Woo - need clues big time. I have a few ideas, but will wait a bit to embarrass myself.

Nancy.

Oh yeah, need hints.

TM

Also waiting for more clues.

I thought of this as I was looking for a picture of the ferris wheel in Paris. Thinking of putting up some of my pictures from France in the guest room which is my 'French' room, but didn't get one of the wheel which is so cool. The idea is to have just a few reminders for when my friend, Jean with whom I went the last time, comes to visit. So obviously Paris was not the site for Ferris's iconic wheel. Its Eiffel Tower built for the 1889 Paris Exposition, however, may have inspired the size. Ferris chose a second city!

One good thing about having our dogs running in and out (and leaving the door open every time they do) is that the house is no longer the Land of the Stinking Onion after last night's dinner. Haha.

Still, I would prefer they do that when the weather is warm. I envy my grandparents their St. Petersburg winters-from New Years until just before Palm Sunday. Sigh.

Cynthia

Well, your last post has sent me in 2 directions, simultaneously and at once!! lol. I took voluntary time off today, so I can do a bit more painting. Tomorrow is 'Family Day', a holiday in Ontario, so a paid day off or stat holiday. I just need to pace myself so that I don't completely cripple myself. My paint colour is a little more orange than I would have liked, but looks so much better than before. Unfortunately, I found my black dress pants this am at the bottom of a pile, and somehow they now have a fully dried streak of off white latex paint on them - dang.

In my mind there is a poem running. "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a pleasure dome erect", but I've gone a bit too far east, I fear.

Nancy - adding a pic of the new colour - forgive the mess on my bed - lol,

Do you like old tv shows? Some like Route 66 were fun starting out, but I can't quite make it through them now.

Ferris had big shoulders for others to lean on later. As to the roller coaster, the French were the first to create a loop (ooh, that could be a clue for part 1), but the ruler I am looking for was the first to have wheels attached, so she could enjoy the coaster in summer and not just winter when her world was an ice palace.

Cynthia

Aah, as I suspected, she was great, was she not?

Nancy.

1. Did George stick the the U. S. Of A.?

2. Am I detecting a big whiff of a certain Slavic country in those clues?

TM

Hmmm...can't get through Route 66...perhaps somewhere on that mythic highway?

Nancy.

Nancy, yes, she was Great!

TM, yes, George did construct it in the USA. The World beat a path to his door, well, at least to the city.

Shall I razzle dazzle you with the clues all together or do you want to struggle? Sometimes in Winter, forgotten memories need a little push to come back.

Cynthia

Oh my - I suspect razzle-dazzle is a clue, but I am at sea...

Nancy.

Ah Nancy, I thought for sure you would get the other musical clue there!

Cynthia

Well, I did get my kicks....

Nancy.

2. Might this be the home of the Cardinals?

TM

Baseball Cardinals?

A little further north, TM. In fact, one of the great ones of baseball died yesterday. He managed in the city where Ferris built his wheel. He also managed in Philadelphia which is why I am familiar with him.

Nancy, thinking you should look at the sentence after the razzle dazzle one.

For the Ferris wheel, here are your clues so far: Land of the Stinking Onions, City of Big Shoulders, Route 66 point of origin, Loop, Razzle Dazzle, Sometimes in Winter

Fewer good clues for our Royal Roller Coaster lady: St Petersburg, cold, ice, palace, Great.

I will try to get back once more tonight. Then, won't be back until after school, so you will have time.

Well, I am thinking of one end of Route 66, and the city of big shoulders, or chi-town...

Nancy.

Second city is a funny clue!!!

Nancy.

I know the second city clue.

Also have an idea for the royal but don't see how Great fits.

It is getting very windy here as a warm front is coming and bringing 4-7 inches of snow. Expecting to hit the melting point midweek. Maybe some of the 37inches of snow on the ground will melt.

Oh yeah, how could I forget that Peter the Great wasn't the only Great royal of this country? Slow memory but it gets there.

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Mon, Feb 17, 14 at 2:19

I was thinking of the World's Fair in St. Louis, but I definitely know the city of big shoulders thanks to high school English with Mary Ann Watkins. She was a character and my most memorable high school teacher.

I also remember a cute girl named Cathy in my class. I probably should haved asked her out, but I was shy and thought she was out of my league.

TM

Ha, ha Cyn - Sometimes in Winter - love that song - love BS&T, but I suspect you were going for another horn-base rock band!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sometimes in Winter

Chicago
Catherine the Great

Oh ack, Nancy. Yes. What was I thinking? I am such an idiot sometimes. I should have added Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? When I wrote about thinking I had posted the trivia earlier. Now, that would have been good. Let's pretend I did that! Hehhehheh.

I was pleased with the Second City clue-glad you liked it!

So, yes, Ferris created his wheel as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. With a height of 80.4 metres (264 ft) it was the largest attraction at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, where it opened to the public on June 21, 1893. It was intended to rival the 324-metre (1,063 ft) Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition.

Catherine the Great is credited with ordering (!) the construction of the first roller coaster. From Wired:
Man has always had a need for speed: legs to outrun bears, horses to overtake enemies, cars to cross continents, meth to … oh, different thing. But we’ve been constructing ways to enjoy speed, too, since at least the 1400s. That’s when we find one of the early incarnations of man’s more aimless speed freakery ��" the roller coaster. Patrons on Russia’s “ice slides” would climb a 70-foot timber tower, sit on a sled, and then whooooosh down a 600-foot ice ramp to the base of a second tower. There they’d repeat the thrill, slipping down a parallel slide back to the start. Popular among the gentry, these rides were a winter pursuit until speed-demon Catherine the Great put the rollers on the coaster, adding wheels and grooved tracks to make a summer version at her palace in 1784. Then the French took the coaster baton and ran with it: In 1817, Belleville Mountain in Paris became the first slide to lock cars onto tracks by their wheel axles. And the city’s Aerial Walks, which had two curving tracks that met at the base of the ride, introduced a system for pulling the cars back up for “rerides.” The French also developed the first successful loop in 1846 ��" the 13-footer was tested using sandbags, monkeys, and one intrepid worker, whose reaction was recorded in the Journal du Havre. It will ring familiar to any thrill-seeker: He “experienced such a delicious feeling that he wanted to try again.”

So four stars for Nancy, TM, and Bobbie! Hope Annette was off having a fun day. TM, loved your English teacher memory. Here is the poem:

Chicago
BY CARL SANDBURG
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Thanks for playing everyone. Have a terrific week.

Cynthia

Hey Cyn - thanks for the fun. I always got Chicago and BS&T confused in the beginning. Part of the confusion is that the singer is not David Clayton Thomas, with his big voice - Canadian, you know!! ;-)) Here is another song for you!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: 25 or 6 to 4

Thanks yet again, Cynthia, and the poem was a nice bonus. Great clues, without which I would still be lost.

Good fun.
TM

TM, I love this line especially-Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Thanks, Nancy!

Cynthia

Thanks for the trivia, Cynthia. I was also thinking of the 1904 World's Fair.
There were so many new introductions at that fair and living in St. Louis for a time I began to think everything started there.

Good second city clue. Comedy is on my radar as I look for more laughter to offset the grimness of the mysteries that are a big part of my reading these days. The drug joke brought a smile. Not a laugh as my friends and I did not experiment with drugs so couldn't relate.

We have a visit to Chicago planned for late spring/early summer to tour the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Have heard good things about the CBG and it has been on our list for awhile. Will also visit the art museum which we have done several times.

My German ancestors went to the St. Petersburg area when Peter the Great invited German farmers in to settle the area. Don't remember any stories about roller coasters. That immigrant generation and most of their children are gone now, too late to ask if they saw the roller coasters.