Every year I mean to do my own Peep diorama and every year I forget...
Note that the equation in the upper left-hand corner was famously incorrect in the original photo. It has been reproduced in its incorrect form, but the marshmallow Fermi was obviously embarrassed enough to hide part of the equation with his ear
Somehow, it fails to capture the smoke fogged air (absent since the Chicago smoking-ban, I hear, but I haven't been in since well before then), the stupidly loud jukebox, or the general pseudo-dive ambience, but it's a nice tribute all the same.
And, my personal favorite:
December 2, 1942, 3:36 PM: Enrico Fermi, Arthur Compton, and other Manhattan Project scientists watch from the balcony of a squash court under the west stands of Stagg Field as George Weil withdraws the control rods on Chicago Pile 1 and starts the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. The 'liquid-control squad' – no chickens, they – stand poised above the pile, ready to flood it with a cadmium-salt solution if all other safeguards fail.
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