Thankful this week that I still have my mother's letters

Mom was a faithful correspondent in her day

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11-25-2025

This week:

• I’m reading through and transcribing my mother’s letters — It’s a bittersweet experience

• Last week’s winning quip

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked on Trump’s threat to hang members of Congress and RFK Jr.’s alleged description of a sexual fantasy

• That’s so Brandon! — Hizzoner doesn’t seem to understand what "skin in the game” means

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

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

• Media notes

• Trump’s weird go-to expression

• Unpopular opinions?— on winter parking rules and movie theaters

• A high school classmate posted that he wasn’t going to go our reunion — I responded, but I don’t think I persuaded him

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

• Cheer Chat — another behind-the-scenes look at our holiday concert prep

• Quips — The winning visual jokes and this week’s contest finalists

• What’s on “The Mincing Rascals” podcast this week

• Good Sports — A plea to the NFL to stop this division nonsense

• NewsWheel — The Tuesday issue always includes a special puzzle!

Thankful this week for a trove of my mother’s letters

Picayune Sentinel staff photo

For several years, up until not that long ago, the tree pictured above at the corner of the block where my parents live was the destination of my walks with my mother. The tree was then in seemingly good health, and we’d sit on the bench under its shade and have the sort of conversations one has with a person who is sliding into dementia — repetitive, banal, gentle. She had words then. She knew who I was.

At 93, she no longer has words. She no longer knows who I am. We no longer walk to the corner. The appearance of the now-dying tree strikes me as symbolic. It’s there, but, for most practical purposes, it is not there.

Among the things of my mother that remain as vibrant and tangible as ever is a collection of her letters — letters to my father when he was in the Navy and away at college before they were married and letters to me over the years before our correspondence took place over evanescent email.

She comes alive in them — chatty, affectionate, just a bit gossipy. Dad and I both saved her letters, yet have not reread them until this fall, when I have made it my habit to start every day at my computer transcribing at least one. I then email them to Dad, who remains in sound mind at 94 and often can supplement and clarify the stories she tells.

It’s bittersweet to “hear” her voice again and be reminded of what we’ve lost. Old family photos can have a similar effect, of course. Audio and video recordings. But there is something about the flow of ideas and tidbits of news that recall for me most powerfully what she was really like when I was growing up and reveal to me who she was when she was in college and in love.

I read the letters and cards to me back when they arrived in my mailbox, then I filed them away where, without the motivation of needing to resurrect her, after a fashion, for me and my father, they might never have been read again.

I have some saved emails from her in the digital era — everything from the nearly 10 years I used America Online disappeared, but 227 notes since 2005 are still in my Gmail archive. I’m looking for an easy way to download the entire batch and turn them into a text file. (Seems like something Google could offer, what?)

I’m extra mindful now of the importance of saving correspondence for those days when we need to revisit them.

At the end of a letter she sent me in February 1987, she added this note: “Thank you for your letters. I treasure them.”

Same, Mom. I wish you could understand now how much.

Her signature sign-off was the sketch of a face with a slight, contented smile.

Last week’s winning quip

Operation Rough Rider, Operation Midnight Hammer. Operation Southern Spear. Why are all of Pete Hegseth’s military operations named after brands of dildos? — @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social

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

News & Views

News: President Trump rages that members of Congress who recorded a video reminding military personnel that they have a duty to refuse to carry out illegal orders are guilty of sedition and should be arrested, tried and hanged.

View: This is just more evidence that Trump is preposterously ignorant fool. First, the Uniform Code of Military Justice specifically states that it is a punishable offense when a member of the armed forces disobeys “a lawful command of that person’s superior commissioned officer.” Next, even urging a member of the armed forces to disobey lawful orders doesn’t come anywhere close to the legal definitions of treason or sedition.

“The Framers of the Constitution emphatically rejected the idea that speech or even advocacy constituted treason,” wrote Paul Finkelman in Slate. “One can commit sedition by overt acts—bombing a federal building, being part of a mob that attacks Congress, organizing to do so, or even publicly urging a crowd to do so. But criticizing the government is not sedition. It is free speech protected by our Constitution, and free speech is central to our democracy.”

News: RFK Jr.’s sext has turned ‘harvest’ into a double entendre

View: I was at once highly amused and totally grossed out by the description of oral sex that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 71, allegedly wrote to journalist Olivia Nuzzi, 32. in a “poem” that Nuzzi’s ex, journalist Ryan Lizza, has dubbed “American Canyon.” His free verse starts “Yr open mouth awaiting my harvest,” according to what Lizza says he discovered, and you can read the entire effort here.

The hilariously tawdry Nuzzi/Lizza/RFK story reminds me of “We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind of),” Hannah Pittard’s 2023 semi-autobiographical novel about the fallout when she learned her now-ex husband Andrew Ewell, was having an affair with her best friend. Ewell then published “Set for Life,” giving his side of the story, and Pittard replied with another novel, “If You Love It, Let It Kill You.” which continued the saga.

That’s So Brandon!

You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means.

We challenge these big corporations and the ultra-rich to put more skin in the game. — Mayor Brandon Johnson, Nov. 17, 2025

This budget is really designed to challenge our larger corporations and those with means to put more skin in the game. It was increasingly clear that after the Trump cuts, that we have to push those with means to put more skin in the game. — Mayor Brandon Johnson, Oct. 30,2025

It’s not unreasonable to ask the ultra-rich to put more skin in the game. — Mayor Brandon Johnson Oct. 20,2025

To be clear, I’m all in favor of progressive taxation. To create the sort of society most of us want to live in, the ultra-rich — whoever exactly they are — along with the merely well-to-do need to pay a greater percentage of their income in state and local taxes — as they do when it comes to federal income taxes. Yet …

“Skin in the game” is an expression that implies a financial (or emotional) stake in a risky venture. For instance, corporate executives who invest their own money in their companies’ futures — in the form of stock purchases, say — have metaphorical skin in the metaphorical game. It suggests a heightened interest in the success of a particular venture.

Investopedia explains:

When an executive puts skin in the game, it is seen as a sign of good faith or a show of confidence in the future of the company, and it is seen as a positive sign by outside investors. … Skin in the game—or insider ownership—also conveys to investors that the company will likely put its best foot forward to generate returns for its investors. … Executives can talk all they want, but the best vote of confidence is putting one’s own money on the line just like outside investors.

“Skin” is sharing the financial risk in a way that signifies commitment to achieving a successful outcome, not merely an investment or donation. It suggests belief in a gamble that will pay off. And why this matters — to the admittedly limited extent that it does — is that that language the mayor uses to attempt to sway public opinion matters.

Telling the ultra-rich to put more skin in the game is just a gussied-up demand, one that fails to stress why progressive taxation is ultimately the most sensible way to fund government. What are the benefits that the ultra-rich might see from this additional investment in a city where they live and perhaps do business? There are answers to that question that the mayor’s accusatory rhetoric does not answer.

Land of Linkin’

• Variety’s list of “The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time” includes four of my favorites:

  • No. 18 — This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

  • No. 62 — Airplane! (1980)

  • No. 77 — Blazing Saddles (1974)

  • No. 92 — The Jerk (1979)

• The New York Times: “Empathetic, Available, Cheap: When A.I. Offers What Doctors Don’t —Frustrated by the medical system, some patients are turning to chatbots for help. At what cost?” More and more I’ve been hearing success stories from people who’ve used AI to address or at least better understand their medical woes. The story says “Last year, about one in six adults — and about a quarter of adults under 30 — used chatbots to find health information at least once a month, according to a survey from KFF, a health policy research group.” But the advice is not always spot on.

• NPR: “Books We Love.” This is a daunting year-end list, but awfully fun to browse.

And this from my fellow Mincing Rascal Cate Plys:

For any other George Orwell freaks out there, just wanted to share a clip of Christopher Hitchens speaking about his book “Why Orwell Matters.” The book isn’t nearly as good as his lectures. He gives you a great Orwell overview in that fabulous accent. And also, the original cartoon version of Animal Farm which is practically as good as reading the book. I saw this as a small child and it scared the bejeezus out of me. Also, if you have a Kindle, much of Orwell can be downloaded for free.

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 New York Times: When an Iowa city made its bus rides free, traffic cleared and so did the air. (gift link)

■ Reuters reports that, two months after the assassination of reactionary activist Charlie Kirk, a government-backed pro-Trump campaign has led to firings and other retaliation against more than 600 people who refused to genuflect in Kirk’s honor.

■ Last Republican standing … sits. The Cook County Board’s sole Republican commissioner, Sean Morrison, says he won’t seek reelection.

■ “Great job, Internet!” A.V. Club: “A Gmail simulation has made combing through Jeffrey Epstein’s [real] emails … as easy as opening your email.” You can surf his inbox here.

■ In a 233-page report (read it here), U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis rips into Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ lies and cover-ups regarding their arrests in Chicago.

■ One legal expert’s reaction to the judge’s findings: “WOW.”

■ “Punishable by DEATH”: President Trump’s on the rampage over a video posted to the web by half a dozen Democratic lawmakers—all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community—calling on the U.S. military to defy unconstitutional “illegal orders.” Columnist Mary Geddry adds “The man who pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists says we’re the traitors.”

■ “The United States … doesn’t have a system of national health care … because white citizens are in horror at the idea of Black people receiving benefits, even if it means they are also uninsured”: Columnist Neil Steinberg sees the tale of a Dolton mom forced to give birth at the side of the road as a symptom of our broken healthcare system. The doctor and nurse who turned her away from an Indiana hospital eight minutes earlier have been fired.

■ ZDNET: Update Google’s Chrome browser as soon as possible to avoid “a security vulnerability that has already been exploited in the wild.”

■ “The Chicago Sun-Times makes no representation regarding the quality of the recipes contained in this guide”. If that disclaimer on Sunday’s “Cooking for the Holidays” newspaper section puzzled you, you may have forgotten about this back in May).

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

Media notes

• Sun-Times: “Sonia Florian, whose pets had free roam of her markedly unpretentious classical radio station, dies at 89.” Florian and her late husband, Bill, ran WNIB-FM 97.1 for more than 40 years before selling the station in 2001.

• Columbia University journalism ethics professor Margaret Sullivan to her students after reviewing three stories involving reporters this month: “Don’t ever do that.” (via Charlie Meyerson)

How soon will it be before we ‘see what happens’?

• He has not been good to the United States, so we’ll see what happens. — President Donald Trump on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Nov. 17, 2025

• We’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it. — President Donald Trump on the prospect of removing sanctions on Iran, Nov. 6, 2025

• Based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run. So we’ll see what happens. — President Donald Trump about whether he plans to run for a third term , Oct. 29, 2025

These are just three of literally hundreds of examples of Trump employing the verbal shrug “we’ll see what happens.” NPR counted “more than 100” uses of the phrase by Trump in just the first 10 months of 2017, and though I could find no full updated tally, it’s become as much of a verbal tic for him as his endless promises that things are going to happen “in two weeks” and that “people are saying” things he wishes were true.

“We’ll see what happens” distances him from responsibility for outcomes and sometimes comes off as a veiled threat. It removes from him the need to say what he wants to happen, even as “people are saying” shifts responsibility for his views onto an often phantom majority.

He’s not wrong. We always have to wait to see what happens. But it’s an odd turn of phrase from a man who has more power than anyone in the world to make things happen.

Unpopular opinions?

This regular feature of the Tuesday Picayune Plus sets forth an often controversial opinion for readers to vote on. Here’s this week’s:

Chicago’s winter-parking rules, which take effect Monday and last — no fooling — until April 1, are more a cash grab than a necessary measure to keep traffic moving in the winter.

On 107 miles of Chicago’s arterial streets, parking is prohibited from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., even when there’s no snow. Violators are subject to a $150 towing fee and a $60 ticket. On about 500 more miles of major streets, parking is banned when there is just 2 inches of snow on the ground, and violators are generally just given a $60 ticket.

A cursory look at the winter-parking regulations in other big cities suggest that most of them restrict parking during “snow emergencies.” Boston, Cleveland and Detroit for example.

I get it when blizzard conditions hit, but 2 inches? C’mon man!

Two years ago CBS 2 looked into this issue:

[During the winter of 2022-23], the city towed more than 7,300 cars in violation of the winter parking ban … The city typically tows an average of 8,800 cars annually for the overnight ban. … While the vast majority of those scooped up in the winter parking ban reclaim their cars, a minority of people are not as fortunate. Of the 7,309 cars towed for the overnight parking ban last year, about 147 owners were not able to reclaim their vehicles, and those cars were sold at auction.

City officials have argued that keeping the roads clear during snow events so buses and emergency vehicles can better move about is of such importance that the ban must be strict.

Last week’s result

I offered the view that very few movies are worth going to see in the theater, and readers tended to agree:

560 votes

Don McLeese, the former Sun-Times music critic and now-retired University of Iowa journalism professor, dissented:

Movies are a visual and auditory experience, and both are enhanced at a theater, with a bigger, better and sharper screen than you’re likely to have at home and better speakers. Plus the feeling of entering a different (darker) world for a couple hours and losing yourself in it. But, like you, I typically opt for streaming at home over going to the theater. I get distracted, pause for bathroom breaks or just to accommodate my limited attention span and experience it in the light of day. Because I’m part of a culture that consistently values cost and convenience over quality, that listens to music—whatever I want, whenever I want—as mp3 streaming compression over higher fidelity, shops at wherever is cheapest and most convenient and eats cheap and on the run. We’re ultimately paying a cultural price for all of this.

I replied:

The “cultural price” would seem to me to have its offsets. For instance, yes, audiophiles complain about the diminished audio quality of .mp3 music compared to analog, but that difference is very slight, and the ease of recording and distributing .mp3 files has given many musicians access to an audience and even a road to popularity that they wouldn’t have had in the days when the cost of studio record, album pressing and so on served as a cultural gatekeeper. I’m also of the opinion that “high fidelity” is overrated when it comes to music, but that may be because I enjoy scratchy old field recordings of mountain fiddlers and focus on the notes and the playing ability, not the dynamic range.

As for movies, a slightly sharper picture may marginally enhance the pleasure of watching a blockbuster action film with lots of stunts and special effects, but offers little to nothing of additional value when it comes to, say, rom-coms. And I may be unusual, but I can lose myself in even a laptop screen when I’m fully engaged with a movie. And, as with mp3 technology, streaming allows independent filmmakers, documentarians and others to make their work available to, well, to the world. In that way it’s democratizing.

The downside of the streaming services for audio and movies is that they don’t throw off the sort of revenue to the creators that they did when technological realities created a higher financial barrier for entry. I would argue that there was a cultural price for that as well. Who knows how many talented singers, instrumentalists and filmmakers went undiscovered back in our youth because they didn’t happen to catch the fancy of recording company executives or studio heads.

Here is his response to me, and I’m giving him the last word:

My point about cost and convenience trumping quality still holds--across the board. We’ve voted en masse for deep discount warehouse-style shopping (or online) over the quality goods and superior service that once distinguished, say, Marshall Fields. We’ve seen box box stores on the outskirts destroy downtown districts across the country. The predictability of chains over the possibility of a uniquely gratifying experience. Amazon over the bookstore that offers personal recommendations, author readings and prices that may be just a little higher.

Back to the specifics at hand--Seeing a movie in the dark with a big screen, a great sound system and others sharing a communal connection is just a very different experience than streaming at home (or, God forbid, on a phone). You give yourself over to it, without distraction. You can’t stop it or pause and return the next day. You’ve invested more in it than a click. And it will leave you changed at the end of two or however many hours under its spell than you can be from dividing it into bite-sized chunks and consuming it on the same small screen as all your other “content” (and perhaps the interruption of email alerts or whatever).

And it isn’t just the action flick that finds its impact intensified by the big screen. Any movie that highlights the art of cinematography will be way more impressive on the big screen. Like the difference between seeing an exhibit at the Art Institute and seeing the same images in the guidebook. Anyway, I’m not holding myself above the philistines. I also opt for the convenience of streaming movies at home more often than going to the theater and consume way more music on Spotify than through my much better sound system. But I know I’m making a tradeoff and I feel some guilt about the bargains I’ve struck and the values that these bargains reflect.

Here is another dissent, this from reader Joan Berman:

I just love going to the movie theater. I am shocked by the result of your poll. I hope the results reflect the demographic of your readers and not the general public. No way my home screen and sound system can compete with the big screen. And there are also certain films whose viewing is enhanced by seeing them with an audience. There are many theaters that are clean and comfortable. My favorite is the Lake Theater in Oak Park which also has seats that recline with a footrest.

The comment thread had many more responses.

To go or not to go to a high school reunion?

A old schoolmate recently posted this to Facebook (some details omitted to conceal his identity) regarding our 50th class reunion next summer:

I’m giving thought to whether I will attend or not, and for me it is somewhat of a complex decision, and perhaps I’m not the only one with issues.

My immediate reaction was not only no, I won’t attend, but I never intend to set foot in that school again.

You see, for me, junior high and high school were very unhappy years. I was often bullied, belittled, and while I admit my own immaturity was a significant contributing factor, those years were quite dark for me.

I have suffered from depression issues my entire life, and those years were not helpful. It’s not normal for a 10th grader to write a will, and the dark thoughts that accompany such an act have long been with me.

I was fortunate during my time in college that the skies brightened considerably. … I found satisfaction in a career. … In short, I should be reasonably content, and I am to a degree, though the thought demons do visit often.

I’m wondering if attending the 50th is more likely to be helpful, or if it would serve as a reminder of those long-ago dark days? I’m asking those who are a bit older than me if any of them had the same approximate situation, and what they chose to do? And if he or she did attend, in hindsight was that a good decision, or should you have avoided the gathering? …

May I have your thoughts? Is attending my 50th reunion a good idea or a bad one? I’m most likely not going. But might there be an upside?

Here was my response:

I have been to every one of our class reunion and I’ve found them successively more cleansing — old animosities, estrangements and awkwardnesses continue to fade and we start seeing/remembering each other for what we really were: hormone drenched goofballs stumbling along trying to figure our place in the world. High school accentuated differences that with time became similarities. We’re now all a bunch of graying boomers who don’t feel the need or have the energy to rise in the pecking order. I think you should go. I hope you do. You’ll be surprised and pleased by how dormant the old demons are.

Admittedly, my junior high and high school years were not nearly as dark as my acquaintance’s were. I had the usual number of insecurities, anxieties, rejections and feelings of alienation, but nothing like what he described. My memories of those years are mostly good. So I don’t know if my exhortation was on point.

He later reported on the feedback to this post:

• Go to reunion: 25 (42%)

• Don’t go to reunion: 27 (45%)

• No opinion: 7 (13%)

• Mixed advice: 6 (8%)

He added, “Still considering, but I’m strongly leaning towards not going.”

Your thoughts? More importantly, if your high school years were difficult also, how have you handled this question?

Quotables

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

Do you remember when you wanted what you have? — unknown

Trump and his defenders, when asked about the president’s repeated appearance throughout the vast trove of Epstein documents, continue pointing to other men’s names. Men whose politics don’t square with theirs. As if “Democrats did it too” is any kind of comfort to survivors. As if the files are opposition research and not tens of thousands of pages of powerful men preying on powerless girls. As if a survivors’ trauma ebbs and flows with the political winds. As if more men’s names lessens the obscenity of it all. Fine. Investigate them all. Please investigate them all. — Heidi Stevens (gift link)

The problem with a cult movement built on constant transgression of norms, decency, and reality is, of course, that the cray-cray is infectious. When turbo-charged by social media, it’s unstoppable. These are not the 1950s or 1960s, when William F Buckley could simply expel Birchers and Jew-haters from the pages of National Review and polite society. This is 2025, when there are no media guardrails, and polite society is six feet under. And so MAGA is in a hard-to-stop, self-radicalizing loop. — Andrew Sullivan

Gaslighting the people and trying to tell them that prices have come down is not helping. It’s actually infuriating people because people know what they are paying at the grocery store, they know what they’re paying for their kid’s clothes and school supplies. They know what they’re paying for their electricity bills. — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.-Georgia

Cheer chat

Update on preparations for the 27th annual “Songs of Good Cheer” winter holiday singalongs Dec. 11 to 14 at the Old Town School of Folk Music hosted by Mary Schmich and me.

Once again, a list of things to do in Chicago at holiday time has failed to include “Songs of Good Cheer.” But those who go — some every year! — will agree that it belongs.

Here’s a short video that gives a flavor for what our rehearsals are like as the show comes together. That’s Barbie Silverman leading the way through “Here Comes Santa Claus,” Gene Autry’s 1947 top 10 pop hit:

Buy tickets online, by phone (773-728-6000) or at the Old Town School of Folk Music box office, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.

Quips

The new nominees for Quip of the Week:

• If you’re going Black Friday shopping, please be a decent human being and turn your phone horizontal if you record any fights. — @greg16676935420

• Forget politics. Nothing divides a family like the word “pecan.” — @sixfootcandy

• Early in any job interview, be sure to use the phrase “I always give 200%” so you can quickly gauge the panel’s tolerance for working with idiots. — @wheeltod.bsky.social

• “Lunchables” is a good name because it doesn’t make any grandiose claims: “This is able to be eaten as lunch.” — @johnlyon.bsky.social

• I’ve decided to search for my birth mother. I realize, of course, that I may never find her, but that’s the risk I took when I took her to IKEA. — les.martin.716 on Threads

• Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, or any other hands for that matter. Not a very chill move. — ‪@donni.bsky.social

• If for some odd reason I am forced to answer a phone call, I answer with “How did you get this number?” — @jakevig.bsky.social

• There are few words I feel more ambivalent about than “bottomless.” — @wildethingy

• The weapon used to kill Lizzie Borden’s parents was a shingling hatchet, not an axe. Perhaps the whole thing was just a roofing mishap. — ‪@saltymactavish.bsky.social

• My teacher told me not to worry about spelling because in the future there will be autocorrect. And for that I am eternally grapefruit. — @ThePunnyWorld

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

Minced Words

Austin Berg, Jon Hansen and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast, recorded early this week to accommodate holiday schedules. We talked about U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation, President Donald Trump’s bonhomous meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and his unhinged threat to execute members of Congress reminding military personnel that they have the right to disobey an unlawful order, various scandals touching the Chicago Teachers Union, the 10th anniversary of the release of the Laquan McDonald video and the race to fill Jan Schakowsky’s seat in the U.S. House. Austin referenced this speech by Ron Paul in discussing U.S. foreign policy.

Traffic lights:

Each of us weighed in on Thanksgiving foods, with green light meaning “Yum, I’ve been looking forward to this all year!” yellow light meaning “OK, I’ll eat it, it’s fine, but not my favorite,” and red light meaning “I’ll pass, thanks.”

• Eric: Green light for stuffing; yellow light for white meat; red light for sweet potatoes.

• Jon: Green light for macaroni and cheese; yellow light for just about everything else at the Thanksgiving meal; red light for pretzel jello.

• Austin: Green light for pickled vegetables as an appetizer; yellow light for Brussels sprouts; red light for any salad whose name begins with a color.

• John: Green light for Waldorf salad; yellow light for orange jello with crushed pineapples, mandarin oranges or carrot slices; red light for bean casserole of any sort.

Apropos of Jon’s fondness for mac and cheese I recalled last year, when regular panelist Cate Plys passed along her friend’s exquisite recipe:

I used Swiss instead of blue cheese and added a breadcrumb topping and was extravagantly praised for my culinary achievement. Note the decadent touch of using whipping cream instead of milk for the roux.

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

NFL should dump the divisions

The carving up of NFL teams into eight* four-team divisions nearly always leads to situations like what we’re seeing now. The AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens, at 6-5, are in a better position to make the postseason than three AFC teams with 7-4 records — the Los Angeles Chargers, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills. And the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers, also at 6-5, are in a better position to make the postseason than the 8-3 Seattle Seahawks, the 7-3-1 Green Bay Packers, the 8-4 San Francisco 49ers and the 7-4Detroit Lions.

In 2020, 7-9 Washington made the postseason, but 10-6 Miami did not.

That’s dumb. Play the whole season. Keep the regional rivalries intact. But scrap the wild-card system and simply have the 14 teams with the best records enter the playoffs. Or better yet, make it 16 teams and generate a proper playoff bracket (unlike the one now that changes depending on which teams win).

Who’s with me?

*I originally miscounted and had six divisions; eight makes it even worse

NewsWheel

This is a regular feature of the Picayune Plus, Tuesday’s extra edition mailed to paying subscribers. Inspired by the WordWheel puzzle in the Monday-Friday Chicago Tribune and other papers, this puzzle asks you to identify the missing letter that will make a word or words — possibly proper nouns; reading either clockwise or counterclockwise — related to a story in the news or other current event. The solution is at the bottom of the newsletter.

Info

I am a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. I began publishing the Picayune Sentinel on Sept. 9, 2021, roughly two and a half months after I took a buyout from the newspaper. 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.

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Thanks for reading!

Answer to the NewsWheel puzzle

SEDITION