#illinois post

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Yeah, cardinals are cool - I went to look it up (because I didn't notice the helpful infographic below the poll) and was also amused to discover that the Illinois.gov website wants to be sure you know that we were the _first_ to pick the Northern Cardinal as our state bird.

But also:

A state amphibian!

The eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) was named Illinois’ State Amphibian after a vote of Illinois citizens in 2004 and approval by the General Assembly in 2005.

A state fossil!

Tully’s common monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium), also known as the Tully monster, was selected as Illinois’ State Fossil in 1989. The first Tully monster fossil was discovered in 1958 by Francis Tully. Fossils of the Tully monster have been found only in Illinois.

A state microbe!

Penicillium rubens is a mold (fungus) that is often found indoors. It grows well in conditions of high humidity. It has a velvety surface. Its spore-bearing filaments are smooth, 200-300 µm in length and are blue or blue-green. Its penicilli (hairy structures) are 8-12 µm long. It exists in several strains, including the Fleming's strain (CBS 205.57 or NRRL 824 or IBT 30142) from which the first penicillin was discovered, and the Wisconsin strain (NRRL1951) obtained from a cantaloupe in Peoria, Illinois, in 1944. This species has four chromosomes.

Even a state pet!

Shelter dogs and shelter cats that are residing in or have been adopted from a shelter or rescue facility in Illinois were named as the official state pet of the state of Illinois. The law became effective on August 25, 2017.

(I would love the hear the story of how this happened - I bet there was something fascinating happening here...)

From Illinois State Symbols

Here's a list of all the state birds!

[creekbed-burial]

Do You Ever Really Leave Your Hometown?

[traveller-of-the-knight]

[hawkeyeslaughter]

i think the reason i’ll always be so attached to henry blake is because i’ll always be a little insane over the position he was written into . like it’s different with potter . potter obviously had a softer , more human side , but when you think potter you think military man first . and to an extent it’s supposed to be like that . they introduce him like that , despite the fact that at the end of the first episode he’s in it shows him drinking with hawkeye and bj to say “ hey , he’s not completely like the other army crazy officers that have been in the show “ . but at the same time , there’s a constant reminder , in his mannerisms , in the way he’s addressed , in the way he just knows the army … he’s a military man first .

and , god , we all know it was never like that with henry , but i don’t think we ever realize the extent to which it was never really like that . from the get - go , he’s seen being more lax with the members of the 4077th . his first scene is him opening a bottle of champagne with a nurse . the way hawkeye talks about him in his letter to his dad … he refers to him as henry , cracks a few jokes about him , immediately the impression the audience gets is that this is the opposite of a military man . you’re supposed to be surprised that he’s in charge .

and maybe that’s why i find him so tragic , because he’s everything and he’s nothing . we have the expectation for him to be a colonel , but while he has the title , he’s just … not . and at the same time , he’s expected to be a friend . hawkeye and trapper always take for granted that henry is their friend , i mean , hell , they even get annoyed with him when he puts his foot down over something they do ( because he’s supposed to , he’s a colonel after all , remember ? ) . he’s expected to be a friend , but at the same time … he can’t .

and it’s even WORSE when you think about his role as a doctor because he’s supposed to be a caretaker and a commander … he’s supposed to save lives but at the same time he has to decide if they’re worth saving more often than hawk and trap do … and in episodes like aid station or the rainbow bridge he had to decide who’s life he had to put on the line even though he’s just not cut out for that . he has to care but at the same time he can’t care too much because he has to keep his composure … he can’t care in the same way that trapper and hawkeye do , even if it’s obvious that he does . he can’t , the military won’t let him . because he can’t just be a doctor , he has to a commander as well . 

not even to mention his relationship with radar . like , henry was so obviously a father figure to him , he obviously loved him , yet over and over again he keeps his distance from him ( and while i think this partially is a result of the fact i just think henry has a hard time voicing how much he cares about people … if i loved you less maybe i could talk about it more , etc etc … , that’s a whole different conversation ) , and i definitely think that is because of his position too . he can’t be a family member . he has to be a leader , he has to follow the guidelines that the military has set for him . he has to treat radar the same way he treats everyone else under his command .

it’s so absurd and maybe that just adds to the comedy of it but it’s also like … he truly was just never supposed to be there . they tried to make him tougher and to an extent they tried to make him a fighter and there’s a reason it just never worked , because henry was always supposed to be a lover . making him colonel blake was like putting a round peg in a square hole and i’m pretty sure it killed him way before that plane ever crashed into the ocean . it’s just not fucking fair .

[artdecodude]

Details from the legendary #ArtDeco post office in Oak Park, #Illinois . #PostOffice 📸:me/2015

[confusedmothboy]

CHICAGUNE MIKU???

[archaeologysucks]

Yesterday I broke through a long-standing brick wall in my family tree, and was finally able to connect one of my ancestors with her parents and siblings, which is pretty damn satisfying. It was a case of women getting lost in the records when they remarry and change their names, which is unfortunately extremely common. I also got to add another wild story involving bigamy and legal turmoil to my family history, and that's always fun.

I knew a lot about my great-great-great grandmother Mary Emeline Brown (1833-1910), but unfortunately the earliest proven record I had for her was her marriage in 1848 at the age of about 15 to John M. Armstrong in Jerseyville, Illinois. This meant that on the earliest census record (1850) that lists every person by name, she was already married, with no clues about her family of origin.

All I knew was that her maiden name was the extremely common Brown, and that her death certificate named her parents as John Brown and Ruth Nelson, with no indication who had given that information or whether they knew it to be accurate.

There was a prominent Brown family in Jersey County, Illinois, however, and I was sure Mary was connected to them somehow, but I couldn't quite prove it. I knew where her husband's grandfather and uncle's land was, and where the Brown lands were, so I made a map to see if that would help. I was able to prove that the Armstrong lands lay on the same major roadway as those of a John Brown (1790-1872), a few miles to the east, and for a while, I thought that might be Mary's father.

The only problem? There was no Mary listed among this John's children, and no obvious gap she might have fit into. Also, his wife's name was Margaret Piper, which is not very similar to Ruth Nelson. Well, maybe Ruth Nelson was not John's wife. Maybe Mary was born out of wedlock. Such things weren't uncommon. Damned if I could prove it, though, without doing some complicated DNA work, or finding some court documents that stated her paternity.

For a long time, I was stuck there, at the same dead end my grandmother had arrived at when she first started working on our genealogy in the 1980s. Just about everyone who listed Mary on their family tree on Ancestry.com gave her parents either as this John Brown, without offering any corroborating evidence, or else simply as John Brown with no additional information at all.

Well, the other day, I decided to dig a little deeper. I went through every single family tree that included Mary, to see if I could find even one clue that might point me in a useful direction. And I found one: a single ancestry tree that listed Mary's parents as Vincent Brown (c. 1805-1834) and Elizabeth Wilson (1810-1892). And more importantly, the researcher had explained their conclusions, which is something surprisingly few people on Ancestry.com ever do.

When Vincent Brown died in about 1834, he left a wife and a few young children, but because he was a young man, he left no will naming his heirs. However, court documents for his estate mention a child with the initials M. E. Brown as one of his heirs. This is not proof, but ….

In 1839, when Mary would have been about 6 years old, Elizabeth Wilson Brown remarried to Jonathan Routh, whose surname some sometimes spelled Roth or Ruth. It's not impossible to think a later relative might have heard the name Grandma Ruth, wife of Jon, associated with Mary's mother, and assumed that was her first name, confusing Wilson for Nelson as her maiden name, and also assuming Jon was Jon Brown, since that was Mary's maiden name. This is also not proof, but ….

On the 1840 census, which only lists the head of household by name, with numbers for each sex and age bracket for all other household members, all the known children of Elizabeth Brown and Jonathan Routh (spelled Ruthe on this record) are accounted for, and one is a girl between the ages of 5 and 9, who could be Mary. This is also not proof, but ….

Jonathan Routh and Elizabeth had three more children, but he decided not stick around. In 1845, he left Illinois for Texas with no intention of returning, and he did not bother to grant Elizabeth a divorce first. In 1852, he remarried in Texas, and had several more children. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and died in 1864. In 1871, Elizabeth sued his heirs in Texas for half of his estate, because she was still his legal wife. The case went to the Texas Supreme Court, and she was ultimately awarded 1/4 of his estate ($750) in 1883.

When Elizabeth Wilson Brown Routh died in 1892, her estate probate documents named all of her heirs, which at that time included many grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and one surviving daughter: Mary Ernest. By this time, Mary E. Armstrong had divorced my great-great-great-grandfather John M. Armstrong (and good for her, because he was a piece of work), and remarried to Albert Ernst, a man 20 years her junior who owned a brewery. Well done, grandma.

Is that proof that my Mary Emeline Brown Armstrong Ernst was the child of Vincent Brown and Elizabeth Wilson Brown Routh? Well, no, not really. But it is compelling evidence, and a strong lead that I can follow up on by digging deeper into Jersey County, Illinois court records, and looking into what became of her theoretical siblings for additional clues. Importantly, there is nothing here to contradict the idea that this was her family. I am fairly confident that this is them, and that it's only a matter of time before I can prove it definitively. I love solving historical mysteries and puzzles!

[obsessedbyneon]

Master post: Bradford Exchange interior landscape in Niles, Illinois.

Scan

[volumes-and-vines]

A new month…soon a new season, a new landscape. B e a u t i f u l

S e p t e m b e r

[sangcounty]

Love in the Prairie State

[predoom]

2013 / 2008 / 2014 / 2006 / 2023 / 2017 / 2024, the second to last night of tour

[moonlight-stalker]

# 85 Dcu x Dp

Jason was mad The Joker is out again and the rest of the bats had told him to stay out of it, he had even been giving a babysitter in the form of Nightwing.

He was patrolling Crime Alley when he hears somebody call out to him. As he looks around he sees a boy on top of the building, he and Nightwing make their way over to him they can tell the boy was young he looked to be about 13 with a mix of black and white hair, and he had blue and green eyes and is wearing a mask.

When they ask what the boy wants he tells them that he wants Red Hood to adopt him, the boy goes on to explain that his father is a rogue and he is willing to tell him all of his plans, safe houses, warehouses, and connections that he has if Red Hood is willing to adopt him.

When asked who was his father the boy takes off his mask and reveals a carved J on his face with scars on both sides of his mouth that are in the shape of a smile and says that his father is The Joker.

[bigmack2go]

Describing musicals accurately but still missleading if you don’t know them:

Starlight express: kid plays with toy trains even tho he’s supposed to sleep

Hamilton: They both die at the end but its only one person

Heathers: „those two gay ppl are the reason for suicide“

Be more chill: a failed attempt to recreate Qualityland irl

Newsies: ✨inflation✨

Dear Evan Hansen: „those trees are the reason for suicide“

Tarzan: swing it baby

Sneakerella: guy builds a whole ass city inside his shoes

Come from away: booktropes???

Chicago: prostitution

Alladin: ghosts and feminism

Into the woods: …

Cats: magikKK

Annie: reverse newsies

Hadestown: ‘lmao. Imagine dieng on your wedding day HAHA— oh.’ OR ✨spring✨

Mathilda: reality is a concept

Lion king: monarchy’s *a single nod*

Spring awakening: „sex is the reason for suicide“

Falsettos: jewish kid plays baseball and sucks, gay men play tennis and die

Rent: pay up or DIE👹

Tuck everything: “SURE! Kid, make that innocent FROG immortal. WHY NOT?/sar”

Phantom of the opera: dejavu

Les Miserable: Europeans steal bread <3

In the heights: less sad, modern version of west side story

Highschool Musical: guys only want that one thing

West sod story: „capitalism is the reason for suicide“

Mean girls: suicide is fake

Waitress: HOMOSEXUAL!… *cospiracy voice* or is it?

Six: pitty party

The prom: little miss perfect but it isnt

Rovky horror show: hehe heha😈

Bonnie & Clyde: „love is the reason for suicide“ /hj

Beetlejuice: black, white & green

Little shop of horrors: „trees are the reason for suicide“ THE SEQUEL

Hairspray: ah yes, the 60‘s… don’t you love capitalism

D: if the Grimm brothers made sequels

Book of mormon: ah yes… jesus…

The guy who didnt like musicals:”YOU are the reason for suicide” *dramatic music*

Moana: “as a kid in th- what? Wrong musical? Oh…”

Ride the cyclone: reality is a concept pt. 2

The outsiders: Bonnie and Clyde x westside story (awithout the racism) crossover

Illinois: gay people have bonfire

The greatest show: fame changes ppl *nods inquisitively*

Bonus cuz idk if this counts

Jatp: hot dogs are the reason for suicide

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

[pondslime]

bo sinclair x text posts

[notmysophie]