August 8-11: Chicago

I presented a paper at the American Accounting Association annual meeting in Chicago. It was a four-day conference, packed with informative and educational sessions, and I always find this a wonderful way to recharge my publication batteries. Although I believe several other conferences through the year are much more useful and productive, this convention is the one where I can renew old friendships with my colleagues at other universities who aren't in the Accounting Systems field. Besides, there is some prestige associated with presenting a paper at the national meeting of all accounting professors.

The meeting was held in the historic Palmer House hotel on State Street. The lobby is something to behold:



I took a few minutes off one afternoon to snap a couple of pictures. Here is the Wrigley Buidling, and yes, it was built by the gum people, the same ones for whom the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field is named. The Wrigley Building, built in 1921, was Chicago's first air-conditioned office building. It is located at the south end of the famous "Miracle Mile" shopping stretch of Michigan Avenue.


In contrast, my hotel was next door to the John Hancock building which is located across the street from the Chicago Water Tower, which is the north end of the Miracle Mile.

And here is the famous Chicago Water Tower, located about 2 blocks from my hotel (no, I didn't stay at the Palmer House -- even with the group convention rate, my hotel was about half the cost of the Palmer House).



Grandma Bliss has a painting of the Water Tower at Night in her living room, so I took a photo of the WaterTower at night. It doesn't do justice to the scene, however:




The night after taking this photo, I became deathly ill, with the 72-hour bug, "coming out both ends simultaneously", as they say. I had a high fever, and I don't take fever well at all. I could hardly get out of my room to walk the 2 blocks to the all-night convenience store to get some Ibuprofen to get my fever down. Fortunately, my fever was down and I was well enough 2 days later to take the plane trip home... which due to weather delays and missed connections, actually took 2 days! I spent an unexpected night in Washington, and when I finally got to Shenandoah 24 hours late, they had lost my luggage! Hey, this is modern air travel, what can I say? I'm a seasoned traveler, so I had an entire change of clothes in my carry-0n, as I always do and have done for years. I learn from my mistakes. At the airport, I had a 4-ounce bottle of Pepto-Bismol in my carry-on. The security lady stopped me and told me the limit was 3 ounces. So in front of her, I opened the bottle, swigged a couple of swallows and asked, "is that about 3 now?" and she let me through. Sheesh. Modern air travel.