Think clearly. Act quickly.

Posted 21 Nov 2008

Commuting, People, Places, Signs | 5 Comments 

O’Hare Airport has many emergencies exits, and a number of these exits in Terminal 3 look like the one shown in the photo below:

(They may also look the same elsewhere at O’Hare, but this is where I’ve noticed them.)

I know it is hard to see in the pictures, but note that this door:

(1) Requires a security code input prior to use.
In case of an emergency, you’d better hope that you happen to be an airport employee with a security id code, and not just some Joe or Jane Traveller.

(2) Not using a security code would be a violation of both city and federal laws.
Break the law or stay put in an emergency – you can only choose one.

(3) Door can be opened in 15 seconds.
If this is a real emergency, fifteen seconds will seem like a really, really long time.

Guerillas threaten gorillas!

Posted 20 Nov 2008

Guest Post, Language, People | 3 Comments 

Why all this guerilla on gorilla violence!? Won’t somebody please think of the homonyms?!?

Please note that the editors of chickenmonkeydog do not support violence and do not condone the endangerment of the mountain gorillas.

Thanks to a reader from Chicago for the contribution.

Glad I’m not from a swing state (Part II)

Posted 19 Nov 2008

Events, The Little Things | Leave a Comment 

Following on from my previous post about absentee voting in the recent US presidential election, I thought it would make sense to follow that up with some of the details about the delivery of the absentee ballot. It came via email – which is brilliant – but I do wonder about the system as a whole given the second email that I received from the Cook County Absentee Department.

Read email containing details of absentee ballot.

And so that you can see that I am not making this up, I’ve also produced a screenshot of my Yahoo email inbox which shows the arrival of the two emails in question:

View screenshot of Yahoo inbox.

Ooh, those are delicious!

Posted 18 Nov 2008

Blog | Leave a Comment 

A bit of house-keeping here: A few months ago we created ourselves a delicious account for chickenmonkeydog blog. So, we wanted to flag this up to our readership and suggest that you check out our recommendations.

Go on. Check ‘em out. You’ll be happy you did. We promise.

Go on.

Glad I’m not from a swing state

Posted 18 Nov 2008

Events, The Little Things | 2 Comments 

I have been dying to write this post since I first received the emails, but I didn’t want to jeopardise my ability to vote in the recent US presidential elections. As a voter registered in Illinois, my vote – whichever way I cast it – would certainly not have delivered the state’s electoral college votes to Barack Obama, nor would they have taken them away from him. Illinois was his home state and that Illinois would vote for him was a foregone conclusion.

That said, you can imagine my concern when I first received an email about the status of my absentee ballot.

Review the first email.

The somewhat suspect email was followed five minutes later by an only slightly less suspect email.

Review the second email.

In the end, I did get a ballot sent to me via email (that story will be tomorrow’s post) and I did post it off and I presume it was counted properly. But I just wonder how the conversation at the Cook County Absentee Ballot Office was on that afternoon when the first emails were sent.

Clerk: Ok, boss, I’ve sent that email about the absentee voting process to all the registered absentee voters.

Supervisor: Great! Oh … Did you make sure to proof read it – and to send it from an official email address?

Clerk: Um … do you think that’s important?

Supervisor: Yes. Very. Are you saying you didn’t send it from our official email address?

Clerk: Um …

Supervisor: Well, in that case, proof read the draft first, and then re-send it, but from our official email address. And don’t mention the first email – if we ignore it, perhaps everyone else will too.

Honestly, I feel like the two emails I was sent were part of one of those brain-teasers: how many mistakes can you spot? So, how many can you spot?