JUL 6, postal places, USA: Champaign, IL

a) Reprise from material posted on July 6 in previous years ...

2020: new world palindromes, #27,28 (wordplay)
2021: domestic hazards, dangerous utensils (poem) 
2022: binomial phrases, down and out (poem)
2023: ambulatory verse, climb (poem)

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b) Today's Offering (Jul 6, 2024):

Authors' Note: 

Chicagoan: resident of Chicago, IL

urbane: sophisticated, elegant, worldly

No banana!: slang for 'not prize-winning'

No pain, no gain: slang phrase indicating hard work as a requirement for advancement.

IL is the official abbreviation for the American state of Illinois, in which two neighboring towns, Champaign, population 88,000 and Urbana, population 38,000, make up the metropolitan area of Champaign-Urbana, located 135 miles (215 km) south of the megalopolis of Chicago. The names of both towns, dating from the nineteenth century, relate to earlier settlements in the nearby state of Ohio. Ultimately, the name, derived from archaic French, relates to a place 'in the countryside'.

Champaign-Urbana, IL is home to the flagship campus of the University of Illinois, and offers an appropriate spectrum of cultural opportunities. Surrounded by an extensive, flat, mid-west farming district, it is on occasion, as here, disparaged by residents of Chicago for its lack of "urbanity".

 At one swell foop, you can review all our postal poems about intriguing places in the USA and Canada, by proceeding to the encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !