I had planned to tell you what the Seven Wonders of Chicago are, but Dear Husband threw out the paper before I could blog. I'd even set it aside so that it wouldn't go out with the other papers! He's just too conscientious about his garbage job.
The Chicago Tribune has a section called "Tempo." The editors ran a contest, encouraging their readers to write in to nominate their seven wonders of Chicago. More than 38,000 entries were received, allowing for some obvious ballot box stuffing, nominating more than 4,000 places.....or..things. I believe that the rules stated that only places would be considered, so things like deep dish pizza, or our famous hot dogs, or Italian beef were struck from the list.
I went to www.chicagotribune.com to recreate the list, so that I could bring you the winners. Unfortunately, the winners were listed on the front page of the Tempo section, and the archives don't recognize the list as an article. The best I can do is tell you the 14 semi-finalists....and make a few educated guesses.
These are the semi-finalists:
THE LAKEFRONT
WATER TOWER
THE 'L'
WRIGLEY FIELD
MILLENNIUM PARK
SEARS TOWER
CHICAGO HOT DOG
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
THEATER SCENE
CHICAGO BUNGALOWS
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
CHICAGO RIVER
LOWER WACKER DRIVE
CHICAGO BLUES
I'm fairly certain that the Water Tower (left standing after the famous Chicago Fire), Wrigley Field, The Sears Tower, The University of Chicago, and the Museum of Science and Industry made the cut, but I haven't a clue about the other two.
I was surprised that Navy Pier, or Buckingham Fountain, or the Wrigley Building or even Marshall Field's didn't make the cut.
Here are other nominations that caught my eye:
The Doomsday Clock, dying the Chicago River green for St. Paddy's Day, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Congress & Wacker (the start of Route 66), Brookfield Zoo, Second City, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Picasso in Daley Plaza, the Newberry Library, SUE....the T. Rex, the Morton Arboretum, or any of the other museums. A lot of these didn't make the cut because they didn't meet the criteria...and others didn't make the cut because they aren't actually in Chicago. One person inexplicably nominated Elmhurst, a city in the suburbs.
Chicago is a pretty wondrous place, and so are the citizens who participated in this poll.