The Ledge

I hate you. I am not going to be able to sleep now.

aaaaagggghhhh!!! This is almost as bad as the glass floor over the Grand Canyon.

@homofascist: Darling, you and I can sit a safe distance of 10 feet away and drink martinis while Bloggie walks out to the edge.

@homofascist: Meh – get over it. I once worked on the 51st floor of the Chrysler Building, and I leaned out the window (legs held by a paralegal) to get a few photographs. If I can do that, you can do this.

Ha, I just wrote the same thing on my Twitter RTing an article about this – that I am 100 percent sure I’d shit myself.

@blogenfreude: NOT the same thing AT ALL. Leaning out is not the same thing as stepping out.

@blogenfreude: @RomeGirl: You’re all insane. My only irrational fear in this world is of heights, and I couldn’t make it past 32 seconds without my HR going from 60 to 100.

There are claw marks on the side of one of the temples at Tikal where I was trapped for what seemed like hours after sparking a few bowls and watching howler monkeys. Never forget!

I pooped myself just looking at the video.

@RomeGirl: You are probably right. I wonder if I could actually step out onto the thing. Probably not.

Insider tip: the Sears Tower is tourist-trap suckitude. So is the John Hancock Observatory. Both charge you to ride up the elevator. If you ever find yourself in Chicago, and you absolutely positively have to go high in the sky, go instead to the Signature Room — which is (a) one floor above the Hanock Observatory, and (b) free. You do have to buy a drink — an overpriced one at that — but it’s a discount over the bells and whistles at the viewing decks.

You’re welcome.

@chicago bureau: I had a crappy martini once at the Signature Room – they killed the drink with too much sweet vermouth. Still have the plastic olive spear with the Hancock Building on it.

SanFranLefty: See, they always seem to do Manhattans well. (N.B.: I’ve been there twice in six years.) Unless you put an iceberg in the glass, it is fairly hard to screw up whiskey.

@SanFranLefty: My VT was mostly T … I recall asking them to pump up the volume. The date was also a disappoinment.

Looks like fun!

I hate heights and if my parents took me to see that when I was a kid then you would have to pry my fingers from the elevator doors.

Nothing compared to the CN Tower for sheer terror.

@chicago bureau: I’ve been using the Signature Room trick with anyone who’s come to visit me since I moved here. Sucky drinks but an incredible (and free) view–especially from the women’s bathroom, where the wall opposite the stalls is nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows.

However, I might be tempted back to the Sears *ehem* Willis Tower for this. It looks awesome! I have no fear of heights as long as I’m behind thick glass and tempered steel. I have teh trust in modern engineering, I guess. Mellbell, you come visit and we’ll go!

@flippin eck: I got your modern engineering right here.

@blogenfreude: Thanks for that. Have I mentioned my irrational fear of bridges and freeway ramps that curve way the hell up over nothing? Driving in large cities is a nightmare for me, and requires planning routes that minimize the number of bridges and freeway junctions I have to negotiate. When I’m driving across those things, I say Hail Marys constantly until I reach the other side just to keep from having a full-on panic attack in the middle of traffic.

@Mistress Cynica: I had no trouble working on the 51st flr of Chrysler. OTOH – Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Goethels Bridge (narrow) freak me out a bit.

Maybe I was just indoctrinated early. My parents took us on the Mackinaw Bridge Walk on Labor Day several times when I was little. I loved the grid section, where you could see down past your feet to the water.