Metro will give us a holiday train if we tell them we want it!

Metro will do a holiday MetroLink train this year if there is enough public interest. It would run every Friday and Saturday in December. I am SO EXCITED about this! If I were still in St. Louis, I’d volunteer to be an elf!

The Chicago Transit Authority has a long-running tradition of running a Santa Express train every holiday season. The first time I encountered the Santa Express, I wasn’t expecting it. I was heading up the escalator at the Garfield Green Line station, and when I heard a train I started to run so that I wouldn’t miss it. But then, besides all the usual train clatter and roar, I heard… holiday music? Could that be holiday music? I ran even faster, and when I got to the top of the escalator I saw a green glowing El train all decked out in lights, with the words SEASON’S GREETINGS written in giant silver letters across its side.

(Note: I took these photos on a Santa Express on the Blue Line in 2008, if you’re counting. Katherine of Chicago has video of the train, with sound.)

OH MY GOD THE SANTA TRAIN. I ran aboard and sat down. It was a weekday afternoon on the South Side, so there were only a handful of other passengers. A CTA employee dressed as an elf came around and handed out candy canes, telling some of the more deliberately stoic passengers “Cmon, you know you want one.” She managed to get every single person on the train to smile.

The Santa Express is a pretty serious operation–it even features a car with Santa’s sleigh, and they ride outside in the Chicago winter. The train now features its own custom Christmas upholstery on its seats. It also has fake ads for Christmas related businesses where the regular ads normally go.

While the MetroLink holiday train wouldn’t be this big of a production (yet???), it would certainly be really cool nonetheless. I’d love to see that Santa train glee come to St. Louis.

A Metro holiday train would be a fun surprise for riders who didn’t know about it, and an entertaining outing for folks who’d heard about it in advance. Think of the joy of visiting Santa, with the glee of riding a train, minus the holiday mall insanity. And, of course, there’s nothing like a ridiculous themed celebration on public transit to enjoy and promote all the good things that can happen when you don’t have to drive. I can’t speak for the whole Prom Committee, but this MetroLink Prom organizer is overjoyed at the thought of Metro having their own sorta-parties on the train.

What can you do to bring a holiday train to St. Louis?

1. E-mail blog@nextstopstl.org and tell them you want the holiday train!

2. If you use Twitter, tweet using the hashtag #stlholidaytrain.

3. Spread the word! E-mail your friends, blog it, post it on facebook, encourage others to tweet about it…. You know what to do!

Checking In

By the way, I am alive and well and living in Hamtramck, Michigan, a tiny municipality inside of Detroit but separate from it.

I dropped the St. Louis from the title of my blog, and will just be writing under Curious Feet from now on. I still intend to write about St. Louis, but I’ll probably be writing more frequently about Detroit and Hamtramck. Readers, I hope you’ll stick with me on this new leg of my journey. St. Louis and Detroit have a lot to teach each other.

I plan to write about why I chose to move to Hamtramck soon. For now, here are some photos I’ve taken in Hamtramck this year:

MetroLink Prom photos!

Grossly belated! My apologies–moving to Michigan ate my free time.

Here are links to photos from MetroLink Prom! If you have a link of your own (or a link to Prom photos you’ve seen around the web), please share in the links section and I will put them up!

Miss MetroLink’s own album from 2009

Nazim Keven’s photos from 2009

Vanishing StL’s photos from 2008

Art of Serendipity’s photos from 2008 including couples portraits with the backdrop

3 North St. Louis cats given helpful medical care in surprise attack

ST. LOUIS — In a violent scene typical of those that we only pointedly note the location of when they happen on the North Side, three innocent cats were dragged out of their North St. Louis home today and given shots.

The victims, age 4, 4, and 4 were approached at about 10:45 AM by a lone white female. The assailant was described as being in her mid 20s with long brownish hair and wearing nerdy glasses. The assailant proceeded to gently approach each one of the victims, pick them up, and stuff them into a small cage. The cages were then transported to South St. Louis, where two more assailants removed each cat from his or her cage and poked them with a sharp needle. The victims were then forced to watch from inside their cages as the main perpetrator filled out approximately 10 minutes worth of paperwork.

A young woman has already claimed credit for the attacks, saying, “I don’t know why they’re suddenly acting like they don’t know who I am. I raised them and I feed them and spoil them. I am not a stranger. I just needed to get them microchipped because we are moving. I gave them treats when we got home.”

One of the victims, a small white and orange male named Jarns, issued a statement to the press rebutting Ms. Nowak-Boyd’s statements. In his statement, Mr. Jarns wrote, “Eooow. Eooow. EOOOOWWWW! EOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! AWOOOOOOO!”

Another victim, speaking under condition of itty bitty anonymity, told a reporter, “Mip! Mip! Mip! Mip! Mip!”

Ms. Nowak-Boyd has denied any wrongdoing.

Dewey Decimal Drinks: Welcome, Christina.

Thanks again, Dewey Decimal Drinks attendees. It has been a wonderful 2+ years and I have learned so much from you. I always knew that stereotypes of us and our profession weren’t true*, but you have proven to me without a doubt that librarians are fun. Damn it, we can drink and be sleazy when we want to, and it’s that much better because we librarians know what we are doing. So, THANK YOU.

In case you missed the news: I’ll be moving to Detroit in a few days. A gal named Christina Pryor is going to be taking over Dewey Decimal Drinks. Christina is great, and I am so glad she will be doing this. When she said yes, I jumped up and went, “YESSSS!”

In the past, Christina has organized a library students’ social group and a librarians’ trivia team (named the Dewey Decimators!). She is super social, super smart, and one of the funnest drunks I know. I hope you’ll welcome her with open arms, and keep on comin’ out for Dewey Drinks.

Always reading between the lines,
Claire-ian the Librarian

*Except the hot librarian archetype/stereotype. That one is true.