I love local news! The wacky “human interest” stories are the ones that are the most fun to talk about and think about and just generally make the world a happier friendly warmer place. And my Dad just forwarded me a follow up on one of the All Time Great Chicago local news stories. I will share it with you, and then you can share your stories with me!
Last summer, Chicago as a city fell in love….with an alligator. One of our most beautiful inner city parks is Humboldt Park. It’s in the middle of a neighborhood deep in the city far away from the fancy lakefront area, lots of families and kids and stuff, it’s over 100 years old as a park and has gorgeous landscaping, a real hidden gem in terms of tourists but beloved by the neighborhood, and the center of the whole thing as an enormous manmade Lagoon. And last summer, a concerned citizen reported to the park department that they saw a crocodile in the Lagoon. And then more and more people started seeing it, including a citizen reporter for BlockClub (great website if you like local news) who confirmed with the parks department that there was actually an alligator there and then reported it. Soon the park was filled with alligator watchers in folding chairs, you could buy t-shirts, there were twice daily updates from all local news sources on Gator Watch. And the public gave him the name, Chance the Snapper (we do love Chance the Rapper here).
After two months of excitement, and a failed hunt by an outside gator hunter, there was finally success from Frank “Alligator” Robb, brought up from Florida for the Hunt. The city also fell in love with him, so many interviews and excitement about him. And then the photoshoot post capture with surprisingly cute and small Chance.
Anyway, today there was a follow up article. Chance and Frank are now settled down in Florida together. Chance is in an alligator sanctuary getting fat and spoiled. Frank visits him regularly. Frank also continues to feel tied to Chicago, saying he speaks up for it when folks in Florida talk bad about big cities, everyone he met was nice and friendly there. Really, read the whole thing! If only for more cute alligator photos!
dontcallitbollywood 
You posted a song about this alligator once, right? I remember my kids and I loved it.
LikeLike
Yes! The Chicago Children’s Choir wrote a song about Chance just recently and made a youtube video, complete with someone in an alligator costume. I don’t think this love affair will ever fully end, we love our alligator.
On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 12:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
`
–
LikeLike
That sounds a tad like Petra, a black swan that appeared on a lake in the next biggest city from my hometown in 2006. Black swans aren’t native to Germany, which made “Black Pete” stand out. But to really elevate the animal to international news, it kept following one of the paddle boats on the lake, which happens to be swan-shaped. Seemed like the bird had chosen it as its lifelong mate. In winter, the boat had to be taken off the lake – and into the local zoo. The swan kept following. It had by now been identified as a female, so the name was adapted. At the zoo, they even tried to set up Petra with one of their black swans, but she remained true to her mate.
After 2008, Petra disappeared from “her” lake and was only found again five years later in a bird rescue station a few towns over. There she has apparently accepted a native white swan as her new partner and even raised a set of foster cygnets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra_(swan)
LikeLike
I love this story! I want Petra and Chance the Snapper to become penpals and share stories of life as park oddities. Also, very happy to hear Petra moved on. Sometimes you have to accept they just aren’t that into you. (now I am picturing ADHM retold with Ranbir playing Petra and Anushka playing the swan boat).
LikeLike
my favourite story about where i live is when this photographer who took random photos of people here in the 70s and 80s spent a decade tracking them down and got them to recreate the photos and it was actually a really amazing project. I love looking at the photos and seeing things i recognise even though they’ve changed so much lol
https://twistedsifter.com/2016/11/reunions-by-chris-porsz/
LikeLike
That is really beautiful. Everyone should follow this link! It just made me happy.
On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 6:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I am a bad person for not paying daily attention to the local news or not remembering anything funny from days back, but these are some 6 articles that happened in Finland and they are somewhat funny that I found.
https://inktank.fi/6-incredible-news-stories-from-finland/
Also, here’s Finnish Nightmares, a comic strip, capturing our inroverted culture quite well for some extra.
https://www.boredpanda.com/finnish-nightmares-introvert-comics-karoliina-korhonen/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
LikeLike
Finnish Nightmares is great! I just read all of them and showed them to my parents too.
On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 6:44 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
The “full” bus especially is hilarious. That’s just truly so much more awkward than if every seat were taken.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m the opposite person in that picture, I’m the one who puts her bag aggressively on the seat next to her so I never have to worry about sharing. On that “full” bus, I am the one person you will never get to sit next to.
On Fri, Jul 10, 2020 at 12:38 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike