From Eric Holeman on Facebook, this comment on the demolition of the Purple Hotel in Lincolnwood IL:
This is sad. Back when it was the Hyatt and I was flying back from an Alaska visit, my O’Hare shuttle bus stopped here. A few days later, a lawyer named Allen Dorfman was greeted with a lead bouquet in the parking lot. Nothing says “Welcome to Chicago” like your first mob hit.
Two pleasures here: the colorful figure in lead bouquet (which I don’t recall having heard before) and the specialized senses of mob and hit in the conventionalized compound mob hit.
On the latter, the relevant subentries from NOAD2:
mob (usu. the Mob) the Mafia or a similar criminal organization
hit informal a murder, typically one planned and carried out by a criminal organization
Background on Dorfman, from Wikipedia:
Allen Dorfman (January 6, 1923, Detroit, Michigan – January 20, 1983 Lincolnshire, Illinois) was an insurance company owner, and a consultant to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Central States Pension Fund. He was a close associate of longtime IBT President Jimmy Hoffa and associated with the Chicago Outfit. Dorfman was convicted on several felony counts, and was violently murdered in 1983.
And on the hotel:
The Purple Hotel, located at the corner of Lincoln and Touhy avenues, has a place in local lore. The hotel was built in 1960 by the Hyatt Corp. and was originally called the Lincolnwood Hyatt House. Well-known Chicago pianist Myles Greene, who now performs at Tuscany’s in Oak Brook, was the first performer to open in the hotel 40 years ago. In 1983, convicted mobster-insurance executive Allen Dorfman was gunned down in the hotel parking lot. The murder has never been solved. The hotel changed hands numerous times after the infamous crime, first becoming a Radisson, and then a Ramada. But vaguely criminal associations have nonetheless persisted, especially after prominent reports of “wild”, “drug-fueled” parties taking place in 2004 in connection with allegations of political fixing. Since 2004, it has been independent, simply calling itself by the name locals have used for years: the “Purple Hotel.” The name came about because of the building’s distinctive purple facade, somewhat radical for earth-toned suburbia. (Wikipedia link)
Today is demolition day for the hotel.
August 27, 2013 at 8:13 am |
Seeing the subject line and the first sentence, I was expecting a different meaning of “colorful”.