Quips— The winning visual jokes and this week’s contest finalists
Good Sports — On fair-weather fandom and ill-timed stadium handout requests
Tune of the Week — In memory of Ella Jenkins, “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song”
Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. 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.
Donald “Trump is to be the next president of the United States with a mandate from the American people,” said one recent Tribune editorial. “Tuesday night saw a wholesale rejection of (liberal elites’) dominant value system,” said another.
Deluded opportunistic politicians claim mandates and wholesale rejections of their opponents after narrow victories — looking at you, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — but editorial writers ought to refrain. Yes, Trump won the election. But only by 2 percentage points in the national popular vote at this writing. It was a far narrower victory than the 4.5 percentage-point popular vote victory Joe Biden won over Trump four years ago, one that the Tribune Editorial Board (under different leadership, admittedly) did not refer to as a “mandate.”
Presidents Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and Richard Nixon in 1972 won more than 60 percent of the popular vote; Ronald Reagan in 1984 won 58 percent. Those were landslides. … Stop capitulating to a media narrative that Trump won a landslide (he didn’t) which translates into his having a “mandate” for his policies—he doesn’t. Start strategizing over ways to block his agenda.
Easier said than done, of course. Republicans will control both houses of Congress, and party appointees dominate the U.S. Supreme Court. Judging by Trump’s early appointments of hard right zealots, obsequious toadies and creeps to key administration posts, he is not in a conciliatory frame of mind and would be unlikely to feel constrained by the realization that last week’s results show a closely divided nation.
But please! Stop telling him and the sycophants who surround him that the American people have given his agenda a huge thumbs-up and have roundly rejected Kamala Harris’ liberal agenda. On many issues, the Democratic/liberal position reflects the majority of voters — abortion rights, gun control, paid medical and family leave, expanding Medicare drug price negotiations and increasing the minimum wage, for example.
Democratic candidates won statewide in Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Nevada where Trump also won.
Democrats do need to do some soul-searching and recalibrating, but it should start with analyzing the election returns carefully and conducting focus groups among constituencies that either didn’t vote or voted for Republicans.
View: I thought this was a joke when I first saw this in a social media feed. “He has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to ‘woke’ programs that promote equity and inclusion. He also has questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.”
News: Trump says he will nominate Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
View: The clown car of the incoming administration is getting awfully full. Per CNN, Gaetz …
remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sexual misconduct, with the bipartisan committee saying in a rare statement in June that some of the allegations against Gaetz “merit continued review.”
Being probed are allegations that Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” the committee said at the time.
Republican U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said this about Gaetz on CNN:
There's a reason why no one in the (Republican) conference came and defended him (against allegations of sexual impropriety). Because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with. He'd brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night. And so when that accusation came out, no one defended him.
Under normal circumstances Gaetz would almost certainly not get the necessary Senate approval, but Trump is angling to have the Senate go into recess so none of his appointments will be subject to conventional review.
Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and appointee under Trump’s first administration, (said), “This is Trump daring the U.S. Senate. This is Trump potentially usurping the U.S. Senate and going to try to put people in place through recess appointments, which could mean we’re at a Constitutional crisis from the start of Trump’s second term.”
And let’s not neglect the announcement that Trump will nominat former Democratic U.S. Rep.Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Calling her “a national security risk,” The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols writes:
Gabbard is stunningly unqualified for almost any Cabinet post. … She has no significant experience directing or managing much of anything. … She’s been an apologist for both the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Her politics, which are otherwise incoherent, tend to be sympathetic to these two strongmen, painting America as the problem and the dictators as misunderstood.
These aggressively inappropriate appointments will put our nation’s media — particularly editorial writers — to the test. Will they respond with appropriate and sustained dismay? Or just wag their fingers and move on?
News: Critics on social media have posted the Berwyn home address of right-wing hatemonger Nick Fuentes in response to his repellent tweet “Your body, my choice. Forever,” directed at women concerned about losing reproductive rights under Trump’s second administration.
View: Fuentes is a piece of shit, no doubt. Repulsive and cruel. But doxxing — posting people’s personal information including their home addresses for the purposes of encouraging harassment — is a dangerous practice that can easily be turned back on those who employ it. There should be — there must be — zones of privacy around the home, even for the most disgusting among us.
News: Trump promises to “bring back prayer to our schools.”
View: Might happen. Yes, in 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the Constitution. This 62-year-old precedent seems very sound to me. Public schools should not be promoting any particular view of the supernatural. But it seems quite possible that a Trumpy Supreme Court will OK the practice.
PS Readers had a lot to say about the presidential election in “Wednesday Morning Quarterbacking,” the Zmail feature of Tuesday’s Picayune Plus.
My former Tribune colleague Kevin Pang is teaming up with Roberta “Poochie” Jackson, a foul-mouthed counter employee at The Wieners Circle hot dog stand in Lincoln Park for a new TV series, “Poochie & Pang Eat Chicago” billed as “a wild culinary ride through the city and suburbs.” It will debut Sunday, Nov. 24 at 11:30 p.m. on NBC-5.
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 Bulwark on Donald Trump’s selections to lead “the biggest mass deportation in history”: “It could get bad quick.”
■ Looking for a conversation starter through the holidays? Consider American Prospect columnist Rick Perlstein’s grudging admiration for a Trump campaign “pièce de résistance, that feigned blow job.”
You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.
That’s so Brandon!
Updates on the misadventures of Chicago’s mayor
Johnson is abandoning his proposed $300 million property tax hike and now says it was simply a ploy to ‘get people’s attention.’
“As a public school teacher, sometimes we do things to get people’s attention. And so now that we have the attention of everyone, I’ve said from the very beginning, this is a proposal,” Johnson said. “I’m a collaborative mayor. For the first time in the history of Chicago you’re actually seeing that type of collaborative approach.” (Tribune)
In the Sun-Times article, Johnson is quoted as adding, “The mayor of Chicago is true to his word as a collaborator ... He is the collaborator-in-chief.”
C’mon, man! The idea that the property tax hike proposal was a “don’t make me turn this car around!” threat to alders to get serious about helping him craft a budget is an excuse for failed leadership that borders on the comical.
Discussion now centers on increasing garbage collection and vehicle sticker fees and hiking taxes on shopping bags, liquor and streaming services. Johnson has ruled out furloughs or layoffs for city employees.
Johnson appears to be trying to lay the groundwork to fire schools CEO Pedro Martinez for cause over his handling of the closure of charter schools.
The Tribune reported that Martinez “got chewed out” in a meeting Monday by Johnson’s City Council allies over what they contended was the lack of a contingency plan to deal with the impending closure of seven Acero charter schools (over which he had no control).
Johnson’s team since September has maneuvered to fire Martinez over major disagreements about the school district’s tight budget, including Martinez’s opposition to a high-interest loan that would address a big pension obligation payment and help fund raises for teachers as part of the upcoming Chicago Teachers Union contract. …
But because Martinez’s contract says termination without cause requires about six months’ notice, Johnson and his latest iteration of the Board of Education are looking for a reason to fire him with cause. …
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, a mayoral critic, wasn’t at the meeting but heard about the tense discussion. He described the disagreement over Martinez’s Acero response as an effort to find a pretext to fire the CEO.
“CTU and the mayor have been looking for the boogeyman,” he said. “This is all a ploy to fire Pedro Martinez. Because that’s what CTU wants, and the mayor is going to do what CTU wants.”
Citing a flimsy pretense to fire Martinez for cause will end in a costly court fight and an embarrassment either way for the maladroit mayor.
Johnson is under fire from activists and community groups for failing to follow through on the recommendation of Inspector General Deborah Witzburg to establish a task force to address police officers with extremist ties.
None of the eight officers said to be linked to the anti-government Oath Keepers was disciplined at the conclusion of an investigation by the Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs last spring.
But Witzburg’s office said the investigation suffered “from deficiencies materially affecting its outcome” and urged City Hall to reopen the probe. The Sun-Times editorialized:
Chicagoans, and that includes the members of this board, are looking for clearer answers to the question of why (police Superintendent Larry) Snelling and Mayor Brandon Johnson broke their promise to keep the CPD extremist-free.
For a progressive mayor who once described “defund the police” as not merely a slogan but an “actual real political goal,” following up on this request ought to be a slam dunk.
The lies never stop with this guy
Whenever the self-pitying Hoosier loudmouth amplifies or repeats the lie that he was “pushed out” of the Chicago Tribune in 2021, I am obligated to post a link to “The truth about John Kass’ dispute with the Tribune and the Tribune Guild,” and to reiterate my offer to appear on his podcast to discuss/debate the points I make in the essay, every word of which is brutally true. So far, Brave, Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Johnny has not taken me up on my offer.
Cheer Chat
An update on preparations for the 26th annual “Songs of Good Cheer” winter holiday sing-along programs at the Old Town School of Folk Music that Mary Schmich and I host each year.
We’ll be putting a Cajun groove to the old children’s favorite “Up on the Housetop” for this year’s shows.
Here is the chorus you’re hearing:
Hey, Hey, Hey, qui c’est qui va la-bas
Ho, ho, ho! Qui c’est qui va ici
La-bas sur la maison, click, click, click
Descend la cheminee avec Bon Saint Nick
Regular host John Williams was busy so I filled in for this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” news-chat podcast. Austin Berg and Cate Plys joined me to talk about Donald Trump’s troubling Cabinet picks, takeaways from the election, and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s clumsy budgeteering and the Bears efforts to have a new stadium built at yet another site.
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.
Flashback: What I wrote after Trump’s first victory
November 10, 2016
In an electoral tantrum for the ages, angry U.S. voters have elected an impulsive, thin-skinned, ignorant con man to the presidency.
I have serious doubts that the American experiment will survive his reign.
The Founders were wary of demagogues and created a political system of checks and balances to weaken the chance that one would take power.
That system has survived centuries of domestic and foreign tumult and the occasional election of buffoons and rascals as commander in chief, despite Alexander Hamilton's reassurance in Federalist No. 68 that all presidents would naturally be "preeminent for ability and virtue."
But our republic has never been tested as it will be when Donald Trump is sworn into office. He lacks not only ability and virtue, but he also lacks a fundamental respect for the Constitution (aside from the Second Amendment), he lacks an understanding of the fine points of domestic and foreign policy and he lacks the cool temperament necessary to guide the most important nation on Earth through perilous times.
He fans the flames of tribalism and nationalism, inspiring and comforting those with deplorable views. He purchased the support of a majority of American voters with a set of brazenly false, often contradictory promises. He praised and made common cause with brutal Russian dictator Vladimir Putin while actively undermining domestic confidence in our electoral system.
His campaign and his personal manner were so repulsive that many top members of his own party couldn't even bring themselves to mention his name or say if they were voting for him.
His unfiltered expressions of anger and contempt were so dismaying that his campaign reportedly had to yank his access to Twitter in the waning days of the campaign -- yet voters decided to hand him the nuclear launch codes.
Sure, as a lefty I'm discouraged almost beyond words at the fact that Republicans will control the legislative and executive branches of government. This means the end of the extension of health care contained in the Affordable Care Act and pretty much the obliteration of the rest of President Barack Obama's legacy. It means efforts to ameliorate global climate change are dead, that the wealthy will enjoy generous tax cuts and for at least four years we won't see meaningful efforts to curb the easy availability of firearms.
Trump's victory also means that Republicans will regain control of the U.S. Supreme Court -- a reward for their outrageous stalling after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February -- meaning that the Citizens United decision will stand and the erosion of abortion rights will continue on the state level.
But that's politics and policy. The same would have been true had any of the other umpteen Republican hopefuls won the White House on Tuesday, and I would not be melodramatically forecasting comprehensive doom.
Trump is different. He's an aspiring strongman with a divisive record of bigotry and misogyny. He has put a quiet stamp of approval on white nationalism, and he has mainstreamed hateful anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish and anti-black sentiments that, until the rise of his candidacy, had been pushed far into the social margins.
Much was made of the anger that fueled Trump supporters. Anger at the loss of good-paying jobs for those without college education. Anger at the idea that undocumented immigrants were taking jobs from American citizens. Anger at multiculturalism and the attendant demands of "political correctness." Anger that the government system is rigged against them. Anger that media elites and other establishment types look down on them.
That anger may subside for a time as they celebrate Trump's victory, but it will surely return when they come to recognize -- as many of us already have -- that he is a grotesque fraud and a spectacular liar.
I'm not saying this to sway anyone's vote. The campaign is over. But many of those who championed him and are now exultant will come to despise him as much as those who have opposed him.
He will not bring jobs back that technology has taken. And if he actually starts the trade wars he has promised, prices for everything in the Wal-Mart will rise, the market for exports will dry up and working people will suffer the most.
He will not build a wall. He will not give low-income people better, cheaper health insurance. He will not put a stop to crime "on Day One" as he promised. He will not lower the national debt or get rid of the tax advantages enjoyed by the wealthy. He will not improve the lives of inner-city African-Americans.
Extreme buyer's remorse will set in.
Oh, he'll blame his comprehensive failures on others — narcissists and hucksters always do. But sooner rather than later he will stand exposed even to his supporters as someone who never had a clue how to make America greater than it is, and who exploited for his own gain the fury and credulity of people who feel marginalized and disrespected.
His hair-trigger temper, poor self-control and failure to appreciate the nuances of foreign policy will make him a singularly dangerous man on the international stage.
His arrogance and his contempt for those who disagree with him will shatter what's left of comity in Washington, because he's not just a phony but a thug, an aspiring autocrat cut from the same cloth as Putin. The limits that our Founders placed on the despotic impulses of demagogues who ascend to the highest office will be severely strained if not broken altogether.
Nearly all the things that Trump falsely claimed during the campaign were a disaster will, in fact, become disasters under his rule.
Could I be wrong?
Well, I've been wrong about Trump at nearly every turn for the last year and a half. I thought he had politically self-destructed at least half a dozen times, most recently with his absolutely bizarre performance in the third and final presidential debate.
And I was wrong about this race until the middle of the evening Tuesday, when I had to stop believing that Americans are too smart not to see through his flim-flam and realize how spectacularly unfit he is for the presidency.
With luck, I'll be wrong again.
UPDATE
I was wrong about two things.
That Trump’s supporters would desert him once they realized they’d be bamboozled by his phony promises. Cultural grievances prevented buyer’s remorse from setting in among his base.
That Trump had the competence and focus to break through the guardrails that protect the republic.
The first Trump term was chaotic but scattershot. Now that he is surrounding himself with those who have a similar disdain for those guardrails instead of institutionalists, I suspect my predictions of disaster will come true.
Quotables
A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately
I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so I can do my laundry and dishes, — Joanna Maciejewska
They should make the last foot of dental floss red so you know when you're about to run out. — Bob Janke
“The Bible is a book of timeless moral truths." Fact check: The Bible condemns shrimp but not slavery. — Betty Bowers
It’s a subtle tweak but I continue to be amazed at how asking “how can I help?” instead of “do you need help?” enhances domestic tranquility. — David Smith
Look down on someone all you want, it won’t make them look up to you. — unknown
(In two years,) Democrats are going to run on the same thing they've been running on my whole life: Putting out the fires Republicans started. Then they'll do it, and people can go back to getting mad at dumb bullshit and vote Republican again. — @graybee
Donald Trump, a con artist, will never get control of this party. … I know some of your friends have bought into this. Listen, friends don't let friends vote for con artists. It is time to open our eyes. We cannot allow a con artist to get access to the nuclear codes of the United States of America. It's a big fraud and it's time to open our eyes. — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, rumored to be Trump’s choice for secretary of state, speaking at his campaign rally on Feb. 27, 2016.
Veterans Day is a day to honor the brave Americans who fought for the values America just decided weren't all that worth fighting for. — @TheTweetOfGod
This feels like we’re in one of the Jurassic Park sequels where a lot of us were like, “Hey, let’s not try this again because last time the dinosaurs got loose.” But other people were like, “Well, maybe the dinosaurs won’t get loose this time.” — @OhNoSheTwitnt
Trump convinced his supporters that Mexico was going to pay for the wall in 2016. And now he convinced them other countries are paying for the Tariffs in 2024. — Mighty Keef
The Democrats delivered the most economically populist administration in decades, got handed a massive electoral defeat, and now every pundit is like "hey have you guys considered economic populism?" — Max Fisher
There are lessons in the loss. We need to stop lecturing and start listening. Be less like thermostats — attempting to change the temperature — and more like thermometers — measuring the temperature. We can’t just be offended that others weren’t offended. We need a plan. — State Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it. — Stephen Colbert
The word of the day is “recrudescence,” meaning “the recurrence of an undesirable condition.” — unknown
This too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass. — unknown
The problem with voting for a dictatorship is that if you have second thoughts, you can’t vote a dictator out of office. — Mark Jacob
I will support Israel’s right to win its war on terror. You have to support that. Gotta win. Gotta finish it off. And instead of pandering to the jihad sympathizers and American-hating radicals, we will deport them. We will deport them very quickly. — Donald Trump
I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures. … We will promote positive education about the nuclear family — the roles of mothers and fathers — and celebrating, rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique. I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth. — Donald Trump
As part of my plan to secure the border, on day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship. — Donald Trump
There are a lot of people who don’t understand about the role of immigrants in the U.S. economy. (There are) something like maybe 8 million undocumented workers in the United States; something like 5 percent of the workforce. You say, 'OK, that would be pretty bad if we lose that, but how bad could it be?” And the answer is that they are not evenly distributed. There are certain occupations that are really very heavily immigrant; certain jobs that are very heavily filled by immigrants, many of them undocumented. … Top of the list would be food. Agricultural workers, about three quarters are immigrants and probably about half of them are undocumented. Meat packing is probably between 30 and 50 percent undocumented immigrants. So the whole food supply chain is reliant on people who are going to be rounded up and put in camps. — Paul Krugman
The millions of people who don't care about politics are about to wish they had. — Michael Little
Moving up to bluer skies
I’ve been on the Bluesky social media platform for many months but have not been a very active user, in part because I have 100 times more followers on what I still call Twitter, in part because Twitter remains a superior source of news and comedy, and in part because the functionality and privacy of the Bluesky platform aren’t exactly to my liking.
But my contempt for Twitter-owner Elon Musk has become so thorough and the site itself such a cesspool that I intend to stop posting there at what is likely to be the cost of some traffic here to the Picayune Sentinel. This week I’ve seen a number of people I follow locally closing down their Twitter accounts and moving either to Bluesky or Threads. I don’t have the bandwidth to monitor that many social media sites and am going with Bluesky for now, but I will be relying more than ever on readers to notice good quips and visual jokes, and to send them my way.
Threads, like Musk’s X, is hostile to both news organizations and news as a concept. Instagram boss Adam Mosseri made clear from the moment of Threads’ launch in the fall of 2023 that the platform would not be friendly to news and politics. Meta has seen to that over the past year. It is seemingly impossible to get the Threads app to remain in a setting where a user only sees posts from accounts they choose to follow. External links do not travel well in the site’s algorithmic feeds. To the extent Threads is a home for “news,” it is because it is a nexus for the weirdest liberal election conspiracy theories out there. Threads is doing well with politically vapid influencers and people who understandably just want to try out an app that is connected to their Instagram account. It is a black hole for the exchange of news.
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 Quip of the Week:
We should raise taxes on everyone richer than me, redistribute the money to poor people like me until I'm rich, then we should stop doing that. — @wildethingy
In our quieter moments, in the dark, at night, when we’re all alone, we can admit that “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” and “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” are basically the same song. — @jayblackisfunny
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the terms and conditions I do not read. — @BobGolen
People always tell me “Oh, you should watch this movie” and I say, “Oh, sounds cool maybe I will.” But I won’t. I lied. I’m not even considering it. — @nick_roiger
I’m now responding to any and all emails with, “Wow, OK.” — @Ann_Hedonia1
I'm not sure which has betrayed me more: nonstick pans or easy-peel cheese sticks — @deloisivete
Why is it acceptable for someone to have a sausage sandwich for breakfast but not a hotdog? — @ TheRealFlups
Sorry I called love “a graveyard of fools” in my wedding toast. — @defleppardfan94
If you loved "Friends,"you're going to love the new sitcom "Acquaintances." It’s about people who know each other but hide when they see one another at the store. — @Brock_Teee
Telling my boss I wasn't drunk at work really backfired. I probably should have waited until he asked. — @wildethingy
Vote here and check the current results in the poll.
For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.
My favorite football teams are mediocre at best this year. The Chicago Bears are 4-5, and the Michigan Wolverines are 5-5. In such situations, I find it useful to have a bandwagon to jump on. And this year I’ve decided to root on the Indiana University Hoosiers and the Detroit Lions.
Indiana, where both my grandfathers were professors and where my mother was graduated, is 10-0, ranked 5th in the nation and quite likely headed to the 12-team post-season tournament
The Lions, the NFL team I rooted for as a kid growing up in Ann Arbor but abandoned for the Bears after I moved to Chicago in 1980, are 8-1 and just might make the Super Bowl for the first time. I will be rooting for the Lions to beat the Bears when they play on Thanksgiving and again three days before Christmas.
Have I taken fair-weather fandom too far? Your vote:
After publicly labeling the former Michael Reese hospital site as unsuitable for the new venue, the (Chicago Bears are) said to be reconsidering the 49-acre property south of McCormick Place in hopes of jump-starting discussions with politicians to keep the team in Chicago.
It’s not a bad idea, but for the team to get the significant public financing you know they’re going to ask for, it would help if they weren’t headed for another dismal, disappointing season (in a stadium totally redone only 21 years ago).
The same timing issue may help doom the White Sox bid for help building a new stadium in the 78 neighborhood. The hat in their hand looks quite shabby when they’ve just set a Major League Baseball record for losses in a single season.
Tune of the Week
The 1966 children’s ditty “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song” is the signature tune of legendary local tot troubadour Ella Jenkins, who died Saturday at 100.
You’ll sing a song
And I’ll sing a song
And we’ll sing along together
Simple, repetitive, jaunty. I’m a sucker for kids’ music that goes down easy and invites everyone to join in. Jenkins was not a virtuoso, but she understood the relationship of young people to music, and in some 40 albums and countless concerts and appearances, she introduced many generations to the pleasure of singing together.
Here are a few highlights from obituaries about “The First Lady of Children’s Music”:
From the beginning of her career in the 1950s, she pronounced her signature to be call-and-response, in which she asked her charges to participate directly in the music-making, granting them an equal responsibility in a song’s success. … “There is no one who has done more for young people in American musical history than Ella Jenkins,” the children’s musician Dan Zanes has said.
A typical performance for Jenkins took place at the Des Plaines Public Library in 1997. She played a yodeling song from Switzerland on a Chinese harmonica — complete with audience participation — followed by a Hebrew song and some greetings and counting songs from East Africa, taught in Swahili. Frequently she led her audiences with a baritone ukulele or a harmonica in hand. … Fred Rogers was a big fan, noting that Jenkins furthered “songs from the ages that might not be passed on if not for her.”
Grownups sometimes broke into song when encountering Jenkins decades after seeing her perform in their youth. ... “Songs can teach you something about life and other people, other countries,” she said. … Jenkins’ last appearance in front of a live audience was in 2017. She most recently lived at an assisted-living facility on the North Side.
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 to email me 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 Picayune Sentinel is a reader-supported publication. Browse and search back issues here. Simply subscribe to receive new posts each Thursday. To support my work, receive bonus issues on Tuesdays and join the zesty commenting community, become a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading
I read all the messages that come in, but I do most of my interacting with readers in the comments section beneath each issue.
Some of those letters I reprint and respond to in the Z-mail section of Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, which is delivered to paid subscribers and available to all readers later Tuesday. Check there for responses.
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Part of me wants to cheer on Trump and his motley crew of nutters, sex pests, the dregs of the Fox sets and greenroom, sycophants, etc. The crazier and more unpopular his Cabinet and actions are, the sooner MAGA goes down in flames. However, the better angel of my nature laments the human, moral, and financial cost the MAGA domestic and foreign policies will exact.
Just want to make an observation, I had trouble getting into the comments section recently. I tried working with Substack to no avail, so I asked for help from Eric Zorn.
I got a quick response and here I am.
Thanks again Eric, I not only enjoy the PS and these posts, but also how you run the PS.
Part of me wants to cheer on Trump and his motley crew of nutters, sex pests, the dregs of the Fox sets and greenroom, sycophants, etc. The crazier and more unpopular his Cabinet and actions are, the sooner MAGA goes down in flames. However, the better angel of my nature laments the human, moral, and financial cost the MAGA domestic and foreign policies will exact.
Just want to make an observation, I had trouble getting into the comments section recently. I tried working with Substack to no avail, so I asked for help from Eric Zorn.
I got a quick response and here I am.
Thanks again Eric, I not only enjoy the PS and these posts, but also how you run the PS.
You are a fine writer, but also just a good guy.