CHICAGO — Here's what we're reading today.
Bookish Road Trips: If you need some summer vacation inspiration, reporter Tanveer Ali suggests looking at Atlas Obscura's incredibly nerdy and detailed map of road trips in American Literature. The map highlights 1,500 locations in 12 books about being away from home. Oddly, few of these stops are in Florida. Three of the books on the map featured journeys that stopped through Chicago. Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" features walks on Clark and Halsted streets, Steinbeck stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel in "Travels with Charley," and Robert Sullivan's "Cross Country" featured staring at the city's tall buildings.
Bananas Face Extinction, Again: Almost all of the world's bananas are part of a fruit species called the Cavendish cultivar, which have "nearly no genetic diversity," according to a CNN report about a newish strain of a Panama fungal disease that just about wiped out all of the bananas back in the 1960s. "Tropical Race 4," which began in Malyasia in 1990, has spread to southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and was recently discovered in the Middle East. A plant pathologist for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture told CNN that "the disease is spreading and threatening bananas worldwide."
Chicago Gangster: It's the 81st anniversary of infamous gangster John Dillinger's death, so reporter Kelly Bauer is reading this 1934 New York Times story on the outlaw's demise. Dillinger was shot dead by Chicago police officers outside the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park (he'd been watching a "gang and gun movie") after years of crime and being on the run. The Times recounts Dillinger's last moments, giving a nod to reports that a "woman in red" had signaled police to the gangster's presence. As the Times notes, "There was a quick run to the Alexian Brothers Hospital, but the institution would not admit Dillinger as a patient. There was a very good reason for this. He was dead."
John Dillinger's FBI wanted poster.
A Life of Service: University of Chicago Medicine pediatric professor Charles "Chuck" Rubin's obituary includes an endless list of accomplishments: cancer specialist who helped untold numbers of children; mentor to med students and colleagues; brilliant researcher; volunteer at summer camps for sick kids; loving father and husband. But senior editor Andrew Herrmann, who knew the doctor as a friend of the family, was especially struck by this anecdote: Rubin often included what was called "social moments" to reduce the pain of work meetings. "Just before each clinic, he would briefly have everyone briefly mention something fun they had done with friends or family. It put the teams at ease and helped us connect with each other," said one participant. Rubin, 62, died after his heart stopped while working a the pediatric clinic at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. His wake Tuesday in LaGrange attracted hundreds and hundreds of admirers, including grateful current and former patients.
Dr. Charles Rubin of the University of Chicago Medicine.
The New York Times takes on the West Loop: Proclaiming the West Loop has left it's gritty past behind, Chicago-based freelancer Elaine Glusac rounds up an impressively trendy list of the neighborhood's hot spots for the New York Times. The West Loop's transformation from seedy meatpacking district to one of loft residences, restaurants, and now Google, has been in the making for two decades. "But in the past year, the area has rapidly developed as not just a place to taxi in for a trendy meal, but to stay a while," Glusac notes. BOKA Group's Japanese restaurant Momotaro, Chef Grant Achatz's Next restaurant, boutique hotel SoHo House and CH Distillery all make the cut.
Is Kaitlyn The Most Progressive Bachelorette Yet?: This season's Bachelorette, Kaitlyn Bristowe, had sex with one of the men before the Fantasy Suite date (gasp!) and she's not apologizing for it. For that reason and many more, Vulture is arguing that Bristowe is the show's most progressive Bachelorette in the 30 seasons of the polarizing ABC show. Reporter Mina Bloom watched Monday night's "Men Tell All" episode — the penultimate episode of the season — and was horrified when host Chris Harrison read aloud all of the nasty, slut-shaming comments Bristowe has been getting. The show is mind-boggling in so many ways — and chief among them is its aversion to talking about sex or even uttering the word. So it's good to see Bristowe taking a stand against the show's unhealthy perception that sex isn't integral to a longterm relationship.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
