The Loop, the 32nd of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and the main part of its downtown. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in North America after Midtown Manhattan in New York City and contains the world headquarters and regional offices of several global and national businesses, retail establishments, restaurants and theaters, as well as many of Chicago's most famous attractions, it is home to Chicago's City Hall, the seat of Cook County, numerous offices of other levels of government and consulates of foreign nations. It is the location of the intersection of State Street and Madison Street, the origin of the Chicago street grid since 1909; the Loop community area is bounded on the north and west by the Chicago River, on the east by Lake Michigan, on the south by Roosevelt Road, although the commercial core has expanded into adjacent community areas. The United States Army erected Fort Dearborn in 1803 in what is now the Loop, the first settlement in the area sponsored by the United States.

When Chicago and Cook County were incorporated in the 1830s the area was selected as the site of their respective seats. Mixed, the character of the area became commercial starting in the 1870s after it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. At that time some of the world's earliest skyscrapers were constructed in the area, starting a legacy of architecture in the area that continues to this day. In the late 19th century cable car turnarounds and a prominent elevated railway loop encircled the area, giving the Loop its name. Starting in the 1920s many highways were constructed in the Loop, most prominently U. S. Route 66. Dominated by offices, the Loop's residential population boomed during the latter 20th century and first decades of the 21st; some believe the origin of the term Loop is derived from the cable car, those of two lines that shared a loop, constructed in 1882, bounded by Van Buren, Wabash and Lake. Other research has concluded that "the Loop" was not used as a proper noun until after the 1895–97 construction of the Union elevated railway loop.

In what is now the Loop, on the south bank of the Chicago River near today's Michigan Avenue Bridge, the United States Army erected Fort Dearborn in 1803, the first settlement in the area sponsored by the United States. When Chicago was platted in 1830 by the surveyor James Thompson, it included what is now the Loop north of Madison Street and west of State Street; the Sauganash Hotel, the first hotel in Chicago, was built in 1831 near Wolf Point at what is now the northwestern corner of the Loop. When Cook County was incorporated in 1831, the first meeting of its government was held at Fort Dearborn with two representatives from Chicago and one from Naperville. Except for the Fort Dearborn reservation and land reclaimed from Lake Michigan, the entirety of what is now the Loop was part of the Town of Chicago when it was incorporated in 1833; the area was bustling by the end of the 1830s. Lake Street started to be a center for retail at that time, until it was eclipsed by State Street in the 1850s.

By 1948 an estimated one million people went from the Loop each day. Afterwards, suburbanization caused a decrease in the area's importance. Starting in the 1960s, the presence of an upscale shopping district caused the area's fortunes to increase; the Loop's population has boomed in recent years. The Loop, along with the rest of downtown Chicago, is the second largest commercial business district in the United States after New York City's Midtown Manhattan, its financial district near LaSalle Street is home to the CME Group's Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Aon Corporation maintains an office in the Aon Center. Chase Tower houses the headquarters of Exelon. United Airlines has its headquarters in Willis Tower, having moved its headquarters to Chicago from suburban Elk Grove Township in early 2007. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has its headquarters in the Michigan Plaza complex. Sidley Austin has an office in the Loop; the Chicago Loop Alliance is located at 55 West Monroe, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is located in an office in the Aon Center, the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago has an office in 35 East Wacker, the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in the United States is located in an office at 303 East Wacker Drive, the US Mexico Chamber of Commerce Mid-America Chapter is located in an office in One Prudential Plaza.

McDonald's was headquartered in the Loop until 1971. When Bank One Corporation existed, its headquarters were in the Bank One Plaza, now Chase Tower; when Amoco existed, its headquarters were in the Amoco Building, now the Aon Center. The plurality of Loop residents, 39 percent work there. 27.5 percent work outside of Chicago. 11.2, 8.3, 1.9 percent work in the Near North Side, the Near West Side, Hyde Park. The plurality of those employed within the Loop, at 44 percent, live outside of Chicago; the community area of Lake View is the second most prevalent residence, housing 4.5 percent of Loop employees. The Near North Side, Lincoln Park, West Town house 3.8, 2.8, 2.7 percent of those working in the Loop. The professional sector is the largest source of employment of both Loop residents and Loop employees, at 21.5 and 24.5 percent. Finance was the second most common employment for both groups, at 13.7 and 17.9

An anthropophage or anthropophagus was a member of a mythical race of cannibals described first by Herodotus in his Histories as androphagi, by other authors, including the playwright William Shakespeare. The word first appears in English around 1552. In popular culture, the anthropophagus is sometimes depicted as a being without a head, but instead have their faces on the torso; this may be a misinterpretation based on Shakespeare's writings in Othello, where the anthropophagi are mistaken to be described by the immediate following line, "and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." In reality, the line refers to a separate, different race of mythical beings known as the Blemmyes, who are indeed said to have no head, have their facial features on the chest. People spell this creature's name in several different ways,'anthropophagi' or'anthropophage' being two examples. Herodotus first wrote of androphagoi in his Histories, where he described them as one of several tribes near Scythia.

An extra note indicates that the androphagoi are cannibals, as reflected in their name: The manners of the Anthropophagi are more savage than those of any other race. They neither are governed, by any laws, they are nomads, their dress is Scythian. Unlike any other nation in these parts, they are cannibals. Pliny the Elder wrote in his Naturalis Historia that the same cannibals near Scythia wore the scalps of men on their chest; the Anthropophagi, whom we have mentioned as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, according to the account of Isigonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human skulls, placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins. Ammianus Marcellinus wrote in his Res Gestae a description of the Anthropophagi. Next to these are the Melanchlamae and the Anthropophagi, who roam about upon different tracts of land and live on human flesh, and these men are so avoided on account of their horrid food, that all the tribes which were their neighbours have removed to a distance from them.

And in this way the whole of that region to the north-east, till you come to the Chinese, is uninhabited. It is that the ancient Greek account influenced writers; the most famous usage appears in William Shakespeare's Othello: And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. Shakespeare makes yet another reference to the cannibalist anthropophagus in the Merry Wives of Windsor: Go knock and call. American novelist Rick Yancey incorporates the myths of the Anthropophagi in his 2010 release The Monstrumologist. Cannibalism Blemmyes Oxford English Dictionary This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed.. "article name needed". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. James and John Knapton, et al

Cecil Marion Cowles was an American pianist and actress. She played the piano as well as composed music. Cowles made her professional debut in a musical in 1911. Cowles was known as a child prodigy, her mother was a well known musician and her father had the ability to play what he heard, just like Cowles was able to do from a young age. She studied at the Von Einde School in New York and at the Von Meyernick School in California, her piano instructors were Hugo Mansfeldt and Sigismund Stojowski, with her composition being taught by Carl Deis. On February 8, 1907, Thomas Nunan of The San Francisco Examiner wrote that she is not a prodigy, but rather a genius. At the time of the article's publication, Cowles was 14 years old and had written 24 compositions, including one of an opera and a ragtime piece; the night before the San Francisco Examiner article was published, she played the piano at Lyric Hall to a full audience. There was a reception held for Cowles at the end of her recital which had most of the audience attend, an affair that lasted for over 30 minutes.

On November 22, 1910, Cowles played her own compositions at a Century Club Music Hall concert and the event was called "one of the memorable music affairs of the season" by The San Francisco Call. At the concert, her songs were sung by "distinguished soprano soloist" Helen Colburn Heath. Cowles made her first professional appearance on August 20, 1911, at the Savoy Theatre as a duchess in the musical The Rich Mr. Guggenhelmer, in which she sang one of her own songs. Cowles has an entry in the book Fifty local prodigies, 1906–1940, a selection of prodigies from San Francisco. San Francisco Examiner reporter Thomas Nunan wrote, "Prodigies are numerous, but Cecil Cowles is a genius, children of her class are few." Nunan wrote a November 23, 1910, article for the same newspaper, stating that Cowles is a genius at 17 years old. People, including Cowles, asked Nunan for his opinion on a comparison between her and Liza Lehmann which Nunan's opinion was that Miss Cowles is a far better pianist than is the English composer.

But the latter knows the grammar of music, the rhetoric of it, she knows what did Omar meant, until our young composer is schooled in these things she must not expect to outclass the greatest woman of English song