Pritzker’s smart move: An incumbent governor will have a better chance at winning the presidency than a citizen billionaire
Reportedly, Gov. JB Pritzker will announce Thursday that he’s running next year for a third term as Illinois governor, evidently disregarding the advice of at least two respected Democratic consultants. This from an article last month at WBEZ about Pritzker’s interest in running for president in 2028:
David Axelrod, former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama in his winning 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, said if Pritzker harbors White House ambitions, he ought to think hard about leaving Springfield after two terms because of the political volatility that being governor can bring.
“Third terms are notoriously perilous, and things that can go wrong tend to go wrong in third terms,” Axelrod said. “If your attention is divided between running for president, which is a hellacious job in itself, and … dealing with crises at home, that is a very difficult balance to strike.
“I honestly think time may be better spent for him if he wants to run for president, traveling the country and interacting with people and not just speaking, but listening. It would enrich him as a candidate and give him a head start. So you have to balance the risks and rewards of each decision. And in my view, the risks of running again [for governor] are greater than the possible rewards,” said Axelrod, a CNN commentator and host of the political podcast, “The Axe Files.” …
Democratic political strategist Pete Giangreco had roles in nine presidential campaigns dating back to 1984, including Obama’s two victories and the 1992 and 1996 wins by Democrat Bill Clinton. Like Axelrod, Giangreco sees more time in Illinois’ Executive Mansion as a move fraught with risk for Pritzker if the governor has any desire to seek the White House.
“In my mind, there’s no reason to run for a third term as governor to improve your chances of being president,” Giangreco said in an interview, adding that Pritzker already has “got a great record to run on.”
Both Axelrod and Giangreco are far more experienced and knowledgeable than I about politics, but my guess is that the bully pulpit of the governor’s office is better than the gilded pulpit of a citizen billionaire when it comes to motivating voters. Six sitting governors have won the White House, most recently George W. Bush of Texas in 2000 and Bill Clinton of Arkansas in 1992. Seven former governors have done the trick, most recently Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Jimmy Carter in 1976.
I’ll note up front that I doubt Pritzker will win the presidency in 2028, which is part of the reason I’m glad he’s running for reelection. I think he’s overall been a fine chief executive for the state, and I’ll be happy to have him for four more years.
Here’s Rick Pearson in Wednesday’s Tribune explaining the case that Pritzker has been a good governor:
Perhaps Pritzker’s biggest accomplishment as governor was to bring a state of fiscal stability to a notoriously unstable Illinois — particularly after the financial problems caused by his GOP predecessor’s two-year stalemate with Democratic lawmakers that left the state without a budget, causing severe cuts in social safety net programs and racking up a vast amount of unpaid bills to state vendors.
The state’s credit rating has been upgraded nine times during Pritzker’s tenure, from a low point of being one step above junk bond status. …
An unabashed progressive, Pritzker has increased protections for abortion access for women and availability of health care, defended the state’s sanctuary policies against Trump’s push to deport immigrants, signed bans on assault weapons and so-called ghost guns and required universal background checks on firearm sales in the state.
At the same time, he enacted changes to the state’s criminal justice system that ended cash bail for nonviolent offenders, expunged minor cannabis-related arrest records and approved the legalization of marijuana for recreational sale and use.
He also approved a $15 an hour state minimum wage and a massive $45 billion capital plan, Rebuild Illinois, to modernize the state’s infrastructure. He adopted programs offering tax credits for electric vehicle development and is pushing to make the state a center for quantum computing. He also legalized sports betting and helped create six new casino licenses.
And here’s Pearson in the same article explaining the case against him:
His stewardship of the state during the COVID-19 pandemic was roundly criticized as overreach by Republicans with some municipal leaders ignoring business shutdown orders. Several GOP county sheriffs vowed not to enforce the state’s assault weapons ban.
A state audit faulted Pritzker’s Department of Public Health for its tardy response to a COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home in 2020 that killed 36 elderly military veterans. An inspector general’s report ordered by Pritzker was found to have focused too narrowly on the state Department of Veterans Affairs while largely ignoring Public Health’s role in the crisis.
Another state audit found Pritzker’s Department of Employment Security paid out more than $5 billion in fraudulent jobless benefits in the rush to fulfill jobless claims during the pandemic.
And another 300 state employees engaged in wrongdoing by receiving more than $7 million of pandemic-era business grants to assist businesses in paying workers.
The conservative/libertarian Illinois Policy Institute think tank gave Pritzker straight F grades last year on growth in gross domestic product, jobs, population, employment and wages:
It is harder for Illinoisans to find a job than it is for residents in almost any other state in the country. When they do find jobs, they’re often lower-paying and offer slower wage growth than what their peers receive in other states. With results like that, it’s clear why so many Illinoisans are fleeing. … Pritzker has also overseen a decline in educational outcomes for Illinois students. Academics got worse despite the state spending $2.5 billion more on public schools annually.
An extra couple of years in office for Pritzker — assuming he beats whichever candidate the feckless Illinois Republican Party runs against him next year — will give him some runway to address some of the problems his critics identify and to make the inevitable slogan, “JB Pritzker will do to American what he’s done to Illinois,” seem like a promise, not a threat.
Last week’s winning quip
Susan B. Anthony is actually the perfect drag name. — @Cactuscali1991
In a statistical dead heat, the runner-up was “Marinara is just ketchup that did a study abroad program” by @lacroixboi.dadguy.online.
I have much to say belowabout the quip that finished dead last in the poll.
News: The U.S. joined Israel’s bombing attacks to dislodge Iran’s nuclear program.
View: As one who was fooled by ululations of urgency back in 2003 prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, I ain’t falling for this one. No one in the civilized world wants Iran to get a nuclear bomb, but as a Tribune editorial noted: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (has been) talking about the imminence of an Iranian nuclear bomb as far back as 1996.”
Maybe this will turn out to have been the wisest course of action that will lead to increased safety and stability in the Middle East, and I will once again have been wrong. But I wish President Donald Trump had gone about this deliberately, building the case by presenting evidence and then seeking the consent of Congress, as I have no confidence whatsoever in his gut feelings and rash actions.
View: Is there a sorer loser in all of human history than this wretched man? Wasting government time and resources on his grievances and desire for revenge. Tsk.
View: This again? The argument favoring the idea goes something like this: The American system of laws is rooted in absolute moral truths as handed down by the Judeo-Christian God in the Ten Commandments. Therefore, a display of the commandments is like a relief statue of the blindfolded Dame Justice above the courthouse door, simply a symbolic reminder of the principles upon which all this jurisprudence is, ultimately, based.
But like hell it is.
Taken as a whole, the Ten Commandments are explicitly based upon and reflect a particular — and, I might add, not very widely practiced — religious belief.
How many of the Ten Commandments reflect actual laws? Three.
Don’t steal, murder or bear false witness.
Another four — honor your folks, stay faithful to your spouse, don’t be covetous and refrain from profanity — are simply positive exhortations, not generally matters of law anymore.
The remaining three — keep the Sabbath holy, make no graven images and have no other God before the Judeo-Christian God — are religious prescriptions, plain and simple.
Making graven images may or may not be a good idea, but unless I misread my Constitution, we’re all free to do so and risk the consequences. Any sign in any courtroom or public school classroom that implies otherwise is in serious error.
I would add to this that making graven images, or at least the freedom to do so, is precisely, exactly, what America is all about.
Ever ask yourself why in the name of all that is putatively holy do religious zealots insist on posting the Commandments instead of, say, a nice solid list of Principles of Good Behavior?
I mean, if you’ve got room in your classroom or courtroom for 10 rules, why would you spend one telling people not to make graven images? And another telling them to keep the Sabbath holy?
These are not big problems in our society.
And when it comes to actual problems, does anyone really need a sign to remind them not to murder people?
Of course not. The content is not critical.
The messenger is the message: As a whole, the Ten Commandments on the wall say that God, a divine and all-powerful being, is the source of morality; that without God telling us what is moral and what isn’t moral and defining the absolutes of right and wrong, there can be no right and wrong.
This is a perfectly fine belief for an individual to hold to regulate his own conduct.
I’d neither endorse it nor criticize it as a matter of personal conscience. It’s not my business, as long as no one tries to make it my business.
But as a civic belief, the notion of God as the source of morality is not benign — it’s dangerous because it removes questions of law, customs and morals from the arena of human logic and reason.
News: The former owner of the “Home Alone” house in Winnetka has written a book about the experience.
View: A book? The Sun-Times article about John Abendshien’s “Home But Alone No More” sated my appetite for learning what it was like to own the home that was the setting for filmmaker John Hughes’ 1990 classic “Home Alone.”
View: Sherman will always be the cute guy heartthrob whom many of us aspired to be as teenagers in the 1970s. I’m not saying he was the only idol who inspired the unfortunate haircut in my senior yearbook photo, but, well, there is some evidence …
Land of Linkin’
Streetsblog Chicago has the most comprehensive coverage about the hit-and-run incident early Saturday on DuSable Lake Shore Drive that killed Misericordia Heart of Mercy social service worker, musician and actor Brendan Siddal.
A bill in the Alabama legislature “would eliminate protections for pregnant people and subject them to murder or assault charges for the termination of fetal development at any stage.”
Was the mailing of a threatening, antisemitic letter to a home in Highland Park really newsworthy? PS readers had their say in Tuesdays’ bonus edition.
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:
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: “Once upon a time I looked down on columnists who wrote about the weather. It seemed a failure of imagination. And I can report, on good authority, that is indeed exactly that.”
■ The Sun-Times: A forthcoming memoir from a retired health care executive who lived in Winnetka’s “Home Alone” house says it was a “dystopian dream” without end.
You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.
‘The F word’ has become more like a firecracker than a bomb
A fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel appeared to hold Tuesday after initially faltering, and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed frustration with both sides, saying they had fought “for so long and so hard” that they do not know what they are doing.
The seventh paragraph elaborated that the president had used “particularly strong words.” It was not until the 26th paragraph that the article got more specific in quoting Trump:
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f--- they’re doing,” he said.
Most mainstream news outlets bleeped or obscured the word “fuck,” according to a Poynter review of the coverage.
In earlier, gentler, more genteel times, I can see it having been a hard decision — the president used a swear for emphasis! What shall we do that won’t upset those who are deeply concerned about coarse language infecting our civic discourse?
But this particular oath has been so attenuated by its use on streaming TV and by other politicians, including the foul-mouthed Trump, that it shouldn’t even raise eyebrows anymore.
Resurfacing what I wrote on this topic a year ago, we’re all adults here — the idea of a “family newspaper” that must protect the sensitivities of young readers is increasingly silly. First, very few minors read the newspaper anymore. And second, those minors who do read the paper are unlikely to be shocked by these protean, garden-variety intensifiers that we consider impolite.
I find it patronizing and paternalistic when publications and cable news outlets censor words that everyone in their audience knows, hears all the time and, in many cases, uses freely. Most magazines and online publications, like most podcasts and most streaming TV shows, season their offerings with salty language to excellent effect.
Media outlets ought to be descriptive, not prescriptive — they should communicate to people in language they understand using words that convey precise sentiments. Vanishingly few people are shocked or even offended by the word “fuck” as it is commonly used.
I even took a poll back then:
March 2024
Images that fall into the generation gap
Yeah, that thing was called a “floppy disk,” even though the housing for this particular storage medium was rigid. And those of us of a certain age remember having to manually save our work to them every few minutes in order to have a recent backup for when the inevitable blue screen of death would appear on our computers.
Automatic backup programs and cloud backup services now do the job far better and behind the scenes, and thumb drives have replaced floppies for the storage minded. The thumb drive also seems to be on the way out, according to PC Mag, so it might one day join this gallery of images likely to confuse the younger set:
The first book, “The Brown’s Chicken Massacre” by my former Tribune colleague Maurice Possley, came out in 2003. I asked “Something Big” author Patrick Wohl, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who grew in in Park Ridge, what he considered new in his book. Here is a portion of his answer:
(Possley’s book) was written before the trials in 2007 and 2009. While Possley was no doubt deeply sourced, the passage of time allowed me access to things like trial transcripts and I believe people were more willing to talk after 30 years. …
There's also this myth that the Palatine police somehow botched the case. I think that's unfair and inaccurate. Specifically, a lot of people in Chicagoland have this belief that the Palatine police were very protective and parochial about the case, but that's just not true. They brought in outside help from the Chicago police, FBI and elsewhere immediately. And very frequently, it was the outsiders insisting they knew better than the Palatine police who led the case in the wrong direction. …
What's not "different" in this book is any twist or new take on who did it. James Degorski and Juan Luna are responsible, so readers should not expect any surprises on that specifically.
Charles Keeshan at The Daily Herald wrote, “There likely are anecdotes and nuggets of information in the book that will be new even to those familiar with the case.”
That was certainly true for me, but I don’t know exact what was new and how much I’d simply forgotten about that searing event from 32 years ago — for instance, a quote Wohl used from one of the columns I wrote about the crime at the time in which I accused ABC-Ch. 7 of “having wanted to play the role of Sam Spade gut ended up playing Barney Fife.”
The author includes lots of deep background about the chicken franchise, the victims, the false suspects and the secondary players that, candidly, I skimmed. But the retelling of the crime, the investigation and the trials is excellent reading.
Red light books
Last week, following up on a letter from reader Shelley Riskin, I asked for the titles of books everyone else seemed to love but that you hated. Here are some of your responses:
Cecelia Kafer — "The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver. I hated the character of that awful preacher and, a few chapters in, I skipped to the end to see if he got his comeuppance.
Conor Mac — “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. I never got the fascination with Pony Boy, never found it a compelling story, and the movie did nothing for me!
Randy Curwen — “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole. More than 40 years ago, I took this novel on a four-week trip around Brazil. It made it through Rio, Sao Paolo, Iguazu, Minas Gerais. But there’s a trash bin on a hillside park in Belo Horizonte where it ended its trip only 2/3 finished. A one-note joke/book. Won a Pulitzer Prize mostly, I suspect, because the author died pre-publication.
Jeanne DeVore — “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. I did finish it (good thing it was short), but it's one of the only books I've ever thought "well there's x hours I won't get back." Trite, repetitive, boring, badly written (yes, I know it was a translation, but still ...). I certainly didn't find it meaningful or important. I honestly don't know why it's so popular.
Michael M. — “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant. The book was divided into two halves, and I couldn't finish the second half. This was for a book club, and I figured I'd wing it, but only one other person showed up for that month. It occurs to me now that it probably was a hard and/or boring read for everyone.
Jean Graddy and Beth Bales — “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.
John Houck — "Insomnia" by Stephen King. I’m a fan of King’s, but this book turned out to be the perfect cure for its title. I stopped halfway through because I couldn't stay awake reading it.
DancesWithDogs — "It" by Stephen King. I loved the premise, the reviews, but King's novels are too long and drawn out by details. Four pages to describe the end table next to the chair. I've tried a half dozen times — but can't get into it.
Steve T — “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey. I don’t get the love for this novel. It won the Booker Prize, so I figured I’d at least appreciate the author’s skill with language and narrative (plus it’s pretty short). After reading the thin characterizations and recurring descriptions of orbiting over different places on Earth, I was hoping for a meteor strike.
Patricia Motto — “Where the Crawdads Sing.” by Delia Owens. I have no idea why people loved this novel. I did not believe that lead character for one minute.
Melinda A K — “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez. Read it in college (not for a class, just personal reading) because my boyfriend and so many others raved about it. Ugh. I slogged through but hated almost every moment of it. I have tried a couple other "magical thinking" novels since and couldn't stand them. I found my "nope!" genre.
Nancy Poch — “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. I tried reading this book several years ago due to the recommendations. I could not get past a couple chapters. It was too convoluted, and I just didn’t want to slog through. I rarely give up on a book, so found it hard to figure out its popularity.
Thanks to all who wrote in, with special thanks to Nancy Poch who, judging by the scorn I received, may be the only other person in the world who could not get into “A Gentleman in Moscow.” And thanks to Melinda A.K. for reminding me what a slog I found “Love in the Time of Cholera.” I’d blocked out memories of reading that book until her nomination appeared.
But remember, folks! These are books that nearly everyone else seemed to enjoy, so you might want to consider this a summer reading list.
Quotables
A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately.
CNN is a gutless group of people. …CNN is scum! And so is MSDNC. — Donald Trump
If you are kidnapping your citizens with no due process to take away their freedom and trying to silence media, law firms, and universities for exercising free speech, you don't get to call yourself "Leader of the Free World." — Betty Bowers
I know a lot of us (Republican U.S. Senators) are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they’ll get over it. — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky
Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. — Albert Einstein
Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our country$BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don't want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every … working day of the year. It must change if we were going to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN — Donald Trump on Juneteenth
(Chicago Mayor Brandon) Johnson tried to float a $300 million tax hike — and failed. He tried to pass a “mansion tax” that would’ve hiked the real estate transfer tax — and failed. He’s built too few affordable housing units for too much money. He’s isolated himself from many of the state and federal officials he hopes will come to his financial rescue, and he’s done egregious special favors for the people who got him elected — namely, pushing an incredibly costly new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union. He forced out a highly competent schools chief who wouldn’t cow to his desire to borrow recklessly. His city is broke, but he wants to spend more. — The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board
Quips
In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest:
Professor Zorn explains the joke
More consternation and confusion than usual last week over this tweet:
Dentists hate this one simple trick: Putting cellophane over the toilet seat. — @wheeltod.bsky.social
It finished 10 out of 10, and I received many comments and emails from people saying they just didn’t get it. I will try to help, but first let me pay tribute to “Professor Kenilworth,” the dour, fictional academic whose pitiless critiques of jokes appeared every so often in the National Lampoon from 1982 to 1985.
Professor Kenilworth’s mission was to explain why jokes were not funny. Here, he might point out that no one victimized by using a toilet where clear plastic wrap has discreetly and invisibly placed on the seat (though I’m told that under the seat works better) loves this “simple trick.” So it’s unfair and illogical to single out dentists as hating it. Furthermore, the act described is not so much a “trick” as a “prank.”
Noted.
The setup uses “trick” in order to prepare the listener to learn of a helpful, inexpensive and little-known way of reducing cavities and clearing off plaque to reduce the need for costly dental care — gargling with olive oil, say, or chewing on dandelion stems (though I do not recommend either of these). The punch line then inverts that expectation by describing something that everyone hates, and that has the vague additional value of hinting at potty humor.
Humor most reliably originates from the “violated expectations” definition of incongruity—that is, when something upsets your idea of how things should be, rather than just how they usually are. The type of stuff that makes you say “That’s so wrong,” as opposed to “That’s not typical.”
Take this joke:
Shortly after her elderly father went out for a drive, a woman saw a TV news report about a problem on the freeway and called her dad’s cellphone. “Pop,” she said, “Be careful out there. They’re saying that there’s a car going the wrong way down the interstate.”
“One car?” says her father. “There are hundreds of them!”
Even if you anticipated the twist, you are likely to be amused at how the father doesn’t express awareness and alarm, as you’d expect, but insouciant surprise and a little indignation.
Had the father responded, “Yes, that’s me, I made a terrible mistake turning onto the exit ramp, and I’m very afraid I’m going to cause an accident,” that would turn the joke into an anti-joke, funny for not being funny.
Class dismissed!
The new nominees for Quip of the Week:
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a future argument. — @nayele18maybe
“If I’ve got both Democrats and Republicans mad at me, then I must be doing something right.” … Ted Bundy, 1975 — @wheeltod.bsky.social
The Riddler: How did you catch me? Batman: From the riddle explaining how to catch you. Mrs. Riddler: I told you, Steven. — @TheAndrewNadeau
The expression "skeletons in the closet" comes from when people would murder other people and hide the skeleton in their closet, and then if people tried to open the closet they would be all, "Don't go in there!" because there was a skeleton. — @jakevig.bsky.social
"The Iranians moved their uranium" sounds like the start of a Dr. Seuss book. — @WilliamAder
For the absolute last time: I never said I thought E.T. dressed in the wig and the dress was sexy. I said I could see why people would think that. — @pftompkins.bsky.social
Vaping: When you feel like smoking but don't want to look cool. \— @_NatalieWould
Fun fact: Australia's biggest export is boomerangs. It's also their biggest import. — @ThePunnyWorld
I opened the umbrella to shield myself from the sun, and that's when the Werther's Originals descended from the sky. — @notincharge7
I’m commenting “How dare you! Delete this now!!” on random innocuous social media posts. — @RickAaron
Vote here and check the current results in the poll.
For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.
Austin Berg, Marj Halperinand I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. We pondered the result of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary and what the victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani might mean for the direction of the party nationwide. We also spoke of “Drop Dead City,” an award-winning documentary about New York City in the 1970s that will be shown next Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. at the Chicago History Museum. Austin will lead a discussion afterward with Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson and Better Government Association President David Greising. (Ticket link)
We also chatted about JB Pritzker’s prospects, the war in the Middle East and what we think of the following song:
0:00
-1:06
Everything from the lyrics to the melody to the instrumentation was generated by artificial intelligence, and if you could tell if from a human production, you’re a more sensitive listener than I am. The philosophical question here is — or will certainly soon be — if a computer can generate music indistinguishable to the listener from music generated by people, is it “art”? Will there be any way to tell?
According to an AI song detection tool that (the French audio streaming service) Deezer rolled out this year, 18% of songs uploaded to its platform each day, or about 20,000 tracks, are now completely AI generated. … Two of the most popular AI song generators, Suno and Udio, are being sued by record companies for copyright infringement, and face allegations they exploited recorded works of artists from Chuck Berry to Mariah Carey.
Traffic lights:
Marj — A green light forPing Tom Parkin Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood.
Austin — A green light for the YouTube channel Rare African Vinyl, “a project dedicated to honoring African artists who recorded music in the 1970s and 80s.”
Eric — A green light for the WNBA.
John — A yellow light for “Good Game with Sarah Spain,” a daily podcast billed as “your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports.” John gave it a yellow light because he likes the idea but hasn’t had a chance to listen yet.
Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.
Read the background bios of some regular panelists here.
Good Sports
Nailed it!
There was an ugly tussle during a recent WNBA game between the Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever prompted by Sun guard Jacy Sheldon poking Fever star Caitlin Clark in the eye with her long fingernails, followed by Sun guard Marina Mabrey shoving Clark to the ground.
Jacy Sheldon’s fingernails
Later in the game, then, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham rodeo tackled Sheldon as Sheldon was driving for a layup, saying later, “At the end of the day, I'm going to protect my teammates. That's what I do.”
Clark reportedly paid the fine that the league assessed on Cunningham. No idea if they’ve fired the referees who let the game get out of hand or if the WNBA will finally put in a rule against long fingernails.
Rocky road to ignominy?
Chicagoans are narrowly rooting for the Colorado Rockies to lose at least 122 games this season and break the 2024 White Sox record for futility, according to an unscientific click poll posted by the Sun-Times. (“Unscientific click poll” is a bit tautological, no?)
But the Denver-based MLB team has won 5 of its last 10 games, one game shy of halfway through the season, stands at 18-62 (.225), just two victories off the pace set by the White Sox last year (though the 2024 Sox stood at 21-59 after 80 games).
Green Light
Green Light features recommendations from me and readers not only of songs — as in the former Tune of the Week post — but also of TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts and other diversions that can be enjoyed at home — i.e., no restaurants, plays, theatrical films, tourist sites and so on. Email me your nominations, and please include a paragraph or two of explanation and background along with helpful links, perhaps including excerpts from reviews or background articles. For TV shows, please include links to trailers/previews on YouTube and advice on where to stream them.
This week, in honor of the launch of the fourth season of “The Bear” on Hulu, I’m posting the intro to the seventh episode of Season 1, a video montage that will stir and warm the hearts of all Chicagoans.
I watched the first episode of Season 4 Wednesday night and would green light that as well for those who have already watched Seasons 1 through 3.
Info
Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.
Contact
You can email me at ericzorn@gmail.com or by clicking here:
I read all the messages that come in, but I do most of my interacting with readers in the comments section beneath each issue.
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Excellent summary of the ten commandments issue, I agree with all of it. I would only add one aspect: Forcing public schools to display this religious text is antithetical to the founding principles of our country because it is exclusionary. Anyone who is not Christian (even Jews who follow the Old Testament from which the text comes from know that this is a Christian text) will see this posted and know they are not fully accepted, only tolerated at best, that they are the "other" and they better watch themselves. It's a claim on territory, saying "You don't tell us what to do, we tell you what to do". "Stickin' it to the libs" at its finest.
I find it fascinating that the news media is torn over whether to publish Trump's profanity, yet has no problems with publishing his endless lies.
Excellent summary of the ten commandments issue, I agree with all of it. I would only add one aspect: Forcing public schools to display this religious text is antithetical to the founding principles of our country because it is exclusionary. Anyone who is not Christian (even Jews who follow the Old Testament from which the text comes from know that this is a Christian text) will see this posted and know they are not fully accepted, only tolerated at best, that they are the "other" and they better watch themselves. It's a claim on territory, saying "You don't tell us what to do, we tell you what to do". "Stickin' it to the libs" at its finest.
Edited to add: The fake/parody religion of Pastafarianism has an equivalent of the Ten Commandments that are more inclusive and practical, the Eight I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts, available at this link: https://www.religiousforums.com/threads/the-eight-pastafarian-id-really-rather-you-didnts.35519/