Podcasters explore the kindling that set off the Oak Park Library dumpster fire

6-13-2024 (issue No. 145)

This week:

• Last week’s winning tweet

• National podcast gets to the bottom of the most Oak Park story ever

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked

• Sunrises, sunsets, swiftly flow the days

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

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

• Mary Schmich — A brief reflection on last week’s 80th anniversary of D-Day

• What’s on “The Mincing Rascals” podcast this week — A live show with the whole pack of Rascals at Winter’s Jazz Club in Chicago

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

• Take the poll — Should half birthdays be a thing?

• Re:Tweets — The winning visual tweet and this week’s contest finalists

• Good Sports — How low will the White Sox go?

• Tune of the Week — Jamie Lin Wilson’s cover of Mickey Newbury’s “T Total Tommy” nominated by Pete Prokopowicz

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.

Last week’s winning tweet

I still say “roll up the window” for God’s sake, don’t expect me to quit calling this place Twitter anytime soon. — @ddsmidt

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

National podcast gets to the bottom of the most Oak Park story ever

I admit up front that I am among the local journalists who dropped the ball on covering a very weird, very troubling story that unfolded earlier this year in near west suburban Oak Park. The library board of trustees fired its nationally respected African American director in February, ostensibly because trustees felt she wasn’t sufficiently earnest and deferential regarding the village’s diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.

I conducted several interviews and collected all the background news clips I could find before coming to the conclusion that the story was too small yet too complicated to devote the kind of time it needed to be told correctly. Former librarian Kelly Jensen of Woodstock took a creditable stab at it with “What Is Going On at Oak Park Public Library?” a 4,000-word post at Well Sourced, her Substack.

Then on June 1, journalist Katie Herzog, co-host of the “Blocked and Reported” podcast, aired “Launching A Smear Campaign Against A Respected Black Librarian, For Social Justice,” a 47-minute deep dive into the story that went well beyond even Jensen’s coverage (start listening at 26:28).

“Blocked and Reported,” co-hosted by journalist and author Jesse Singal, “scour(s) the internet for its craziest, silliest, most sociopathic content, part of an obsessive and ill-conceived attempt to extract kernels of meaning and humanity from a landscape of endless raging dumpster fires.”

And this was an epic raging dumpster fire by any measure. I will try to summarize as succinctly as possible, but for the full flavor, click here for the relevant transcript portion.

In late 2022, Oak Park hired Joslyn Bowling Dixon to run its well-regarded public library. On Jan. 21 of this year, the library hosted the annual Celebration of Palestinian Culture, a successful event by all accounts attended by some 400 people. But there was some confusion about whether the library sponsored the event or simply provided space for it, as it had done for the past two decades.

Still, some felt that the fact that the library didn’t actually sponsor and promote the Celebration of Palestinian culture this year was racist.

Shortly thereafter, due to budget cuts, Bowling Dixon reassigned two staff members, one of whom was the “restorative practices coordinator.” A citizens’ group that goes by Activate Oak Park then sounded an alarm on social media that “the community engagement team is at risk of being dismantled,” and amplified complaints about lack of official library sponsorship of the Celebration of Palestinian Culture.

This ended up surfacing some complaints about Bowling Dixon’s overall management style that seemed to come from a handful of library employees. This resulted, somehow, in Bowling Dixon’s ouster.

This is from Herzog’s conclusion as taken from a transcript of the podcast transcript, which I encourage you to read and share.

So the end result of all of this is that Joslyn Bowling Dixon — the perfect candidate, she had the degree, the experience, the ties to the community, the support of her colleagues… — was fired. And now the residents of Oak Park and the board of the Oak Park Public Library can rest well knowing that they ousted a well-liked executive director for the crime of I'm not even sure. …

A small number of disgruntled employees used the Palestinian event to mobilize a bunch of anti-racist activist types to campaign against their boss. Because, unlike the old white guy who used to run the place, she wasn’t afraid of being called racist for enforcing the rules.

And then the good progressive anti-racist folks of Oak Park — who are basically being manipulated here — blew this whole thing out of proportion, forcing the board to respond, at which point the board fires the popular Black lady in the name of anti-racism. And that is social justice.

The podcast had harsh words for the shallow coverage given this dust-up by the local Wednesday Journal newspaper. I reached out to the publisher and editor of the Wednesday Journal for a comment or response and heard nothing. I also did not hear back from Jensen, whom Herzog accused of blocking her when she attempted to send follow-up questions.

News & Views

News: Hunter Biden convicted of three felonies for lying about his drug dependency when purchasing a firearm

View: Sounds right to me. The explanation of Biden’s attorneys at his recent trial — that though he had been a drug addict and would again be a drug addict, he was working on his recovery and so did not actually consider himself a drug addict on the day in 2018 he bought a gun — was comically unpersuasive.

He checked “no” on the legally mandated form that asked, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”

His defense amounted to “it depends on what you mean by addicted,” and it recalled former President Bill Clinton’s inartful dodge, “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” The jury didn’t buy it.

Why alcohol addiction isn’t also a barrier to gun ownership I don’t know. The National Institutes of Health notes that “alcohol has been associated with violent crimes and domestic violence across many nations. … Individuals prone to aggressive behaviors are more likely to commit impulsive violent crimes, especially under the influence of alcohol.”

News: Reporter posing as a conservative Christian surreptitiously recorded conversations with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as well as with Alito’s wife. She is being widely criticized in conventional media for deceptive reporting.

View: Undercover reporting has an undeservedly bad name. It fell out of favor more than 40 years ago even though it had pulled back the cover on many unsavory government and business practices — think of the Sun-Times Mirage Tavern exposes in 1978.

“How can newspapers fight for honesty and integrity when they themselves are less than honest in getting a story?” was how Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee put it.

My answer would be, “How can newspapers get the real story when they are misled, lied to and fed half-truths and pablum by armies of flacks and opportunists? The Freedom of Information Act can only take us so far.”

From ABC News:

In one exchange, (reporter/activist Lauren) Windsor poses a leading question to Alito, suggesting that there can be no compromise between the right and the left.

Alito appears to agree, saying there are fundamental differences that are difficult to resolve.

In the edited recording, Windsor keeps pushing Alito, saying, "people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness."

Alito responds, saying, "I agree with you, I agree with you."

Not a blockbuster admission, but suggestive of personal inclinations to breach the wall between church and state that I, for one, find disquieting. Roberts, for the record, was far more circumspect.

“Yeah. I don't know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say, maybe not. And it's not our job to do that. It's our job to decide the cases as best we can."

Tom Jones, senior media writer for the Poynter Institute, was among those who took issue with Windsor’s tactics:

Poynter’s senior vice president Kelly McBride, chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, told me, “Is there ever a time when it's OK for a journalist to deceive somebody? I would never say never, but I have yet, in 20 years of offering ethics advice, seen an instance that I would say it is justified.”

McBride also told me this would not be common practice at a legitimate news organization, saying, “Any other journalist would be fired for doing something like that. Like any ill-gotten piece of information, it puts us in a position as journalists where we have to be very transparent with the audience about what we know and what we don't know.”

Windsor told CNN’s Jim Acosta, “To people who want to pearl-clutch about this, please tell me how we’re going to get answers when the Supreme Court has been shrouded in secrecy and really refusing any degree of accountability whatsoever.” …

(But) reputable journalists would never do what Windsor did, and defending sound and ethical journalism should not be dismissed as, to use Windsor’s words, “pearl-clutching.”

The Society of Professional Journalists Codes of Ethics says: “Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.”

“Unless” does a lot of work there.

New York University has a lengthy collection of essays on the topic. Perhaps this incident will lead to the relaxation of the strong but informal prohibition.

News: Prosecutors seek a 10-year prison sentence for convicted former Ald. Ed Burke, 80; Burke’s attorneys ask for a sentence of home confinement.

View: He has to do some time if only to remind other pols that there will always be a heavy price to pay for corrupt acts, no matter how old you are when the law finally catches up to you. And no matter how many pals you have in high places or how many favors or good deeds you have done.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall has been inundated with so many unctuous letters of support for Burke that I wonder if it will work against him

Even Bill Kurtis, the longtime broadcaster, said he followed Burke’s “devotion to his role on the City Council and his dedication to his constituents that made a lasting impression.”

“I have thought Ed Burke was the model of what an alderman should be,” Kurtis wrote. “I still think that.” (Tribune)

That’s positively nauseating coming from a journalist.

Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb surely is not this obtuse:

“At no time did I ever see any indication that he was other than a dedicated public servant, always interested in serving the citizens of the City of Chicago,”

That so many people thought so well of him and he still resorted to the corrupt acts for which he was convicted speaks to an extra level of venality and incorrigibility. “The model of what an alderman should be” my left sock.

News: “In one year, Brandon Johnson's campaign has spent $30K on grooming.”

View: That’s comically excessive, in a John Edwards-y sort of way, but as long as it’s not public money the only people entitled to complain are the campaign donors who fund all the primping.

His remarks, when asked about this by reporters Wednesday, were nonresponsive and gratuitously divisive: "I encourage all of you in this room, support small businesses. Go get your hair and makeup done by Black people in particular."

ImageFX

Sunlight report

According to the 2024 sungraph for Chicago, we are currently in a run of seven consecutive 5:14 a.m. sunrises, the earliest all year. It will creep up to 5:15 a.m. on Tuesday and begin sliding later and later until we hit the latest sunrise, 7:18 a.m. on Dec. 30. A week from today, Thursday, June 20, we’ll see our latest sunset of the year — 8:29 p.m. — and it won’t be until July 3 that we’ll begin heading toward the earliest sunset — 4:19 p.m. — on Dec. 2. (Keep in mind that we set our clocks back an hour on Nov. 3.)

On June 20, we’ll have 15:13:41 of daylight, the most of the year. On Dec. 21, the day of least sunlight, we’ll have just 9:07:44.

Land of Linkin’

• One of my favorite sites to visit from time to time is Movie Spoilers, “Your guide to the latest plot twists and surprise endings.” I consult it whenever reading the review of a movie that I’m very unlikely to see and the critic hints at an interesting or confusing or controversial ending. The site has more than 3,000 titles in its archives, “everything from ‘American Beauty’ to ‘Zoolander.’”

• My commentary in Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, “A bit of friendly advice: Avoid the word ‘thug’” did not, I admit, go over very will with readers.

• “These are the trendy baby names you're about to see everywhere.” (NBC) Top trending baby boy names: Izalel, Chozen, Eiden, Cassian and Kyren. Top trending baby girl names: Kaeli, Alitzel, Emryn, Adhara and Azari.

• Consumer Reports from 2020: “How to Eat Less Plastic — Each of us might ingest up to a credit card’s worth of plastic weekly through food and water. Here, how to minimize exposure.”

• I’ve had a bit of a meltdown — hopefully temporary — at ericzorn.com, the site I use to supplement the Picayune Sentinel. The upside is that it gives me the opportunity to post a new, restored link to “The truth about John Kass’ dispute with the Tribune and the Tribune Guild.” And to renew my invitation to the increasingly deranged Hoosier — or any of his former enablers at the Tribune — to post any corrections or counterpoints.

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:

■ The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson (no relation) theorizes about how Republicans became “the Party of Precarious Manhood.”

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Donald Trump’s weekend rally: “If your own grandfather started babbling like this about sharks and batteries, you’d be googling for … a world-class memory care center” …

■ … and Tiedrich names the judge “presiding over the Big Trump Stolen Classified Document F**kery Trial,” Aileen Cannon, “Trump Employee of the Month.”

■ The Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board is investigating the Cook County Circuit Court Law Division’s presiding judge, who ordered a lawyer out of her courtroom; sheriffs deputies then handcuffed him to a chair .

■ Chicago magazine’s Edward McClelland has visited—and written about—every one of the city’s 77 community regions.

■ The American Prospect pulls back the curtain on big banks behind the rising cost of credit.

■ Press critic Mark Jacob names names as he surveys the field of prominent journalists attacking—or failing to defend—democracy.

■ Press Watch columnist—and Washington Post alumnus—Dan Froomkin says the Post’s new publisher violated “a core doctrine of American journalism.”

■ Popular Information says the Sinclair Broadcast Group—you may recall its unsuccessful bid to control formerly Tribune Co.-owned WGN-TV—has been injecting deceptive attacks on President Biden into its stations’ newscasts.

■ “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver’s stunt purchase of a closed Red Lobster Restaurant’s contents drew a complaint from the owner of a nearby bakery, but Oliver offered to make things right—for a price.

■ DJ and culture critic Bob Lefsetz: “The biggest movie of the summer (‘Hit Man’) is on Netflix,” because “the movie business was so busy trying to make profits that it lost its audience.”

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

Mary Schmich: A brief reflection on last week’s 80th anniversary of D-Day

My former colleague Mary Schmich posts occasional column-like entries on Facebook. Here, reprinted with permission, is a recent offering:

Forty years ago, my editor at the Orlando Sentinel dispatched me on the spur of the moment to Normandy to cover the 40th anniversary of D-Day.

I was deployed largely because I’d lived in France and spoke French, but otherwise I brought nothing special to the assignment. I wasn’t part of the official press corps. I had none of the fanciest badges giving me access to the elite events. I knew nothing about World War II, except that my father had served in it at the age of 19 and never talked about it to his wife and kids.

All reporters know, however, that serendipity and terror often suffice as a passport to the story.

I drove to the Normand coast from Paris in a rental car without a place to stay, only to discover that every hotel for miles had been booked. With dusk coming on, I wound up in the lobby of a little auberge in the village of Grandcamp-Maisy.

For the umpteenth time that day I heard: No room at the inn.

Realizing I might have to sleep in my car, I did what any good reporter would. I started to cry.

The proprietor sighed. Told me to wait a minute. Came back and said he had a solution. I could have his daughter’s bedroom for as long as I needed.

The room had a bed, a chest of drawers and shutters that opened out to the ocean. It turned out I was sharing the inn with the U.S. Army Rangers who in 1944 had scaled the nearby 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to seize German artillery aimed at the beaches the Allied forces were preparing to storm.

With my bedroom windows thrown wide, I could hear one of the old Rangers say that the only French he could remember was “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” He and his aging comrades laughed. They sounded a little sad, but I wasn’t sure why.

A couple of days after I arrived, I despaired again. I’d heard that President Ronald Reagan would be in town to deliver a speech at Pointe du Hoc. But security was tight. I was not in the press pool admitted to the event.

Once more, the proprietor saved me. A few people in the village had passes; he would give me one of his.

And so I got to sit a few yards from Ronald Reagan as he stood at the cliff's edge and delivered one of his most famous speeches, the one Peggy Noonan wrote that begins, “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.”

Then came the parachute reenactment, in which a bunch of paratroopers jumped from planes to recreate the moment when the World War II paratroopers landed in Normandy. I was milling in the crowds at the edge of the upcoming event when a car pulled up beside me. A window rolled down. Inside was General James Gavin, who’d led that airborne landing. As fate would have it, he’d moved to Orlando by then and I’d once interviewed him.

He invited me into his car and smuggled me into his VIP section.

When I think back on those days in Normandy, I remember them as beautiful and inspiring. I felt lucky to be there. But I also think about how that time was my introduction to the realities of World War II. Despite all the pomp and circumstance, all the spectacular food and drink and souvenirs, all those soaring words about bravery and sacrifice, that June was when I began to comprehend what the people of my parents’ generation had lived through.

War.

The so-called good war, which in many ways it was. But I’ve had conversations since then with people whose fathers, like mine, went to that war and, like my father, came home and never talked about it.

Those soldiers were hailed as heroes and then, presto, expected to get on with life. But I’ve often wondered about the psychological burdens, the damage, they were taught to hide in trade for their heroes’ badges. Those psychological wounds have surely played out in families, in society, in ways rarely acknowledged.

There are a million other things to say about war and the world on this 80th anniversary of D-Day. These are just a few of mine, hastily scribbled, for whatever they’re worth. — Mary Schmich

The Mincing Rascals podcast team on stage Wednesday evening: John Williams, Jon Hansen, Cate Plys, Marj Halperin, Austin Berg, Brandon Pope & Eric Zorn

Minced Words

Thanks to all who came out to Winter’s Jazz Club along the Chicago River Wednesday evening for another live recording of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. We had a lively discussion about hot topics in the news. If you’re not into podcasts, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Quotables

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

The biggest difference between the Donald Trump jury and the Hunter Biden jury is that the Hunter Biden jury can go on TV without fear of getting death threats against them and their families. — Betty Bowers

Dear MAGA: If you are stunned by the grace with which we are taking Hunter's verdict, wait till you see how serene we are when Menendez and Cuellar go down. We are the party of law and order; the new GOP is a band of traitors led by a cornered rat. — Allison Burnett

There really is a weird double standard where the media can question Joe Biden’s mental acuity because of his age, but when Trump says something completely batshit crazy there is no investigation into whether he is actually emotionally unstable or disordered in some way. — Tom Nichols

The media should understand, too, every text message, every email, every lie you told is going to be exposed and yes, you're going to be held accountable. — Steve Bannon on his hopes for a second Trump administration

Rear-ended a Trump voter & didn't give my insurance details. Just said I'd make his car great again & drove off while he stood & applauded. @WheelTod

Finger on the pulse: Half birthdays

On Twitter, @SCbchbum angrily tweeted, “Half birthdays are not a thing!” There’s probably some backstory to her pique, and perhaps you’d like to use the online half-birthday calculator if you don’t know the exact date of your half birthday. But let me just put the question out there:

Re: Tweets

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday:

The new nominees for Tweet of the Week:

• If my wife doesn't win anything on this $2 scratch ticket, it's going to go down as one of the worst birthday presents ever. — @RodLacroix

• I’m confident the inventor of the kazoo did not have children. — @itssherifield

•  [job interview] “Describe yourself in three words.” “Always pushing the boundaries.” — @IHPower

• Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Make it worse by saying they look tired. — @BobTheSuit

• I googled “How late is Arby’s open?” and the suicide hotline number popped up. — @DanManCarney

• I asked the hotel for a wake up call, and they told me my skinny jeans and red parka make me look like a lollipop. — @benedictsred

• I was bitten by a radioactive spider, too. But I put a little Bactine on it, so I didn't get the superpowers. I just like to wear spandex sometimes. — @WilliamAder

• Why is such a large part of early childhood education learning what sounds animals make? That's never going to come up. I've never said “Moo!” to a cow, and have it go, “Thank you for learning about my culture.” — @KylePlant Emoji

• Plugging your nose to pop your ears feels like a screenshot. — @rats4friends

• Normalize asking, “Is this an intervention?” whenever someone invites you over. — @Ann_Hedonia1

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

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:

Good Sports

No Olympics for Clark

Indiana Fever rookie phenom Caitlin Clark seems fine with being left off theU.S. Olympic women’s basketball squad — she could use the time off, she told reporters — so I will only be so vehement in pointing out that an appearance by Clark at the Olympics would be a great promotion for women’s hoops.

Surges in ticket sales and TV viewership illustrate what a big draw she is, and putting her on the team would not erode the near certainty that the U.S. will win gold in Paris. She may or may not be among the 12 best American players in the WNBA, but she is the best bet to draw more eyeballs and enthusiasm both to the Olympics and to the sport in general.

The No-No Sox

As long as the race remains close — which it may not — I will offer you comparison standings of the 2024 White Sox with the 2003 Detroit Tigers and the 1962 New York Mets, teams that have defined futility for more than 80 years, and the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, the worst team in baseball’s modern era (20th century on).

After 69 games, including Wednesday night’s extra-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners:

Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Morrissey is evidently as fascinated as I am by this plunge toward the abyss. Earlier this week, he wrote:

I’ve proposed that the Sun-Times run a daily ‘‘Race to the Bottom’’ chart, chronicling our antiheroes’ pursuit of the MLB loss record. It would be a regular reminder to (owner Jerry) Reinsdorf that, as much as he might want to ignore what’s going on, he can’t. It would keep fans informed and free them from the tyranny of math, of the burden of trying to figure out whether the Sox are still on pace for the record. Some readers have asked for such a chart. …

They have a real shot at breaking the single-season record for losses, especially with the likelihood that they’ll be sellers before the trade deadline. …

Alas, like a typical Sox outcome this season, my suggestion has been shut out. I write. I don’t lay out the newspaper or edit it, and I’ve been told in no uncertain terms to stay in my lane. Actually, I was told in that exact certain term: ‘‘Stay in your lane.’’

But can we who seek truth be muted? Should we be made to sit when all we want to do is spread our wings and fly? Must we be chart-shamed?

I wrote to my former Tribune colleague Phil Rosenthal, a far more devoted and serious White Sox fan than I, to ask if he’s on board with the idea that the only thing fun about the Sox this year is rooting for them to make history.

His response:

I like baseball, and that's why I still go to White Sox games and watch them on TV. But as Elvis Costello sings, “I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.” This Sox season has been a farce. I'm not rooting against them, yet it hasn't bothered me when they lose because I've found the various ways they do it often laughable and never wholly unexpected. The potential to undercut the '62 Mets has the undeniable lure of history, but historic failure is as elusive as unmatched levels of success and in this, too, I expect the Sox to fall short.

Indeed. No one remembers the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (47-115) or the 2019 Detroit Tigers (47-114), who are now 15th and 16th in the rankings of worst teams of the modern era.

No. 1 on that list, the 1916 Philadelphia A’s, played a 153-game season and finished 36-117. Out to another decimal place, that’s a winning percentage of .2353. The White Sox play in the 162-game era. If they go 38-124, that will result in a winning percentage of .2346.

So all the Sox need to do is win (22) more games out of the remaining 93 left to play (a winning percentage of just .237 ) to reach 39 victories and avoid the history books.

I like their chances. From late June to early August of 1916, the A’s were 2-41, including a 20-game losing streak.

If and when the Sox have at least a three-game lead over this ignominious field, I’ll discontinue this weekly feature.

Tune of the Week

I’ve been opening up Tune of the Week nominations in an effort to bring some newer sounds to the mix. I’m asking readers to use the comments area for paid subscribers or email to leave nominations (post-2000 releases, please!) along with YouTube links and at least a few sentences explaining why the nominated song is meaningful or delightful to you. The following nomination of Jamie Lin Wilson’s 2021 cover of Mickey Newbury’s 1969 song, “T Total Tommy,” is from Pete Prokopowicz.

T Total Tommy took a toke of tea
Black cats backin' up a big oak tree
Tick tocks tickin’ out a tune on time
Last words lookin' for a line to rhyme
Saw fishes swimmin' in the sea-saw-sea
But me well I'm only lookin'

American Songwriter quoted Wilson:

I’ve loved Newbury’s songs and his point of view for a long time and as I was listening one morning, (“T Total Tommy”) caught my ear. I listened to it over and over and knew right away this was my match. I love the images, the groove, the way the words wind together to move you through the song. When covering a song, I always feel like there needs to be a need for it. You don’t cover a song to make a better version, but to honor it and bring a fresh perspective. He was a master of his craft and I look forward to singing his songs and being inspired.

Kris Kristofferson had this to say about Newberry, who died in 2002 at age 62:

I learned more about songwriting from Mickey than I did any other single human being. To me he was a songbird. He comes out with amazing words and music. … I’m sure that I never would have written “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down” … if I had never known Mickey. He was my hero and still is.

The Tune of the Week archive has been at least temporarily lost to a server problem, but I hope to resurrect it soon!

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