Our Place
The Baker House Phantom.
They called. The PR department (allegedly) of that place called the GSR headquarters and threatened to file suit on the basis of the owner of the Baker House being slandered. It was interesting to play the recording of that call. The caller actually said: “in my entire career I’ve never seen the movie Psycho, House of the Seven Gables and Phantom of the Opera used in the same sentence.” The GSR accepted that statement as a literary compliment. Once the slander allegation was fully laid out, the PR person, or department, or girlfriend, or whomever (they would not provide identifying information) was informed that the owner’s name was never revealed in the article. The PR person indicated that the owner’s photo had been used under the article, however. She was informed that the caption under the photo read: “who is this masked man?” Once again, the owner’s name was not used, and the entire area is now in search of the phantom.
The PR person ended the call by saying that, although the GSR had not named the owner, everyone knows who the Phantom of the Baker House is. Once again, she was thanked, after which she said that she didn’t think we were very funny. The GSR openly apologizes for not being funny, but we do try. The caller does not have to apologize, however. She was funny as hell! The Baker House, apparently, as described by several people with their ears close to the ground, sold, and that sale will finalize on the 31st of December. Apparently, as well, at least for the short term, the employees should stay on because the new owners are going to continue the business as it has been operated before. Without the phantom, of course. He is going to retreat even further back into the shadows over at the Maxwell House.
The Yerkes Phantom.
A recent article placed on the second page of a notable Lake Geneva Newspaper last week indicated that there was a soon to be non-profit corporation slaving away to raise money to purchase the Yerkes. The non-profit head of that outfit, the Phantom of the Yerkes, holds a special non-disclosure agreement with the University of Chicago and is supposedly the only outfit communicating with the Yerkes about making an acquisition of the closed observatory. Well, the article never covered the Yerkes letter leaving the buildings and scopes to the heirs. The four children have worked to retain attorneys to make sure that the buildings are not sold, given away or anything else. If the observatory was ever to close then Mr. Yerkes wanted the place to revert to his heirs. It is quite obvious that Mr. Yerkes did not trust the University of Chicago any more than the GSR does. But, the Phantom, and followers, will continue their effort to raise millions (good luck) to do what? Learn to hire astrophysicists and then pay to renovate and rebuild an observatory that the university itself says is outmoded and unusable? The dispute between the university and the heirs is about to heat up, and if Jim Weis is smart, then Williams Bay will make an entry by expressing an interest in using eminent domain to sweep the place out from under the noses and feet of both sides of the controversy. The fight for the Yerkes is a long way from over.
Person of the Week
Dr. Thomas Nading is a terrific man, and has a way of making dental work a pleasure, almost. He’s friendly, pleasant, and truly excels at patient care. 255 Havenwood Dr., Lake Geneva.
