Do you like your TV seasons all at once, or with episodes doled out one a week?

& Readers debate medically assisted suicide

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Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses

On the issue of medical aid in dying (MAID)

Steve Roess — Regarding your item “The General Assembly’s disappointing punt on ‘right to die’ legislation,” I would like to ask why “temporary severe depression” should be an exception to the right to assisted suicide. One could argue that any of those who choose to end their lives might later change their minds. Depression is just part of who a person is at any given time. Our society seems to have a relentless view that depressed people ought to just cheer up. Who are you or anyone else to decide what is or isn’t temporary, or to decide that any other reason a person wants to die is disqualifying? Who cares whether a condition is treatable? The actual slippery slope here is anyone presuming to put boundaries on this decision and bodily autonomy for anyone else. Leave that decision up to the doctor and the patient and leave government out of it.

Zorn — I’ve not experienced clinical depression but my understanding is that it’s often treatable/manageable. Temporary feelings of severe depression can be brought about by setbacks that time usually heals — romantic breakups, job losses, deaths of intimates, painful injuries or illnesses. So though I mostly agree with you, I’d argue that society has an interest in not facilitating the suicide of, say, college kids experiencing their first heartbreaks. The painful reverberations of suicide are such that society should discourage doctors from giving fatal medications to kids who walk into a clinic and say, "my partner dumped me, I want to kill myself."

Cate Plys — Canada and the Netherlands probably didn't mean to go down the path with medical assistance in dying (MAID) as far as they have. These countries too started out with a system as limited as what's been proposed in Illinois. Now, in the Netherlands, teens and the mentally ill can request and receive MAID. In Canada, MAID for mental health passed the legislature but is on hold for now. One in five deaths in Canada is now assisted, and can be requested for chronic conditions as well as terminal illness. Of people not terminally ill who requested MAID, about 3/4 were on public assistance, raising concerns that it's easier for the government to let people kill themselves than to improve their national health care and public assistance. I suppose these problems can never be resolved in advance, but it does give me pause--much as I have seen the real need for MAID for my own relatives, and as much as I think I want it in place for myself. I'm not 100% against. Just not sure it can't use a little more debating and tweaking, while acknowledging we probably can't prevent future excesses. For sure religion should have nothing to do with it, except when it comes to an individual's personal choice.

JakeH — Existing law does not outlaw suicide. Rather, the law restricts the assistance. While I don't agree with banning assistance entirely, I see this, as with drug restrictions, as a line-drawing problem rather than a problem solved by a simple application of a freedom principle.

D. Dale Walker — I find your invocation of "bodily autonomy" in regard to the right-to-die interesting. The 13th Amendment's prohibition of slavery was a long overdue rebuke to the Constitution's endorsement of slavery, implicitly recognizing that there really is no freedom without bodily autonomy. The freedoms of speech, religion, and all the rest are moot if people lack agency over their bodies. I have long supported a right to die, but had not thought about bodily autonomy in regard to end of life issues. In that light, I find the question is answered easily. And I like the bodily-autonomy argument better than the mind-your-own-business argument.

Marc Martinez — I favor right-to-die legislation, but I tire of the assumption that the Catholic church and other religious people are the primary opponents or even have the most influence. There are many others groups in opposition, such as the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the National Council of Disability the Patients Rights Council, and Choice is an Illusion. These groups do not believe that physicians are qualified to make end-of-life decisions; that patients will be encouraged to think of themselves as a burden on others; that the people tasked with making decisions for patients that are unable to express themselves cannot be trusted; and that there is no way to know what a person is able to understand and experience at the end of life. I am sure these people are sincere, but they also represent the significant financial interests of medical and hospice businesses.

About that dig at foreign students

Mark K. — I thought David Swanson’s statement on foreign students in “Quotables” last week was xenophobic, shortsighted, and cruel:

In the current year, Harvard had 7,000 foreign students. That means that an equivalent number of our brightest children were denied the opportunity to study at Harvard. And, since it is unlikely that all those foreign students will remain in the U.S. after graduation, many of those best educated minds will contribute nothing to our nation.

The U.S. has enjoyed many decades of leading the world in technology and business thanks in no small part to welcoming top talent from all around the world. Harvard in particular has been a focal point of many advancements that had enormous benefits and advantage to the country.

This assault on the university is just one more example of President Donald Trump role-playing a tyrant, assaulting any perceived opponent, sticking a thumb in the eye of the "elites," riling up supporters and intimidating anyone thinking of opposing him. Last week NPR interviewed Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, who disagrees with Swanson:

It’s not only in the interests of Harvard itself to have international students, and it's not only in the interests of those students. it's in the interest of the United States of America.

Researchers I work with come from all over the world and they are among or literally the best people in the whole world. And when they come here, they contribute to knowledge. And not infrequently, if they're doing amazing and interesting research, they seek permanent positions in the United States, which is part of how the United States has maintained its leadership in science, in technology and in business. It's by attracting some of the most extraordinary people from all over the world. And if those people couldn't come and study here, we're literally cutting off our nose to spite our face. We're literally saying, oh, we would prefer that these incredibly smart, accomplished, hardworking people never come here in the first place and never spend time here and that they do their research in other places.

Rick Weiland — Foreign students are a low-cost, high-profit export. Most of them are paying full tuition plus all the other costs of education. Call it very conservatively $50,000. Therefore every 10,000 foreign students equal half a billion dollars in exports every year.

On rereading books

Gretchen Stewart — I'm surprised at your comment that you don't generally like to reread books because there are so many good ones you haven't read yet. I think the same is true of music, but I bet you listen to songs more than once.

Rereading a good book is like visiting an old friend. You may have heard their stories before but it's a pleasure spending time with them. And you never know when you'll catch a new detail or nuance to an old story.

More green lights for author Christopher Moore

John Houck — I enthusiastically second Bill Minor’s Green Light recommendation of “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal,” by Christopher Moore. Like Bill, I have also read just about all of Moore’s books, and they are highly entertaining. I think “Fool” is my favorite.

Lynne Allen Taylor — “Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings” is my favorite Moore book.

Unpopular opinions?

“The Bear,” the award-winning series about a fictional Chicago restaurateur returns June 25 for a fourth season on Hulu, with all 10 episodes dropping on that day. Tribune critic Nina Metz referred to the practice of releasing an entire season at once as “a controversial choice for audiences who prefer a weekly conversation about the show.”

I vastly prefer watching at my own pace, and when a show is parceled out in weekly episodes I usually wait until the finale has streamed before even beginning to watch. This leaves me out of the “weekly conversations” as fans discuss and debate the show online and in person: Whodunnit? How will this plot resolve?

I admit to having had lots of fun — and to having been totally wrong — speculating 10 years ago about how “Mad Men” would wrap up when that series was aired episodically on AMC. So I see why others enjoy the communal wonder and theorizing possible only when the nation remains in suspense.

Where are you on this?

Last week’s result

546 votes

I was expecting a stronger “Aw, hell no!” vote, though that sentiment did show well in the comment threads:

Michael M. — I’m against this because it disproportionately impacts lower income families and it starts at $1.50 per delivery, but once a tax exists it tends to go up (see toll booths that were only supposed to be temporary).

Marty G. — I agree that it will eventually go up if it is ever implemented, but I don’t see how it will disproportionately impact lower income families. My feeling is that people with less disposable income receive fewer deliveries than middle or upper income people or families.

Mark H. — My problem with the pizza tax is that it would be imposed state-wide but benefit Chicago area mass transit. And I live in the Chicago area. The costs of transportation should be borne by the user.

Zorn — My argument would be that a smooth-running, low-cost public transportation system benefits all of us — not only non-riders who benefit from reduced traffic, increased travel times and reduced wear-and-tear on the roads, but also downstate and exurban residents who benefit from a healthy and prosperous Chicago.

Six years ago, NPR Illinois quoted John Jackson, a professor of political science at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute:

If you define fair share as getting a dollar back for every dollar sent to Springfield, the only two negative numbers are for Cook County and the five Suburban counties — the collar counties. The collar counties actually get $0.53 back for every dollar they pay in. Cook County doesn't break even, but they get $0.90 back, whereas Downstate does quite all right. Central Illinois gets $1.87 back and we in Southern Illinois do the best at $2.81 back for every dollar sent to Springfield.

Skeptic — Since the tax is to fund transit, having an increase in the gas tax in counties of Northeast Illinois makes more sense. A very small hike in the gas tax would raise more money that a substantial delivery fee.

Marj Halperin — I will stipulate the the following text from the proposed legislation on delivery fees is badly written and hard to follow:

The retailer shall not add the fee to the price or charge for the retail delivery showing the total fee as a charge that is separate and distinct from the price and any other taxes or fees imposed on the retail delivery.

But where you concluded that it means the fee will be hidden, I read it as insisting the new fee not be hidden. I interpret a comma after the first use of “delivery” so that retailers are told they must list this new fee separately. It would be better still if the drafters had added the word “instead” where I have imagined a comma. Or if they had made positive statements about what retailers shall do.

Zorn — We agree that the wording is horrible, but taking it apart:

>> retailer shall not add the fee to the price >>

I read that to say the pizza parlor can't simply charge $11.50 for a pizza that's $10 on the restaurant menu.

>>or charge for the retail delivery showing the total fee as a charge that is separate and distinct from the price >>

I agree that a comma after delivery -- which does not exist! -- could change the meaning. As it is, I read this legislative gobbledygook as saying the retailer shall not show the delivery fee "as a charge that is separate and distinct from the price." So you can't give a receipt or quote a price that says "$10 plus $1.50" the same was a gas station can't advertise pre-tax prices per gallon on signs. Or

I'm sure we agree, though, that whoever wrote that passage needs an editor. It should either say

The retailer shall not list the retail delivery fee as a separate line item, but simply include it in the price of the delivered goods.

or

The retailer must list the retail delivery fee as a separate line item on all receipts for delivered goods.

This occasional Tuesday feature is intended to highlight opinions that are defensible but may well be unpopular. If you have one to add, leave it in comments or send me an email, but be sure to offer at least a paragraph in defense of your view.

From the suggestion box

I’m responding for the next few weeks to some of the hundreds of anonymous suggestions/comments that readers posted to my recent reader survey:

Suggestion: More variety in the Green Light (formerly Tune of the Week) feature

Reply: One of those who made this request wrote that their suggestion “has only a little to do with the fact that I nominated Neko Case's ‘Star Witness,’ one of the most lovely and haunting tunes I've ever heard, and nothing.” I regret not responding to every suggestion, but I keep them on file and ultimately do listen to them. And I do try to break out of my rootsy, country, folkie groove and to use this feature to expand my horizons as well as those of readers.

Suggestion: Use ranked-choice voting on the quip polls

Reply: I have seriously considered adding this option but in the end I’ve decided against it because it would make voting fussier and more time consuming — which is one of the arguments against ranked-choice voting in real elections. My idea with the written quips is that you’ll go through and check the ones you think are funny and then be done; the visual poll format allows for only one choice, but, again, ranking might be off putting.

Suggestion: Add a political cartoon

Reply: I don’t have the budget to pay a cartoonist but I would certainly consider submissions as either Zmail or Quotable candidates.

Gone: Not forgotten, but not wanted either

Shortly after I moved to Chicago 45 years ago I bought the bookshelf pictured below, the first piece of new furniture I’d ever purchased. It was a build-it-yourself product from Scandinavian Design, a local chain of modestly priced home-furnishing retailers, and it moved with me from apartment to apartment to condo to house, where for the last several decades it’s stood next to Johanna’s side of the bed, holding many of her favorite books.

Recently, as part of a long-range de-accessioning project, we cleared off those shelves, donated many of the books and hauled the old shelving unit out to the alley, free to a good home. I took this photo for the “gone but not forgotten” page of our annual family photo album where where we memorialize long familiar objects we’ve discarded. Those images are an aid to memory and they make it a bit easier emotionally to part with objects to which we have some sentimental attachment but for which we no longer have much use.

I put it in the alley on a Wednesday, hoping that a scavenger or simply someone in need of a cheap bookcase might come along and give it a second life. But when I looked out the back window early Friday morning, I saw it was still there, unclaimed, as the city garbage truck was headed down our alley. So, to give the shelves another chance — a weekend when more opportunists tend to prowl the alleys — I hauled it safely into the yard for a few hours. Then I hauled it back and set it up looking as appealing as possible (not very, in other words).

It stood there for a week. No one wanted it. The next Friday morning when I heard the truck coming down the alley, I shrugged. I guess you’re supposed to thank your refuse for its service, so I hope that seven-day reprieve counted as gratitude.

I was reminded of this classic 2003 Ikea commercial:

NewsWheel

Inspired by the WordWheel puzzle in the Monday-Friday Chicago Tribune and other papers, this puzzle asks you to identify the missing letter that will make a word or words — possibly proper nouns; reading either clockwise or counterclockwise — related to a story in the news or other current event. The answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.

And here is a bonus NewsWheel that only Chicago-area readers are likely to get:

The week’s best visual jokes

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

A bit pun heavy this, week, but …

398 votes

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Quip of the Week poll!

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Info

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. 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.

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Answer to the NewsWheel puzzle

THUNBERG

BONUS PUZZLE ANSWER: MANSUETO