I didn’t want to be one of those people who never show their face. I’ve been officially permitted to work at home since. So while I was there, I took a colleague to lunch at Chef Art Smith’s Reunion, which served up fine jambalaya and biscuits. The last meeting I went to at our Navy Pier office, eight people had signed up for, but I was the only person to actually appear - stupid me - so the presenter did a one-on-one, imparting little of value.īut not a waste. Sometimes you take the bother and trouble, only to find yourself at a pointless meeting. What does going downtown do? Besides waste time and money.
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