Honestly, I have never seen receptacles with the ground up. Is it a Chicago thing? I have worked and lived in several states from coast to coast and have always seen the ground on the bottom (with a few outliers that would stand out from the rest of the receptacles in the room.
From a safety viewpoint ( and that is what I do professionally ) the ground should be at the bottom. You want the ground connection to be the last thing that breaks if the plug starts to pull down and out due to gravity. Look at GFCI receptacles an example. For those GFCI with the push to test buttons in the horizontal position, the text is usually oriented to be read with the ground in the bottom position.
No, the sky is not falling - just chunks of it are.