American Diabetes Association, meet Barbra Streisand

By kicking researchers out of a conference because they were distributing copies of an anti-Trump editorial published in their own journal, the ADA assured that many more will see it

ericzorn.substack.com

6-11-2026

This week:

• The editorial the American Diabetes Association didn’t want distributed at its conference

• Last week’s winning quip

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked

• That’s so Brandon! — An update on how there’s no update on progress to replace ShotSpotter

• Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go

• Squaring up the news — Where Charlie Meyerson tells readers where to go

• Media notes

• Quotables — A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately

• Quips — The winning visual jokes and this week’s contest finalists

• Good Sports — How to fix baseball

• Green Lights — A reader recommends “Who Killed the Montreal Expos”

Let’s show the American Diabetes Association what ‘The Streisand Effect’ is all about!

Share this link widely: “Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!”

It’s the editorial that was being handed out by five attendees at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions conference in New Orleans last week until security personnel confiscated the badges of those distributing the editorial and removed them from the conference.

From the Sun-Times

Justin Ryder, a pediatric obesity specialist who works at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital, was among the five. … The police told Ryder and the others they would be arrested if they tried to return. Ryder, who has attended the annual conference for the last decade, said it’s normal to see people passing out materials to participants at the conference. … In a statement to MedPage Today, the organization said five attendees were removed for violating the meeting’s code of conduct.

From the Tribune:

The editorial criticizes the Trump administration’s proposed request to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health’s 2027 budget, along with the “reduction in opportunities for scientists with appropriate expertise to continue their work and drive new science.” The criticism is the latest against the administration’s cuts to the healthcare system that advocates say could affect patients across the country facing a range of ailments, including those living with HIV or AIDS in Illinois and other states.

The irony is that the editorial was published in “Diabetes Care,” the ADA’s own journal. But sensitivities appear to have been heightened because Donald Trump’s director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, was scheduled to speak at the conference.

The subsequent statement from the ADA about the ousters — “These actions were taken because of the violation of conference policies regarding unauthorized distribution of materials —not because of the viewpoints expressed in those materials” — is therefore less than persuasive.

From the editorial:

Plugging the concept that diabetes is curable by “changing the food source” simply ignores the large body of work that has demonstrated that it is not merely a disease of poor nutrition and the immense challenges of reinventing the food industry. Peddling conspiracy theories represents failures by officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whose primary goal is to protect our health. These two examples represent just two of the broken promises made by the current HHS leadership during their confirmation hearings. And, despite promising oversight, representatives on Capitol Hill have shirked their responsibility and have allowed the country to continue along misguided paths that even they recognized as irresponsible ... We call on all concerned citizens of our beloved country to contact their congressional representatives to declare their alarm about what is happening at HHS. We also request that all organizations established to ensure the health and welfare of U.S. citizens clearly and loudly make their voices heard and declare their alarm about what is happening at HHS. It is no longer enough to stand idly by or work behind the scenes with lawmakers. Moreover, it is no longer appropriate to fret about political backlash. Now is the time to recognize and fight to reverse the spiraling fall of the United States of America’s status as the foremost nation in health care innovation. As a nation, we must continue to believe in ensuring better health for all.

“The Streisand Effect” is a term for how high-profile attempts to counter or suppress statements or information are highly likely to amplify them instead.

The phenomenon takes its name from the lawsuit filed in 2003 by singer Barbra Streisand alleging invasion of privacy because a photo of her clifftop mansion in Malibu appeared in a California Coastal Records Project archive. Only six people had viewed the photo before she filed the suit, but nearly half a million people viewed it after news coverage of the suit called attention to that suit (which got tossed, of course).

You know what to do.

Last week’s winning quip

People crying about stepping on Legos have clearly never heard of jacks. — unknown

Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-jokes poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll.

News & Views

News: The Ike was shut down for nine hours last Thursday as officials investigated a deadly explosion inside an SUV.

View: The care with which police studied the scene of what was initially a mysterious and potentially troubling death was matched by the indifference shown toward the motorists who were stranded on the major east-west expressway. Yes, a man was dead — later it turned out he was transporting commercial-grade fireworks and one detonated inside the car, but initially investigators didn’t know if he’d been the victim of a bomber or maybe even a sniper — and that took precedence.

But leaving people trapped in their cars for hours on a hot day poses its own health and safety issues, and police needed to do a better job of quickly deploying officers to direct traffic off the road and turn cars around so they, too, can exit. A both/and response does not seem like too much to ask.

I received hundreds of comments when I posted this observation to Facebook. Here’s a representative one from Sally Gar:

There was no police presence visible onsite before the blockade to direct traffic off the roadway in any type of orderly manner whatsoever, and safety definitely felt compromised as a driver. Compounding the problem--people driving on the shoulder and then creating a gridlock there. This scenario presented a dangerous blockade and no way for emergency vehicles to gain access to the scene. I hope there were some lessons learned here yesterday by law enforcement that might help alleviate this type of situation in the future. But I’m not holding my breath! That said, condolences to the victim and his family for their tragedy. The rest of us are doing OK.

A significant number of commenters disagreed with my complaint on behalf of those stuck in their cars for hours, saying I was expecting too much from law enforcement and was insensitive to the fact that a man was dead. Some objectors simply directed profanity and bile at me, which was a handy way for me to identify and block assholes and trolls. I’m fine with dissent, but abuse isn’t dissent, and far too many venomous people on social media fail to realize that.

News: A grand juror told a federal prosecutor that her case against the ‘Broadview Six’ was a ‘crock of shit.’

View: Sometimes, swearing is very effective. The headline writers at the daily papers had fun with the revelation in the just-released transcripts from the controversial and now-dismissed case.

“Grand juror called case ‘a crock of s- - -,” read the front page headline in the Sun-Times. “I thought it was a crock of (expletive)” said the headline across the front page of the Tribune.

The colorful language almost certainly elevated the stories (Tribune) (Sun-Times) and drew more attention to them than if the nameless grand juror had said of the case, “I thought it was quite unpersuasive.”

Remember this next time someone tells you that cursing is simply an exhibition of poor verbal skills or a lack of imagination.

News: Veteran Old Town School of Folk Music teacher Skip Landt has died at age 89.

View: I will miss the joy and spirit he brought to the local music scene. Landt, who specialized in harmonica and banjo, taught at the school for more than 40 years and was a retired administrator with the City Colleges of Chicago. He and I became acquainted when our kids were in grade school together.

Old Town School education director John Huber wrote this in an email to staff Wednesday:

I was able to visit Skip in the hospital last week, and though he was frail he still insisted on talking about the Old Town School, about our history, and about our future. Skip was always thinking about our school. He was deeply committed to the school and to the legacy set forth by our founders. He was a link in a chain that stretches back to the first days of our school. …

Skip was committed and dedicated to community music making. In addition to teaching harmonica and ensemble classes and playing banjo, Skip founded and led a free jam session on Wednesday afternoon for many, many years. In a beautiful tribute to Skip’s legacy that jam met today and is making music together as I type this note.

Skip would not be happy if I didn’t mention this: Come join us for a class, for a jam, for a second half, and remember that what we do is incredibly special and very important.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, June 15, at 1 p.m. at Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, 303 Dodge Ave., Evanston. It will be live-streamed on Zoom.

That’s So Brandon!

Block Club Chicago: “More Than A Year After Mayor Promised ShotSpotter Replacement, Alders Demand: ‘What’s Taking So Long?’”

Mayor Brandon Johnson ended the city’s contract with ShotSpotter in September 2024. As ShotSpotter began to go dark in Chicago, the mayor put out a “request for information” for alternative first responder technology. At the time, he said he was looking for “better options that save more lives.” …

“For a highly technical procurement such as this, exact timelines cannot be provided, however a typical timeline is at least two years,” Sha-Narah Bratt, director of public affairs for the city’s Department of Procurement, said in an email to Block Club. …

During a June 3 press appearance, Johnson said his team is moving forward with selecting new gunshot detection technology.

“We’ve gone through an incredibly thorough vetting process, and here’s why we’ve been so thorough: Two administrations ago did not go through as comprehensive of a process as I’m going through, and what did we get? We got junk; it was an ineffective tool,” he said.

I will remind you that 33 of the 50 alders did not consider ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology to be “junk” or merely “walkie talkies on poles,“ as the mayor has derisively said, and voted to keep ShotSpotter in place.

Their claim is not that ShotSpotter reduces crime, but that it brings aid more quickly to people who have been shot. The crime blog CWBChicago is keeping list of what it calls “Brandon’s Bodies.”

Since Johnson ended the city’s relationship with the gunfire detection system, CWB Chicago has identified 84 cases in which gunshot victims appear to have endured lengthy waits for emergency responses in areas that were previously monitored by ShotSpotter because nobody called 911 to report gunfire or because the reports that were made were too general to allow officers to locate the victims.

Those delayed responses may be costing lives. According to data maintained by HeyJackass.com, about 21% of people shot in Chicago this year have died from their injuries. But among the 84 victims involved in the delayed emergency response cases identified by CWB Chicago, the fatality rate (48 out of 84) is nearly three times higher at 59%.

Land of Linkin’

• Chicago Magazine: “You Killed the Car — A Ferrari and a distinctive Highland Park home combined for an iconic scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This adapted excerpt from a new book details how it all went (crashing) down.”

• Remember “The Monty Hall Problem”? In 2016, Priceonomics posted an excellent explanation of the logic required to solve it.

• Headline: “13-year-old charged in Grand Boulevard shooting that injured 4 boys.” I was pilloried five years ago for noting in a column that 13-year-olds are not inherently innocent and harmless, so the age of adolescents charged with violent crimes tends to jump out at me.

• About time: “Apple unveils an upgraded Siri voice assistant with new AI features.” The blunt stupidity of Siri has been annoying for a long while. Ask it anything more complicated than “How old is Timothée Chalamet?” or “What’s the temperature in Kalamazoo right now,” and it directs you to a website that may or may not answer your question. Soon Siri will harness the power of Google’s Gemini AI chatbot.

• Texas Tribune: “Talarico lands endorsement from lawyer who defended Paxton in impeachment, securities fraud cases.”

• At The Atlantic (gift links), Helen Lewis has been writing about toxic manifestations of masculinity: “The Republicans Who Impugn Talarico’s Manhood” and “The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet.”

• Flashback: “Helmet Head” is a 1990 “Saturday Night Live” sketch starring Rob Lowe as a man who is unable to remove the protective helmet he put on during “the war.” I’m surprised that “Have you tried soapy water?” never became a catchphrase or stock suggestion to anyone experiencing any sort of problem.

• Sun-Times: “Over 100 ex-federal prosecutors call out ‘failure of leadership’ by Chicago’s embattled U.S. attorney.”

• CBS News: “America’s birth rate has plunged. Are smartphones to blame?”

• On this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast, Cate Plys, Steve Bertrand and I joined host John Williams to discuss the news of the week, with an emphasis on politics. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720. Or look for the YouTube version that will be posted later in the week.

From the Picayune Plus:

• Our 5th-grader-in-chief spews playground venom at a veteran journalist

• The “p’”is silent in “comptroller.” Also, the “m” is pronounced as “n.” So the job title is pronounced “controller.”

• Poll: Assuming the Bears do go through with their plans to move to Indiana, what will the effect at the ballot box be on Illinois politicians who let it happen?

Squaring up the news

This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:

■ Scandal-plagued Graham Platner, the winner of the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this fall, delivered a stemwinder of a victory speech.

■ Greg Bovino, President Trump’s ousted Border Patrol commander who led shock troops through Chicago and the Twin Cities, is running for president—and his campaign website smacks of, in Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch’s words, “Nazi chic” (gift link).

■ “Broadview Six” defendant and Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw and his lawyer, Chris Parente, will join your Square columnist June 25 for a conversation about their tribulations. Admission will be free.

■ White House “freakout”: In the first published excerpt of a forthcoming tell-all book by reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, The New York Times (gift link) details the administration’s internal furor over the Epstein file revelations about Trump.

■ Former Better Government Association chief Andy Shaw: A Bears stadium in Hammond “would actually be a win for Illinois taxpayers, contractors, job-seekers and entrepreneurs.”

You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.

Media notes

Items:

• Journalist/storyteller/comedian Alzo Slade is the new judge and scorekeeper on NPR’s weekly game show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” He succeeds the retiring Bill Kurtis.

• Freelance Tribune classical and jazz critic Hannah Edgar has won the 2026 William Littler Prize for Music Criticism.

• Chicago Public Library cardholders can now receive free “full, unlimited digital access to New York Times” offerings online. The catch is that the access lasts just 24 hours, after which users have to go through the CPL site to sign in again. See here for a list of the library system’s other online news-related offerings.

• Ryan Baker, 56, CBS-2’s veteran sports director, is leaving the station later this month to become the president and CEO of First Tee Greater Chicago, an organization that uses golf to teach young people life skills.

To put it mildly

Tribune, June 5:

A post on Tuesday on one of Pritzker’s government social media accounts imprecisely claimed, “While Trump drives up gas prices, Illinois is pausing our motor fuel tax.” The budget plan would pause only the annual increase, not the entire gas tax. Drivers would continue to pay the current 48.3 per-gallon rate.

“Imprecisely” is an awfully nice term for it. Illinois is not pausing the collection of its motor fuel tax, as the story goes on to note. The plan to pause for six months the scheduled 1.3-cents-a-gallon increase in the motor fuel tax will save the average Chicago area motorist about $3; nothing for Pritzker to boast about.

Speaking of imprecision, I spat out my coffee at this paragraph from an Associated Press story published in Tuesday’s Tribune:

The new attacks prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to call for an immediate stop to fighting between Israel and Iran. He also promised that a final deal to end the war in the Middle East was on the way, although the president’s predictions of an agreement with Iran have frequently failed to materialize.

Evidently the wire service regretted this massive understatement, as the online version of the article does not include the second sentence.

“Frequently failed to materialize”? How about “never materialized?” See “‘Very close’, ‘almost done’, ‘next few days’: How many times has Trump predicted an Iran deal that never arrived?”

Quotables

A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately

Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico — You know, there’s a lot of talk in this campaign about what makes a “real man.” … Call me old-fashioned, but a man takes responsibility. He upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors. And he does what’s right even when no one is watching. Here’s what real men don’t do: They don’t lie and cheat their way through life. They don’t enrich themselves by stealing from other people, and they don’t sell their soul to the highest bidder. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.

Jake Vig — Democrats: We are not the party of absolutes. We welcome nuanced positions on complex issues. Me: [offers a nuanced position on a complex issue]
Democrats: Not like that.

Jimmy Kimmel — You'd think Trump would be rooting for the Spurs, right? It's what got him out of Vietnam.

Neil Steinberg — Hope can uplift. Or tantalize. Inspire. Or torment. Hope is the last coin in your pocket when all your money is spent.

Frank Kern in a letter to the Tribune about the Bears possibly moving their home stadium to Hammond, Indiana — Sorry, but we’re not driving from the western and northern suburbs into the Loop, then through the South Side and across the border, so we can enjoy a night out among the steel mills, gun shops and tattoo parlors, only to reverse the trip at the end of the evening.

Jay Gerak in a letter to the Tribune about the Bears possibly moving their home stadium to Hammond, Indiana — Let Indiana taxpayers subsidize a stadium built on a slag heap. They are the proverbial dog that caught the passing car — they now have to live with their impulsive decision. They will rue the day.

Benjamin Recchie in a letter to the Sun-Times about the Bears possibly moving their home stadium to Hammond, Indiana — I credit all (Illinois’) political leaders for making the tough decision to let the team go waste Indiana’s money instead of wasting ours. A sincere thank you to all of them is in order, as well as condolences to the people of Indiana.

David Frum in The Atlantic — You might have thought that presiding over (a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence) would be an easy success for Trump. He is a showman, after all. He loves parades and extravaganzas. It was all an easy layup, a gimme, a chance for a now-unpopular second-term president to reinvent himself as the leader of all of the American people. The only thing he had to do was—for once in his life—not act like an insane egomaniac. He couldn’t do it.

U.S. Dept. of Justice Attorney Yaakov Roth, when asked by a federal judge if nothing could be done if Donald Trump decided to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty — I think that’s right, yes.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Bobert, R-Colo. — I asked myself … as a Christian, do I want to get involved in politics at this level? And, really, when I prayed about it, there wasn’t much of an option. God made it very clear that there were important conversations taking place at tables that I needed to be sat at.

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D- Calif. — Donald Trump has repeatedly fallen asleep at multiple Cabinet meetings, at multiple White House events, at a Memorial Day ceremony, and most recently at a very loud and raucous New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs game last night. The White House needs to come clean with the American people. They need to explain why Trump keeps going to the hospital and why they keep giving him cognitive tests. The American people deserve the truth.

Donald Trump, referencing his pardon of Troy Lake, who violated the federal Clean Air Act — not in performing standard maintenance or fixing a personal vehicle but in systematically removing federally mandated emissions hardware at his repair shop — Nobody’s allowed to fix their car. They gave a man 7 years in jail actually because he fixed his own car

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Republican primary victory speech Tuesday night — I want to thank the big guy. God. Trump comes later. Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re going to start with him.

CNN’s Daniel Dale — President Trump said he has no idea “where the hell” he got his “stat” that Black unemployment is doing better than ever before. That’s probably because the “stat” is fake. The Black unemployment rate is higher now than it was when Trump returned to office. …In fact, higher than it was in each of the last 34 months of Biden’s term.

Donald Trump, reacting Wednesday to the news that the annual rate of inflation is now 4.2%, up from 2.5% when he took office — I love the inflation.

Quips

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest:

Anyone can vote in the contest, but to have it delivered fresh to your email inbox each Tuesday morning along with the rest of the Picayune Plus, to participate in the comment forums and to ease your conscience, you can become a paid supporter:

The new nominees for Quip of the Week:

• Forty years ago today, l asked my childhood sweetheart, my best friend and the most gorgeous woman l know to marry me. All three said no. — @robertwlk

• You know you’re over 50 when you have “upstairs ibuprofen” and “downstairs ibuprofen.” — @elainesim28

• I can’t believe I spent my childhood riding around on an acoustic bike. — @prufrockluvsong.bsky.social

• First date idea: We need to talk. — @_NatalieWould

• It takes more muscles to frown than to smile, but it’s totally worth it. — @jakevig.bsky.social

• Me: This is the worst escape room ever. Her: So this is a parent-teacher conference. — @daddyjew@bsky.social

• I told myself I should stop drinking. But I’m not going to listen to some drunk who talks to himself. — @igreengod

• [whispering to crying baby] “You have no idea.” — @viktorwinetrout.bsky.social

• My daughters brought me a list of potential outdoor activities that they thought I might enjoy for Father’s Day, and it almost brought me to tears. Because, wow, these people do not know me at all. — @MelvinofYork

• Flesh Eating Screw Worm sounds like the co-headliner at this year’s Riot Fest. — @RickAaron

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

Good Sports

Proposed rule changes for baseball

Reader Mike Koetting proposed this rule change in baseball:

When a player gets hit by a pitch, his team should have the opportunity to designate a pinch runner, while still allowing the player who was hit to stay in the game.

I like it! Adding a bit of extra punishment for hitting a batter — a presumptively faster runner would be more likely to score — would likely curtail beanballing.

Another rule change I’d like to see is disallowing relief pitchers to warm up from the mound unless the pitcher being removed has been injured. In no other sport does a substitute get to enter the game and warm up for a minute. Can you imagine a placekicker coming onto the field and getting five or six practice kicks before the game resumed? Or a basketball player coming off the bench and getting a dozen shots just to loosen up?

I put out a call for other proposed changes, but disallowed “get rid of the designated hitter,” “eliminate the pitch clock” or other suggestions to rescind relatively new rules as well as the “baseball is perfect as it is!” responses. Here are some of the replies:

• Richard Cahan — No more infield fly rule. Make the most boring play in baseball into the most exiting.

• Bruce Weber — Lower the mound from 10 inches to 6 inches. Pitchers are too far ahead of the hitters at this point. In 2000, there were a total of 30,365 strikeouts. Last year, 42,823.

• Dave Boim — MLB needs more offense. Allow one designated player to bat in the 9th inning — manager’s choice as to when in the inning — regardless of that player’s place in the actual batting order. Yankees example: Aaron Judge could bat in the 9th even though the scheduled batters for the ninth are the 7th, 8th, and 9th hitters in the batting order.

• Peter Labella — Hitting a batter should bring an automatic ejection from the game for the pitcher, intentional or not.

• Richard Hong — When you hit a home run, you get to bat again. (After all, the bases are cleared anyway. Doesn’t really have any other impact.) So theoretically you could just keep hitting dinger after dinger.

• Jerry Kolb — For extra innings, put the automatic runner on first base to start the 10th inning, second base to start the 11th, then third base to start the 12th inning. If neither team has won by then, decide the game with a home run derby

• James Paskiewicz — Eliminate the balk. No one besides umpires recognizes it. Then limit the number of times a pitcher can throw to a base.

• Mary Weidlich Wolf — Managers should not wear uniforms. I understand why they do, since they go on the field, but for many managers, it’s just not a good look.

• Richard Sweet — Here’s an administrative suggestion: Any trade would be binding for an entire year. No more of this short-term rental (second half of season only) crap that endangers mid and small-market teams who have essentially become unwitting wholesale distributors for the mega market teams such as New York, L.A, and Chicago. The 26 other teams function as the continuous talent supply chain for the Dodgers, the Cubs, the Yankees, and the Mets. That’s gotta stop! But I doubt the powerful Player’s Union really cares enough to do anything about it. It’s all about the money.

• PJ Bernstein — I’d like to see all balls and strikes called by the Automatic Ball Strike (ABS) system.

• Fred — To deal with pitching dominance, move the pitcher’s mound back 3 inches.

• Chris Newman — A hit batter should get two bases. Putting a runner in scoring position might make a pitcher think twice about retaliation

The ugly game

Some call soccer “the beautiful game” for its emphasis on grace, skill and precision. In my view, basketball requires more grace, skill and precision than soccer and is potentially more deserving of the honorific. But …

Basketball, particularly the brand on display in the NBA, is ugly, particularly near the basket where players grab and shove and bash one another while referees call fouls in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. If the refs called the game by the book, most players would foul out by the second half and concession workers would have to suit up.

Complaints about brutality in the NBA go back at least 62 years — here’s a 1964 essay “Is Pro Basketball Getting Too Rough?” — and some say the permissible violence was worse in the late 1990s than it is today. This guy is among those who’d like to see the game be more like “hockey without the ice.”

Basketball was not designed as a contact sport (though some contact is inevitable), yet it now is one, particularly at the professional level. That’s among the reasons I, for one, don’t watch even a single quarter until the playoffs.

Speaking of soccer …

• Kansas City Star: FIFA booked tens of thousands of KC hotel rooms for World Cup, then canceled 75%

• The Daily Beast: “Thousands of World Cup Tickets Remain Unsold as Prices Climb.”

• New York Times (gift link): “The Chicago mayor who said ‘no’ to the World Cup – a dome on Soldier Field was the last straw “

• Associated Press: “FIFA’s Infantino defends World Cup ticket prices, says fans ‘should chill’ about ref denied US entry.”

Green Lights

Green Lights features recommendations from me and readers of songs, TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts, products and other diversions that, with only rare exceptions, can be enjoyed at home.

This week, in light of the news that the Bears may move over the border into Indiana, reader Ted B. green-lights the Netflix documentary “Who Killed the Montreal Expos?”

The Expos were a Major League Baseball franchise from 1969 to 2004, after which they became the Washington (D.C.) Nationals. Figuring out who or what killed the team “is like a big game of Clue,” as the promo says.

---

Green lights from “The Mincing Rascals” podcast panel:

• John Williams — “Pressure,” a new feature film about the build-up to D-Day.

• Cate Plys — Ameitech acrylic clear, double-sided picture frames and a similar product from Mammoth.

• Steve Bertrand — “The Four Seasons” remake on Netflix (Cate and John did not like).

• Eric Zorn — “Pernille,” a Norwegian comedy/drama on Netflix. (You can read the subtitles or change the settings and hear the dialogue in English.)

Info

I am a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. I began publishing the Picayune Sentinel on Sept. 9, 2021, roughly two and a half months after I took a buyout from the newspaper. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.

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