Skeptic, after reading Eric’s views on unpopular opinions, pizza choice is a perfect issue.
If I was in mixed company and a woman said that she preferred lotion bar soap, I would accept it as a statement and not take it as a challenge to give my soap views. I have no burning desire to compare personal hygiene issues.
Anyway, best pizza in my view is original Neapolitan style, then very thin crust and finally New York style.
Deep dish pizza is not pizza, it is a casserole. Detroit style or Chicago style are jacked up American versions that are okay but do not improve the original product.
So thanks Skeptic, may the pizza opinions proliferate!
I love Neapolitan pizza but it cannot be made properly in a home oven and most of my pizza consumption is my own home made stuff. I can do a very good NY Style Pizza. My favorite styles are Detroit and NY. At its best Detroit style has a puffy thick crust and is not to heavy on the toppings and has cheese that has caramelized on the edges.
I've discovered in my old age that Neapolitan is my favorite, or in lieu of that, any thin-cut veggie pizza. Nothing against meat on a pizza, I will eat those too, but I find I prefer fresh veggies. I even like it with an alfredo sauce.
Good one. I prefer pretty much any pizza to pan style. Pan is just too heavy. I really liked pan style when I was in college but shifted away as got older.
Must confess that my favorite pizza is Chicago Home Run Inn sausage. Have been eating it for 50 years—mostly frozen these days as I don’t get down there anymore
I also do not like greasy crusts. When I make Detroit style there is enough oil in the pan to make the crust crispy but not greasy.
The Charlie Anderson YouTube channel has helped me raise my pizza game more than anything. To me the main attraction is the crust. Toppings are there to enhance a good crust
Paris Schutz is an skilled, astute and highly-principled reporter and interviewer. Stacy Davis Gates and the CTU are preening with power right now, and Paris has called out CTU actions, as a reporter of integrity should do----but, as the Washington Post editorial cartoon debacle shows, often don't. Decimating Chicago Tonight and causing Paris to leave for Fox was a terrible move, and a huge loss to the program and WTTW watchers, who depend on it for great local news. I hope Paris is allowed to continue his insightful comments and interviews on Paris on Politics (which I record and watch, since I'm not a Fox News fan...)
You're correct on the calculations, I picked them out of thin air and the math doesn't work in favor of my argument. But the trend is undeniable, teams have basically eschewed the mid-range 2-point shot. It's possible that while the average point value per attempt is similar between taking 3's and 2's, taking a 3 is quicker and allows more possessions, or better chances at getting the rebound. Bottom line is watching NBA these days is largely watching 3-point shots hit off the rim.
This is the article with the charts showing shot selections over different eras, it goes through 2020, but I don't think the trend was reversed in recent seasons:
I think the upward trend for 3-pointers is leading to NBA and college teams looking for players who have better accuracy, which will eventually lead to higher percentages on those shots. It's the same way NFL teams wanted kickers with better long-range accuracy, leading to many more successful 50+ yard field goals.
Thank you Mike for your ability to utilize mathematics to obtain comparable metrics! Archimedes would be very proud (although your proficiency with math is a clear sign of white supremacy, at least according to this mathematics professor and former Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan 🤭).
"innumeracy" - thanks Bob for my favorite new word of 2025!
And yes, frightening to think this crazed thought comes out of the Dean of the School of Education at Eric's alma mater. I echo your prayer for reason to be restored!
Thanks Mike, a very interesting read. It is noteworthy that there is a great deal of attention to deficiency in reading and verbal comprehension, but very little if any on this equally important area of development and functioning. And, innumeracy is a darn cool word!
I forget now where I read it, but the two-point percentage is jacked up considerably by dunks and layups; when you look at the jump shots from 10 feet and out to the line, the percentage drops to the point that taking an 18-foot shot, say, is simply unwise.
Bezos ordered him to kill that cartoon, most likely after Shipley sent it by email to Bezos for a comment on it & then got back the order.
Bezos has become extremely weird since he got together with his plastic surgery altered trophy girlfriend & seems to now spend 100% of his time, gallivanting around the world on his half billion dollar yacht, the only yacht that needs a $200 million support yacht to get anywhere. He seems to have little interest in the company he built & prefers to hang out with the worst of the world's Eurotrash.
I think the real point here is that it takes professional news people to run newspapers properly. Remember that the Post is the newspaper that broke open Watergate. Ben Bradlee bucked the establishment, fighting the United States government to do the right thing. Jeff Bezos is a businessman watching the bottom line. Republicans in Congress are fighting the tech giants over supposedly suppressing conservative speech and he doesn’t want another firefight on his hands. The reason given- story repetition-was so ridiculously inane that it made the editor look like an idiot, which makes me believe he took the fall for a higher up. Welcome to the modern world of journalism. Newspapers are dying and it’s more about survival than reporting the news. EZ may disagree with me and I know he’s in a better position to know than I am but it certainly looks that way.
It's OK for anyone to be a picky eater. It's not a moral failing. However, a picky eater must always be polite, and never say, "eww, I won't eat THAT!"
My wife and I have arrived at the view that, after reaching a certain age, people should not have to eat anything they don't like. And that's how we roll!
I’ll throw something else in. I’m a very picky eater not by choice. As we have a number of senior citizens in this crowd, some will know what I am saying. For me it has become a choice between enjoying old eating habits and trying to stay healthy a little longer. Due to various medical conditions, the following are no nos for me- prime rib, banana splits, most dairy products(which eliminates cheeseburgers), alcohol, most soda, anything high in sugar content or sodium and pretty much anything that made eating enjoyable for me. It drives my family crazy at family events, trying to figure out what I can eat. I simply tell them to plan for everyone else and I’ll survive, even if I need to eat a bad food for one day. Please don’t suggest substitutes for what I listed. There is no substitute for a Dairy Queen banana split.
I've developed a better palate over time, but I was born picky. Forcing me to eat foods I really disliked often resulted in vomiting at the table, so my parents gave up. No banana splits for me. A tussle of wills between my father and me resulted in a most dramatic "rejection" of a banana. I can hardly bear to be in the same room with one. As I age, though i gradually give up stuff I like for my health. Mostly so far it's soda, alcohol and red meat.
You might not have intended it, but your reply gave me chuckles. I’m sure I’m not the only one that remembers mom’s admonition to clean your plate- or else! At my youth dinner table, there was no lesson on healthy or balanced meals. Mom worked hard to make the money to put the food on the table and went to great lengths to cook for us. So we were going to eat it- like it or not. To this day, there are foods I won’t eat for no other reason that I grew sick of them as a child. While I’m on the subject, I have not touched a bologna sandwich in decades. I attended Nansen Elementary on the far south side. If you lived less than a mile from school, you went home for lunch. My mother was an elementary teacher back when they didn’t make much and she was raising 6 kids. A lot of baloney(pun intended) was what she could afford. Every once in awhile, it might be peanut butter and jelly. After 8 years of bologna sandwiches almost every day, I graduated to the lunch cafeteria at Fenger High School and never again ate a bologna sandwich, a practice continued to this day.
Crystal ball: Are people really afraid to make predictions that are wrong? aka people afraid to share their opinions? Not these days! Political Cartoons: for the most part - are amazing pieces of cultural perspective. (I love Stantis) They are funny and poignant - because humor always has a little truth behind it. WaPo - grow a pair. I guess the toon needs an update - WaPo on lower rung kissing Bezos' cheek. Organs: I agree with the statement and idea - but if I had to choose - I selected 'No.' Ideas are great until you put ideas and greater good into the hands of the government to oversee. CPS: Strike They are not going to have the easy roll with Johnson. He's building walls and opposition despite his 'many collaborative' projects. 3 Point Shot: Is the new 'chicks love the long ball" of sports. (Wow - peach basket reference) Unpopular Opinions: I think we should stick to the mundane on topics. (Butter: Counter or fridge/Cheddar vs Colby/ Beer v IPA v Wine/ Street names vs Honorary street names/ Babies Cute or polite cute LOL)
Not sure what this comment might apply in todays Sentinel, but I am having a difficult time accepting the fact that a person who was responsible for January 6, 2021 will soon become the President again. Forget the convictions, his narcissism and other disgusting personality traits. That should not have been allowed to happen.
And now with all the moneyed people genuflecting to him, I am truly concerned where this country is going.
100% of the blame goes to that most incompetent attorney general in history, the useless & feckless Merrick Garland.
He never got out of the mode of an impartial judge, instead of realizing he was the chief prosecutor of the United States.
Biden should've fired that fool on March 1, 2021 for not indicting the fat traitor for sedition & causing the insurrection.
Because he definitely would've been convicted on those charges & then absolutely banned from the ballot by the 14th Amendment.
And we need another amendment to the Constitution that that flat out bans anyone with a felony conviction from any elected, appointive or civil service in any federal or state jobs!
This amendment would be the perfect tool to stop resistance parties in their cribs. MLK and Nelson Mandela were politically harassed by the dominant parties.
Garry, this sounds very much like you wanted (at least under Biden) a "weaponized" DOJ. Biden himself said this past weekend he wished Garland would have gone after Trump more (apparently all those trials in other jurisdictions weren't enough). So ... what I'm taking from such comments as these is that when Democrats weaponize law enforcement it's peachy; if Trump does something similar you'll howl.
This is somewhat similar to Dems wanting to kill the filibuster in October but are warning against this now. (I personally say, Keep the Filibuster!)
Indicting an obvious criminal like the fat orange traitor, seditionist & insurrectionist isn't a "weaponized DOJ", that a DOJ just doing its job properly, which it totally failed at!
Without using inflammatory language about Merrick Garland, I think it is fair to say that he took too long to appoint the special counsel and that, if the very competent Jack Smith had started months earlier, he would have been better positioned to counter Agent Orange's deny/delay/attack strategy and have him face justice in the open and shut cases that he will lay out in his reports, which I believe Judge Garland should release.
Jack Smith was not competent. A competent prosecutor would've charged him with the theft of the top secret documents in DC, where they were stolen from, not in Palm Beach where they were stored!
The DOJ seemed to reject what we all were seeing — a post Jan 6 MAGA did not dissolve in shame and open the playing field for Garland and Smith to be meticulous. The GOP knew that their folks were legally exposed (on tape, film, phone records, etc) so they re-gathered to deny, delay, work their sympathetic judges, and attack every prosecutorial effort. I have no ability to judge the competence of federal prosecutors, but it sure as hell looked like they refused to engage fully the unseemly tactics of their opponents, and that was ballgame.
In regard to the issue of too many 3-pointers, I have not seen any reasonable suggestions for improving the game of basketball, so here is my goofy suggestion: Reverse it and make the 3-pointer a 2-pointer and the 2-pointer a 3-pointer.
And to that I would add, raise the baskets another foot to put an end to all the showboat dunking which is not what basketball was supposed to be about.
Yes! So maddening to see LeBron repeatedly take 4 or even 5 steps through the lane and never hear a whistle. I would pay big money to see the look on his face if it was called even once!
Hah - that is a fabulous vid of how he blatantly violates the rule...and is never called for it! I would love to see the commissioner asked why they have a rule that is rarely enforced against some players
FWIW, the system of everyone is included in organ donation unless opting out has been discussed at UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit scientific organization that administers the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network). Their current view is that we would actually have lower donation rates with that approach in the U.S. although it is used in some countries. I know this because my sis-in-law is Director of an organ transplant division of a NY hospital and has served on many UNOS committees. I'm fortunate to have had lots of interesting conversations about the subject.
I’m surprised at the number of “the government doesn’t own my body” (i.e., the big, bad gubment) argument against using organs for transplant. Most transplant programs are at nonprofit university hospitals with some in for profit health systems, although the VA does do some transplants. That’s just not an argument I would have expected against the opt-in or opt-out approach. Which makes me want to know — What is a non-religious argument against allowing one's organs to used by another after your death?
Oh, and the most important poll question I’d like to see is, Has everyone reading this blog considered organ donation and conveyed their wishes to all their family members? If not, why the hell not?
Since my very first driver's license I've listed "organ donor" on it because if someone can benefit from my worn-out organs after I'm gone, then why not? Although I do recall this bit from Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life":
They can use your bones, your skin, all kinds of things you might never guess. A friend's had several spinal surgeries and the screws would always come out of his ribs quickly. When the surgeon tried using cadaver bone dust in the super glue used to help hold the screws in the bones, the screws didn't come out. Cadaver bone saved that kid (now adult, 30 years on) from repeated unsuccessful surgeries for a severe spinal malformation. Same screws still holding today.
Looove Monty Python. The kicker is, now live donations of livers is a really common thing (and done by real doctors ;-). They just need to take a piece of your liver and it will grow back in you and the piece will grow a whole new liver in the person who needs it!
"The field of organ donation and transplantation is well regulated. Both state and federal laws and regulations provide a safe and fair system for allocation, distribution, and transplantation of donated organs."
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is the federal agency that oversees the organ transplant system in the United States.
Yes, I just wasn't thinking that most people are really thinking about the HSRA if they even know that's the part of HHS that oversees the transplant network.
A non-religious argument would be that someone with a misanthropic streak just might not want their organs to be used to sustain other people, or certain types of people. For example, I know a few people who have made clear that they would never want any of their organs to go into the body of a Trump supporter (or, as they usually refer to them, a “MAGA”). It seems ridiculous and petulant to me, but hey, whatever.
The Catholics: "Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent (no. 2296). Pope John Paul II vigorously affirmed that a beautiful act expressing the culture of life “is the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes have no other hope” (“Evangelium Vitae,” No. 86)."
It's interesting that's the Church's position on organ donation while they vehemently oppose Medical Aid In Dying that would allow a person to go out on one's own terms and possibly leave many organs for life-saving use in others.
no one's body - or corpse - shd belong to the govt, w/o just compensation. i think de jure harvesting of organs from the dead, whcih would constitute a 'taking', w/o compensation, is wrong.
i defer to experts in the US constitution to opine on whether this would qualify as a taking, and how to remedy or obviate the taking. i personally would support agreed compensation with the next of kin.
how much is an organ worth? Outside of Iran, it is illegal to buy or sell organs. But in the good old USA, if you have the means, there is nothing stopping you from "gifting" someone $19K in late December (say on Christmas) and then another $19K on New Year's Day.
And what a coincidence, you are having a Kidney transplant in mid-January!
My sister tragically lost her adult son to a cerebral aneurysm. She signed a consent for his organs to be harvested for transplant, but said that it was emotionally very difficult to wait a couple more days to receive his body for burial while it was being done. She later received word from the recipient of his corneas, and she found that very comforting.
While I am philosophically a staunch proponent of freedom and individual choice in matters pertaining to one's self, It is nothing short of a travesty and a national disgrace that seriously ill people who could be helped by organ transplant wait many years or perhaps never receive an organ, while millions of healthy organs are either cremated or embalmed and put into the ground every year. We should have a national opt-out policy, instead of the opt-in that many of us currently do. This infringement on personal freedom would be vastly outweighed by the immense difference it would make in so many lives.
sorry, david, i have to disagree with you on this.
i agree that there are not enough donated organs; and the current model for managing donations and transplants is a travesty.
but the problem, as i see it, is bad govt - and the fix is not more govt. [see the link i posted in another response to this topic in this issue of the PS]
i recommend an optional compensation structure for both living donors and corpses [i.e., compensation to next of kin].
would this create problems, incl'g unforeseen consequences? sure. but i'd guess the problems would be no worse than the current situation for organ donation.
Unpopular opinion: grilling is overrated. Possibly because I've cut back on meat, or possibly because my path between the kitchen and the patio is bit more complicated than just opening a sliding door. The taste can be uniquely great, but not always superior. A burger in an iron skillet is best IMO, for example. Overall, the prep, running back & forth, smoke, timing, cleaning, etc. tends to not quite be worth it. Then there are the cancer concerns with charred foods. I'll continue to grill every so often in the summer, but it's not something I go crazy over.
I enjoy grilling for its convenience, the ease of cleanup, and the pleasure of standing out on the deck enjoying a beer (good weather of course). I also dislike the stale smell in the kitchen an hour or so after cooking a burger or steak in the skillet on the stove. When grilling a steak, I put the skillet in the grill.
It seems the inconvenience of your grilling setup is the big issue.
No doubt grilling has advantages, and improved prep / routine / technique would help the cause. Like golf (also overrated, ha). I've just never been in sync with the popularity. There's a very popular restaurant in our neighborhood where everything on the menu tastes smoky, including the desserts. Not our favorite.
you're killin' me, ted! i love grilling, and grilled food. and i still grill almost exclusively with charcoal [note, i live out in the woods, so the trees are soaking up all the carbon i emit from grilling]
Neapolitan-style pizza is my favorite. Billy Bricks Wood Fired Pizza in Oak Park makes them. Yummy! And when my sister and I were palling around in Europe last May, there were a lot of places that had Neapolitan pizza on the menu. I think the crust is tastier, and I don’t feel as full and sluggish after a meal of Neapolitan pizza as I do after a meal of other kinds of pizza.
For all you Neapolitan-style pizza lovers out there, especially those actually in Chicago and not the suburbs -- have you tried https://www.spaccanapolipizzeria.com on Sunnyside? A former colleague introduced me to it and now our whole family quite enjoys it.
We certainly have had to wait before. But ... except for maybe once, the wait hasn't been too long. I think that pizza is the first one I ever had sausage on where I said to myself, "Hey, sausage on pizza can be good!" Truth be told, it's probably still the only one!
I've been using reusable shopping bags, most of them over 20 years old now, since Trader Joe started selling them in California. I can't believe that is more costly to the environment than paper or the disposable plastic ones (which I reuse for trash)
I would say that real Christmas trees are preferable to artificial ones, but with the caveat that one should always be prepared to pay more for a nice one. My mother used to always skimp and then we’d be stuck with having to festoon these emaciated twigs. It’s not like we couldn’t afford a nicer one, she was just a cheapskate. Come on, Christmas only comes once a year!
I think of conspicuous consumption as the showcasing of status symbols that advertise one’s affluence, and while travelling can serve that purpose, I think that it’s a bit different in that it affords a kind of fulfillment that’s less purely superficial than say, flaunting a Bentley or a diamond ring or a designer purse.
I’m with you on blue laws. I grew up near South Holland, which used to have them, and while most people thought that they were a bit silly, they did have their charm. In a small way, they helped edify a kind of ethos that said that communities were about something more than just being full time, 24/7 consumerist zombies.
No one is more surprised than me for agreeing with Stacey Davis Gates but ... your talk of "bringing the wood"? Really? I had to look it up (a football metaphor. So manly of you!) could have been phrased countless other ways -- even on X.
Of course her response to this was over the top as no one would seriously read it as a physical threat, but the phrase is from football, with the meaning of a "forceful takedown" and is testosterone-filled. Surely an experienced journalist could be just as pointed but less childish.
I think it's important to note that I DESCRIBED what Paris Schutz did, I did not URGE him or anyone else to do anything. Her response was as though I'd written, "Please bring the wood to SDG" and it was actually unclear to her that I meant rhetorically. It wasn't. She is just looking for a greivance.
With book banning in vogue,criminalization of medically recommended abortion and the results of the most recent presidential election, I find total agreement with the Republican party’s stance: that America’s educational system has failed.
Here is what Stacey Gates doesn't get. Well actually there's more than one thing, but here's my primary issue. Politicians, which is what Gates is, spend too much time blowing smoke to obscure real issues. Trump is an expert at that. Gates is making it a personal thing over things the reporter didn't say. That's a personal favorite of politics. Attack something that no one said and try to appear to be correct. MAGAs are expert at that. Instead of worrying over what a politician didn't say, she should worry over making pie in the sky demands. I am a retired teacher. A librarian, music teacher, nurse, social worker, and others in every building would be nice. CPS is also not fulfilling special education mandates because finding qualified people that want to work in CPS is next to impossible. I have two questions. In a district that has been proven to not know where the money is or watching it stolen, how do we know it would be wisely spent? Second question is where it would come from. If they want to to go on strike, let them. A strike will not make money magically appear. Her answer is to tax everything and everyone in sight. Even if that were done, which would cause a lot of people and businesses to leave, what guarantee is there that it would go to schools? Chicago doesn't need money for anything else? Pensions are millions behind. Police hiring is behind. The fire department wants more ambulances and crews. More affordable housing is needed. So Stacey, stick to real issues that can actually be fixed like getting kids to school and teaching them to read, write, and do math.
Eric, may I add another thought that to my knowledge has not been raised in Chicago by...anyone... since Katen Lewis started breaking norms.
It is this.
FDR explicitly did not support unions for government employees.
Full stop.
For obvious reasons we are seeing in full display.
Because CTU is now negotiating with an unfair ADVANTAGE of being able to directly lobby voters (parents and teachers) who do NOT represent the 80% of taxpayers who do not have children in CPS but pay the bills.
(Quick aside: have any of you noticed CTU references "students" and "parents" exclusively and never "citizens" or "taxpayers'?
So the majority of voters are supposed to have no say apparently?
If CTU wants "private education", just say so and most of us would love the property tax cut.)
Gates is not negotiating with the CPS CEO. She is not.
She is negotiating with Chicago taxpayers' elected representatives and denies the legitimate role of elected and nominated leaders in "representative" democracy.
Rahm was not "rogue." Nor was Lightfoot. They were elected. Gates was not. Brandon won because of classic backroom deals between unions.
Because every public worker union has taken to making it personal with the "enemy mayor' every single time contracts come up.
rather than maybe compromise with the taxpayers whom they clearly are terrified of upsetting. A $110,000 annual "average" teacher salary is nuts. Don't believe me? Put the question on the next ballot.
Even better, let the 80% of taxpayers who are not supposed to weigh in instead march on Gates' home as CTU routinely does. See rhe reaction from Gates
Now Gates and Brandon cannot wait a few weeks for the elected school board they demanded?
Why exactly? Because they are a union posing as a political party.
If FDR is not liberal enough for CTU, God help us all.
Be a union CTU.
You have zero business in public policy.
The fact you are afraid of your own monster - an elected school board - should be enough proof you have gone way to far from what the voters want in this negotiation.
I appreciate your praise of my comments. I can’t go along with everything in your reply. FDR was from another era. Unions were still developing and people were still used to the idea that bosses could pay whatever they wanted. It didn’t work very well for women or minorities. I have no problem with workers organizing for the purpose of bargaining. As far as I’m concerned, both CPS and CTU are special cases that I never personally experienced in all my years as a teacher. The average salary might seem a tad high. Pretty remember that most teachers, except for hard to fill fields, are required to live in the city. Chicago is expensive and getting more so all the time. My contention is that the CTU is making unrealistic demands. She’s trying to use the PR machine to make CPS look the bad guys to hide the unrealistic demands. CPS is between a rock and a hard place. Past leadership has dug a hole deep enough to sink the system. Educating inner city kids is tough enough without CPS and CTU trying to cannibalize each other. CTU should recognize these difficulties and work with the city to recognize the difficulties and work together to come up with solutions that are possible and practical. But CTU doesn’t seem to realize that certain things are just not going to happen, no matter how loud Gates screams or makes it personal. There are investment and ratings services that claim that without major changes, the city is not that far from bankruptcy. What does Gates then think will happen to CPS?
i agree, there shd be no public employee unions. or perhaps a more moderate response - allow public employee unions; but do not allow them to strike; and do not allow them to bargain over wages or benefits - only working conditions.
the difference in the collective bargaining of unions with for-profit vs govt employer is that the for-profit employer can go bankrupt, if mgmt foolishly caves to fiscal demands over time. govt entities rarely go bankrupt - the bad ones tax and spend themselves into fiscal morass over time - with the 'help' of their unions.
Here is my unpopular opinion: Detroit style pizza is better than Chicago style pan pizza.
Skeptic, after reading Eric’s views on unpopular opinions, pizza choice is a perfect issue.
If I was in mixed company and a woman said that she preferred lotion bar soap, I would accept it as a statement and not take it as a challenge to give my soap views. I have no burning desire to compare personal hygiene issues.
Anyway, best pizza in my view is original Neapolitan style, then very thin crust and finally New York style.
Deep dish pizza is not pizza, it is a casserole. Detroit style or Chicago style are jacked up American versions that are okay but do not improve the original product.
So thanks Skeptic, may the pizza opinions proliferate!
I love Neapolitan pizza but it cannot be made properly in a home oven and most of my pizza consumption is my own home made stuff. I can do a very good NY Style Pizza. My favorite styles are Detroit and NY. At its best Detroit style has a puffy thick crust and is not to heavy on the toppings and has cheese that has caramelized on the edges.
I've discovered in my old age that Neapolitan is my favorite, or in lieu of that, any thin-cut veggie pizza. Nothing against meat on a pizza, I will eat those too, but I find I prefer fresh veggies. I even like it with an alfredo sauce.
I have tried but do not like pineapple on pizza.
Hey Peter - Unlike many of our respective political views, our pizza preferences are totally aligned!
to clarify, pan pizza and deep dish pizza are not the same style of pizza.
Good one. I prefer pretty much any pizza to pan style. Pan is just too heavy. I really liked pan style when I was in college but shifted away as got older.
Must confess that my favorite pizza is Chicago Home Run Inn sausage. Have been eating it for 50 years—mostly frozen these days as I don’t get down there anymore
soooo good!😋
I also do not like greasy crusts. When I make Detroit style there is enough oil in the pan to make the crust crispy but not greasy.
The Charlie Anderson YouTube channel has helped me raise my pizza game more than anything. To me the main attraction is the crust. Toppings are there to enhance a good crust
https://www.youtube.com/@CharlieAndersonCooking
Wow! I could see a whole month of debate on that, particularly if you add New York style. Live it!
i disagree - but this would be a great one for EZ's pending Unpopular Opinion feature.
Paris Schutz is an skilled, astute and highly-principled reporter and interviewer. Stacy Davis Gates and the CTU are preening with power right now, and Paris has called out CTU actions, as a reporter of integrity should do----but, as the Washington Post editorial cartoon debacle shows, often don't. Decimating Chicago Tonight and causing Paris to leave for Fox was a terrible move, and a huge loss to the program and WTTW watchers, who depend on it for great local news. I hope Paris is allowed to continue his insightful comments and interviews on Paris on Politics (which I record and watch, since I'm not a Fox News fan...)
Fox 32 Chicago is not the same as cable Fox News.
Re: Basketball three-pointers
If there's a 40% chance of making 3 points, the expected value = 0.40*3 = 1.2
If there's a 70% chance of making 2 points, the expected value = 0.70*2 = 1.4
So, a two-pointer is better in that scenario.
In the 2023-2024 season, the Bulls made 53.2% of two-pointers, 35.8% of three-pointers.
.532*2 = 1.064
.358*3 = 1.074
About even?
Compare to the OKC Thunder:
.499*2 = .998
.389*3 = 1.167
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024.html
You're correct on the calculations, I picked them out of thin air and the math doesn't work in favor of my argument. But the trend is undeniable, teams have basically eschewed the mid-range 2-point shot. It's possible that while the average point value per attempt is similar between taking 3's and 2's, taking a 3 is quicker and allows more possessions, or better chances at getting the rebound. Bottom line is watching NBA these days is largely watching 3-point shots hit off the rim.
This is the article with the charts showing shot selections over different eras, it goes through 2020, but I don't think the trend was reversed in recent seasons:
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/epic-visualization-of-every-nba-shot-taken-since-1997
I think the upward trend for 3-pointers is leading to NBA and college teams looking for players who have better accuracy, which will eventually lead to higher percentages on those shots. It's the same way NFL teams wanted kickers with better long-range accuracy, leading to many more successful 50+ yard field goals.
Thank you Mike for your ability to utilize mathematics to obtain comparable metrics! Archimedes would be very proud (although your proficiency with math is a clear sign of white supremacy, at least according to this mathematics professor and former Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan 🤭).
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/the-folly-of-woke-math/
wow, i read the article at your link - so bizarre.
the nation has worse numeracy than literacy - and this supposed 'educator' wants to amp up innumeracy.
'Oh, mighty gods, we, your humble servants, beseech you with fervent hearts.' free us from this lunacy.
"innumeracy" - thanks Bob for my favorite new word of 2025!
And yes, frightening to think this crazed thought comes out of the Dean of the School of Education at Eric's alma mater. I echo your prayer for reason to be restored!
From 1988 ... a voice in the wilderness at that time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innumeracy_(book)
Thanks Mike, a very interesting read. It is noteworthy that there is a great deal of attention to deficiency in reading and verbal comprehension, but very little if any on this equally important area of development and functioning. And, innumeracy is a darn cool word!
I forget now where I read it, but the two-point percentage is jacked up considerably by dunks and layups; when you look at the jump shots from 10 feet and out to the line, the percentage drops to the point that taking an 18-foot shot, say, is simply unwise.
Stop saying Shipley killed the Telnaes cartoon.
Bezos ordered him to kill that cartoon, most likely after Shipley sent it by email to Bezos for a comment on it & then got back the order.
Bezos has become extremely weird since he got together with his plastic surgery altered trophy girlfriend & seems to now spend 100% of his time, gallivanting around the world on his half billion dollar yacht, the only yacht that needs a $200 million support yacht to get anywhere. He seems to have little interest in the company he built & prefers to hang out with the worst of the world's Eurotrash.
Billionaires get weird, don't they? I kinda wish we could just send them out to fight the Parthians, the way the Romans got rid of Crassus.
I think the real point here is that it takes professional news people to run newspapers properly. Remember that the Post is the newspaper that broke open Watergate. Ben Bradlee bucked the establishment, fighting the United States government to do the right thing. Jeff Bezos is a businessman watching the bottom line. Republicans in Congress are fighting the tech giants over supposedly suppressing conservative speech and he doesn’t want another firefight on his hands. The reason given- story repetition-was so ridiculously inane that it made the editor look like an idiot, which makes me believe he took the fall for a higher up. Welcome to the modern world of journalism. Newspapers are dying and it’s more about survival than reporting the news. EZ may disagree with me and I know he’s in a better position to know than I am but it certainly looks that way.
Unpopular opinion: picky eaters will grow up to be ok.
Is that because it is okay for adults to be picky eaters?
It's OK for anyone to be a picky eater. It's not a moral failing. However, a picky eater must always be polite, and never say, "eww, I won't eat THAT!"
My wife and I have arrived at the view that, after reaching a certain age, people should not have to eat anything they don't like. And that's how we roll!
You just may be my hero.
I’ll throw something else in. I’m a very picky eater not by choice. As we have a number of senior citizens in this crowd, some will know what I am saying. For me it has become a choice between enjoying old eating habits and trying to stay healthy a little longer. Due to various medical conditions, the following are no nos for me- prime rib, banana splits, most dairy products(which eliminates cheeseburgers), alcohol, most soda, anything high in sugar content or sodium and pretty much anything that made eating enjoyable for me. It drives my family crazy at family events, trying to figure out what I can eat. I simply tell them to plan for everyone else and I’ll survive, even if I need to eat a bad food for one day. Please don’t suggest substitutes for what I listed. There is no substitute for a Dairy Queen banana split.
I've developed a better palate over time, but I was born picky. Forcing me to eat foods I really disliked often resulted in vomiting at the table, so my parents gave up. No banana splits for me. A tussle of wills between my father and me resulted in a most dramatic "rejection" of a banana. I can hardly bear to be in the same room with one. As I age, though i gradually give up stuff I like for my health. Mostly so far it's soda, alcohol and red meat.
You might not have intended it, but your reply gave me chuckles. I’m sure I’m not the only one that remembers mom’s admonition to clean your plate- or else! At my youth dinner table, there was no lesson on healthy or balanced meals. Mom worked hard to make the money to put the food on the table and went to great lengths to cook for us. So we were going to eat it- like it or not. To this day, there are foods I won’t eat for no other reason that I grew sick of them as a child. While I’m on the subject, I have not touched a bologna sandwich in decades. I attended Nansen Elementary on the far south side. If you lived less than a mile from school, you went home for lunch. My mother was an elementary teacher back when they didn’t make much and she was raising 6 kids. A lot of baloney(pun intended) was what she could afford. Every once in awhile, it might be peanut butter and jelly. After 8 years of bologna sandwiches almost every day, I graduated to the lunch cafeteria at Fenger High School and never again ate a bologna sandwich, a practice continued to this day.
No bologna for me, but I studied in Italy, and acquired a taste for mortadella (imported only!).
Hot dog toppings should also be off limits for unpopular opinions.
please explain why.
It has been done over and over in other media. It is a tired topic at this point.
Crystal ball: Are people really afraid to make predictions that are wrong? aka people afraid to share their opinions? Not these days! Political Cartoons: for the most part - are amazing pieces of cultural perspective. (I love Stantis) They are funny and poignant - because humor always has a little truth behind it. WaPo - grow a pair. I guess the toon needs an update - WaPo on lower rung kissing Bezos' cheek. Organs: I agree with the statement and idea - but if I had to choose - I selected 'No.' Ideas are great until you put ideas and greater good into the hands of the government to oversee. CPS: Strike They are not going to have the easy roll with Johnson. He's building walls and opposition despite his 'many collaborative' projects. 3 Point Shot: Is the new 'chicks love the long ball" of sports. (Wow - peach basket reference) Unpopular Opinions: I think we should stick to the mundane on topics. (Butter: Counter or fridge/Cheddar vs Colby/ Beer v IPA v Wine/ Street names vs Honorary street names/ Babies Cute or polite cute LOL)
It used to be only one Ramirez cartoon a year was actually funny. He's up to maybe three a year now.
So something of an improvement!
“Collaborative” is a word that I will forever associate with Mr. Johnson.
well, he does "collaborate" with Stacy Gates Davis, well actually, she gives him an order & he follows it.
Not sure what this comment might apply in todays Sentinel, but I am having a difficult time accepting the fact that a person who was responsible for January 6, 2021 will soon become the President again. Forget the convictions, his narcissism and other disgusting personality traits. That should not have been allowed to happen.
And now with all the moneyed people genuflecting to him, I am truly concerned where this country is going.
100% of the blame goes to that most incompetent attorney general in history, the useless & feckless Merrick Garland.
He never got out of the mode of an impartial judge, instead of realizing he was the chief prosecutor of the United States.
Biden should've fired that fool on March 1, 2021 for not indicting the fat traitor for sedition & causing the insurrection.
Because he definitely would've been convicted on those charges & then absolutely banned from the ballot by the 14th Amendment.
And we need another amendment to the Constitution that that flat out bans anyone with a felony conviction from any elected, appointive or civil service in any federal or state jobs!
This amendment would be the perfect tool to stop resistance parties in their cribs. MLK and Nelson Mandela were politically harassed by the dominant parties.
MLK never ran for any office & Mandela's convictions were overturned when the SA government changed.
Garry, this sounds very much like you wanted (at least under Biden) a "weaponized" DOJ. Biden himself said this past weekend he wished Garland would have gone after Trump more (apparently all those trials in other jurisdictions weren't enough). So ... what I'm taking from such comments as these is that when Democrats weaponize law enforcement it's peachy; if Trump does something similar you'll howl.
This is somewhat similar to Dems wanting to kill the filibuster in October but are warning against this now. (I personally say, Keep the Filibuster!)
Indicting an obvious criminal like the fat orange traitor, seditionist & insurrectionist isn't a "weaponized DOJ", that a DOJ just doing its job properly, which it totally failed at!
OK, but millions of others do NOT regard him as an obvious criminal!
They are fools & utter morons!
Without using inflammatory language about Merrick Garland, I think it is fair to say that he took too long to appoint the special counsel and that, if the very competent Jack Smith had started months earlier, he would have been better positioned to counter Agent Orange's deny/delay/attack strategy and have him face justice in the open and shut cases that he will lay out in his reports, which I believe Judge Garland should release.
Jack Smith was not competent. A competent prosecutor would've charged him with the theft of the top secret documents in DC, where they were stolen from, not in Palm Beach where they were stored!
The DOJ seemed to reject what we all were seeing — a post Jan 6 MAGA did not dissolve in shame and open the playing field for Garland and Smith to be meticulous. The GOP knew that their folks were legally exposed (on tape, film, phone records, etc) so they re-gathered to deny, delay, work their sympathetic judges, and attack every prosecutorial effort. I have no ability to judge the competence of federal prosecutors, but it sure as hell looked like they refused to engage fully the unseemly tactics of their opponents, and that was ballgame.
In regard to the issue of too many 3-pointers, I have not seen any reasonable suggestions for improving the game of basketball, so here is my goofy suggestion: Reverse it and make the 3-pointer a 2-pointer and the 2-pointer a 3-pointer.
And to that I would add, raise the baskets another foot to put an end to all the showboat dunking which is not what basketball was supposed to be about.
Also, what about moving the 3 point line farther way, which would reduce the number of attempts.
Just call traveling and palming (carrying) the basketball - make it a pass-heavy, team game again.
Yes! So maddening to see LeBron repeatedly take 4 or even 5 steps through the lane and never hear a whistle. I would pay big money to see the look on his face if it was called even once!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9xngLouSwK/?igsh=MXVqdTFyNHEzbm11cQ==
Hah - that is a fabulous vid of how he blatantly violates the rule...and is never called for it! I would love to see the commissioner asked why they have a rule that is rarely enforced against some players
i would restrict the 3-pt shot to the last 2:00 of a game. or move the 3-pt line out to 30'
FWIW, the system of everyone is included in organ donation unless opting out has been discussed at UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit scientific organization that administers the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network). Their current view is that we would actually have lower donation rates with that approach in the U.S. although it is used in some countries. I know this because my sis-in-law is Director of an organ transplant division of a NY hospital and has served on many UNOS committees. I'm fortunate to have had lots of interesting conversations about the subject.
I’m surprised at the number of “the government doesn’t own my body” (i.e., the big, bad gubment) argument against using organs for transplant. Most transplant programs are at nonprofit university hospitals with some in for profit health systems, although the VA does do some transplants. That’s just not an argument I would have expected against the opt-in or opt-out approach. Which makes me want to know — What is a non-religious argument against allowing one's organs to used by another after your death?
Oh, and the most important poll question I’d like to see is, Has everyone reading this blog considered organ donation and conveyed their wishes to all their family members? If not, why the hell not?
Since my very first driver's license I've listed "organ donor" on it because if someone can benefit from my worn-out organs after I'm gone, then why not? Although I do recall this bit from Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp-pU8TFsg0
"Me too".. Though I don't expect a lot of takers for my worn-out parts.
They can use your bones, your skin, all kinds of things you might never guess. A friend's had several spinal surgeries and the screws would always come out of his ribs quickly. When the surgeon tried using cadaver bone dust in the super glue used to help hold the screws in the bones, the screws didn't come out. Cadaver bone saved that kid (now adult, 30 years on) from repeated unsuccessful surgeries for a severe spinal malformation. Same screws still holding today.
Looove Monty Python. The kicker is, now live donations of livers is a really common thing (and done by real doctors ;-). They just need to take a piece of your liver and it will grow back in you and the piece will grow a whole new liver in the person who needs it!
FYI
"The field of organ donation and transplantation is well regulated. Both state and federal laws and regulations provide a safe and fair system for allocation, distribution, and transplantation of donated organs."
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is the federal agency that oversees the organ transplant system in the United States.
Yes, I just wasn't thinking that most people are really thinking about the HSRA if they even know that's the part of HHS that oversees the transplant network.
A non-religious argument would be that someone with a misanthropic streak just might not want their organs to be used to sustain other people, or certain types of people. For example, I know a few people who have made clear that they would never want any of their organs to go into the body of a Trump supporter (or, as they usually refer to them, a “MAGA”). It seems ridiculous and petulant to me, but hey, whatever.
If strings could be attached like that you would get some Cubs fans stipulating that their organs could only go to another Cubs fan
I'm not sure I understand the religious arguments. If you go blind or lose an arm or leg in this life, are they missing in the afterlife?
The Catholics: "Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent (no. 2296). Pope John Paul II vigorously affirmed that a beautiful act expressing the culture of life “is the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes have no other hope” (“Evangelium Vitae,” No. 86)."
It's interesting that's the Church's position on organ donation while they vehemently oppose Medical Aid In Dying that would allow a person to go out on one's own terms and possibly leave many organs for life-saving use in others.
“What is a non-religious argument against allowing one's organs to used by another after your death?”
No argument against anyone directing that their bodies be donated. But they cannot be confiscated for public use without just compensation.
Like the Fed would write a check to the corpse??? - Compensation would be appropriate if the organ were removed while the person was still using it.
The person who dies has no further use for their liver or kidney or corneas. Maybe someone else could benefit.
no one's body - or corpse - shd belong to the govt, w/o just compensation. i think de jure harvesting of organs from the dead, whcih would constitute a 'taking', w/o compensation, is wrong.
i defer to experts in the US constitution to opine on whether this would qualify as a taking, and how to remedy or obviate the taking. i personally would support agreed compensation with the next of kin.
how much is an organ worth? Outside of Iran, it is illegal to buy or sell organs. But in the good old USA, if you have the means, there is nothing stopping you from "gifting" someone $19K in late December (say on Christmas) and then another $19K on New Year's Day.
And what a coincidence, you are having a Kidney transplant in mid-January!
My sister tragically lost her adult son to a cerebral aneurysm. She signed a consent for his organs to be harvested for transplant, but said that it was emotionally very difficult to wait a couple more days to receive his body for burial while it was being done. She later received word from the recipient of his corneas, and she found that very comforting.
While I am philosophically a staunch proponent of freedom and individual choice in matters pertaining to one's self, It is nothing short of a travesty and a national disgrace that seriously ill people who could be helped by organ transplant wait many years or perhaps never receive an organ, while millions of healthy organs are either cremated or embalmed and put into the ground every year. We should have a national opt-out policy, instead of the opt-in that many of us currently do. This infringement on personal freedom would be vastly outweighed by the immense difference it would make in so many lives.
sorry, david, i have to disagree with you on this.
i agree that there are not enough donated organs; and the current model for managing donations and transplants is a travesty.
but the problem, as i see it, is bad govt - and the fix is not more govt. [see the link i posted in another response to this topic in this issue of the PS]
i recommend an optional compensation structure for both living donors and corpses [i.e., compensation to next of kin].
would this create problems, incl'g unforeseen consequences? sure. but i'd guess the problems would be no worse than the current situation for organ donation.
UNOS is a govt creation and a disaster for organ donation and transplants. check out https://reason.com/podcast/2024/09/26/why-we-cant-have-nice-things-the-case-of-the-17000-missing-kidneys/
Unpopular opinion: grilling is overrated. Possibly because I've cut back on meat, or possibly because my path between the kitchen and the patio is bit more complicated than just opening a sliding door. The taste can be uniquely great, but not always superior. A burger in an iron skillet is best IMO, for example. Overall, the prep, running back & forth, smoke, timing, cleaning, etc. tends to not quite be worth it. Then there are the cancer concerns with charred foods. I'll continue to grill every so often in the summer, but it's not something I go crazy over.
I enjoy grilling for its convenience, the ease of cleanup, and the pleasure of standing out on the deck enjoying a beer (good weather of course). I also dislike the stale smell in the kitchen an hour or so after cooking a burger or steak in the skillet on the stove. When grilling a steak, I put the skillet in the grill.
It seems the inconvenience of your grilling setup is the big issue.
I agree with Ken - most of what I grill (fish, veggies, bacon) is because it’s easier and faster, especially the cleanup.
No doubt grilling has advantages, and improved prep / routine / technique would help the cause. Like golf (also overrated, ha). I've just never been in sync with the popularity. There's a very popular restaurant in our neighborhood where everything on the menu tastes smoky, including the desserts. Not our favorite.
Good one!
you're killin' me, ted! i love grilling, and grilled food. and i still grill almost exclusively with charcoal [note, i live out in the woods, so the trees are soaking up all the carbon i emit from grilling]
but i also know, there's no accounting for taste.
Neapolitan-style pizza is my favorite. Billy Bricks Wood Fired Pizza in Oak Park makes them. Yummy! And when my sister and I were palling around in Europe last May, there were a lot of places that had Neapolitan pizza on the menu. I think the crust is tastier, and I don’t feel as full and sluggish after a meal of Neapolitan pizza as I do after a meal of other kinds of pizza.
Quality of crust is huge. If you ever travel through Atlanta, Verrasanos pizza in concourse A is the real deal
For all you Neapolitan-style pizza lovers out there, especially those actually in Chicago and not the suburbs -- have you tried https://www.spaccanapolipizzeria.com on Sunnyside? A former colleague introduced me to it and now our whole family quite enjoys it.
Great spot. It has been a long time since I have been there. I hear it is hard to get into now.
We certainly have had to wait before. But ... except for maybe once, the wait hasn't been too long. I think that pizza is the first one I ever had sausage on where I said to myself, "Hey, sausage on pizza can be good!" Truth be told, it's probably still the only one!
i've been to spacca napoli several times - great recommendation!😋
Possible topics: artificial vs real Christmas trees.
Travel is just another form of conspicuous consumption--and your reusable grocery bags don't begin to make up for the environmental cost.
We ought to reinstate Sunday blue laws so everyone gets a day off work.
I've been using reusable shopping bags, most of them over 20 years old now, since Trader Joe started selling them in California. I can't believe that is more costly to the environment than paper or the disposable plastic ones (which I reuse for trash)
I would say that real Christmas trees are preferable to artificial ones, but with the caveat that one should always be prepared to pay more for a nice one. My mother used to always skimp and then we’d be stuck with having to festoon these emaciated twigs. It’s not like we couldn’t afford a nicer one, she was just a cheapskate. Come on, Christmas only comes once a year!
I think of conspicuous consumption as the showcasing of status symbols that advertise one’s affluence, and while travelling can serve that purpose, I think that it’s a bit different in that it affords a kind of fulfillment that’s less purely superficial than say, flaunting a Bentley or a diamond ring or a designer purse.
I’m with you on blue laws. I grew up near South Holland, which used to have them, and while most people thought that they were a bit silly, they did have their charm. In a small way, they helped edify a kind of ethos that said that communities were about something more than just being full time, 24/7 consumerist zombies.
No one is more surprised than me for agreeing with Stacey Davis Gates but ... your talk of "bringing the wood"? Really? I had to look it up (a football metaphor. So manly of you!) could have been phrased countless other ways -- even on X.
Of course her response to this was over the top as no one would seriously read it as a physical threat, but the phrase is from football, with the meaning of a "forceful takedown" and is testosterone-filled. Surely an experienced journalist could be just as pointed but less childish.
“Bringing the wood” is a metaphor beyond a football reference. Careful EZ…
I think it's important to note that I DESCRIBED what Paris Schutz did, I did not URGE him or anyone else to do anything. Her response was as though I'd written, "Please bring the wood to SDG" and it was actually unclear to her that I meant rhetorically. It wasn't. She is just looking for a greivance.
This is not a new tactic for her -- so why play into it? Find another metaphor that doesn't (clearly to me) have an undercurrent of violence.
With book banning in vogue,criminalization of medically recommended abortion and the results of the most recent presidential election, I find total agreement with the Republican party’s stance: that America’s educational system has failed.
Here is what Stacey Gates doesn't get. Well actually there's more than one thing, but here's my primary issue. Politicians, which is what Gates is, spend too much time blowing smoke to obscure real issues. Trump is an expert at that. Gates is making it a personal thing over things the reporter didn't say. That's a personal favorite of politics. Attack something that no one said and try to appear to be correct. MAGAs are expert at that. Instead of worrying over what a politician didn't say, she should worry over making pie in the sky demands. I am a retired teacher. A librarian, music teacher, nurse, social worker, and others in every building would be nice. CPS is also not fulfilling special education mandates because finding qualified people that want to work in CPS is next to impossible. I have two questions. In a district that has been proven to not know where the money is or watching it stolen, how do we know it would be wisely spent? Second question is where it would come from. If they want to to go on strike, let them. A strike will not make money magically appear. Her answer is to tax everything and everyone in sight. Even if that were done, which would cause a lot of people and businesses to leave, what guarantee is there that it would go to schools? Chicago doesn't need money for anything else? Pensions are millions behind. Police hiring is behind. The fire department wants more ambulances and crews. More affordable housing is needed. So Stacey, stick to real issues that can actually be fixed like getting kids to school and teaching them to read, write, and do math.
Well put Lawrence
Eric, may I add another thought that to my knowledge has not been raised in Chicago by...anyone... since Katen Lewis started breaking norms.
It is this.
FDR explicitly did not support unions for government employees.
Full stop.
For obvious reasons we are seeing in full display.
Because CTU is now negotiating with an unfair ADVANTAGE of being able to directly lobby voters (parents and teachers) who do NOT represent the 80% of taxpayers who do not have children in CPS but pay the bills.
(Quick aside: have any of you noticed CTU references "students" and "parents" exclusively and never "citizens" or "taxpayers'?
So the majority of voters are supposed to have no say apparently?
If CTU wants "private education", just say so and most of us would love the property tax cut.)
Gates is not negotiating with the CPS CEO. She is not.
She is negotiating with Chicago taxpayers' elected representatives and denies the legitimate role of elected and nominated leaders in "representative" democracy.
Rahm was not "rogue." Nor was Lightfoot. They were elected. Gates was not. Brandon won because of classic backroom deals between unions.
Because every public worker union has taken to making it personal with the "enemy mayor' every single time contracts come up.
rather than maybe compromise with the taxpayers whom they clearly are terrified of upsetting. A $110,000 annual "average" teacher salary is nuts. Don't believe me? Put the question on the next ballot.
Even better, let the 80% of taxpayers who are not supposed to weigh in instead march on Gates' home as CTU routinely does. See rhe reaction from Gates
Now Gates and Brandon cannot wait a few weeks for the elected school board they demanded?
Why exactly? Because they are a union posing as a political party.
If FDR is not liberal enough for CTU, God help us all.
Be a union CTU.
You have zero business in public policy.
The fact you are afraid of your own monster - an elected school board - should be enough proof you have gone way to far from what the voters want in this negotiation.
I appreciate your praise of my comments. I can’t go along with everything in your reply. FDR was from another era. Unions were still developing and people were still used to the idea that bosses could pay whatever they wanted. It didn’t work very well for women or minorities. I have no problem with workers organizing for the purpose of bargaining. As far as I’m concerned, both CPS and CTU are special cases that I never personally experienced in all my years as a teacher. The average salary might seem a tad high. Pretty remember that most teachers, except for hard to fill fields, are required to live in the city. Chicago is expensive and getting more so all the time. My contention is that the CTU is making unrealistic demands. She’s trying to use the PR machine to make CPS look the bad guys to hide the unrealistic demands. CPS is between a rock and a hard place. Past leadership has dug a hole deep enough to sink the system. Educating inner city kids is tough enough without CPS and CTU trying to cannibalize each other. CTU should recognize these difficulties and work with the city to recognize the difficulties and work together to come up with solutions that are possible and practical. But CTU doesn’t seem to realize that certain things are just not going to happen, no matter how loud Gates screams or makes it personal. There are investment and ratings services that claim that without major changes, the city is not that far from bankruptcy. What does Gates then think will happen to CPS?
i agree, there shd be no public employee unions. or perhaps a more moderate response - allow public employee unions; but do not allow them to strike; and do not allow them to bargain over wages or benefits - only working conditions.
the difference in the collective bargaining of unions with for-profit vs govt employer is that the for-profit employer can go bankrupt, if mgmt foolishly caves to fiscal demands over time. govt entities rarely go bankrupt - the bad ones tax and spend themselves into fiscal morass over time - with the 'help' of their unions.