Oddball Illinois: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series) - Softcover

Pohlen, Jerome

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556523718 ISBN 13: 9781556523717

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2000

Synopsis

Giant fiberglass wieners atop a hotdog stand. Wild green parrots that live in the city. A double-decker outhouse. A museum dedicated to surgical science. Statues that weep. Find out where these and other eclectic sites are located in Oddball Illinois, an offbeat travel guide that’s a mix of Fodors and News of the Weird. There is more between Chicago and St. Louis than cornfields and plenty of fascinating places in the Windy City that aren’t on Michigan Avenue. Oddball Illinois won’t point out the hottest club in Chicago, the quaintest small-town bed & breakfast, nor the most scenic hiking trail in Illinois. This book will, however, tell about the locations of America’s One and Only Hippie Memorial, Scarlett O’Hara’s green drapes, Popeye’s Hometown, and several places the local Chambers of Commerce would just as soon be forgotten. Behind all the odd sights is some wonderfully interesting history and a chance to see some underappreciated sites throughout the state.

About this title

About the Author:

Jerome Pohlen is an editor and educational writer who has written 40 travel guides covering most of the continental United States. His travel writing has appeared in the Chicago Reader. He lives in Chicago.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Berwyn Art Mall (from cover)

If you don’t think of art when you think of a mall, perhaps you should visit Cermak Plaza. This shopping center commissioned artists to spruce up the place, and what they created has been upsetting the locals ever since.

The largest piece is called The Spindle. Creator Dustin Shuler skewered eight automobiles on a giant nail in the middle of the parking lot. Along the sidewalk are 20 other visual- and sound-related sculptures in various stages of disrepair, including “Pinto Pelt” (also by Shuler), the skinned gold shell of the flammable Ford. While the pieces may not be as stunning as when they were originally installed, there’s enough to keep you entertained.

Critics have long complained that The Spindle attracts pigeons, but they have quieted somewhat since the work appeared in Wayne’s World. And if the Berwyn police have any input, it will never come down; they use the mall to haze new recruits. Dispatchers send rookies out to the plaza to investigate an “eight-car pileup.”

Cermak Plaza
7043 Cermak Road
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 344-9242
Hours: Always visible
Cost: Free
Directions: At Cermak and Harlem Avenues

About this edition

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1556523718
• ISBN 13: 9781556523717
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256