Do you believe in Miracle Miles?

Trump and AI do. Chicagoans not so much

11-13-2025

This week:

• Trump’s minor gaffe comes along with a major threat to send troops into Chicago

• Last week’s winning quip

• Further thoughts on the Democrats’ surrender in the shutdown fight

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked

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

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

• Media notes — Ron Grossman bids farewell to Tribune readers, Indiana University’s student newspaper wins at least a temporary reprieve for their printed edition; Gregory Royal Pratt may not have my title!

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

• Cheer Chat — A new video from the “Songs of Good Cheer” rehearsal

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

• What’s on “The Mincing Rascals” podcast this week

• Good Sports — Could this be the solution to dull NBA All Star games?

• Green Light — “The Importance of Being Earnest” still amuses 130 years after it was first put on.

Trump’s minor gaffe comes along with a major threat

President Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday:

The Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Chicago, once considered our Nation’s BEST, now has a more than 28% vacancy factor, and is ready to call it quits unless something is done about the murder and crime, which is prevalent throughout the City. CALL IN THE TROOPS, FAST, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

Locals here had a good chuckle over Trump confusing Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping district on North Michigan Avenue with Miracle Mile shopping districts in Coral Gables, Florida, and elsewhere, implying that it’s some sort of mall. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker referenced the mistake and called Trump “demented,” though I’ve got to say it’s not even in the top 1,000 of Trump’s errors, lies and perverse exaggerations.

Block Club Chicago:

The corridor’s vacancy rate is 22.9 percent — not 28 — according to the Magnificent Mile Association, and data from the Police Department show crimes such as shootings, batteries, robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts have decreased year over year in the area. The Mag Mile has faced years of challenges as retail and tourism patterns shifted during the pandemic, but local business groups and city officials have pointed to new businesses and rising foot traffic as signs of the area’s recovery.

Vacancy rates for retail establishments have grown with the rise in online shopping, and vacancy rates for office space soared during the COVID-19 pandemic when working remotely became and then stayed popular. Troops can’t change that.

As for crime, it’s still too high along and adjacent to the Mag Mile, as it remains too high in the city. But calling in the U.S. military to patrol the sidewalks temporarily isn’t a realistic long-term way to further lower the crime rate. A better idea would be to funnel the money available for deploying the National Guard to afflicted cities so officials could hire more police officers as well as bolster crime-fighting programs in particularly hard-hit communities.

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Artificial Idiocy

Circling back to the “miracle”/“magnificent” mistake, allow me to share these responses I got from ChatGPT and Meta AI:

ChatGPT (left) and Meta AI (right)

We all know, or should know, that AI remains error-prone, and one should always check what it tells you against more reliable resources. But I’ve got to say that these days, I’m finding ChatGPT, in particular, to be a more useful engine than Google for preliminary research. It handles natural language questions with ease, provides an assortment of source links and even asks follow-up questions.

As long as these bots remain free, they are likely to supplant basic search engines and even Google’s “AI overview,” which is not as conversational as ChatGPT.

Better still, so far ChatGPT has passed what I call the chainsaw test. That’s where I input a question or comment indicating that I’m interested in buying a new chainsaw and wait to see how many chainsaw ads show up on my social media feeds. So far, after having engaged a week or so ago in an extended colloquy with ChatGPT about brands and prices of various types of chainsaws, I’ve not seen one come-on.

Related: “AI Country Song Rollicks To The Top Of US Sales Chart” (Agence France Presse). Listen to it here and tell me if you don’t agree that it has an “Old Town Road” sound and the vocals sound very real.

Last week’s winning quip

How to tell you’ve had a successful business meeting: 1) You ate free food. 2) You said one thing that was confusing enough to sound intelligent. 3) You left with no assigned action items. — @wheeltod.bsky.social

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

Further thoughts on the Democrats’ surrender in the shutdown fight

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the six-week government shutdown will result in the permanent loss of $11 billion in economic activity. So what did the Democratic Party get for withholding the necessary votes to open the government since Oct. 1?

Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka said it best:

I’ve never been a fan of government shutdowns and debt-ceiling brinkmanship, but once the Democrats decided to go all-in using what little leverage they have to try to prevent staggering increases in Obamacare premiums, I got on board. I figured that the Democratic leadership knew what they were up against and had an endgame in mind. (I know, silly me.)

I figured they’d taken the measure of President Donald Trump, of public opinion and of Republicans in Congress, and saw a strong possibility of a compromise agreement with those across the aisle from them who have never really shown much interest in protecting low-income people from medical bankruptcy.

I figured, in short, that they were fully ready for the battle ahead and could see around corners.

So, like many of the Democratic persuasion, I was vexed nearly to the limits of my thesaurus earlier this week when seven Democratic senators and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats crossed over and gave the Republicans just enough votes to end the shutdown.

For nothing. They got nothing. They lost.

Yes, they got a restoration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits (that would likely not have been threatened without the shutdown) and the rehiring of laid-off federal workers (who would not have been fired without the shutdown), along with a promise that the Republicans who control the Senate will allow for a vote on Obamacare tax subsidies next month (a vote that, if it passes in the Senate, may well die in the House).

Nothing, in other words, that they couldn’t have had weeks ago.

Even though public opinion was at least narrowly on their side. Even though Republicans were clobbered in the Nov. 4 election and Trump had blamed his party’s defeats on the shutdown. Still, they quit when they were ahead.

“It was working. “ said Comedy Central host Jon Stewart in a splenetic monologue Monday night. “Never, never, never has the gap between this administration and the people it claims to serve been so disgustingly visible than during this shutdown while the Trump administration was at the Supreme Court demanding that the court let them withhold food stamps from hungry Americans, Trump himself was at Mar a Lago with an all-you-can-eat shrimp and synchronized swimming buffet, while the President of Argentina danced the night away, secure in the $20 billion we recently gave his country.”

I’ve heard from readers and from listeners who heard me rail against the surrender on my weekly guest segment with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams and argue that the defectors — none of whom are running for reelection next year — did the compassionate thing when they recognized that Trump and the Republicans were never going to give in to their demands.

So they switched sides in order that low-income people wouldn’t starve, that federal workers would be back on the job and getting paychecks before the holidays, and that air travel would resume as normal.

“Standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work,” explained Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and voted to reopen the government.

Were the defectors surprised by this? Did they think it was going to be easy to extract a concession on health care for low-income people from the flinty Republicans and their cruel leader? Were they not ready to endure some chaos and pain to serve the longer-term goal? Did they change their minds about the importance of the cause? Did they not realize that starting fights you can’t win ultimately weakens you?

Apologists for the defectors who look on the bright side are saying that their seemingly feckless stand focused the voting public on the stark differences between Democrats and Republicans on health care, and will not only inspire Republican lawmakers to pass those Obamacare subsidies after all, but also boost the Democratic vote in the midterm elections a little less than a year from now.

All I can do now is hope they’re right.

News & Views

News: Operation Midway Blitz appears to be winding down, at least temporarily

View: To judge from the skimpy, incomplete details supplied by the Department of Homeland Security, it’s been awhile since Border Patrol agents plucked the low-hanging “worst of the worst” criminal undocumented immigrants. Their recent roundups of hardworking brown-skinned people just trying to earn an honest living has been increasingly ugly and unseemly.

The Tribune’s Jason Meisner reported from federal court Wednesday:

(U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings) read from a summary he and his law clerks compiled from more than 150 ongoing immigration petitions in federal court, where arrestees were challenging deportation. He said the circumstances of the arrests showed him that, by and large, Operation Midway Blitz was not targeting hardened criminals.

Of them, Cummings said, 54 people were arrested while at work, including 20 landscapers, four Uber or taxi drivers, and two street vendors. Another 20 were arrested while commuting to or from work, and nine were detained at a Home Depot or Menards, where they were presumably either seeking work or buying job supplies, the judge said.

Six were arrested “outside their home or a friend’s or relative’s home,” he said. Seven people were arrested at immigration hearings or appointments, and another 11 in public places such as shops, grocery stores, and even “a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru,” Cummings said.

“It is highly unlikely any of them are criminal gang members, drug traffickers or assorted ne’er-do-wells who fall under the category of what ICE has called ‘the worst of the worst,’” Cummings said.

No matter where you stand on this issue, know that such activity isn’t popular: A June 2025 Gallup poll found 78% support for “allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time,” up from 70% a year ago. A Pew Research Center poll taken the same month found 65% support for a similar proposition, while a Quinnipiac University poll also taken in June reported 64% support for a pathway to citizenship, up from 55% six months earlier.

So that’s my best guess as to a major reason why, according to numerous news reports, Operation Midway Blitz is now scaling back and agents are moving on, reportedly to Charlotte, North Carolina.

News: Trump Ramps Up Pressure on G.O.P. to Thwart Epstein Vote (New York Times gift link)

View: Trump must know or think that information that’s incredibly damaging to him is in the Department of Justice files related to Jeffrey Epstein — worse than the Access Hollywood tape, worse than the Stormy Daniels and E. Jean Carroll accusations. Otherwise why would he be ramping up pressure on legislators to keep the files under wraps and raging that the whole scandal is a hoax?

From the Times story:

Even if the resolution were to pass the Republican-led House, it would almost certainly be dead on arrival in the Senate, and Trump would surely veto it. But a vote on the matter could be a political disaster for him and many Republicans.

A man with nothing to hide would be leading the charge to release all the information and put the matter behind us. But Trump is clearly a man with a lot to hide.

News: U.S. Mint in Philadelphia presses final pennies as the 1-cent coin gets canceled.

View: It was well past high time for this to happen, and I give all the credit to President Donald Trump. But as The Associated Press reports, the shortage of pennies has “become a legal minefield for stores and retailers.”

In some states and cities, it is illegal to round up a transaction to the nearest nickel or dime because doing so would run afoul of laws that are supposed to place cash customers and debit and credit card customers on an equal playing field when it comes to item costs.

So, to avoid lawsuits, retailers are rounding down. While two or three cents may not seem like much, that extra change can add up over tens of thousands of transactions. A spokesman for Kwik Trip, the Midwest convenience store chain, says it has been rounding down every cash transaction to the nearest nickel. That’s expected to cost the company roughly $3 million this year. Some retailers are asking customers to give their change to local or affiliated charities at the cash register, in an effort to avoid pennies as well.

A bill currently pending in Congress, known as the Common Cents Act, calls for cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest nickel, up or down.

Populist politicians can be counted on to grandstand against any rounding up, but it simply makes sense to round to the nearest multiple of 5 cents, which will even out in the end for those times when you pay cash.

News: Darren Bailey announces he will stay in the race for the Republican nomination for governor despite the tragedy in his family.

View: The news that downstate Republican Darren Bailey lost his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in an Oct. 22 helicopter crash was heartbreaking and sickening, emotions that totally transcended politics. No one would have blamed Bailey if he’d bowed out of running for a second chance to challenge incumbent Democrat JB Pritzker — the rhetorical thrust and parry of politics is hard enough to endure without dealing with the unimaginable and enduring pain of such a loss.

I was surprised that the otherwise genuinely moving video announcement he and his wife posted Monday saying he was still in the race included a few partisan digs: Illinois is “a state that’s lost its way … crushed by bad government and broken promises,” he said. “Together we can bring back common sense, honesty and leadership that serves real people again.”

Land of Linkin’

• CWBChicago: “Kim Foxx assault trial takes a big gulp of drama: ‘outsized reaction’ or ‘outsized charges?’” A verdict from a judge is expected Monday in the trial of William Swetz who stands “accused of backing his pickup toward former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and throwing a Big Gulp of root beer in her face during a roadside confrontation” near Foxx’s home in south suburban Flossmoor.

• The Atlantic: “Rahm Emanuel … For President? He’d like you to keep an open mind.” (gift link)

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:

■ New York Times opinion essay from Kelly Karivalis “Dying shopping malls are the Roman ruins of our civilization (gift link)… Macy’s. Best Buy. Barnes & Noble. It feels silly to be sentimental about these dwindling commercial spaces, but I have no choice — this is the beautiful, dark, twisted America I grew up in!”

■ Cartoonist Ann Telnaes offers her design for a commemorative Trump coin.

■ Why Jimmy Kimmel canceled his show last Thursday: His bandleader—and friend since Kimmel was 9—Cleto Escobedo III died at 59. Late-night critic Bill Carter praises Kimmel’s on-air farewell to Escobedo for “grabbing viewers by the throat and the heart.” See it here or read a transcript here.

■ Still married: The Supreme Court’s rejected a call to reverse its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the country—bad news for ex-Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who faces a world of legal pain for her refusal to issue such marriage licenses.

■ Advisorator Jared Newman advises caution when buying a Roomba vacuum—because its maker’s running out of cash.

■ Tech sentinel Cory Doctorow shares a tale of three customer service chatbots: “Two were worse than useless, one betrayed its masters.”

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

Media notes

Ron Grossman pens “30” at the end of an amazing career at the Tribune

In “Farewell and thank you” (gift link), Ron Grossman, who turns 91 next Tuesday, announced that he’s closing his reporter’s pad for the last time:

I’m retiring, having written more than 2,000 articles and columns for Tempo, main news, Metro, Perspective, Opinion, the magazine and A&E, plus book reviews, travel pieces and of course Flashback and Vintage Chicago Tribune.

Grossman was a widely loved and admired figure in the newsroom — genial, talented, self-effacing, brilliant — and his valedictory note to his colleagues was both sobering and inspiring:

I can think of myriad times when you and I fought over a preposition or a subordinate clause. Whoever won, their victory lasted only until the press run of the next day. And the process began over again.

I recall a time when I was mulling over something, and an editor stood just behind me and said, “Ron, did you ever stop to think why it’s called a daily newspaper?”

Truth is, we’re dinosaurs. That commitment to getting it right is passé. Social media has endowed anyone who can type with an equal voice. Time was when I could look out over the newsroom and enjoy the thought that a sportswriter in one corner and someone on the breaking news desk and I shared a similar joy in “getting the truth to the people,” as it used to be said, half ashamed at the sentimentality.

Fact is that commitment to truth is needed ever more now. The President of the United States rules with lies. He appointed a czar of Health and Human Services who dismisses science in favor of fantasy. That set back the clock of civilization to the 16th century, when Galileo was put under house arrest for teaching that the Earth moved around the Sun. …

Hang in there, Comrades!

He ended his note with “30,” which is vintage journalese for “end of story.”

Time magazine entertained various explanations for the origins of this practice in 1932, just a bit before Grossman was born. The most common seems to be that, in the days when writers on the road submitted their stories in chunks via telegraph, they put “30” on the final page because it was Western Union code for “No more. The end.”

It’s the last surviving shred of Western Union’s “92 Code,” a series of numbers the company adopted in 1859 to reduce transmission time.

But if the code were still in use, I’m sure most of Grossman’s current and former colleagues would respond to his “30” with a hearty “88” — “love and kisses.”

Indiana University backtracks on its move to cut funding for the print edition of the student newspaper

In an essay headlined “IDS to continue printing after IU reverses course,” Indiana Daily Student co-editors in chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller wrote:

The IDS can continue printing its originally planned editions for the rest of the school year. And we will. … After weeks of negative publicity for the university, of fears in our newsroom and on campus, of confusion, of pushback, we’re now on a solid trajectory toward real solutions for student media. …

A letter from Media School faculty published (Oct. 29) said “IU is not seen as a safe place for free and open expression.” Restoring print is a step toward fixing that, but we need more commitments and more action.

Worryingly, the university is still denying wrongdoing in its original directive. (Chancellor David) Reingold claims the university has “never attempted to censor editorial content, period” — ignoring the clear and deliberate instructions we received to stop printing any news. This is, by definition, censoring editorial content. … This is a win for student journalism, for editorial independence and our fight to bring quality journalism to our community — but more is needed. We look forward to being at the table and taking more steps in the right direction.

In my previous coverage of this set-to, I’ve expressed alarm at the university’s dealings with the 158-year-old publication but also skepticism that printed newspapers aimed at young readers will be around much longer.

Sudden magnification glitch continues to plague the Tribune’s digital replica version

This happens to me numerous times when reading the Tribune’s digital replica, and some of my Facebook friends report the same:

It’s a minor issue — a first-world problem, as they say — but it’s shoddy of the paper to use a platform that doesn’t work well. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times digital replica doesn’t allow readers to swipe from one story to the next in the article view format.

Just because his middle name is “Royal” doesn’t mean he gets to claim my title!

Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt forwarded to me this passage from the Substack newsletter of retired Chicago police officer and defender of law enforcement brutality Martin Preib:

A switch flipped in the federal courts the last few months, revealing clearly the nature and power of the city’s one-party system. The Chicago cabal of “journalists” (among them Ben Bradley at WGN, Jon Seidel at the Sun-Times, Tribune scribes Alice Yin, Jason Meisner, and Greg Pratt—the latter being perhaps the most detestable figure in American media since Eric Zorn left the once-respected media outlet) are hyperventilating in media coverage and social media posts against federal authorities trying to address the illegal immigrant invasion.

Tribune publishes an editorial cartoon that recalls its red-baiting past

To their credit, though the paper published a letter to the editor several days later calling them out:

Disclosure: My wife is on temporary assignment as a news editor at Chicago Public Media.

Quotables

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

So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates— scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty and meaning in life than the most wealthy person in the world. — Joyce Carol Oates on Elon Musk

Oates is a lazy liar and an abuser of semicolons! … Eating a bag of sawdust would be vastly more enjoyable than reading the laboriously pretentious drivel of Oates. — Elon Musk

Civil law is not the same as religious law, and if you want the government to protect your right to live according to your faith, you must protect others’ rights to live according to theirs. — The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board

More than anything else, (talk of “affordability” is) a con job by the Democrats. You know they put out something, “Say today, costs are up.” They feed it to the anchors of ABC, CBS and NBC, and a lot of other, you know, CNN, etc. And it’s like a standard. I’ll never forget, they used a word like “manufactured.” Remember the word “manufactured”? “It’s a manufactured economy!” Nobody uses that word. Every anchor broke in, “manufactured.” They do exactly what they say. It’s such a rigged system. So, are you ready? Costs are way down. Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2. Gasoline is at $2.70 now, and it was $4.50 under Biden, under Sleepy Joe. … I don’t know that people are saying (that they’re anxious about the economy). I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. — Donald Trump

We just saw what happened in New York (City). We lost New York. It will be completely Muslim in three or four years. That’s what they want. They’re going to have everything free there for ‘em, and they’re just going spread throughout the country. We’d better wake up and smell the roses. — Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R. Alabama

Cheer chat

Update on preparations for the 27th annual “Songs of Good Cheer” winter holiday singalongs Dec. 11 to 14 at the Old Town School of Folk Music hosted by Mary Schmich and me.

The ready-for-Broadway talents of De’Jah Perkins, our newest cast member, will be on display for our opening number, “We Need a Little Christmas.” Mary Schmich took this video, which is why I’m in it (taking a video of her taking a video).

That’s our musical director Anna Jacobson on the trumpet, Paul Tyler on the fiddle, Steve Rosen on mandolin, Barbie Silverman on washboard, Fred Campeau on guitar and Gail Tyler on backup vocals.

Note that our first program will be in just under a month — Dec. 11 — and tickets are starting to go fast.

Buy tickets online, by phone (773-728-6000) or at the Old Town School of Folk Music box office, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.

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:

The new nominees for Quip of the Week:

1. Before getting involved with someone, ask yourself: Is this a person I can visualize cropping out of pictures one day? — @itsabbyyep.bsky.social

2. Yes, I would like a taste of my own medicine. That is why I take it. — @donni.bsky.social

3. The bleeding walls and voice saying “Get out” I can live with. But the inadequate natural light in the breakfast nook is intolerable. — @johnlyon.bsky.social

4. At my funeral, I want everyone to blame themselves, scream, “WHY, WHY??!!” and fight each other to climb in the coffin with me. — @NikiMarinis

5. “Tony Danza” sounds like a description of a very fancy piece of antique furniture. — @Kristen_Arnett

6. Maybe instead of using Hamburger Helper we should have provided the necessary tools so that the hamburger was empowered to help itself. — @Quartzjixler

7. Me: Wouldn’t the Kool Aid man’s glass body shatter before the brick wall busted apart? Guy next to me: Seriously? Literally every other urinal was open. — ‪@stevesuckington.bsky.social

8. Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Those who don’t learn from trigonometry won’t ever notice. — @wildethingy

9. It’s OK to eat junk food in the car on road trips because calories don’t count at highway speed. I don’t have time to explain the science behind this, but it’s sound. — @johnlyon.bsky.social

10. I have more photos of my dog trying on his snow boots than my parents have of my entire childhood. — @CooperLawrence

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Why “quips”? See “I’m rebranding ‘Tweet of the Week’ in a gesture of contempt for Elon Musk.” Also, I’m finding good stuff on BlueSky now.

Minced Words

Cate Plys, Austin Berg and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. We discussed the apparent end of Operation Midway Blitz — did protesters “take the bait”? Will the Jeffrey Epstein files really get released, and does anything matter when it comes to Trump’s conduct? What, if anything, did the Democrats get out of the shutdown, and is it time to privatize the air-traffic control system?

Traffic lights:

• John: A yellow light for “Frankenstein,” new on Netflix.

• Austin: A green light for the 1975 movie “Mirror,” particularly the upcoming showings at the Gene Siskel Film Center, which include “lectures, where these films will be discussed not only from the standpoint of critical spectatorship but also from a filmmaker’s point of view.”

• Cate: The mention of the Siskel Film Center inspired her to give a green light to the “Siskel and Ebert at 50” events at the Chicago Cultural Center. She also wished to withdraw her green light last week for Peacock’s “Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,” an eight-part dramatization of sickening local tragedy. After a few episodes, she said, it gets to be too dark.

• Eric: See below.

Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. 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.

Read the background bios of some regular panelists here.

Good Sports

USA! USA!

The NBA has announced that its Feb. 15 All Star Game will use a format that pits players from the United States against “the world.” Great idea. It might spark genuine interest in the game similar to interest in golf’s international team competitions. The game will occur during the time of the Winter Olympics, and with luck, the guys will actually play some defense (the final score in 2024 was 211-186).

Associated Press:

Players born outside of the U.S. have won each of the last seven MVP awards, each of the last four NBA scoring titles, and each of the last five rebounding titles. Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was MVP, NBA Finals MVP, the league’s scoring champion and led Oklahoma City to the NBA title last season.

So I don’t like our chances.

Green Light

Green Light features recommendations from me and readers not only of songs — as in the former Tune of the Week post — but also of TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts and other diversions that, with only rare exceptions, can be enjoyed at home.

My daughter and I drove to Ann Arbor last weekend to visit my parents, and on the way, we listened to a dramatization of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 drawing room comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest,” subtitled “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.”

It had been years since I read the play, and I was delighted again by its witty badinage, clever (if improbable) plot and deftly realized eccentric characters. Briefly, “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a farce involving false and mistaken identities, romance and upper-crust sensibilities that fairly clearly presaged the delightful comic fiction by Wilde’s fellow Brit, P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975).

In “What P. G. Wodehouse owes to Oscar Wilde,” a blogger known only as Emsworth wrote:

If you took out of Wodehouse all the foppish young men, imposters, domestic blackmail, dragon aunts, butlers, and young women who need permission from guardians to marry — that is, the characters, the plot, and the comic elements of Wilde’s play — there wouldn’t be much Wodehouse left on our library shelves.

The play’s many fine lines include one I use to describe my efforts on the fiddle: “I don’t play accurately. Anyone can play accurately. But I play with wonderful expression.”

Others:

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.

I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

I never change, except in my affections.

The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

Ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl I have ever met since ... I met you.

Read the play here. Watch the full 1952 movie version here, the full 1988 movie version here or watch clips from the 2002 movie version here. And/or go read some Wodehouse.

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. Find a longer bio and contact information here. 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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