Napping with friends over lunch? Wut?

& are student protesters smart to refuse to talk to outsiders?

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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.

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.

Chicagoans, your yard waste bag is just garbage unless you call 311

I heard the sanitation truck in our alley the other morning and hustled out to catch it with a couple of bags of kitchen trash I’d forgotten to put out the night before. In the rear maw of the truck I saw several yard-waste bags along with the usual household refuse.

“Do those just go into the landfill?” I asked the worker.

He shrugged. “Yeah, unless you call for a special pickup.”

The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation website is fairly clear on this point, as it turns out:

Residents can call 311 to request separate yard waste collection. 

Yard waste should be left in the alley or at the curb for collection, and bagged separately from garbage in the black cart and separately from recycling in the blue.

The Department will collect the bags based on 311 requests and take it to be composted.

I say “fairly clear” because “can” in the first sentence above ought to be “must.”

And I bring this up because, for all these years, I’d simply assumed there was a separate truck that came around and picked up those brown yard-waste bags, and that those of us who used such bags were inherently virtuous.

I’m not going to call 311 and a have a special truck sent out to pick up a couple of bags of garden overflow that won’t fit into our backyard compost bins — the carbon footprint of such an errand would vastly outweigh the value of having the dead vegetation hauled to a municipal composting site.

Absent a designated day in the spring and fall to have a special pickup for yard-waste bags, I think we’ll save ourselves the expense of the 30-gallon heavy paper bags — up to a buck — and put our yard waste into the trash bins. (Though my wife has not signed on to this plan. She sounds determined to call 311, so stay tuned)

Are you on Team Hinz or Team Cherone?

During the roundtable portion of WLS-AM’s “1 Take” podcast last week, host Bill Cameron said, “one of the interesting wrinkles to the defiant pro-Palestinian demonstrations here and around the country is that the leaders won’t let the followers talk to the press. Corporate media. They don’t trust us. Only ‘media-trained’ protesters can talk to the press. Interesting. They’re acting just like presidential candidates and political parties. “

Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business responded this way:

I had a little personal experience with this a couple of weeks ago. I went down to DePaul. I didn't identify myself as a reporter. I just dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, (and rode) my bike. And I tried to talk to two or three kids … I said “I understand your point about your sign here. It says, “Free Palestine'“ and ‘From the River to the Sea.” But if that were to happen, what would happen to the four or five million Jews who live in that space now?”

And of the five people I tried to talk to, three just turned their face (away). They wouldn't answer. And I began to suspect, after a while, that they'd been told not to answer questions. Another one shrugged and walked away. And the fifth one said, “There's plenty of literature on that. Why don't you go read it?” …

When you refuse to talk to the press and explain your position and make your argument, well, that kind of tells me that what's going on in your head is, ”I'm right. I don't wanna talk about it, go away.”

Heather Cherone of WTTW-Ch. 11 had a different take:

These are very savvy young people who know that there are less than ethical reporters — certainly not Greg — out there recording and trying to gather footage that can go viral on X —the former Twitter — or on TikTok, where a protester says something that is either explicitly antisemitic or racist or otherwise just (beyond) the pale, and use that to tar the entire movement regardless of the majority of the views of all of the protesters.

These kids have seen that happen time and time again, most recently during the social justice unrest that was triggered by the police murder of George Floyd. So they are savvy enough to know that if they say something that is perhaps able to be twisted, they could really hurt their cause and their friends. And (protest organizers) have them trained in a way that I think most older people — and I will include myself in that group — were not trained.

None of these kids are obligated to speak to a journalist, and when you're covering an issue as fraught as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it's hard to jump into a protest and ask questions without (first) building trust and demonstrating that you're there for substance as opposed to a quick hit that in some cases has been very damaging to the movements that these young people care very deeply about. So I am more sympathetic to them. And it is an indication that we as reporters have to remember, that nobody has an obligation to speak with us. — unless of course you're an elected official and then you better call me back — but we have to do a better job of demonstrating good faith as opposed to (trying to generate) gotcha moments.

Let me just put this question to the readership.

I take Cherone’s point — one ill-considered remark posted to TikTok can undermine a cause by trivializing a protest But I’m closer to Hinz’ view, that if you’re going to berate and chant at people telling them what to think, you ought to be about to articulate what you think and to answer some basic questions about your point of view.

Note: I’m not transcribing passages from podcasts myself, but instead using the feature in the latest iTunes update that transcribes most podcasts. The transcriptions aren’t perfect — I make a few corrections — and they don’t identify the speakers by name. But I’m guessing they will get more accurate and useful eventually. The program also does not allow copy/paste function for more than 200 words at a time, and I have lodged a sternly worded complaint with Apple about that.

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

The Griff’

Joan P. — Regarding your assurance that we will eventually refer to the Museum of Science and Industry as “The Griffin” after benefactor Ken Griffin for whom the South Side museum is being renamed in light of his $125 million donation: No. I'll call it the Griffin Museum the day I call the Sears Tower "the Willis Tower" and the John Hancock Building "875 N. Michigan.” In other words, never. Griffin hates Chicago and badmouths the city every chance he gets.

C. Pittman — Ken Griffin donated $12 million to separate the lakefront trail into bicycle and pedestrian lanes and $5 million to shoreline repair, which was a huge gift to the city. You may not agree with his politics, but he invested a lot of money into improving this city before he finally gave up on it and moved to Florida.

Jake H. —By rights, the Museum of Science and Industry should have been named for philanthropist Julius Rosenwald who founded the museum with a donation nearly 100 years ago similar in size (in today’s dollars) to Griffin’s gift, but Rosenwald declined the honor.

This was typical of America’s coolest tycoon. He turned Sears, Roebuck and Co. into the Amazon of its day, funded the creation of thousands of schools for Black children in the segregated South, funded the construction of affordable housing for Black migrants to Chicago, funded the establishment of Black YMCAs, and, as noted, founded the MSI.

Here’s a quote of his that shows what an admirable man he was:

Most people are of the opinion that because a man has made a fortune that his opinions on any subject are valuable. For my part, I always believe most large fortunes are made by men of mediocre ability who tumbled into a lucky opportunity and couldn’t help but get rich and that others, given the same chance, would have done far better with it.

Can you imagine any modern tech baron or financier uttering those words? I can't. Indeed it was highly unusual for the time. Most were some variety of asshole, then as now.

Wikipedia notes that Rosenwald “maintained a low profile throughout his life. He refused to be the source of biographies and did not want his name to be affixed on buildings or institutions. He even insisted that his generous philanthropic contributions be matched by others so that he would not be credited with the title of 'sole donor'."

There's a very nice documentary about him. Here is the trailer:

That’s so Brandon!

Tom K —My favorite Brandon Johnson moment occurred in February. Here’s the Sun-Times account:

Asked repeatedly … Johnson did not answer directly. Nor would he provide a simple “yes” or “no” to the pressing question of whether ShotSpotter would be shut off.

“It may be a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question for you. But I will respectfully ask that you ask your question and allow me to answer the question in the way in which I want to. I don’t dictate the question. So please don’t dictate how I answer a question,” he said.

Zorn — Mine was also in February, when he abruptly bowed out of an interview with the Sun-Times editorial board when the newspaper did not agree to talk with him off the record.

Spam call handler

Ann H. — I appreciated your item about how to tweak an iPhone so you can text an incoming caller, “Sorry, I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize. Email or text me if you want to connect.” But Android phones have an even better feature.

"Screen call" answers the call with an automated message that says the call is being screened, please state your name and why you are calling. It then transcribes any answer. 98% of the time there's no response and the phone then offers "report spam?" which generates another message telling the caller to remove this number from their list. 2% of the time it's someone I really do want to talk to.

Zorn — That sounds great, and it works on non-cell numbers, which my method does not.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

(A mashup of comments from two readers I mistakenly assumed were the same person) — Your “quotable” remark from James Fallows concludes with the question “Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

It said:

Unemployment rate: May 2020: 13.2% ; May 2024: 3.9%

S&P closing level: May 15, 2020: 2,864; May 15, 2024: 5,308.

Weekly COVID deaths: May 2020: 6,900; May 2024: 294

Well, my retirement savings have significantly lower purchasing power than they did four years ago and robberies and assaults in my neighborhood continue at much higher levels than prior to our governor's disastrous Covid policies. My unequivocal conclusion: No, I am not better off than I was four years ago.

The statistics he cited are irrelevant to the majority of people assessing whether they are better off than they were four years ago. Most of them were alive both times and most of them were not unemployed either time. It's a "look over here" kind of distraction.

Setting aside the question of how much the individual president effects stock prices within the term he is serving, I think such declarations are insincere. If you believe that the individual president gets credit or blame for the stock market return within his term, then look at stock market returns in the Trump years. Now if you want to vote this year for prosperity, which candidate would you choose based on stock market returns?

Zorn — There is a general sense that lower unemployment and a return to pretty much normal on the pandemic front is good for all of us, not just those who were unemployed and those who lost a loved one or otherwise suffered during the pandemic.

I think the “you” in this question is meant more generally — is the country in better shape now than it was during the Trump years? Do you want a return to those years? This includes not only some baseline statistics, some of which, as you observe, have little to do with what a president can control, but also the chaos in the White House, the socially conservative drift of the courts and the tolerance on the right for dishonesty and amorality on a epic scale never before seen in a U.S. president.

Trump preens about the stock market when he conjures up reasons why upticks reflect well on him, and we all know that those of you on the right would be raging like Rumpelstiltskin if the market were down and not setting record highs, as it is. Ditto inflation, which is an international phenomenon and one that will get a lot worse if Trump imposes the tariffs on Chinese goods he’s promising.

Freak and Geeks

Steve T. — You enthusiastically promoted the old TV series “Freaks and Geeks” in the Tune of the Week feature, and I can say without hesitation that no TV show or movie does a better job of capturing the boring, thrilling world of Midwest suburban high schoolers in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. That show was a miracle. A must-watch for anyone whose memories of adolescence bring cringe, regret, and profound quiet joy.

Jim — Agreed. A fantastic show. When I rewatched it, I was amazed that it held up so well.

Zorn — The series is on Hulu.

A dialogue on the politics of Israel Gaza

Conservative commenter David Leitschuh continued the conversation started in last week’s PicayunePlus:

David Leitschuh —In attempting to respond to my question why there is not more attention and outrage about Hamas continuing to hold American citizens, you wrote, "Goldberg-Polin and Siegel … weren’t tourists or diplomatic employees but expats who had lived in Israel for many years."

I'm astonished that you blithely dismiss American citizens being held by the Hamas terrorists with utter speculation that some of them may have been expatriates. I do not imagine you know that to be a fact for the more than 30 US citizens who were slaughtered by Hamas in the October 7th terrorist attack, nor the at least 8 US citizens who were identified by the US State Department as hostages abducted by Hamas.

Our dear friend Judith Raanan who along with her daughter Natalie were abducted and very fortunately, the first hostages released were indeed American citizens. Judith emigrated legally to the US and became a US citizen and her daughter Natalie was born in the US. They live in Chicagoland and were visiting the Nahal Oz kibbutz to celebrate Judith's mother's 85th birthday. If they had not been released, would you also be blithely dismissing them as likely expats?

My point is that US citizens abducted and being held by terrorists have most always become cause celebs in our country and remained very high profile in both the media and with the State Department and White House. See, in contrast, how the media and the White House were constantly engaged with the Russian detention of WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner for her drug possession, with frequent contact to the family. Griner's wife invited to the White House for a meeting with Biden, and Griner ultimately being released in the trade for an international arms dealer.

But now we find nothing much at all being said about dozens of Americans being massacred in the terrorist attack and a good number abducted and being held hostage by Hamas. And egregiously, Goldberg-Polin lost an arm when he was injured in his abduction and then recently was forced to do a propaganda video for Hamas under clear duress.

It is very difficult not to see the politics of Biden's very different response to the US murder victims and captives by Hamas. He is already attempting to thread the needle so as not to anger his far left Democrat flank and also alienate the block of Arab-American voters in Michigan who may be key to his reelection in that state. And so it is politically inconvenient to have American citizens held hostage by Hamas on the radar, and Anthony Blinken the Secretary of State is happy to excoriate Israel for their military response, but very muted in any demands that Hamas release our fellow citizens.

If you disagree with me that Biden is acting out of politics and reelection concerns, then please give me a reasoned explanation otherwise. I believe it is despicable that these people are being totally forgotten, and Americans of all political persuasions should be outraged that they are being held by terrorists.

Zorn — I don't think the hostages who are U.S. citizens are being forgotten but I do think there is an emotional difference for Americans between those who live here but were just visiting Israel, like your friends, and those who have long lived in Israel but maintain dual citizenship or maybe remain technically U.S. citizens.

I thought the focus on Brittney Griner over others held in Russia on similarly spurious charges was peculiar, and the deal we struck to free her was political. But Biden had to pay a heavy price — releasing Viktor “The Merchant of Death” Boot — to get her back because all the carrying on about Griner gave the Russians extra leverage in negotiations.

So you would do ... what? Have Biden and Blinken make numerous public demands about these particular hostages; raise their profile and hence their value as hostages?

Remember, the only reason Hamas took hostages in the first place was to gain leverage, so the more public outcry there is about them, the more leverage the hostage takers have.

This is why, in certain overseas kidnapping cases, the state department and the families of the hostages ask for no publicity at all.

I'm sure officials are working really hard behind the scenes to negotiate for their release, but amping up the outrage, as you seem to want to do, stands only to raise the price and make the settlement marginally less advantageous for Israel.

There is also the issue/problem of seeming to care more about a handful of people held hostage than the literally thousands of dead children in Gaza killed by poorly targeted IDF bombs.

Is Biden in a political bind? Yes, in part because too many supporters of the Palestinian cause are under the idiotic delusion that Trump would be better for them than Biden.

So what would a President Leitschuh do?

David Leitschuh — I will concede that there is likely to be a differing perception about people who do not live in the U.S. even if they hold U.S. citizenship. But that was one of my questions earlier — how do you know how many of the murdered US citizens and those held in captivity are like my friends who are American citizens who live here? I don't believe you have the answer to that question, and it seems very callous to simply speculate that is the case when we know the first two were our neighbors here.

We are in agreement there was a bizarre hyperfocus by both the White House and the media to Brittany Griner's detention in Russia over her admitted illegal drug possession. Pretty hard not to see this as Biden's political pandering to the demographic groups this black lesbian represented. Especially when the straight white male US citizen who has been detained in Russia much longer was left behind and now we hear nothing further about him.

You suggest that Biden and Blinken may feel that it would be insensitive to make a big noise about a handful of US citizens being held captives relative to the thousands of Palestinians who have died in the war. The U.S. is always most concerned about its own citizens.

During World War II, did the president, the media or the public express more concern for the hundreds of thousands of German citizens being killed in our bombing raids, or the killed or captured US bomber crews? The fate of our own fellow citizens is always our primary concern, but I believe that Biden and Blinken are muted on our captives out of fear of further angering the leftist pro-Palestinean/Hamas agitators on our college campuses and likely, in Chicago streets during the DNC this summer.

What would President Leitschuh do? Very likely the same as President Trump will do if he is elected. I would state very clearly that there will not be one penny of US taxpayer funds going for aid into Gaza or for any of the UN relief agencies in Gaza until the Gaza terrorists release all US citizens. I would provide Israel with all the intelligence we have on Hamas that is presently being withheld (did you happen to miss that news report?), and I would expedite delivery of all weapons and aid that a bipartisan vote of Congress approved for Israel.

Do you think it is just a coincidence that none of the hostages released by Hamas to date have been younger women with the exception of Judith and Natalie? Are you aware of the documented widespread sexual violence Hamas committed on women on October 7th? For whatever reason, Judith and Natalie were thankfully not harmed in this manner, and that is very likely a major reason they were chosen for release. Hamas does not want the female victims of their grotesque sexual warfare to be free to tell their stories.

People promoting an immediate ceasefire that leaves Hamas with military capabilities in place only guarantees a continuation of the violence and cycle of retaliation when Hamas next decides to break the truce as they have done dozens of times in the past. They are committed to their genocidal charter and the extinction of Israel. Give Israel a Palestinian partner who genuinely wants peace under a two-state solution and it will happen. But until then, Israel owes its citizens the duty of eradication of the terrorists just across their border who are committed to their destruction.

To bring this lengthy commentary back home, the clear appearance is that Biden and Blinken are acting in a manner to pacify the hard left flank of their party which has turned openly anti-semitic and pro-hamas at the expense of our fellow American citizens being held by terrorists. And that is just one of the many reasons why Trump is beginning to pull away in national polls and virtually all of the battleground states in case you did not see the New York times poll that came out this week.

Zorn — I hope you caught this portion of the Aug. 9. 2022 Picayune Plus in which I argued that Marc Fogel, who is being held hostage in Russia, was as deserving as Griner of release.

I see nothing in your reply that addresses the idea that highlighting and keening about those who are technically American citizens actually weakens our negotiating posture by increasing their value.

President Leitschuh seems rather blithe about blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza and hoping that mass starvation and death will help bring about a lasting peace. And he seems certain that Israel wants a two-state solution, which I'm not at all sure is the case. Recent remarks from officials there indicates they want the Palestinians gone from Gaza.

Hamas has been dramatically weakened, and given how these rather indiscriminate attacks that have killed so many children are radicalizing the population there, no amount of killing is going to eliminate the threat of retaliatory terrorism.

Biden is trying to thread a needle here -- he's approved more weapons shipments to Israel while trying to discourage the use of bombs with huge blast areas. My guess and hope is that the radical left will realize that Trump would be much worse for the Palestinian people than Biden, and that they need to vote strategically, not petulantly, in the fall.

David Leitschuh— I understand your concern about signaling an overeagerness to the other party. But in this case, we have been acting out of weakness instead of acting out of strength. While Biden and others have harshly condemned the Hamas horrific October 7th terrorist attack and the taking of hostages, I have heard absolutely no demand or even a polite request for the hostages to be released.

In this case we have the ability to put teeth in that as the US and the UN under our contributions bring a great deal of aid into Gaza. It should be a hard red line that not one penny of aid goes into Gaza until all American citizens are safely returned. German civilians were also dying and starving by the hundreds of thousands toward the end of World War II, yet no aid went into that country until the Nazis had been thoroughly defeated and the same is necessary with Hamas.

You state, correctly I believe, that Hamas has been greatly weakened. However, If Hamas is not totally defeated as a military force, they will immediately proclaim victory and undoubtedly reconstitute, rebuild and commence planning the next genocidal attack against Israel which will unleash an Israeli response to continue the cycle of death and violence.

Hamas must be removed, and then hopefully through the Palestinian authority and dealing with other moderate Arab states, a plan for a two-state solution that would ensure lasting peace can be developed. And I might add, there needs to be oversight that Palestinian schools no longer teach young children that Jews are subhuman and that it is a blessing to kill them.

The Palestinian population has overwhelmingly supported Hamas, and grotesquely, in the aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attack wherein civilians were targeted for murder, torture, rape and abduction, Palestinians polled supported that attack by 75%. Our friend Judith Raanan told us that after she, her daughter Natalie and the other people taken hostage from Nahal Oz were marched into Gaza, they were taken into the Hamas command center - inside a large hospital!

And when they entered the hospital, the Palestinian nurses and hospital staff gathered around and were trilling in celebration. So now the Palestinians are paying a very dear price for their support of Hamas just as the German population paid a terrible price for their support of Hitler and the Nazis, and even more so with the manner that Hamas cowardly hides their command centers in hospitals, schools, mosques and in general uses the civilian population as their human shields. (And BTW, did everyone catch the story in the New York Times the other day that a UN agency has dramatically reduced the alleged death count of women and children in Gaza as reported by the Hamas Health Ministry by at least half.)

The IDF has taken extreme measures to limit collateral civilian casualties, much more so than any other military force in history, And the use of the term genocide by propagandists and mindless activists is an insult to the Jewish, Armenian, Ukrainian and other populations which were indeed subjected to genocide in the past century. If the standard is the killing of any large numbers of civilian population as collateral damage in war is considered genocide, then England and the US were undeniably guilty of genocide with their fire bombing of Dresden and other large population centers in WWII. Hamas is the party that is explicitly committed to the genocide of Israel, and Israel is simply conducting a war they were forced into.

And yes, this war is yet another reason that I fervently hope that Trump will be elected in November. When that occurs, Hamas had better be very, very scared.

Zorn — And I think all of us should be very, very scared that the spectacularly ignorant, bull-headed, churlish Trump will swagger in and start World War III.

Someone in Chicago is lunch napping with friends

Here is the top of Sunday’s “Someone in Chicago” advice column in the Sun-Times:

Someone else in Chicago — viz. me — has questions. Is literally napping together at lunchtime a thing? Does Pérez mean “nap” as a metaphor for sex, similar to how we use “sleep”? And what’s with the odd disclaimer about consent? Is there some analogy between commandeering a remote control and rape?

The rambling advice that follows the above does not illuminate, so I wrote to Pérez for clarification. He has yet to write back — if when he does I’ll print it — but in the meantime, what do you make of this? Am I just an old man with backward notions about solo napping?

And does anybody really still use a Rolodex?

Agree to disagree

In the Sunday Tribune’s “Answer Angel” column.

Ya gotta see these tweets!

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

NOTE: CUCUMBERS IS MISSPELLED ABOVE

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media. And I will continue to call the platform Twitter if only to spite Elon Musk:

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

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