Chicago: a city once known world wide for its miles upon miles of cattle in various stages of slaughter surrounded by figurative rivers of human misery and literal rivers of animal faeces, then later known for the widespread and brazen institutionalization of democratic graft that amazed even the scores of bootleggers across the city; now known for it's enchantingly geometric deco El stations offset by the scent of transient ejaculate (even visible as wafts of steam in the seemingly eternal mid-western winters).1 As a current inhabitant of this metropolis, and as a former inhabitant of many other environmentally forbidding locales, I feel a certain kinship with those obscure species of the animal kingdom whose title itself literally translates to love of the extreme: The Extremophiles.2 Today's entry will be short on words as I believe that photographs of these confounding and eldritch creatures speak volumes. For a special prize, identify the Moss Piglet amongst the following pictographs.
Did you "Spot-The-Moss-Piglet?" If so, lightly sketch the photo you chose using soft graphite on an 8 and 1/2 by 11 sheet of manila paper, and mail to my amanuensis for consideration in this premier Fantastic Information contest. E-mail, telephone, telegraph, and "fax"-similes will, as always, be looked upon with disgust.
1also, at various times, for the slow but noticeable sinking into ooze of the entire city due to building on marshland, the "Murder Castle" of H. H. Holmes, the once upon a time tallest buildings in the world existing as paens to mail order shopping magnates, the widespread massacre of wobblies in the strike busting days, the Columbian Exposition which introduced the world to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Diet Soda, and Hamburgers amongst other things, reversing the flow of the Chicago River, the puzzling hero worship of John Dillinger, and having the largest collection of impressionistic paintings outside of the Louvre at it's Art Institute.
2confession: I had originally hoped to share with you my essay on pugilism today, but it appears to be growing much greater in length than I had originally planned, so I shall put off finishing it this afternoon in favor of sharing some fascinating pictures of these almost literally ephemeral animaelicules
