Chicago Burning

News came today that Marshall Field's, the beloved Chicago department store, will have its name changed in a dumbfounding move of cultural insensitivity. To add insult to injury, Field's will now be known as Macy's, as in New York's Macy's. The move has been reported as an effort to make national marketing efforts more cost-effective, and many other stores will undergo the same change, including the Ayres of the shopping mall in my hometown.

Now, I don't care whether or not they change LS Ayres to Macy's, but Marshall Field's plays an important part not just in the history of the city, but in national history as well. At this point, almost all Chicagoans are speaking out from a sense of nostalgia, but this move goes far beyond that. Yes, we've all spent snowy December days in the palatial department store, feeling like Gold Coasters as we slipped up and down the escalators, pondering the Tiffany ceiling and looking at the window displays on State Street beneath blaring gold trumpets and garland. We have been reassured that all this beauty will continue, no jobs will be lost, and the Chicago store will be transformed into the third crown jewel of the Macy's fleet, alongside the flagship stores of New York and San Francisco.

Hogwash. Is this supposed to make us feel better? How insensitive are these idiots? Do they not know that Chicago has always deeply resented its status as the Second City, even as we revel in it. Why do we resent it? In the words of a song by Chicago rapper Kanye West..."Two Words": New York. We hate that the coastal elites refer to our neck of the country as flyover states, and if they think that linking us with two coastal cities is supposed to make us feel better they're damn wrong. Sure, many of us secretly love New York, but none of us want to BE New York. What birdbrains are these executives that they think that we would be comforted to learn that one of the things that was quintessentially ours and one-of-a-kind is now simply one of three, with New York at the top? Marshall Field's was ours. Macy's will always be New York's. Tying our wagon to the Big Apple's will never be acceptable. Perhaps next they should rename the Sears Tower the Empire State Building.

But this issue cuts deeper than that. Marshall Field's was not merely important in the minds of Chicago, but it held an important place in the history of the country. Most twentieth century cultural history classes begin with the road to mass entertainment, culminating in Coney Island and movie palaces. But Marshall Field's predates those, and most scholars recognize this and give the department store its due by namechecking the transformation from shopping from an errand to an event of mass entertainment, creating exotic showrooms exquisitely decorated, showcasing products from around the world. In this sense, and in the Columbian Exposition of 1893, Chicago helped pave the way toward a transformation of leisure time and mass entertainment that continues today. As of September 2006, this legacy will be as deconstructed as the buildings of the White City, mystified and understood only by proxy. And so it goes.

In other news, my White sox managed to squeak out a win yesterday against the Indians, putting both of their magic numbers at 9. It's scary that they have two magic numbers, but whatever. And to make matters worse (a theme of this column), their rival in the wild card race, should they lose the division to Cleveland is none other than the New York Yankees. Should they lose a spot in the playoffs due to the Yankees, I hate to think where this leaves us.