Inferiority Complex
The middle of not even trying
One of the coolest parts of me and my wife's bouldering gym is that it sits across the street from Wrigley Field.
A few months ago, in between climbs, my wife glimpsed some kind of slogan on the stadium's exterior digital banner that rattled her. She couldn’t believe her eyes, but also her brain couldn’t quite process what she’d read.
She told me it was “insane,” so we waited for the ads to cycle through again. After several minutes, however, all we’d learned was that price-gouger Horizon Therapeutics was the official biotech company of the Chicago Cubs, insider trading specialist Nuveen was the official asset manager of the Chicago Cubs, and crypto was the future.
Fast forward several weeks and this time I caught the impossibly surreal slogan myself:
Illinois: The Middle of Everything
I reflexively guffawed, then ran and told my wife, who reflexively guffawed.
Apparently, the geniuses at the Illinois Office of Tourism just gave up and conceded the Midwest will never shed its “flyover” reputation.
As if they needed to douse any more gasoline on Chicago’s NYC-inferiority complex.