3 x 300

I wrote my first post on this blog three years ago today. By coincidence (well not exactly), this is my 300th post. The original idea for the blog was to focus entirely on Chicago, in fact I created one using a different publisher and called it: "In and About Chicago." After about a month I took the easy way out and decided not to limit myself to Chicago AND move to Blogger which was much less hassle to use. I violated two rules of blogging right there, first by my choice of publisher and then by not limiting myself to a small niche. I'll be the first to admit, "the urban experience" is a pretty broad subject.

On the other hand, had I stuck to my original plan, I would have become frustrated and bored and today would not be celebrating the blog's third anniversary.

To celebrate the anniversary here's a list with links to ten of my favorite posts:

• 2009, the year I began writing this blog, was a year of big anniversaries, the seventieth anniversary of the start of World War II, the fortieth of Woodstock and Chappaquiddick, the twentieth of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution. I touched upon all of those in various posts, but one particular anniversary stood out in my mind as a day I'll never forget, July 20, 1969.
• I love people who are contrarians, those who aren't afraid to look a naked emperor in the eye and say: "...now wait a minute." I found two articles in one day that did just that with some of the most sacred cows of Chicago architecture. The problem was, I got a little carried away when one of the articles hit a little too close to home.
• Two of my favorite posts that fit into the "beyond" category of the blog are this post about Berlin...
• And this one on London.
• The attempt to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago was full of controversy but here I supported it whole heartedly. 
• Since this is my blog, I reserve the right to write about whatever I choose. Besides, sports is very much a part of the urban experience, isn't it?
• Working on a photograph of the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire inspired me to devote a post to that event.
• It is a privilege and honor to write tributes to people whom you admire. It's better to write them while they're still alive but we don't always get that chance. One of these posts was for a man whom I knew well as a great friend and mentor...
• The other was for a man whom I admired from a distance.
• Finally, my favorite post was inspired by my own son and his discovery of Frank Lloyd Wright.

My third egregious violation of the hallowed commandments of blogging as my wife often points out, is my failure to keep things brief.

Mea culpa. 

I'm an amateur writer in the truest sense, I do it because I love it. A museum curator once told me that he did his work for about three or four people in the world, he didn't care much what the general public thought. I don't quite feel that way about the latter but definitely the former. The three or four of you for whom this blog is written, well, you know who you are.

As for the rest of you, please bear with me and thank you so much for your continued support.