Combining "CHIC" & "EGO" ....

  
[Pix 1: Sears Towers]

Chicago: Its not a political hub; not a financial capital, doesn’t have the glitz of Hollywood & is proudly not a sin-city ... However it’s a city of superlatives –highest, largest, biggest, busiest, first & even the fattest !!! This modest city has a lot to boast about .....

- The food-loving Chicagoans make for America’s “fattest” city - 2006
- The birthplace of “Deep-Dish” pizza
- Hosts world's largest free outdoor food festival “ The Taste of Chicago”
- It is also the birthplace of fast food giant - McDonalds, chewing gum giant -Wrigley’s & also cell phone giant Motorola
- Chicago stages world's biggest free blues, jazz and gospel festivals
- It has world’s busiest airport - O’Hare
- America’s most trafficked highway - Dan Ryan Expressway [I-90/I-94]
- Chicago is the birthplace of skyscrapers ...
- It has North America’s tallest building “Sears Tower”, [110 floors] and from its Sky-deck at 103rd floor; you can see all the way to neighboring states of Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin … 40 to 50 miles ...
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[Pix 2: John Hancock Towers]

- America’s highest indoor swimming pool is on the 44th floor of the “John Hancock Center”[100 floors]
- It is home to the largest building in the United States (excluding the Pentagon): the “Merchandise Mart" spread over 90 acres of floor space ...
- Highest steeple in the world – United Methodist Church
- “Buckingham Fountain” in Grant Park; is one of the world's largest fountains.
- “The Millennium Park “has one of worlds largest sculptures the "Cloud Gate”: 66 feet long and 33 feet wide.
  
[Pix 3: Washington Library]

- World’s largest public library is located here … the “Harold Washington Library Center” … houses about 2 million books
- The “Art Institute”, has the largest collection of French Impressionist paintings outside of Paris, France
- “Chicago Cultural Center” has the largest Tiffney stained glass dome in the world
- “Shedd Aquarium” is the largest indoor aquarium in the world, home to beluga whales, eels, penguins & leaping dolphins
- Next door to the aquarium is the “Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum”; which is the first ever planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere

  
[Pix 4: T-rex named Sue]

- The “Field Museum”; with 9 acres of exhibition space. In 1997 it purchased "Sue”, the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus-Rex [T-Rex] skeleton ...
- Lincoln Park Zoo, just north of downtown, is the world's largest admission-free zoological garden
- Chicago made a $110-million investment to move an eight-lane freeway to create a "Museum Campus" connecting three world-class museums – [1] the Field Museum of Natural History, [2] the Adler Planetarium, and [3] the John G.Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium.

  
[Pix:5: Chicago riverside]

- Chicago also has the only river in the world that flow backwards. Engineers reversed the Chicago River in 1900 for sanitary purposes.
- Al Capone ... The street gangster ... made Chicago his home ...
- Hometown of Oprah Winfrey – the best talk-show hostess & also Jerry Springer – host of the worst talk show on TV
- Hometown of Hollywood biggies – Harrison Ford, John Cusack, Charlie Kaufmann, Jim Beluchi , Bill Murray …
- Chicago based firm – “ R.S. Owens and Company” makes The Oscar statues and thousands of awards and for everything from sports and corporate awards to music like the Emmys & the MTV awards,
- Movies filmed in Chicago …
I-Robot, Chicago, Untouchables, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Negotiator, The Fugitive, What Woman Want, American Beauty, Chain Reaction, When Harry met Sally, Sixteen Candles, Ocean’s 11 & 12; Home Alone- I, II & III; Barbershop, Ferris Bueller’s Day off, Bad Boys, A league of their own ...
Another interesting fact - Chicago also has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw, Poland!

* Chicago trivia continues below in ..... "The Windy City".....