Leah, Dick and I find more than a few dee-liteful items on the menu at Noodles Delight out in the Chicago suburb of Roselle.
The eggrolls are especially good, with lots of substantial fillings, not, as Leah puts it, like those at many other Chinese restaurants, which often are "sleazy and with too much cabbage."
Related (and unrelated) topics we chat about while rolling merrily through the suburbs in the Mobile Recording Studio include but are not limited to:
Jamming the radio spectrum is an extreme reaction. Tom Roper of Chicago-based band Beatnik Turtle had a better idea: He wrote "Do You Mind?" -- a musical indictment of cellphones and the public jawboners who drive us nuts. In this podcast, ChicagoScope chats with Tom and finds out how he crafted this humorous response to rudeness. (Plus, we've received permission to include this copyrighted song in the show. Thanks!)
We also touch base with internationally syndicated columnist Bob Koehler, whose work appears in print, online and on The Huffington Post, who agrees that public cellphone users can be annoying these days. However, he suggests a way to turn lemons into lemonade: Learn to enjoy these glimpses into private lives.
Noting the release of "Fred Claus," a film I saw being shot just up the street from where I work on North Michigan Avenue, got me to thinking about Christmas movies and which ones survive the test of time and become classics.
It turns out that two of my favorite movies also are my favorite Christmas movies: "The Bishop's Wife" and "Die Hard." At first glance, these pictures separated by a span of more than four decades have nothing in common -- but both celebrate the power of faith and redemption in subtle and entertaining ways.
In 1947's "The Bishop's Wife," clergyman David Niven believes that heaven-sent angel Cary Grant is the answer to his prayers for help in squeezing millions from an obnoxious old matron to build a cathedral whose construction she's micromanaging. But Niven's marriage to Loretta Young is headed into stormy seas, and he gets more than he bargained for when Grant charms everyone from a comic-relief agnostic to the bishop's wife -- played by professional Catholic Loretta Young.
Their faith restored, the agnostic turns to religion, the matron gives her millions to the poor, and Niven realizes that his wife has the power to give him heaven on earth.
Another marriage is on the rocks in 1988's "Die Hard," in which New York cop Bruce Willis travels to Los Angeles to attend a Christmas party in the skyscraper headquarters of a Japanese multinational where his estranged wife Bonnie Bedelia is a top executive. When terrorists take over the building, several characters are forced to find faith in themselves.
A cop who has been afraid to fire his gun since accidently killing a kid becomes a hero, a desk-flying police chief learns to respect street cops and Willis and Bedelia symbolically reaffirm their marriage vows when they must snap open the clasp on a Rolex watch she's wearing to drop villain Alan Rickman to his death.
Cerebral use of Christmas music ranging from Run DMC to Beethoven to Sinatra adds greatly to the holiday spirit.
The Vietnamese cuisine at Pho Le gets high marks from Leah, Dick and me; there's plenty of reasonably priced food and it's savory and satisfying. We were less than satisfied with our initial waiter, however, who behaved like a real jagoff. Fortunately, he disappeared after about 10 minutes and was replaced by two polite and attentive servers.
Direct download: phole.mp3
Category:Chicago
-- posted at: 5:46 AM
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About Me
I'm Leigh Hanlon, a writer and photographer in Chicago. Before moving to the Windy City, I worked at daily and weekly newspapers in Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. (Photo by Marty Larkin)
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Leah, Dick and I find more than a few dee-liteful items on the menu at 
Is cellphone use out of control? You sure get that impression from a New York Times article about 
It turns out that two of my favorite movies also are my favorite Christmas movies: "The Bishop's Wife" and "Die Hard." At first glance, these pictures separated by a span of more than four decades have nothing in common -- but both celebrate the power of faith and redemption in subtle and entertaining ways.
