I think Zorn has become jaded and forgotten how to believe in love after reading his comments about Tay-Tay and her beau. Add to my predictions for 2025 a Christmas rom-com about this. The heartwarming ending will be Zorn really hearing a Taylor Swift song that turns around his perspective and reinvigorates his relationship with wife Cheryl Scott.
I think Garry Spelled Correctly should play the jaded Zorn.
Peace in Russia/Ukraine vs Israel/Hamas. I realize one is 60/40 vs 50/50 - but still. SB Pick: A few weekends ago Vikings looked strong, but of late Baltimore seems primed to take home the trophy. Brandon... SMH.
Wow, what a week! There are enough debatable topics today to keep this blog going for quite awhile. I'll start with the White Sox. I realize that it is human nature to grant sports teams priviliges based on won-lost records. I don't believe it to be the issue. Either the team deserves a taxpayer funded facility or they don't. I come down on the negative side for a number of reasons. This is a city and state with tremendous financial issues. Aren't there more important needs for money besides a another sports palace? Economist after economist points out that these facilities have, at best, a neutral effect on state and local economies. The taxpayers are still paying for the present stadium. Good Lord- how could the crown jewel city of the midwest be stuck with a doddering old wreck of a stadium? Wait a minute- 1991 does not make Rate Field a doddering old stadium, not in my view. Did the architects make mistakes? Absolutely! The cheap seats in the upper decks in the corners need telescopes to watch the games. As previously mentioned, the team was urged not to build where it is. The location is a not a destination for things to do before or after the games. Why should the taxpayers get stuck for the mistakes? And no matter where the team builds or doesn't build, the costs of tickets, parking, and concessions will continue to skyrocket, meaning the taxpayers get stuck a little more. As of this moment, many fans won't even be able to watch the them pay on television. There is yet no agreement to carry them on Comcast. There is no agreement for my streaming service to carry them. Supposedly they can be watched on free television, but I live too far away to get a clear signal. So now the taxpayers are being asked for money when most will never see the inside of the stadium and can't even watch them on television. Pay up, Jerry- most of us are not interested.
No professional team ever deserves a taxpayer funded stadium. Go to the banks & borrow the money, using the multi-billion dollar value of the team as collateral!
I agree. I was merely trying to use common sense financial reasons. Too many cities use sentimentality to do it. Every city is different. Atlanta put an entire entertainment complex in an area formerly mostly industrial and commercial. It’s not even in Atlanta, but Marietta, a northern suburb in a different county, which means Cobb County benefits, rather than Atlanta or Fulton County. A new stadium for the Sox would be in an area that already has restaurants and entertainment. So it would be competition for existing businesses. I know the city would hope to benefit from exorbitant entertainment taxes. That assumes that the Sox would draw enough fans that would spend money before and after games to make it worthwhile. I don’t see it and it still wouldn’t benefit the vast number of taxpayers stuck with the tab. So not only is your point valid, it makes little financial sense. That’s why Jerry has to use tricks like starting rumors about Nashville. It worked in 1991, so why not try it again.
Proving once more, that Southerners are stupid beyond belief! Never forget, Lincoln wanted to buy all the slaves from them & free them, the cost was negligible, compared to what the Civil War cost us, in people & money. They refused the offer, because they just couldn't understand economics, that free people actually work harder to improve their lives, while slaves work just hard enough to avoid beatings. The stupid beyond all belief Southern slave owners then lost all the value of their slaves, when the 13th Amendment totally ended slavery, which in fact was at least 90% of the wealth of most slave owners.
I honestly believe the extreme heat & humidity down there rots their brains!
Your reply is totally unacceptable and I hope EZ flags it. I did not bash southerners. I merely pointed out the difference between the situations in Chicago and Atlanta. You want to start a hate diatribe, start your own topic and don’t attach it to mine.
I don't hate them, I just find them to be appallingly stupid, uneducated fools, who constantly fall for the idiocies of others.
The overwhelming majority of Southerners that died in the Civil War never owned any slaves, but they fought to retain slavery because being so uneducated, they fell for the bullshit the slave owners spewed out at them!
I won't rise to the bait in your post, but just want to say that I was born and raised in Marietta, GA. Many of Atlanta's suburbs have a high concentration of transplants from around the country -- in fact, when I was in high school in the '80s, Cobb County was one of the fastest growing counties in the country because of all the new arrivals.
I will say that one of the contributing factors for me to move to Illinois was to get away from the heat and humidity, as well as the 3000+ pollen count every spring.
Fulton County didn't want to foot the bill for a new stadium, especially since Turner Field was only around 20 years old at the time. So the Braves convinced Cobb County to build it instead in what I would have called Smyrna but is now part of Marietta (as you say) with an Atlanta address. The new stadium and entertainment complex revitalized a section of Cobb County that had been going downhill for years, and is closer to their wealthier fans north of the city.
I could see the Bears trying to emulate that plan at Arlington Park.
Thank you confirming everything I said. I have relatives in Marietta and have been to the stadium a number of times. I could have expanded on Marietta. But my point was to show Garry the difference between Atlanta and Chicago. The Braves chose an area that wanted them and needed the tax boost. Chicago is counting on tradition and ignoring a public tired of being taxed in an area that already has things to do. I have been an Arlington Heights booster from the start. Many Bears fans live in the suburbs. There is plenty of room and the site is near a confluence of a number of major highways and other transportation options. The major holdups seem to be who pays for infrastructure upgrades, what do the Bears pay in taxes and what do local school districts reap. Locals have a number of concerns with usual complaints about congestion and traffic. But since the site is in Cook County, it’s still about taxpayer contributions. I don’t personally care about the location. I haven’t been to a Beats game in 5 years and will see them on television wherever they play. I’m simply pointing out my personal opinion on the best location. The Bears were stuck with Soldier Field when Pete Rozelle kicked them out of Wrigley. They simply had nowhere else to go. They should have built elsewhere decades ago.
Amen, GSC! The demands from team owners for public (i.e., taxpayer) funded stadiums is legalized extortion.
I'm pretty sure the Sox won't get any public funding for a stadium. I'd prefer they stay - but I'm OK if they leave over non-funding. It would slightly raise my opinion of the sanity and integrity of IL legislators and Chicago alders (just slightly).
Moving to Nashville is not a credible threat. Nashville is in line for a MLB expansion team - why would they want a shitty team run by shitty management to relocate there?
Bears are a different situation - not for me, but for the general public, the mayor and the governor. Unlike the Sox situation, the Bears are Chicago's only NFL team; and the Bears are vastly more popular than the White Sox - even before the Sox became the WOAT.
Pritzker may not care if the Bears move to AH - but Johnson, a lot of alders and a lot of Chicago voters would.
In regard to impatience when driving, I did extensive research on the issue and discovered that most of those drivers are being paid to just drive around.
On Trump and Greenland, the history of the U.S. purchase of the Virgin Islands is illustrative. (I recommend the State Dept website) Trump is a shit, but the U.S. and Woodrow Wilson did not exactly shower themselves in glory in that transaction. Denmark was willing to sell, but was holding out for civil rights for the residents. U.S. said none of that noise please and we have Marines. It was WWI, and Germany was at the door, so Denmark caved. USVI did not get their own governor until 1970. Denmark is a much more prosperous nation now (see Ozempic)and is not at war with Germany, so even if Trump's calcified brain remembers there is a Greenland, we ain't getting it. (See also the cost of Ozempic if we start a tariff war with Denmark. Omg, this guy is so stupid)
He is a prime example of why we need far higher inheritance taxes, to force the children of the rich to make their own way in the world. If the fat orange traitor hadn't gotten $400 million from his father, his best chance at a job would've been shoveling shit in a slaughterhouse!
Regarding Alexander Vindman and a medal from Biden: I agree that would have been a good gesture of recognition and an f.u. to Trump, but I also think Trump has hugely devalued these awards by giving them to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and such, to the point where they are now just political tokens and have lost a lot of the meaning.
I would like to add that his twin brother Eugene Vindman was also fired and forced to resign from the army in the fallout of Alexander's testimony. Eugene is now the newly-elected US Congressman from Northern Virginia and Alexander has written a best selling book ("Here Right Matters", highly recommended) and earned a PhD. They are immigrants from Ukraine, brought to the US as children, and are a testament to the kind of spirit and value immigrants bring to this country.
I laughed at Eric's apology for the error about Norway owning Greenland. I lived in Norway for five years (and will be moving back later this year), and in some ways Norway and Sweden are "one undifferentiated clump." The others, not as much, although Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are all basically the same language with different accents. Shhh! Don't tell them I said that.
The President said...Greenland is a strategically valuable Danish territory “indispensable to the safety of the United States.” And followed that up with efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
Pretty daffy, right? That was President Truman in 1946.
Eric - I take one exception to your assertion that the teams receiving a first-round bye in the postseason college football playoff was not helpful to them. Arizona State likely should have beat heavily favored Texas in their game if the refs had called a textbook example of targeting on the defensive back which occurred at a critical junction near the end of regulation. The resultant penalty would have in all likelihood given Arizona state the opportunity to kick a field goal and win the game.
Hi Phil - This becomes an issue of semantics as well as a fun football discussion. As he was at their own 38 and the targeting penalty would have given them a first down on the Texas 47, probably around 12-15 yards out of realistic field goal range. Would they have been able to pick up the additional yardage and convert the field goal? ASU had scored 24 points to that point in the game so it's not as if they're offense had not been moving the ball. But now we will never know. But the thing that seems evident in this is that the penalty should have been called and they should have had the opportunity to try to do so.
My best guess is that the refs were intimidated by the moment in that calling that penalty at that point in the game could well have flipped the game. But the overwhelming majority of informed parties who have commented on this agreed that it was a textbook targeting that should have been called. It seems egregious that it was not called upon review in the booth.
"Cousin Sally Brown" was fantastic! I'm so jealous that Eric can fiddle, that anyone can play a musical instrument because I can't really, and additionally jealous that he gets to play with his son. That out of the way, I do love these folk tunes but I think many others may have the same feeling of helplessness in terms of how to begin to learn even the basic catalogue of this music. Where to begin? Eric, you should write a primer sometime telling us how and where to start. And maybe provide us with more tips on where to go hear good live folk music as good shows become known to you, including in small bars which are my favorite. I never much liked Pete Seeger, Joan Baez etc.--I mean the kind of music you play with Ben and post sometimes in Tune of the Week. I don't know if there's a particular term to distinguish amongst these strains. I don't want to hear about people hammering and so on, if that helps.
Maybe you could take up piano. I started lessons about 11 months ago, shortly after retiring. I love it. (I grant you, I took lessons from grade six through 12, so I wasn't a complete newbie, but it had been nearly 50 years when I picked it up again. Or maybe ... guitar!
There’s a good program on WDCB (90.9) on Tuesday evenings from 8 to 11 called Folk Festival that has a more eclectic reach (and public radio, so no commercials, whoo-hoo!).
Agree with you on Pete and Joan, although not nice to diss someone on her birthday!
I used to listen to the Midnight Special on WFMT (98.7 FM) on Saturday night from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. My Mom first turned me onto the show about 55 years ago. I haven’t listened very much since 2016, but the Midnight Special was, and maybe still is, very plugged into the folk music scene, and they would tell about upcoming folk music performances throughout the Chicago area. In 2014 I saw Anne Hills perform at a church in either Lisle or Naperville, based on a suggestion on the Midnight Special. Anne Hills was great, and she had just come out with her album Tracks, songs about train travel in Colorado. She sang this song, among many others, and she said the chorus sounds make her think of the sounds of coyotes at night. I’ll nominate this song for Eric’s song feature. It’s really beautiful I think.
I was similarly familiarised with the Midnight Special as a kid. My mother would record each broadcast (which in those days was from 10 to 1, I think) on Memorex cassette tapes and play them back all throughout the week.
As a preadolescent youngster who was heavily weaned on rock from an early age, I was not exactly captivated by the show, but I do have my memories; it was the first place that I ever “The Piano Has Been Drinking” by Tom Waits, and the gloriously politically incorrect “Chicago Street Names” bit.
Here is another group that I saw as a result of listening to The Midnight Special, The Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio. I saw them at the Two Way Street Coffee House in Downers Grove. This song of theirs really touched me deeply. To me it’s sort of an understated song about dealing with family or relationship pain.
Hi Cate - For good folk music (other than the obvious, Old Town), keep an eye on places like Friendly Music Community & FitzGerald's side bar/patio (both in Berwyn), Irish American Heritage Center, City News Cafe, or the Folk You! series. Yes, small bars are the best for music, we're headed to Lizard's Liquid Lounge this evening. Chicago is an amazing music town, but also overwhelmingly spread out and hard to track. The Jerome Hughes substack music list Eric posted in PS a few months back is very helpful: https://jeromehughes.substack.com/p/friday-11025
I think Zorn has become jaded and forgotten how to believe in love after reading his comments about Tay-Tay and her beau. Add to my predictions for 2025 a Christmas rom-com about this. The heartwarming ending will be Zorn really hearing a Taylor Swift song that turns around his perspective and reinvigorates his relationship with wife Cheryl Scott.
I think Garry Spelled Correctly should play the jaded Zorn.
I agree totally!
"Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story" is a Hallmark Movie that was released around Thanksgiving.
Governor Lepetomane : [pointing to a member of his cabinet] I didn't get a "harrumph" out of that guy! Hedley Lamarr : Give the Governor harrumph!
I still get a chuckle out of the fact Hedy Lamarr sued Warner Brothers over Mel Brooks ‘almost’ using her name in Blazing Saddles…
If you invent spread spectrum radio, you're entitled to be cut a little slack.
Peace in Russia/Ukraine vs Israel/Hamas. I realize one is 60/40 vs 50/50 - but still. SB Pick: A few weekends ago Vikings looked strong, but of late Baltimore seems primed to take home the trophy. Brandon... SMH.
Wow, what a week! There are enough debatable topics today to keep this blog going for quite awhile. I'll start with the White Sox. I realize that it is human nature to grant sports teams priviliges based on won-lost records. I don't believe it to be the issue. Either the team deserves a taxpayer funded facility or they don't. I come down on the negative side for a number of reasons. This is a city and state with tremendous financial issues. Aren't there more important needs for money besides a another sports palace? Economist after economist points out that these facilities have, at best, a neutral effect on state and local economies. The taxpayers are still paying for the present stadium. Good Lord- how could the crown jewel city of the midwest be stuck with a doddering old wreck of a stadium? Wait a minute- 1991 does not make Rate Field a doddering old stadium, not in my view. Did the architects make mistakes? Absolutely! The cheap seats in the upper decks in the corners need telescopes to watch the games. As previously mentioned, the team was urged not to build where it is. The location is a not a destination for things to do before or after the games. Why should the taxpayers get stuck for the mistakes? And no matter where the team builds or doesn't build, the costs of tickets, parking, and concessions will continue to skyrocket, meaning the taxpayers get stuck a little more. As of this moment, many fans won't even be able to watch the them pay on television. There is yet no agreement to carry them on Comcast. There is no agreement for my streaming service to carry them. Supposedly they can be watched on free television, but I live too far away to get a clear signal. So now the taxpayers are being asked for money when most will never see the inside of the stadium and can't even watch them on television. Pay up, Jerry- most of us are not interested.
No professional team ever deserves a taxpayer funded stadium. Go to the banks & borrow the money, using the multi-billion dollar value of the team as collateral!
I agree. I was merely trying to use common sense financial reasons. Too many cities use sentimentality to do it. Every city is different. Atlanta put an entire entertainment complex in an area formerly mostly industrial and commercial. It’s not even in Atlanta, but Marietta, a northern suburb in a different county, which means Cobb County benefits, rather than Atlanta or Fulton County. A new stadium for the Sox would be in an area that already has restaurants and entertainment. So it would be competition for existing businesses. I know the city would hope to benefit from exorbitant entertainment taxes. That assumes that the Sox would draw enough fans that would spend money before and after games to make it worthwhile. I don’t see it and it still wouldn’t benefit the vast number of taxpayers stuck with the tab. So not only is your point valid, it makes little financial sense. That’s why Jerry has to use tricks like starting rumors about Nashville. It worked in 1991, so why not try it again.
Proving once more, that Southerners are stupid beyond belief! Never forget, Lincoln wanted to buy all the slaves from them & free them, the cost was negligible, compared to what the Civil War cost us, in people & money. They refused the offer, because they just couldn't understand economics, that free people actually work harder to improve their lives, while slaves work just hard enough to avoid beatings. The stupid beyond all belief Southern slave owners then lost all the value of their slaves, when the 13th Amendment totally ended slavery, which in fact was at least 90% of the wealth of most slave owners.
I honestly believe the extreme heat & humidity down there rots their brains!
Your reply is totally unacceptable and I hope EZ flags it. I did not bash southerners. I merely pointed out the difference between the situations in Chicago and Atlanta. You want to start a hate diatribe, start your own topic and don’t attach it to mine.
I don't hate them, I just find them to be appallingly stupid, uneducated fools, who constantly fall for the idiocies of others.
The overwhelming majority of Southerners that died in the Civil War never owned any slaves, but they fought to retain slavery because being so uneducated, they fell for the bullshit the slave owners spewed out at them!
Hence, the Braves get a stadium in Marietta.
I won't rise to the bait in your post, but just want to say that I was born and raised in Marietta, GA. Many of Atlanta's suburbs have a high concentration of transplants from around the country -- in fact, when I was in high school in the '80s, Cobb County was one of the fastest growing counties in the country because of all the new arrivals.
I will say that one of the contributing factors for me to move to Illinois was to get away from the heat and humidity, as well as the 3000+ pollen count every spring.
Fulton County didn't want to foot the bill for a new stadium, especially since Turner Field was only around 20 years old at the time. So the Braves convinced Cobb County to build it instead in what I would have called Smyrna but is now part of Marietta (as you say) with an Atlanta address. The new stadium and entertainment complex revitalized a section of Cobb County that had been going downhill for years, and is closer to their wealthier fans north of the city.
I could see the Bears trying to emulate that plan at Arlington Park.
Thank you confirming everything I said. I have relatives in Marietta and have been to the stadium a number of times. I could have expanded on Marietta. But my point was to show Garry the difference between Atlanta and Chicago. The Braves chose an area that wanted them and needed the tax boost. Chicago is counting on tradition and ignoring a public tired of being taxed in an area that already has things to do. I have been an Arlington Heights booster from the start. Many Bears fans live in the suburbs. There is plenty of room and the site is near a confluence of a number of major highways and other transportation options. The major holdups seem to be who pays for infrastructure upgrades, what do the Bears pay in taxes and what do local school districts reap. Locals have a number of concerns with usual complaints about congestion and traffic. But since the site is in Cook County, it’s still about taxpayer contributions. I don’t personally care about the location. I haven’t been to a Beats game in 5 years and will see them on television wherever they play. I’m simply pointing out my personal opinion on the best location. The Bears were stuck with Soldier Field when Pete Rozelle kicked them out of Wrigley. They simply had nowhere else to go. They should have built elsewhere decades ago.
Amen, GSC! The demands from team owners for public (i.e., taxpayer) funded stadiums is legalized extortion.
I'm pretty sure the Sox won't get any public funding for a stadium. I'd prefer they stay - but I'm OK if they leave over non-funding. It would slightly raise my opinion of the sanity and integrity of IL legislators and Chicago alders (just slightly).
Moving to Nashville is not a credible threat. Nashville is in line for a MLB expansion team - why would they want a shitty team run by shitty management to relocate there?
Bears are a different situation - not for me, but for the general public, the mayor and the governor. Unlike the Sox situation, the Bears are Chicago's only NFL team; and the Bears are vastly more popular than the White Sox - even before the Sox became the WOAT.
Pritzker may not care if the Bears move to AH - but Johnson, a lot of alders and a lot of Chicago voters would.
The Bears will ultimately settle for Arlington Heights, but they better not get a cent of tax money from Cook County or the state of Illinois!
There's zero chance of any stadium in Chicago, no matter what that dimwit Brandon Johnson wants!
Re: predictions for 2025: what constitutes an "attempt"? And what is the difference between "make an effort" and "make a serious effort"?
The difference between make an effort, a serious effort, or an earnest effort is moot. The terms don't ensure any action needs to be taken, ever.
probably the same thing for religious exemptions when determining someone's adherence to faith. Are they devout or the cafeteria variety?
This week ‘s column was really, really, really, really good.
Keep it up bro.
In regard to impatience when driving, I did extensive research on the issue and discovered that most of those drivers are being paid to just drive around.
On Trump and Greenland, the history of the U.S. purchase of the Virgin Islands is illustrative. (I recommend the State Dept website) Trump is a shit, but the U.S. and Woodrow Wilson did not exactly shower themselves in glory in that transaction. Denmark was willing to sell, but was holding out for civil rights for the residents. U.S. said none of that noise please and we have Marines. It was WWI, and Germany was at the door, so Denmark caved. USVI did not get their own governor until 1970. Denmark is a much more prosperous nation now (see Ozempic)and is not at war with Germany, so even if Trump's calcified brain remembers there is a Greenland, we ain't getting it. (See also the cost of Ozempic if we start a tariff war with Denmark. Omg, this guy is so stupid)
He is a prime example of why we need far higher inheritance taxes, to force the children of the rich to make their own way in the world. If the fat orange traitor hadn't gotten $400 million from his father, his best chance at a job would've been shoveling shit in a slaughterhouse!
Regarding Alexander Vindman and a medal from Biden: I agree that would have been a good gesture of recognition and an f.u. to Trump, but I also think Trump has hugely devalued these awards by giving them to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and such, to the point where they are now just political tokens and have lost a lot of the meaning.
I would like to add that his twin brother Eugene Vindman was also fired and forced to resign from the army in the fallout of Alexander's testimony. Eugene is now the newly-elected US Congressman from Northern Virginia and Alexander has written a best selling book ("Here Right Matters", highly recommended) and earned a PhD. They are immigrants from Ukraine, brought to the US as children, and are a testament to the kind of spirit and value immigrants bring to this country.
I laughed at Eric's apology for the error about Norway owning Greenland. I lived in Norway for five years (and will be moving back later this year), and in some ways Norway and Sweden are "one undifferentiated clump." The others, not as much, although Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are all basically the same language with different accents. Shhh! Don't tell them I said that.
The President said...Greenland is a strategically valuable Danish territory “indispensable to the safety of the United States.” And followed that up with efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
Pretty daffy, right? That was President Truman in 1946.
Eric - I take one exception to your assertion that the teams receiving a first-round bye in the postseason college football playoff was not helpful to them. Arizona State likely should have beat heavily favored Texas in their game if the refs had called a textbook example of targeting on the defensive back which occurred at a critical junction near the end of regulation. The resultant penalty would have in all likelihood given Arizona state the opportunity to kick a field goal and win the game.
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-att-us-rvc3&sca_esv=4641ef0b18f4d6ad&sxsrf=ADLYWILRJIeRXiNgoyUlawZ1jVzl53JttA:1736446409857&q=Texas+defensive+back+not+called+for+targeting+on+Arizona+state+receiver&udm=7&fbs=AEQNm0C3IotwCOg6Y47uwYyWdat8EPiOUpXVb-40tcUingscPVVMuDfpG_m-YF2LKinwsMs83R5a3-ITIONcaPEOpDoh674IsILst4Iox5zZdUILuD0E69tmr7ja4gBB1T2y2UtgqxjKYz-doGhiLrkVDNsHFueHLcnijc7sH2w_LIh8Sn_RMSpzgd4BzgIJFS_LF62lemH-_qmN1dDi9bRRGL-7Qxu8kJUm2NCK22_NC0nTEHk_4lo&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjagrn7numKAxUm7skDHbwXOqcQtKgLegQIEBAB&biw=384&bih=702&dpr=2.81#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5f2798e1,vid:E7Tyz2f9FaI,st:0
"In all likelihood" is optimistic. The targeting penalty (which absolutely should have been called) would have given ASU a first down around midfield.
I'd say "in some likelihood," which isn't a thing, but you get it.
Hi Phil - This becomes an issue of semantics as well as a fun football discussion. As he was at their own 38 and the targeting penalty would have given them a first down on the Texas 47, probably around 12-15 yards out of realistic field goal range. Would they have been able to pick up the additional yardage and convert the field goal? ASU had scored 24 points to that point in the game so it's not as if they're offense had not been moving the ball. But now we will never know. But the thing that seems evident in this is that the penalty should have been called and they should have had the opportunity to try to do so.
My best guess is that the refs were intimidated by the moment in that calling that penalty at that point in the game could well have flipped the game. But the overwhelming majority of informed parties who have commented on this agreed that it was a textbook targeting that should have been called. It seems egregious that it was not called upon review in the booth.
"Maladroit" is a wonderful, apt description of hizzoner.
I'd say "maladroit" is a charitable, diplomatic description of the mayor. Major Disaster wouldn't be unfair.
He's every bit as fit to be mayor of Chicago as trump is to be POTUS.
Hogs use their snouts to root for acorns. A sight-impaired pig isn't disadvantaged in this regard.
Re Brandon Johnson's round of January interviews: I watched almost all of them and feel confident that he did not answer one single question.
"Cousin Sally Brown" was fantastic! I'm so jealous that Eric can fiddle, that anyone can play a musical instrument because I can't really, and additionally jealous that he gets to play with his son. That out of the way, I do love these folk tunes but I think many others may have the same feeling of helplessness in terms of how to begin to learn even the basic catalogue of this music. Where to begin? Eric, you should write a primer sometime telling us how and where to start. And maybe provide us with more tips on where to go hear good live folk music as good shows become known to you, including in small bars which are my favorite. I never much liked Pete Seeger, Joan Baez etc.--I mean the kind of music you play with Ben and post sometimes in Tune of the Week. I don't know if there's a particular term to distinguish amongst these strains. I don't want to hear about people hammering and so on, if that helps.
Maybe you could take up piano. I started lessons about 11 months ago, shortly after retiring. I love it. (I grant you, I took lessons from grade six through 12, so I wasn't a complete newbie, but it had been nearly 50 years when I picked it up again. Or maybe ... guitar!
There’s a good program on WDCB (90.9) on Tuesday evenings from 8 to 11 called Folk Festival that has a more eclectic reach (and public radio, so no commercials, whoo-hoo!).
Agree with you on Pete and Joan, although not nice to diss someone on her birthday!
I used to listen to the Midnight Special on WFMT (98.7 FM) on Saturday night from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. My Mom first turned me onto the show about 55 years ago. I haven’t listened very much since 2016, but the Midnight Special was, and maybe still is, very plugged into the folk music scene, and they would tell about upcoming folk music performances throughout the Chicago area. In 2014 I saw Anne Hills perform at a church in either Lisle or Naperville, based on a suggestion on the Midnight Special. Anne Hills was great, and she had just come out with her album Tracks, songs about train travel in Colorado. She sang this song, among many others, and she said the chorus sounds make her think of the sounds of coyotes at night. I’ll nominate this song for Eric’s song feature. It’s really beautiful I think.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3q8mYrLD0&pp=ygUhQW5uZSBoaWxscyBzYW4gbHVpcyB2YWxsZXkgdHJhY2tz
I was similarly familiarised with the Midnight Special as a kid. My mother would record each broadcast (which in those days was from 10 to 1, I think) on Memorex cassette tapes and play them back all throughout the week.
As a preadolescent youngster who was heavily weaned on rock from an early age, I was not exactly captivated by the show, but I do have my memories; it was the first place that I ever “The Piano Has Been Drinking” by Tom Waits, and the gloriously politically incorrect “Chicago Street Names” bit.
Here is another group that I saw as a result of listening to The Midnight Special, The Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio. I saw them at the Two Way Street Coffee House in Downers Grove. This song of theirs really touched me deeply. To me it’s sort of an understated song about dealing with family or relationship pain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a9TIjBEqBs0&pp=ygUwSGVhdGhlciBwaWVyc29uIGFjb3VzdGljIHRyaW8gYWludCBnb3R0ZW4gYXJvdW5k
Hi Cate - For good folk music (other than the obvious, Old Town), keep an eye on places like Friendly Music Community & FitzGerald's side bar/patio (both in Berwyn), Irish American Heritage Center, City News Cafe, or the Folk You! series. Yes, small bars are the best for music, we're headed to Lizard's Liquid Lounge this evening. Chicago is an amazing music town, but also overwhelmingly spread out and hard to track. The Jerome Hughes substack music list Eric posted in PS a few months back is very helpful: https://jeromehughes.substack.com/p/friday-11025