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Happy Friday. Kick off your weekend with a column from our science and nature reporter Patty Wetli. Plus, more from WTTW News. |
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Water lily at Chicago Botanic Garden. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News) |
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Patty Wetli: I tell you, I might be psychic. Last weekend, I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden and took a ridiculous number of photos of water lilies. Then lo, this week I discovered a thing called the Waterlily Weigh-off, an extremely low stakes contest cooked up by the Denver Botanic Garden that’s currently underway. It manages to be entertaining, educational and charming even if it is 100% made-for-social media.
Honestly, plants need all the PR they can get and if horticulturalists are willing to dress up like Dr. Evil and go snorkeling in their lily pools to get people’s attention, I’m here for it.
Botany programs are being slashed across the country. Endangered plants don’t get nearly the news coverage as their animal counterparts and dollars devoted to plant research represent a tiny fraction of the funding pie.
Contests like the weigh-off make a small dent in closing that gap. Amid the razzle dazzle, horticulturalists snuck in some amazing info, like the fact that certain water lily flowers not only change color, they switch, overnight, from female to male. Mind blown!
It’s not that people don’t love plants. We do. But sometimes we need a reminder.
This week, I was also alerted to the loss of a 200-year-old bur oak in Kane County Bliss Woods Forest Preserve, which toppled during recent storms.
Forest preserve staff memorialized the oak on Facebook, calling out its unusual lateral branch structure and noting that it was once a perch for now-extinct passenger pigeons. This tree had witnessed some serious history. This tree was history.
People responded in droves, sharing their pictures and memories of the oak.
“Big old trees are like familiar friends,” one woman wrote.
Maybe too familiar, though, and too often taken for granted.
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Sponsor Message |
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Evanston Folk Festival returns for its second year on the spectacular lakefront at Dawes Park on Chicago’s North Shore. Join us September 6 + 7, 2025, as more than 30 world-class artists take the stage with Lake Michigan as a beautiful backdrop. Listen and learn at in-person interviews and panels with authors and luminaries presented by Chicago Public Media. And keep the music going after the sun sets with intimate evening performances at Cahn Auditorium. |
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Learn about sponsorship opportunities. |
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(Photography By Tonelson / iStock) |
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More than 1 million Illinois residents have benefitted from an educational program that teaches SNAP recipients about nutrition.
But since the Trump administration’s massive budget bill cut $287 billion from SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the education initiative known as SNAP-Ed is coming to an end after 30 years. The program collaborates with more than 1,800 community partners across all of Illinois’ 102 counties.
“When I started, people didn’t know what nutrition was,” said Daylan Dufelmeier, director of the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion (CPHP) at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Dufelmeier began his work with CPHP 17 years ago.
“The science has improved tremendously over the 17 years, and we know with a high degree of confidence the type of impact regular, vigorous physical activity and eating a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables has on your life overall,” Dufelmeier said. “Really one of the biggest changes is the adoption of normalizing being healthy.”
The Illinois Extension’s SNAP-Ed initiative adopted the name Eat.Move.Save. — teaching people to stretch their food benefits and providing them with a course on how to cook healthier meals.
“I’ve been doing this work for nine years, and so some of the changes that I have seen in the community is they had no knowledge of it,” said Denetria Adams, nutrition peer educator at CPHP. “With me doing the programs and teaching the lessons, they got an understanding on how to maintain a healthy weight, be physically active, regulate … their diabetes.”
With Adams’ lessons, she has helped people shop smarter at grocery stores and food pantries across the city, reminding residents to keep in mind the “My Plate” initiative, which focuses on the five main food groups: protein, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables — items she said are oftentimes hard to come across in low-income neighborhoods. |
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A person walks through WNDR Museum in the West Loop. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News) |
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A funhouse of art and technology, the WNDR Museum started as a pop-up in 2018 and then became a fixed destination in the West Loop. The museum had also added new attractions and was working with more local artists recently, so all the more reason to visit. The question was and remains: Is WNDR Museum worth your time and money, or is it a tourist trap?
It’s pronounced “wonder.” It’s just spelled without vowels. Immersive art experiences are everywhere these days with outlets like Otherworld and Meow Wolf in multiple locations and traveling shows, à la Immersive Van Gogh. Even with all that competition, USA Today calls WNDR one of the best immersive art experiences in the country — which is both a nice compliment and a helpful reminder that USA Today still exists.
WNDR has a reputation among influencers as a superb spot to grab Instagram-ready images and selfies in cool environments. But the museum seeks to be an inspirational place that feeds your curiosity, and we could all use more places like that, right?
As it turns out, there are some wondrous examples of tech-dependent art at WNDR. Much of it is a hands-on experience, and a few environments are so funky that it’s unsurprising to learn that music videos have been shot here.
If you’ve got some extra coin, WNDR Museum might just influence your creativity. And if you’re an influencer… well, you’ve probably been there done that.
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Back in the Day: August 22, 1980 - White Sox Owner Bill Veeck Agrees to Sell Team, Fails
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Bill Veeck had owned the White Sox from 1959 through 1961 and purchased the team again in 1975. A showman, entrepreneur and devoted marketer, he pulled stunts to goose his ticket sales (like the White Sox wearing shorts or the Disco Demolition Night) and kept the team in Chicago after multiple efforts to move it elsewhere. But by 1980, he had had enough and agreed to sell the team to Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., a real estate and shopping mall magnate who owned the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. News of the sale was announced on this day in 1980. If you're wondering what happened, the deal failed as it was rejected by a league vote. Veeck ultimately sold the Sox to current owner Jerry Reinsdorf and partner Eddie Einhorn for $20 million. Veeck retired from baseball, switched allegiances to his childhood team, the Chicago Cubs, and died in 1986 of lung cancer at 71.
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Nature Calls: This Week’s Outdoorsy Events and Activities |
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Every Friday, WTTW News science and nature reporter Patty Wetli highlights the best ways to get outside.
Patty Wetli: The next monarch butterfly you see, consider this: You’re likely looking at a member of the generation destined to migrate all the way to Mexico. That’s a 2,000-mile journey on teeny tiny wings. Safe travels, little buddies.
Speaking of which, Monarch Palooza is taking place Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at North Park Village Nature Center on Chicago’s North Side. Listen to live music, join in on craft activities, take a guided walk and learn how to create monarch-friendly habitat at home.
For all you morning people, head to 26th Street Woods-West near La Grange Park for All About Birds, Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to noon, with a bonus bird walk at 8 a.m. The event promises to showcase the diverse array of birds found in Cook County forest preserves. Bring your own binoculars if you have them, but pairs will also be available for loan.
Here’s one for night owls: the 10th Annual Busse Woods Night Ride, Saturday, 6:30-11 p.m. It’s a rare opportunity to enjoy a forest preserve after dark. Choose between a casual ride of nine miles or a slightly less casual 14-mile trip. Come for the moonlit pedal, stay for the after party: music, pizza, fire pit, snacks and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Space is limited. Purchase tickets for adult/youth riders and adult/youth spectators; prices $25-$45.
The South Shore Nature Sanctuary is nestled within the grounds of the South Shore Cultural Center, a building that makes us go “Oooooh” every single time we see it. Help the devoted stewards of the nature sanctuary clear invasive species during a work day Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon.
We keep arguing it’s still summer, but kids are back in school and Lake County has kicked off its annual fall hiking program. Walk at least seven of the 12 featured trails between now and November 30 to earn a fancy medallion.
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Where's your favorite place to watch a movie in Chicago? Tell us why.
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to say:
“Music Box Theatre because of the organ playing before the movie, gorgeous and historic interior, unique film options, friendly staff and great cocktails!” – Melissa T.
“RIP The New 400” — zachgoose@bsky.social
"Gene Siskel Film Center." —@pakirry89
“Music Box, that is until the Uptown reopens.” — Johanna F.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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