Hi. I’m Hannah.
It has been cold for days and the Mother of Cats has been knitting and knitting on her new sweater called the Winter Albina. I’ve been helping her tremendously with only a little yarn whapping. The CoalBear likes to chase the needles which drives the Mother of Cats a little crazy, but I’ve been a really good girl except maybe when the Mother of Cats gives me a little catnip… anyway, the sweater is starting to look pretty good! Look at how much progress she has made.
I have to tell you that I prefer books with lots of action like… birds, bunnies, mice, TUNA!! and lots of cat chases, but I guess this book was okay. It tells the story of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893: there sure was a lot of stuff going on like… creating this huge city for the exposition with all the buildings painted white, and a man who is even more crazy than the CoalBear who shoots the Mayor of Chicago, and a man named Ferris who dreamt of a huge wheel in the sky, and another man who took advantage of all the new people in the city to build a hotel where he kills lots of young women…
So, I guess that was the week. We knitted, we dreamed of life in Chicago, long ago, and Mateo ran around in the snow hoping to see some bunny tracks. A good week, all in all.
This is Hannah, signing off.
>^..^<
Notes from the Mother of Cats: The Devil in the White City was a book that caused lots of reflection and led to more than one “aha!” moment. Here’s some of the takeaways from the book:
- The buildings of the World’s Fair were of neoclassical design and the many architects involved in the construction agreed to uniform standards/guidelines that created a well-planned “city” that was augmented by deliberate landscape design. The effect was astounding for the time.
- I kept thinking about the pictures of the “White City” and how they were familiar. I started thinking… they just copied the layout of Washington D.C., and even the downtown Civic Center of Denver looks like this… Buildings like that in a formal layout are really impressive… I remember how awestruck I was sitting on the Lincoln Memorial’s steps in Washington, looking down the long stretch of the reflecting pool towards the Wahington Monument one hot summer, or how impressive the structures of Denver’s civic center are when I walked among them with my children… I had it wrong. The World’s Fair (AKA the World’s Columbian Exposition) was the original.
- The Lincoln Memorial was built after the World’s Columbian Exposition, and its neoclassical design was influenced by that World’s Fair.
- Denver’s Civic Center was influenced by exhibits at the World’s fair, and it was later designed by planners who were directly connected to the architects who built the fair.
- At one point in the book as the layout was being described, I thought to myself… “Oh. This is like Disneyland!” You guessed it, Walt Disney’s father was one of the builders of the World’s Fair.
- The Chicago World’s Fair’s answer to the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris was the Ferris Wheel. Who knew?
- The Ferris Wheel was located on the Midway, the strip of engaging attractions located along the route to the fair. Among those attractions was Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a huge hit. To this day, all children in America know that the exciting rides are to be found on the Midway of every fair…
- Buffalo Bill‘s real name was William Cody. He is today buried on Lookout Mountain, looking over Denver and the plains beyond. Forever a showman, you can still buy tickets to visit his grave.
- William Cody founded the city of Cody, Wyoming. Part of my family now lives there.
The Chicago World’s Fair was quite the event: planned and built over a few years, open for only a few months in 1893; the influence goes on. I really enjoyed the book, and I’m ready to launch into another book by the same author, Thunderstruck.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Love your grey and pink striped sweater. That will be really pretty. I thought about putting grey trim on my pink sweater I just finished. But I’m going to save the yarn to try my hand at felted slippers. What an amazing keepsake from the 1895 Fair. It really has been a nasty winter this year back up north. We are thankful to miss it and the snow shoveling.
I really worried about getting the right grey for that pink, and the very dark grey is perfect! I’m hoping that the sweater will be a workhorse for me in the months and years to come. We are going back into the deep freeze again tomorrow, and I sure wish that the sweater was already done. 😦
What a fascinating book – and it kept Mateo under control
Mateo: there is no controlling me!!! I be SNOWCAT!!!!
Hannah: do you see what I put up with? Please send tuna…
Purr, purr
Well, Hannah me love, you’re looking a bit en bon point these days: don’t eat too much tuna, will you …?
As for you, MoC, I love this post ! – all that stuff about The World’s Fair is bloody fascinating !! As you said, who knew ? – about any of it, in truth: and I sure didn’t ! Imagine that souvenir’s being in such good nick, too ! Thank-you for such terrific input: I do like having my horizons widened. 🙂
That Elizabeth Taylor is a most lovely shade of pink, and I’m obliged to say it doth go very well with the grey (of course). Your knitting is as impressively neat as ever, I note – even looong before blocking ! You’ll have it finished in no time, Marilyn, and then you’ll have another beautiful self-made top. How often do you get to wear these lovely things you knit ???
Hannah: are you calling me chubby? It’s winter, and I am fluffy…
Mother of Cats: it’s true… she is the original tuna chonk.
The lingering influence of that fair is just amazing! I’m now starting another Erik Larson book called Thunderstruck.
I just love the Elizabeth Taylor color! I think of it as a kind of pinky-purple, and I wonder if it was a color that she liked and wore, I remember that Elizabeth Taylor was criticized at some point for wearing purple which is a color disapproved of in some circles. Obviously, I ignore any criticism of purple, because it’s one of my favorite colors
How often do I wear my knits? Just about every day!! Today I’m wearing knit socks and a shawl, but I wear sweaters when I’m more active. It’s snowing again tonight, and tomorrow we will be way below freezing as I head out to my latest doctor’s appointment.
Really ? – purple was once disapproved of ? Maybe it was thought a colour enjoyed by depraved people (like Aubrey Beardsley !). Thank heavens time passes and so do attitudes. 🙂
Very happy to learn that you wear your wondrous knits, Marilyn. I could wish I got to wear mine more often; but it’s Oz, and we have only a few months wherein woollen garments are required. And anyway, mine are nothing like as beautiful as yours, nor do they represent anything like the skill or work.
I assoom that snow beast is lurking somewhere being wishfully wicked. Please tell both of ’em I send love. I do to you, too, you tireless fighter !
I think the belief was that women who wore purple had questionable morals… Very narrow minded, right?
Yeah, we have only two seasons here in Colorado: winter and road construction! Actually, it isn’t that bad, but it seems like it.
The snowcat got his nails trimmed this evening because he was slashing Hannah’s heels trying to make her run. I think that he read the Tuna Chonk comment, but it was very poor behavior all the same.
Oh, VERY poor ! Tsk !!! Shame, snowcat !!!
A cat in the snow? I can’t even imagine that.
All the World’s Fair info very interesting and new to me.
I’ve been here in CO for 20 years and this winter strikes me as abnormally cold, but with my memory, who knows. Teens and below zero temps definitely get my attention.
He actually plays in the snow, and when he comes back in he is just covered in flakes. I do think that we have been having more episodes of extreme cold. I think I saw on the news that this is our 10th polar vortex to slip into the United States this year. Hello, climate change. I heard today that DOGE will be axing NOAA next because… climate change. I never thought that I would see anti-science actions like this in my lifetime.
That’s because it never occurred to you that there are enough Americans who could possibly vote in a total madman and his equally insane hangers-on …
They are being fed lies. All the same, it is hard to comprehend.
Colorado, I’m mystified by your final sentence. I know, I know: I’m old and stupid. [grin]
You mean “Teens and below zero temps …”? What’s not to get? It’s extremely cold!! You can’t ignore temps that could freeze and burst your pipes, overwhelm your furnace (happened a year ago), etc. Colder than anything you’ve experienced before in this house and you don’t know how well you’ll get through it.
I guess the mystification is caused by the coupling of “teens” and “below zero”. I mean, there are quite a few other numbers between them two …
Oh, you have about the cold if “teens and below zero” seems odd. We use the Fahrenheit scale and in our system water freezes at 32 degrees. Temperatures in the teens are pretty cold, and once we go below zero there is SERIOUS risk of damage. I have my windows wrapped to make them triple pane right now, and there is a blanket hung over the largest. Then there is wind chill… the temp right now is 9 degrees, but it feels like -2 degrees because of the wind. Sadly, I need to go to a doctor’s appt. tomorrow, but the new car has heated seats and the steering wheel is heated too! Yay.
I see people are commenting about pink and grey yarns, I saw it and the colour reads purple on my iPad. It looks lovely.
I mean what they are saying is grey, reads purple to me…not the pink.
I think that the color is actually a type of purple, more like the color of figs. When I hold it up by a true pink it is pretty obvious. I just love the color myself!
Well, whatever the true color of your sweater is, I love it! It’s looking great.
You’re going to look great in your new sweater, Hannah! Also, it’s so cool that your family has a souvenir from that Worlds Fair!
Devil in the White City was such an interesting book! I like Eric Larson’s writing style a lot – he always finds interesting places and times to write about.
Your new sweater is beautiful!
Hannah – you look a little wild from that catnip, but good for you for helping MoC with her knitting and reading. Matteo – you are safe and sound, but maybe take a nap in your sushi bed anyway 🙂
I’m becoming a huge fan of Eric Larson. I finished Thunderstruck a couple years ago and started The Demon of Unrest yesterday. So interesting to learn about things that we take for granted these days, or to revise my understandings of the past.
Hannah: I have to stay wild to handle that dang CoalBear!!