“I guess you won’t enjoy going back to the cold weather in Illinois after spending so much time here in Florida. How cold is it there right now?” asked the fellow who sells snacks and drinks by the pool. This guy is super nice to me and refuses to take any money from me, so I didn’t want to disappoint him and reveal that in my part of Illinois it’s much hotter than in Florida in summer.
When I say I live in Illinois, the cold is the first thing people associate with it. It’s like “New York? Empire State Building! Detroit? Automobiles! Idaho? Potatoes! Indiana? Corn fields! Alabama? Sweet iced tea! Illinois? Antarctic cold!”
It often feels like people are mocking me.
Clarissa's Blog 
At least they don’t start yammering at you about Chicago’s guns or Richard Daley and JFK.
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“Richard Daley and JFK”
Ballot boxes in Lake Michigan! In Lake! Michigan!
Many years ago I went to a dinner theater and the other people at the table were an older couple. He had a weird obsession with Joseph Kennedy and we heard more about him and his bootlegging career than I really was anxious to know about….
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You guys will force me to start Googling this stuff on vacation.
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For many decades the mayor of Chicago was Richard Daly who was notoriously corrupt and supposedly routinely fixed elections. One story is that he gave the 1960 presidential election to Kennedy because he dumped voting machines (or ballots or ballot boxes) in pro-Nixon neighborhoods in Lake Michigan.
Joseph Kennedy was the father of JFK (and Bobby and Teddy). Supposedly he became rich by producing and selling illegal alchohol during the 1920’s (prohibition).
I don’t know if either is true but they’re part of the unofficial political folklore of the US.
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Wow. I knew nothing about this. Today, Chicago is associated with cold weather and gang violence. And great shopping.
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That’s because when people think of Illinois, they think of Chicago. But in reality, Chicago isn’t any colder than anywhere else during the summer.
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Come visit beautiful Arizona when it’s 122 degrees cool and say that!
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I’ve experienced a dry 110 in Las Vegas and I think that was slightly better than a humid 90+ day in the midwest because you could tolerate being outside if you could manage to stay in the shade. The humid heat is still awful and gross even in the shade.
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