The presidential inauguration ceremony is getting its first Latino and LGBT poet. Richard Blanco, born in Spain to Cuban exiles, will recite a selection of his work during President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Jan. 21, Obama’s Inaugural Committee announced. Blanco also will be the youngest inaugural poet at a swearing-in ceremony. “Richard’s writing will be wonderfully fitting for an Inaugural that will celebrate the strength of the American people and our nation’s great diversity,” President Obama said in a statement. Blanco’s parents emigrated to New York City days after he was born then settled in Miami. Interested in the “engineering” of language, Blanco’s first poetry collection, “City of a Hundred Fires,” won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and his second book, “Directions to The Beach of the Dead,” won the PEN American Center Beyond Margins Award.
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Don't get too comfortable with the snow-free roads.
A winter weather advisory for the Chicago area goes into affect Thursday night, predicting 3 to 5 inches of snow by Friday. And if it comes, it'll break a February snowfall record of 27.8 inches set 115 years ago in 1896.
At the official recording station at O'Hare International Airport, 27 inches of the white stuff has already fallen this month.
Sleet and rain are expected to precede the snow, so be careful on your way home from work. Once the snow starts around 6 p.m., it could be heavy at times, with accumulations exceeding one inch per hour.
The snow should gradually taper off Friday morning. A lighter wave of snow moves in Friday night, but thunderstorms on Sunday stand a chance of wiping out any accumulation.
At Home Depot there are few complaints but they're with an eye toward spring.
"I love it. It drives our sales, but you know good weather drives our sales too," said employee Paul Fatigato as he watched more salt fly out the door.
Still, he said springtime is good, too. Next to the snowblowers and salt are spring flowers already on sale.
But gritty Chicagoans set it straight.
"It's winter," said officer Joe Prince. "People, deal with it!"
