Welcome to the Jungle(s)...

Aside from the fact that this blog is filled with petty complaints by me and my fellow blogger, we both know that our urban experiences are lucky. This was highlighted for me during a recent four-hour flight delay. To kill time, I bought a copy of The Jungle, that infamous exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry circa 1904*.

Debbie Downer! I should have bought Snooki's book. The Jungle was the Food Inc. of its day, except infinitely more foul and depressing. In brief, an immigrant family makes its way to the Union Stockyards and the members spend a couple of years destroying their souls and bodies amid cow guts, pig blood, and deadly, sharp things. The family is fictionalized but the basis of the story was very real.

The book got me thinking about how Chicago today, despite its flaws, is totally "out dangered" by itself a century ago. So it wins the battle of Chicago, but how does The Jungle compare to other notorious jungles? Let's investigate...

So there you have it. I guess naming the most dangerous jungle depends on what you might consider to be a worse predicament. I'd personally rather dodge groupies or climb across a log after an attractive outdoorsman than be eaten alive by rats. But that's just me. Readers, which jungle would you rather be stuck in?

*Not that anyone is going to care, but I should note that maybe only 25% of the book is about the Union Stockyards and the remaining 75% is about Upton Sinclair's giddy obsession with Socialism. There are a lot fewer guts in that section and it is way more boring.