I was trying to orient myself coming out of the subway in the heart of downtown Chicago, and I said "ah, the lake is over there, so that's east." My companion

I was trying to orient myself coming out of the subway in the heart of downtown Chicago, and I said "ah, the lake is over there, so that's east." My companion was surprised that that was the landmark on which I seized, but I grew up in a rural area in which I could never develop a sense of direction, and felt huge relief when I moved to Chicago and there were two landmarks (the, ahem, Sears tower and the lake) that could be used for navigation almost anywhere in the city.