'No Mow May' is virtue signaling, yes. What about it?

& a rebuke to those advocating for armed guards in schools

5-26-2022 (issue No. 37)

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Armed guards in every school are not the answer

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

Ted Cruz proposes armed cops in elementary schools to deter school shootings

“I will make sure that every school in the state of Illinois has armed security guards that are going to prevent these kinds of things from happening again” — Republican gubernatorial hopeful Max Solomon during a debate Tuesday night.

Anything to avoid new restrictions or limits or impediments to gun ownership, I guess. But “Presence of Armed School Officials and Fatal and Nonfatal Gunshot Injuries During Mass School Shootings, United States, 1980-2019,” a research letter published last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found:

Armed guards were not associated with significant reduction in rates of injuries; in fact … the rate of deaths was 2.83 times greater in schools with an armed guard present. … The data suggest no association between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence in these cases. An armed officer on the scene was the number one factor associated with increased casualties after the perpetrators’ use of assault rifles or submachine guns. …

Whenever firearms are present, there is room for error, and even highly trained officers get split-second decisions wrong. Prior research suggests that many school shooters are actively suicidal, intending to die in the act, so an armed officer may be an incentive rather than a deterrent.

In fact, one of the people killed in the recent supermarket massacre in Buffalo was armed security guard Aaron Salter, who was simply no match for an assailant wearing body armor and brandishing an AR-15-style rifle.

If anything, it would seem to me that the known presence of armed guards would inspire would-be mass shooters to arm and protect themselves better, which in turn would lead to more fatalities.

Any serious effort to address this chronic problem has to begin with the humble observation that nearly every other modern country has the same sorts of issues with mental health, family fragmentation, substance abuse, poverty that we have, but without nearly the level of firearms related carnage. Could it be, just maybe, that they have a better idea about the role guns should play in society than we do?

The political lack of action after 26 people were slaughtered by a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 demonstrated conclusively that the answer in our halls of power is no. I guess it can’t hurt to ask the question again, but a deep sense of futility overwhelms me.

The Onion’s wry perennial headline, “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” is less and less amusing each time it appears.

Five days to go!

And now a word from the Yes Mow May caucus

My item last week on No Mow May drew a lot of response in email, comments and social media. I’ll start with a somewhat representative skeptical-to-hostile take:

Pete P. — No Mow is an almost perfect virtue signal. It begins by taking literally no effort - you don’t even need to put up a sign. It allows you to passively annoy your benighted neighbors who are working to maintain their lawns and gardens free of dandelions and weeds. And, like wearing essentially cosmetic cloth masks ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the science behind the benefits of dandelions to pollinators is not settled. You can find articles and data suggesting dandelions are unimportant, at least to bees. In short, letting your lawn grow wild in May is a do-nothing gesture that passive-aggressively harms some of your nearest neighbors and has a good chance of being pointless.

First, what is this cranky obsession, mostly from the right, with “virtual signaling”?

Standing for “The Star-Spangled Banner” is virtue signaling — a public exhibition of patriotism. After all, very few people rise from their couches alone at home when the anthem comes on TV.

Praying in public is also virtue signaling. The Bible plainly discourages it in Matthew 6:1-8 where the faithful are admonished to pray discreetly, not “in the streets to win the praise of others.” Instead, Scripture directs them, “ Go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

I might add that announcing your intention to pray for victims of mass school shootings and their families is a form of virtue signaling, especially if praying is literally all you’ll do to try to stem the tide of gun violence. But I digress.

Mass recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance are another form of virtue signaling, if that’s where we want to go with this. The wearing of religious symbols. The display of social or political messages of all sorts on T-shirts, bumper stickers, body art and window signs. Also the maintenance of a crisp, tidy green lawn.

British writer James Bartholomew popularized the term in “The awful rise of 'virtue signalling,’” an April 2015 essay for the Spectator, a London-based conservative weekly. He defined it as “the assertion of moral superiority” that amounts to “just showing off” using “mere words.”

Even though Bartholomew conceded in his essay that “virtue signaling crosses the political divide,” the right eagerly took up the term as a rhetorical cudgel to accuse lefties of empty grandstanding in a way that did not compel them actually to produce evidence of hypocrisy or inauthenticity.

In that way, of course, reproachful uses of “virtue signaling” — pointing the finger at those who display “Hate Has No Home Here” placards in their yards or who tout the slogan “Black Lives Matter” on their social media feeds — is itself a lazy rhetorical device meant to signal one’s own comparative superiority and righteousness, again without having to bring the goods.

If kneeling during the national anthem is virtue signaling, then so is rising for it. If putting a “Coexist” sticker on your car is virtue signaling, then so is wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. If returning portions of your yard to nature is virtue signaling, then so is spraying toxic chemicals over the grass to create an unnatural monoculture.

And I contend there’s nothing inherently wrong or necessarily lazy with the public display of values. It’s part of our nation’s DNA, in fact. Political movements are built by those who have signaled their common cause to one another in various ways. Symbolism, slogans and “mere words” have a proud place in the great moral movements of history.

Virtuous people should advertise, promote and celebrate their conception of virtue. To reflexively criticize them is a vice.

Sure, preening is insufferable. So is false piety. So are empty, sanctimonious gestures. Both parties and political philosophies are guilty of them, so neither has standing to use “virtue signaling” as contemptuous shorthand for lazy, phony fecklessness.

Second, yes, letting your yard go a little wild in May is mostly a symbolic gesture, one meant to call into question the value of conventional lawns and perhaps prompt ostensibly aggrieved neighbors at least to consider alternative, less conventional landscaping ideas. And there is some controversy about its value:

• “The surprising downside of #NoMowMay” (Rewilding) concedes that “there’s huge value in challenging monocultural lawns and the enormous ecological damage they have caused,” but adds that “offering a feel-good moment of aesthetic rebellion risks obscuring, and even undermining, the bigger goal. … Dandelion has allelopathic pollen, a scientific term that basically means the pollen of dandelions can reduce reproductive success in native wildflowers, disrupting the native plant communities it invades. Another study showed that queen bumblebees (some of the early emerging wild bees that pro-dandelion campaigns say dandelions help) resorted to eating their own eggs when fed a diet of protein-deficient dandelion pollen. … Instead of encouraging #LazyLawns what we need to do, urgently, is to steward, tend and nurture landscapes for native biodiversity and ecological integrity. A month of long lawns filled with dandelions and other non-native weedy species just doesn’t cut it.”

• “Letting Your Lawn Go is Not the Answer” (The Deep Middle) “It's going to look weedy fast. Without design intention your neighbors will be less apt to get on board. Invasive species may establish. What's in the weed seed bank? You don't know. Could be some native plants — likely aggressive seeders — definitely going to be aggressive exotics. And woody plants will move in. Without constant management tree seedlings will start to grow. If we're not working smartly with a plan and a goal, then we're just being lazy and ideologically polarizing for no reason. That's not helpful or neighborly.”

• “Are Dandelions Really Important to Bees?” (Garden Myths) “There is … evidence that once a bee is conditioned to dandelions, or any other flower, they will stick to sourcing pollen from it for a few days. Even if fruit tree pollen is available, they ignore it, once conditioned on dandelion pollen. An abundance of dandelions may in fact keep bees from the fruit tree pollen, which is a more nutritious source of pollen. … If we make it easy for honey bees to collect poor quality pollen by creating a lawn full of dandelions – that is what they will collect. A lawn of dandelions keeps bees away from more nutritious pollen. … A lawn full of dandelions is better for bees than a weed free lawn, but not nearly as good as a garden with a variety of plants and no dandelions. If you must have a lawn, consider planting fruit trees, even ornamental ones, and skip the dandelions.”

• “Is No Mow May a good idea? Garden experts weigh up the pros and cons of not mowing your lawn this month” (Living Etc.) “‘Not mowing will increase garden residents from bug-eating birds to beneficial insects [but also] ticks, which tend to climb plants and get rides on passers-by from dogs to people,' explains (master gardener, author and beekeeper) Charlotte Ekker Wiggins. ‘Growing your lawn might not be the best option therefore for spaces where children and pets play.’”

But then there’s:

• “No Mow May lawns have higher pollinator richness and abundances: An engaged community provides floral resources for pollinators,” a study conducted in Appleton, Wisconsin, by Lawrence University scientists and published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information “found that homes that participated in No Mow May had more diverse and abundant flora than regularly mowed green spaces throughout the city. No Mow May homes had three times higher bee richness and five times higher bee abundances than frequently mowed greenspaces.”

• A University of Massachusetts study titled “To mow or to mow less: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity in suburban yards” concluded: “Mowing less frequently is practical, economical, and a timesaving alternative to lawn replacement or even planting pollinator gardens.”

• Bee City U.S.A: “Not only are lawns burdensome for the people maintaining them, but they also provide little positive benefit to wildlife, and in fact are often harmful. The traditional monoculture lawn lacks floral resources or nesting sites for bees and is often treated with large amounts of pesticides that harm bees and other invertebrates. When we think of habitat loss, we tend to imagine bulldozers and rutted dirt, but acres of manicured lawn are as much a loss of habitat as any development site. Re-thinking the American lawn can take a variety of forms from reducing mowing frequency or area mown to permanently converting lawn to a more diverse and natural landscape.”

Again I’ll say that if you need a lawn — if you use it for croquet, badminton, baggo, catch, picnicking or other leisure pursuits that require open space — that’s cool. But if you’re simply conforming to tradition at the expense of the environment, you should feel liberated to rethink that.

A wild domestic landscape is not necessarily a healthy domestic landscape, so simply extending No Mow May into No Mow June and No Mow July without thoughtful weeding and culling would be irresponsible and, as Pete and others observe, unneighborly.

While No Mow May does seem to have its downsides, it also seems to be prompting some important reconsiderations.

EMBARRASSING ONLINE ONLY UPDATE: I’m out of town and my wife texted me Thursday morning: “I’m done with No Mow May in front,” and reported that she’d asked our son to get out the mower and bring the front yard under control.

Last week’s winning tweet

Nathalie with an h @nnnatchos

My bf bought a kazoo and in unrelated news he can’t find it for some reason..

Scroll down to read this week’s nominees or click here to vote in the new poll.

I have also created a special “Bleak Peanuts” poll consisting only of gloomy variations on “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and other perky titles in the official collections. At Vox, Emily St. James argues that Peanuts is plenty bleak enough without parodies:

It's a deeply funny work about the utter depths of human despair, and about the ways we constantly seem to set ourselves and each other up to fail.

News & Views

News: Former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has polls in the field to gauge his chances of defeating Lori Lightfoot for mayor.

View: I like Quinn personally and consider him to be a fundamentally honest if occasionally insufferably earnest politician. I doubt this is his moment, but given his name recognition and the potential size of the field (see my updated Mayoral candidate scoreboard), he might be able to slip into the run-off. I’ll be interested either way to hear his policy prescriptions should he choose to enter the race.

Quinn, 73, has been a candidate for numerous offices in his long political career, and I was amused by the comment from “Galway Bay” on the Capitol Fax blog: “Even Forrest Gump stopped running at some point.”

Meanwhile, fellow perennial candidate Willie Wilson has added giving away groceries to giving away gasoline. Both acts garner him goodwill and free publicity and are likely better investment for his mayoral campaign than TV commercials.

News: Three Republican gubernatorial hopefuls squared off in the NBC-5 debate Tuesday night while, an hour later, three other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls squared off in the WGN-Ch. 9 debate.

View: One thing the coverage of these dueling debates fails to address is what a colossal, embarrassing foul up it all was. When the candidates were dithering and fussing and pointing fingers about who agreed to appear where and when, adults in the room — those in charge of the debates at both stations — needed to flip a coin or agree to a joint broadcast of one debate or something to put the main rivals on the same stage at the same time.

The moderators, the news directors and the stations managers along with the candidates themselves should never have let this happen. A lot of people had to blink for this shambolic evening to transpire.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Darren Bailey, running a close second to Richard Irvin in the most recent polling, is begging off next Thursday’s scheduled debate at WLS-Ch. 7 for all the candidates, citing the Northwest Suburban GOP Lincoln Day Dinner.

If he’s not smart enough to see that a televised debate on a major market network-owned and -operated station is far, far better exposure than a Lincoln Day Dinner, then he’s too dumb to be governor. If he’s using this prior commitment as an excuse not to go head to head with Irvin, then he’s too cowardly.

News: Contributing columnist Laura Washington leaves the Sun-Times for the Tribune.

View: This move, first reported by Robert Feder, is an excellent one by the Tribune, which has been wanting for local column voices since so many of us left nearly a year ago. Feder notes that Washington will write a weekly column for the Trib and continue as a political analyst for WLS-Ch. 7.

News: Yankees designated hitter Josh Donaldson, who is white, touched off an angry confrontation when he called White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who is Black, “Jackie,” as in the great African American baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson.

View: As I told patrons in Tuesday’s edition, this looks to me like a simple case of taunting based on Anderson’s 2019 quote, “I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson.” Taunting is bad sportsmanship, yes, but evidence that Donaldson’s remark was racist is very thin and seems to assume that white athletes can’t trash talk Black athletes without being accused of racism.

Donaldson is known for being a jerk. And without the context of Anderson’s 2019 remark, his invocation of Robinson would have been troubling. But what’s troubling now is overreaction all around to this dust-up.

News: Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson are leaving “Saturday Night Live.”

View: McKinnon was an all-time SNL all-star, a brilliant mimic and exceedingly versatile comic actor. She’s in the pantheon with such greats as Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Eddie Murphy and Kristen Wiig. Bryant was solid, Mooney had a fairly narrow range and Davidson was weird and amateurish. Why so many are fascinated by him and his off-screen romantic exploits continues to puzzle me, and I would say the show is well rid of him, but he was such a nonpresence in the last season that I can’t even say that.

News: “This Is Us” ends its six-year run on NBC.

View: The show effectively ended with the death of matriarch Rebecca Pearson in the penultimate episode, and I wondered why the producers chose to tack on an extra show. But the series finale Tuesday night was pitch-perfect — exquisitely uneventful and featuring extended flashbacks reportedly shot several years ago that underscored how, at its heart, “This Is Us” was a show about connections, memory, family and the importance of taking the long view of life, death and the passage of time.

It was a profound show in part because it was so deeply rooted in the everyday — emotional conflict, sure, but not lurid melodrama or violence. There was nothing cheap or unearned about the events that drove the 60-some year plot forward, and the time shifts in the narrative were brilliantly executed.

However, my wife Johanna pointed out that, for a show that captured so much of the human condition with such subtlety and precision, the main characters seemed to lack for friends. Jack had Miguel, and Madison first entered the story as a friend of Kate’s, but other than that there was little suggestion that the characters had close pals, confidantes or any sort of support network outside of one another.

Making note of Rebecca’s death doesn’t count as a spoiler, by the way — it was heavily implied in the closing scene of Season 3, and given the sweep of time this series covers, it was not a shock or plot twist, but an inevitability. Stream it from the beginning is my recommendation.

News: Russian soldier sentenced to life in prison in Ukraine’s 1st war crimes trial

View: My prediction is that Vadim Shishimarin will be released within a year as part of a prisoner exchange or a mass release when Russian forces seize the prison where he’s being held.

Irvin’s gonna Irvin

This passage from the Sun-Times coverage of Tuesday’s NBC-5 debate tells us a lot about Aurora Mayor and front-running Republican gubernatorial hopeful Richard Irvin:

Throughout the campaign, Irvin has dodged questions about whether he voted for former President Donald Trump for fear of alienating GOP voters who supported Trump in 2020 — and the many undecided voters in the primary race.

And Tuesday was no different.

“I’m a Republican and in general elections, I vote for Republicans,” Irvin said. “But that’s exactly what J.B. Pritzker wants to be talking about.”

“Who did you vote for?” the moderator, NBC 5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern, asked.

“That’s exactly what J.B. Pritzker wants,” Irvin answered.

Ahern countered, “I don’t think so. I think the voters want to know, especially Republicans.”

“As I travel around the state, let me tell you what the voters around the state want to talk about,” Irvin said. “The fact that under J.B. Pritzker, crime is out of control.”

Ahern tried again, “So if you vote for a Republican, why did you vote for Trump?”

“As I said, as I drive around the state,” Irvin continued, prompting Ahern to interject, “I guess you didn’t.”

I can’t wait to read the newspaper endorsements for this wimp. “Yes, he can’t give a straight answer to a basic question, however …'‘

Illinois influx?

A representative headline last week read, “Illinois Undercounted in 2020 Census, Actually Grew to 13 Million — The State's Largest Population Ever.”

In its news pages, the Tribune reported:

Illinois’ population grew by about 250,000 between 2010 and 2020, according to updated census figures released (May 19). The new estimate stands in contrast to the oft-expressed belief that the state is hemorrhaging people.

“Oft-expressed” by the Tribune Editorial Board — Dec 22, 2020: “Illinois is a deepening population sinkhole;” April 30, 2021, “We have a big problem. We are not growing, at all,” for example — and others who have used the supposed “Illinois exodus” as an argument for certain policy changes.

More from the Tribune news story:

The U.S. Census Bureau originally found that Illinois lost about 18,000 people over the prior decade, which was the first time numbers showed Illinois’ overall population had declined since it joined the union in 1818. But after a follow-up survey — something that happens after each once-a-decade head count of the U.S. population — it discovered the state’s population figures had likely been undercounted.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker released a statement:

"From boundless economic opportunities, to booming economic development and leading institutions of higher education, Illinois has so much to offer our new residents. … I look forward to celebrating this development with all Illinoisans, including those who routinely badmouth our state."

And Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said huzzah:

It confirms what most of us already know: Illinois is a great place to live and work. We need more people cheering for Illinois and fewer spelunking for misery.

But the Illinois Policy Institute, a leading crepe hanger about Illinois’ supposed population drain, wasn’t willing to concede:

Despite 2020 Census counts that were higher than estimates based on the 2010 Census count, estimates of population change were likely accurate when they showed decline. Evidence of the downward trend includes the fact that even after the 2020 Census count reset the baseline, the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program estimated the largest population decline in Illinois history for 2021. Other estimates of migration from the IRS and multiple moving companies have found more people continue to move out of Illinois than into the state.

This over-protestation through the citing of arguably less reliable numbers came off as churlish. The IPI would have done better to strike the less defiant tone of the Crain’s editorial headlined, “Don't get too happy about those new census numbers, Illinois”:

It is indeed heartening to know the numbers do not necessarily support doomsayers’ anecdotal accounts of a stampede away from Illinois.

That said, the newly rectified census numbers should not give policymakers in this state too much comfort.

Other states are growing faster, for one thing, and Illinois as well as the jewel in its crown, the city of Chicago, still have considerable work to do to make this city and this state the kind of place where people want to live and businesses want to invest. ...

The census snafu should have given our elected officials and the economic teams who work for them cause to take no more than a five-minute victory lap and perhaps enjoy one round of “I told you so’s.”

Now that they’ve gotten that out of their system, it’s time to get back to work on fixing Illinois’ myriad problems.

In his syndicated column, Capitol Fax blogger Rich Miller also struck a moderate tone:

Pessimism is in our collective bones, partly because it has been beaten into our beings for so many years by opinion leaders, and partly because, well, we do indeed suck at so many things. In reality, more people leave Illinois in search of greater economic opportunities, lower costs of living or even better winter weather than move here. It’s still a problem that must be dealt with.

But this eager acceptance of Illinois’ decline as an overwhelming cold, hard scientific fact needs to be reexamined by the news media, which has repeatedly perpetuated what has apparently turned out to be a widely believed myth.

Indeed there are many reasons people stay in Illinois — including, I notice, most of those who’ve complained the loudest about our supposed population drain — and many reasons they leave. Nothing in this numerical adjustment should lead to end-zone dancing or even complacency about the very real, very measurable ways in which Illinois falls short of where it could be and should be.

Apropos of that, I wonder if Illinois will begin attracting corporations, small businesses and new residents as it becomes known as an island of reproductive rights in the Midwest. If I were a business owner looking to relocate, I’d think long and hard about moving to Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Nebraska or any other state that appears likely to impose nearly total bans on abortion in the coming months, my fear being that it would harm my ability to attract top talent.

Land of Linkin’

• “Richard Irvin, the mayor of Aurora, often finds himself in conflict with Richard Irvin, the GOP candidate for governor” is an illuminating rundown by the Tribune’s indefatigable political reporter Rick Pearson of the slippery rhetoric of the leading Republican gubernatorial hopeful. The passage about the different mailings Irvin sent to Republican and Democratic households in his 2017 run for mayor of Aurora is especially illuminating. Ray Long contributed.

• “In Australia, slot machines are everywhere. So is gambling addiction” in The Washington Post only adds to my apprehension that our embrace of wagering everywhere on everything will have many dreadful downsides.

• I’d either forgotten or never knew the hilarious details behind the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr.. This recent episode of the Ridiculous Crime podcast retells the story.

• Speaking of podcasts, in this season of “Motive” from WBEZ-FM, reporter Shannon Heffernan offers a deep and revealing dive into the Illinois prison system, particularly the issue of abusive guards.

• Talk about timely! My former Tribune colleague Michael Lev is now writing a newsletter titled “Chain Mail” about the global supply chain. One of Lev’s gigs at the Trib was business editor.

• The Picayune Sentinel on the air: On Thursdays at 4:30 p.m., WCPT-AM 820 host Joan Esposito and I chat about ideas raised in the new issue. The listen-live link is here.

• The Picayune Sentinel preview: Mondays 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.

• This 2017 video of 7-year-old Lacie Law, who is blind and has autism, engaging with street musician Clifford Woodage in Grimsby, U.K., is a joyful testament to the power of music:

Minced Words

In the new episode of “The Mincing Rascals,” host John Williams, Austin Berg and I discuss schoolhouse shootings, the Republican gubernatorial debates, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “screaming match” with Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, and Jackiegate.

Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can now hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Re: Tweets

New nominees for Tweet of the Week:

• My power move is saying, "Oh, that's my dog's name" whenever I’m introduced to someone new. — @LizerReal

• All my friends will tell you, I have a great sense of humor and I love edgy, sometimes offensive, comedy. But I will not tolerate offensive humor that is offensive to me. — @IamJackBoot

• It is I, the guy who has been ostracized for always saying "It is I." — @ReticentTurnip

• When you think about it, ice is basically just frozen water. — @Cpin42

• Fruit cocktail is the most disappointing of all the cocktails. — @UnFitz

• In a marriage, a moral victory is something you'll invariably end up celebrating on your own. — @wildethingy

• When I'm waving back at someone only to realize they're waving to the person behind me, I pretend like I was actually doing an impression of one of those wacky inflatable tube guys the whole time so I don't look like an idiot. — @JohnnyFrittata

• I was a better person when I bought this lettuce. — @smerobin

• Me: Can I use your bathroom? Friend: Sure, but be careful. Sometimes my cat does his business there. Me: OK. Me: [in the bathroom] Hello little kitty. Cat: Wanna buy some bitcoin? — @mrjohndarby

• You only live once - you should try to spend as much time on the computer as possible. After you die, you won't have access to it any more. — @afraidofwasps

Click here to vote in the poll. For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here. And please don’t forget to check out my special “Bleak Peanuts” poll. Nominees:

• Drinking Won't Bring Her Back, Charlie Brown. — @Home_Halfway

• Morality is a Soft Man’s Armor, Charlie Brown — @PostCultRev

• Make Peace With the Terror of Being Alive, Charlie Brown — @Cpin42

• It’s a Faustian bargain, Charlie Brown — @ScottLinnen

• Hell Will Burn Out Before You Find Peace, Charlie Brown. — @PostCultRev

• It's A Long Hard Fight With A Short Club, Charlie Brown — @angrynbitter77

• It’s an endless series of countervailing backlashes, Charlie Brown — @pimecorp

• I Hope You Kept The Receipt, Charlie Brown. — @huntergraybeal

• Close Your Eyes and Let the Eternal Tranquility of Death Embrace Your Body, Charlie Brown — @Home_Halfway

• Maybe It’s Time To Go Up A Shirt Size, Charlie Brown — @huntergraybeal

Today’s Tune

I’m a big fan of “zipper songs” — simple, highly repetitive folk numbers that are "so constructed that you have to zip in only a word or two to make an entirely new verse,” according to Lee Hays, who is said to have coined the term.

“These are obviously songs that don't call for much brain-work,” said Hays (1914-1981), a member of the Weavers. “They are songs you can sing three seconds after you've heard the first line. And, because they are very rhythmic and full of bounce, they're inviting — as a matter of fact, that's just what they are, because they derive from the invitational hymns of the old camp meetings.”

“Down in the Valley to Pray” is a good example — though you may know it as “Down in the River to Pray” from the 2000 movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” One word changes each time — “sisters” becomes “brothers,” “fathers,” “mothers” and finally “sinners.” Another is “I Bid You Goodnight” — which may be familiar to Grateful Dead fans but is led here by Emily Miller. Emily’s mother, Valerie Mindel, introduced me to “No Time to Tarry Here,” “Fathers Now Our Meeting is Over” and “Time is Winding Up” back at the turn of the century when she lived in the Chicago area and, with her husband, Michael Miller, was a founding cast member of “Songs of Good Cheer.”

The often derided “Kumbaya” is a zipper song that simply swaps out present participles (“Someone’s singing, Lord” becomes “someone’s crying” “someone’s laughing,” “someone’s praying,” etc.). “Give Light, We Shall Overcome” and “Down By the Riverside” are other examples.

I first heard Dan MacDonald sing “I and My Maker” at an Innertown Pub music jam several years ago and caught it on video Sunday evening as he and Emily Nott led the singing at a backyard party in Logan Square. It is today’s tune, and I hope my fellow zipperphiles will help spread it around:

MacDonald told me he got it from the album “North” by Small Houses, where it’s credited to Jeremy Cassar, originally from Davisburg, Michigan. I suspect Lee Hays would have liked it.

Consult the complete archive of my featured tunes!

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