wcr20

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  2. Posted · Edited by wcr20

    My uncle has the Cadi XLR - same deal: fob in pocket +proximity = doors unlock and push button ignition. I assume that if you and the fob become separated from the car while its running, it will shut sown (ie: car jacking), but i'm not 100% SURE ON THAT.

  4. Posted

    I happen to work down the block from this even this morning it is still smoldering, and the neighborhood has that wet, wood smoke smell.

    this went at least 5 alarms (in Chicagoese - a 5-11), plus a at least a level 1 hazmat assignment and at least a level 1 EMS assignment -

    The news says at least 300 FFs - and according to a chart i looked at - at least 22 engines, 4 or 5 trucks, 2 squads, 5 ambulance, and a goodly # of comm and command vans, chiefs, and the CFD helo overhead giving the ground command spotter info (this has been standard since the large fire about 2 years ago where there was a loss of 6(?) lives.

    here is a link i saw for pictures from the Chicago Tribune:

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/...ll=chi-news-hed

    (I work in the red building in the background of photo # 1)

    I believe the building was vacant, and one news report said that workers were using acetylene torches in the basement.

    The building is immediately adjascent to the EL track for the Orange and Greeen Lines which are still out of service, creating a real commute nightmare, as they are afraid that the train vibrations could bring the building down, perhaps onto the tracks.

    The building was built in 1887, by the celebrated architects Adler and Sullivan. They incorporated perforated cast iron beams on the rear wall of the building as both decoration and support. This feature, very advanced for its time, is thought to be the only reason that building did not collapse onto the El tracks last night.

    There is a good, though old photo if you google map the following: 630 South Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL You can see the tracks immediately behind - it took quite a while to clear and de-energize the tracks yesterday after the chief requested it - at least 2 requests to CTA were made from what I was listening to.

    If I find out anything else, I'll let you know.

    (First time I have started a topic - if this belonged in a different category - I apologize)

  5. Posted

    my local department, Morton Grove IL just received their new quint - its a 75' Smeal which arrived a few weeks ago - the guys are going through training and familiarization, and then starting next month it will be frontline - replacing an engine and running as an engine - not a ladder. it was purchased partially with a federal homeland security grant. I intend to get some pictures posted soon.

  13. Posted

    Hi from Chicagoland... (I still cant get used to that word)

    I was just going to say pretty much the same as Nate. Everyone here in my area (northern Cook County) has it, but you do have to watch to make sure you have the capture, otherwise what happened in Stone Park can happen again - and unfortunately - probably will, sooner or later. Like with anything else when operating any vehicle, mush less an emergency vehicle - drive defensively, not offensively.

  19. Posted

    they're all over the place out here in chicagoland, my favorite is the fajita burrito (saute peppers and onions instead of black beans) the chicke, beef, and pork fillings are all really good - but they are a little heavy on the rice.

  23. Posted

    my understanding is that nypd taru has their own complete microwave tv uplink system capable of sending live tv from any scene located in the nyc metro area back to both the various command centers in NYC, and the remote command centers (one of which is (or at least was) up in sullivan co. basically it is nypd-tv

    it is supposed to be as, if not more capable than, any of the nyc broadcast networks (just something i read somewhere)

  24. Posted

    completely coincidently - my buddy who turned me on the Texas just sent me this by email - (sorry for not properly quoting this)

    Everybody Comes to Hubba's. O.K., Maybe Not the Health Food Crowd.

    By PETER APPLEBOME

    Published: July 10, 2005

    Port Chester, N.Y.

    YES, David Mobarek and Randy DiPietro, 17-year-old rising seniors at Port Chester High School, had been to Pat's or Hubba's or whatever it's called, every day for the last week. Yes, they had already had a proper dinner - tacos - at David's house. But there it was, almost midnight Thursday, and the two were digging away once again at their chicken platter, an enormous mound of fried chicken, smothered in a giddy, greasy glop of fries, melted cheese and chili.

    A Port Chester Gathering Spot

    "We weren't going to come here tonight," David says, only slightly sheepishly. "But we got hungry."

    As all suburban teenagers know, there's nothing to do wherever it is they live, but there's usually one place that's a particularly inviting place to do nothing, to unwind after doing nothing, to take a break from doing nothing, or to hang out while trying to find that elusive something. Anywhere near Interstate 95 in southern Westchester and in Connecticut towns like Greenwich and Stamford - particularly this time of year - that place is often the ancient chili joint on North Main Street in Port Chester with the hundreds and hundreds of dollar bills taped to the walls and ceiling. It's where the yin and yang of suburbia north, with addictive regularity, get to face down both ennui and intestinal distress.

    Long ago it was Texas Chili, presided over by a tough white-haired bird named Millie, who tended the chili, a cigarette dangling from her mouth over the chili pot, like the queen of Port Chester. Then it was Pat's Hubba Hubba, a name too good to retire, so most people still call it that. (Pat Carta still runs a Pat's Hubba Hubba in Stamford with more of a nostalgic 50's hubba hubba feel.) Now, run by Carlos Magan and his daughter, Karin Slough, it is now officially Hubba. The constant is the do-it-yourself décor and the industrial-strength chili, about 200 pounds' worth each day on weekends, that is prepared in a huge pot that looms over North Main like a water tower.

    "If you're looking for the greasiest food with the best atmosphere, this place is a classic - it's just got that vibe," says Brendan Cahill, a 27-year-old musician and cook, who got the Pat's bug when he was a student at Purchase College. "You just feel inspired coming here. Tomorrow you may not feel so good, but while you're eating it, you feel great."

    Hubba, which has the feel of an abandoned railroad car that's been hijacked by pro-cholesterol insurgents, is about 35 feet long and so narrow that there's less than five feet from the customers' side of the counter to the baby blue side wall. The walls and ceiling are plastered with a small fortune in dollar bills, and currency from places like Paraguay, Russia and Iraq - almost all emblazoned with thoughtful messages like, "Jill and Al's fourth trip to Pat's this week!"

    The menu, mostly endless combinations of chili, cheese, hamburgers, hot dogs, cheeseburgers and fries, is scrawled on maybe 70 blue paper plates in a language - "California burger wedge with chili and cheese," "Meatball full house" - fully understood only by the regulars. You'll never go wrong ordering chili cheese fries or a chili dog with cheese.

    The music is cumbia, Mexican rap, reggaeton and salsa; the chatter is in Spanish and English, and the clientele covers the waterfront in terms of income and ethnicity - as likely to include high school and college students from Greenwich, Rye and Larchmont, as waiters, bouncers and yardmen from Port Chester, Eastchester and Stamford. It's busiest from about 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and stays open until 4 a.m. (5 on Fridays and Saturdays) and then reopens at 9 a.m. Lots of truckers apparently want chili dogs for breakfast.

    CHRIS DIBIASO got the Pat's habit while in high school and now comes when he's home from college at SUNY Stony Brook. On Thursday afternoon, he arrives in his Yankee cap, T-shirt, black shorts. "Chili cheeseburger Texas wedge," he says. "Chili cheese dog Texas and chili cheese fries Texas and a Hubba water to wash it down." Texas means chili and onions, so he's being only half redundant. Hubba water is water with a splash of Hawaiian Punch that the restaurant gives out free. Enough food arrives to feed a small village. "You get that craving; you have to go to Pat's," Mr. DiBiaso says. "I could eat this every day," he adds. "I might die sooner, but I'd die happy."

    So on and on they come. Miguel Angel, newly arrived from Puebla, Mexico, but with those iPod wires already coming out of his ears. Pierre Brillant, the 6-foot-8, 320-pound bouncer from a nearby club, who usually orders four or five chili dogs after work.

    A cellphone rings and Randy, one of the Port Chester High seniors, snatches his from his right pocket.

    "Yo," he says. "I'm at Hubba's."

    E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com