I don't exactly have "stellar" habits, do I?

Alright, so I had to read through the rest of the book in one night, which is why I had to do my blog this morning. I collapsed at about 12:30 and had to sleep. Anyway, heres the breakdown:
A man named Ferris builds a gigantic metal wheel with cars to out-eiffel eiffel. The fair is just barely a success. Today, most of the fair has withered away, leaving only the palace of fine arts (which is now a science museum).
Holmes is finally caught and convicted after the bodies of several children are found. He is executed promptly after writing his memoirs, where he says he killed over 100 women.
Prendergaft, or whatever his name is, was a total psycho: He believed the government betrayed him, so he decided to kill the mayor, on the night of the ending of the fair.

So there it is.

What do you do when there isn't a breakfast-machine to be found?

Well, turns out that Holmes did not kill the woman and her daughter...yet. In any case, there are are more interesting things to read in the regular story: An entrepeneur by the name of Sol Bloom, recently bought a whole algerian village, has decided to set up his exhibit next-door to the fair. he plans to call his place a "Midway".

SPECIAL GUEST STAR APPEARANCE from Buffolo Bill, who's wild-west show is also setting up shop next to the grounds. Evn beter are the proposals set forth to "out-eiffel Eiffel", including:
A tower that telescopes upward
Another tower (this time with tobbogans leading to New York, Boston and San Francisco)
A third Tower, but with a twist: it's the exact Eiffel Tower, only bigger! (submitted by Eiffel himself)

I couldn't stop laughing for awhile...

Almost forgot...again

Well, I'll be honest. With all the commotion that happened last weekend with relatives visiting and touring St. Paul, I have only managed to read one page at this time of writing. The architecture team is using very interesting buildings, bu there is very little drama so far. Holmes, on the other hand, is now selling his victims' skeletons o nearby med schools, as this was the height of anti-desecration-of-the-dead and cadavers were hard to find.

Also, I think he might have just killed a little girl and her mother, but I'm not sure...

Whoops!

OMG! I'M LATE! Trying to fit in "The Hobbit" (which I never got around to reading before) was a bad idea. I didn't get much reading done in DitWC, But here's a basic update: Holmes has finished his hotel, wich has a sound-proof kiln in the basement and an airtight storage vault with a gas nozzle. Creepy! He kept the workers from noticing by having them build it in sections, then firing them without paying them. Actually, he does this a lot; He has thousands of dollars worth of debts to various factories whose products he sells. Also, because he is a doctor after all, he has opened a pharmacy on the first floor, where he sells crack-pot stuff like wonder-cures and hair-tonics. He has already seduced several women, even though he married the first one, and obviously has some evil plan for them. I'm beginning to think that he, considering his business expertise, might be planning to sell the remains as pies, a la Sweeny Todd. We'll see...

Dun-dun-DUUUUN!

While the exposition crew is being assembled, and Holmes seems on his way to Chicago infamy (By the way, his real name was Dr. H.W. Mudgett), a third story has started about a quiet, young man named Prendergast, who is a staunch supportor of the new Chicago mayor. On a whim, I googled his name and discovered something that (to finish this sentence, please turn to blog post # 6).

Anyway, The team that's designing the exposition now has Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead, George Post, Henry van Brunt, Francis Millet, Col. Edmund Rice, Charles McKim and Ernest Graham.

The map of the exposition looks spectatular. Here's a good example:
http://www.vintageseattle.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/chicago_birds_eye.jpg

Why "The Super-Special-Awesome Exposition" was NOT used for a name...

Apparently, this follows around David Burnham as he is working fervently on gathering a team of artists, architects and investments to plan the "Colmbian Exposition", which celebrates 400 years after Columbus reached the Americas. There was a big competition among St. Louis, New York and Chicago for the honor of hosting the fair, and Chicago won. No mention of a murder yet, but I have very high hopes!

First post!

I finally caved in to my father's begging and picked up "Devil in the White City" as told by Erik Larson.

The story is a non-fiction retelling of the history of the construction of the World's Columbian Exposition intertwined with the muders done by "H.H. Holmes". It looks interesting and I can't wait to sit down and really read it.

The first chapter is called "frozen music"...

...sounds like some new-age craze.