Anything outside of "The Loop" formed be the elevated railway in downtown Chicago. Out of The Loop is a rather large region because the loop is only a few sqare miles. Most of Chicago is out of the loop. Most of Illinois is out of the loop. Most of the Midwest is out of the loop. Most of the United States is out of the loop. Indeed, most of North America and planet Earth are out of the loop. Chances are that you, too, are out of the loop.

A phrase made out-of-Chicago-popular by 1988 presidential candidate George Herbert Walker Bush, former Director of Central Intelligence, former ambassador to China, and all-around Well-Connected Man - he was also, at the time, Ronald Reagan's vice president. "I was out of the loop" was his response to questions about how he could possibly say he knew nothing ("...absolutely no-thing! - Sgt. Schultz, from Hogan's Heroes) about Iran-Contra.