Chicago Got a Very Bad Haircut Last Night

                                                 

Q. What's the difference between Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle?
A.  7,856 Votes

Q. What's the difference between a very bad haircut and a return to some semblance of good grooming?
A. Two Weeks.


Wow.  Two stunning mediocrities will face-off in April with the winner set to close Chicago down altogether,  Talk about a bad hair day.

I was surprised to see Lori Lightfoot best Toni Preckwinkle.  SEIU won that one for Ms. Lightfoot and will allow the idiotic editorial board of SEIU's Sun Times and its cut and paste columnists to crow over a landmark defeat of the really idiotic Chicago Tribune and its help in Bill Daley's attempted hostile take-over of Chicago.

Credit is due to the Purple T-Shirts and not the ink-slinging four-flushers of that daily rag.

Toni Preckwinkle, the humorless former Mrs. Zeus and County Board Boss, will go scorched earth on Ms. Lightfoot these next few weeks and her army of patronage workers will feel the lash for coming up short last night.

Chicago?  Chicago screws itself every election.

Chicago will not recover, but the oligarchs who make millions from the Liberal Gentry Culture here will make millions more in real estate and government set-asides.

The gap between Rich and Poor is closed.

The Middle Class ( the Skilled Trades Members, City Employees, Small Business People) , which is to blame for this situation, truth be told,  is vanished.



Note this telling graphic lifted from Second City Cop (on election day ironically enough) which notes the middle class going the way of the  aboriginal Illinois Confederation.
The Orange represents the poor and the blue represents the rich.  The lighter colors are the middle class of Chicago, which has all but disappeared, since I graduated from Little Flower High School in Auburn Gresham,

I am moving to a south suburb, after twenty years in Morgan Park of the 19th Ward,

Two of my children rent in Chicago and one owns a home just across the street from Chicago.  God help them.

I loved growing up in Chicago.  I got great haircuts from Max Esposito in his shop at Marshfield and 79th Street, next to Billy Ellis' Wooden House.  Max Esposito was an exacting and serious barber, but his shop had no comic books.  


Mac the Barber/Bookie had every DC issue of Batman and Superman, as well as sexy calendars, but haircuts were often given by gamblers, while Mac made book calls in the back.  My folks knew immediately where I had gone for a haircut.

Chicago has opted for Mac haircuts these last twenty years (Daley/Rahm & Whoever).  Last night was the worst chop of all.

We can celebrate that an African American Woman ( one openly LGBTQRSTUNVWXYZ) and Chicago will. . . .ad nauseam. 

Can we celebrate a bad haircut for the next four + years?

We will.

Hey, Chicago!  I see YOUR barber has a great sense of humor!

Leo High School Boxers to Meet George Foreman and The Big Shoulders of Chicago

The Big Shoulders Fund of Chicago has boosted thousands of inner city kids up through the financial ropes and put them toe-to-toe with success in Catholic Schools. You can not get into the ring without some help.

The Big Shoulders Fund was started by a 79th Street guy by the name of James O'Connor. Jim O'Connor was the CEO of ComEd, when it did not hammer citizens with utility bills. Jim O'Connor was the man who built the nuclear power plants that generated cheap, affordable power to Illinois citizens in Chicago and northern suburbs. Jim O'Connor wanted kids from 79th Street, 63rd Street, 55th Street, along Archer Ave., North Ave., Milwaukee Ave., and Irving Park Road to have the opportunity to attend Catholic Schools. Catholic Schools prepared Jim O'Connor to become a successful, caring and giving citizen.

The Big Shoulders Fund works year round to scare up funds, assist schools with budgeting plans, leadership plans and operational efficiency. The Big Shoulders Fund is the cut-man for the Office of Catholic Schools.

Tonight, the Leo Boxing Team will attend a dinner honoring George Foreman and the George Foreman Foundation at Harry Caray's restaurant. Most of our boxers have never been to Harry Caray's. In fact, many of these kids never really see much of Chicago beyond the few square miles that comprise their neighborhoods and Leo High School.

Leo High School is on 79th Street a few blocks east of Jim O'Connor's boyhood home on Marshfield Street. Jim O'Connor knows Leo High School. The Big Shoulders Fund has helped Leo families meet the costs of an education at this school, since the early 1990's. Thanks to that commitment and support, Leo High School makes a difference in the lives of young men. One method of life preparation outside of the classroom is the Boxing Room on the school's second floor. This facility was built with the help from State Representative Mary Flowers, Irish Boxing Trainers Martin and Oliver McGarry, Mexican American Middleweight and contractor JC Gutierrez and attorney, Leo Alumnus, Advisory Board Member, Hall of Fame Inductee and Leo Man of the Year 2011 Mike Joyce.

Since 1999, Mike Joyce has trained Leo High School boxers to fight in the methods developed by Constantine "Cos" D'Amato -the peek-a-boo approach style of boxing, where the hands are placed in front of the boxers face for more protection.

Protect yourself in the ring and in life. Cos D'Amato trained Floyd Paterson,Jose Torres and Mike Tyson. Mike Joyce trained thirteen Golden Gloves champions, the captain of Team USA, Lamar Fenner and Superheavyweight Thomas Hayes. Leo Boxers also became the scholar/athletes any school would envy. Boxer Eder Cruz is Leo's 2011 Gates Millennium Scholar.

A man who came from a tough environment, boxed for America and won the Gold Medal in Mexico at 1968 Olympics, and won two Heavyweight Championships, turned his life over to Christ and helped others develop the life worth living - a life of giving.

George Foreman has the shoulders to match the Big Shoulders Fund and those of Jim O'Connor. Tonight ten Leo Boxers will have the opportunity share their life stories with people who know what life is all about - James O'Connor and George Foreman.

Guinness at 250! Tom Jones Shares a Pint of Plain with the Planet!

Guinness*, when I was a stripling, was swallowed by the Turkey Birds - F.B.I. -Foreign Born Irish - Two Boaters, Salt Water Irish - in my neighborhood. That meant the saloons where Kerrymen, Corkwegians, Sons of Mayo, Galway Culchies and Tipperarymen took the black bottled stuff with the harp on the label to wash down the shooters of Paddy and John Powers Irish Whiskey.

On 79th Street those saloons usually meant Hanley's House of Happiness or the Mayfair West. On 63rd Street it might be at TJ Daly's Blarney Stone, The Gaslight, Mary Coffey's California Tap, Mike Doorhy's, the Hibernian Hall ( JFK Post) or Lyons' Pub. Guinness came only in bottles back in the 1950's, '60's and it was only in the 1970's draft Guinness hit the Chicago pavements -coming and going.

My Dad and all my uncles drank Drewey's, Hamms, Schlitz and Atlas Prager beers to go with their 'bumps' of Calverts, Sunnybrook, Canadian Club, and Seagram's 7 whiskies at places like Louis Kotecki's, Funks, the Mirror Lounge, B & H's, Shannon's, Mel Collins' Sea-Breeze, Castos, Billy Ellis's Wooden House on 79th & Ashland. They and their neighbors were Americans - veterans of WW II, union men, Peoples Gas officers, Chicago cops and foremen, Park District coppers, Catholic League teachers and coaches and City workers. Though Irish American they did not drink with their cousins from off the boat.

"Guinness? That crap would gag a maggot. Tastes like Australian butter." were the general opinions of the first generation Americans of Irish descent who avoided the Ceili's at Cannon Hall and the 'buckets of blood' where the Salt Water Harps tossed one another through windows, doors and at times into the arms of St. Peter.

I had my first taste of Guinness in the basement of Grandpa Hickey's basement when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I was offered the black beer by one of the Kerry musicians who played traditional jigs, reels, horn-pipes and polkas with my grandfather.

I thought the stuff was great. I did not get another swallow of the stuff until I tended bar on the Irish Strip -63rd Street between Pulaski and Damen in the 1970's.

In words of the Chicago Renaissance Man and Discerning Pintman Mike Houlihan - "I got me a touch of the Irish Arthritis - I get stiff in a different joint every night!"

It is wonderful.

Ireland celebrated the 250 years of Guinness and had no less a pintsman than Welsh genius Tom Jones lift the black glass! Croi follain agus gob fliuch!

Ta Breiss Agus Fiuntas In Guinnesss! Slainte!


*MY GOODNESS, my Guinness, what a party. As birthdays go, yesterday’s celebration of 250 years of Ireland’s most famous export was brash and bold, as big and global as the brand itself.

You sense Arthur Guinness, the man whose ambition started it all in 1759, would have approved. The pint of plain got the expected rousing toast from thousands of VIPs who gathered in the St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin last night to mark the day.

Click my post title for the Full Pint!

Coalition of Old Greasers Calls for Counter Protest to Protest Called by Radicals Protesting Police '68 Reunion

A Coalition of Old Greaser Gangs is Settin' a Meet-up with Don Rose and his Aging Cupcakes!

Cadillac Commie with Bad Buckers 'PROVOKES' an Illinois National Guardsman-not Dick Butkus for this Dental Challenged but Earnest Revolutionary.

You say want a Coalition, well You know . . .

Here they come - from all over, by over there, near the tracks and the viaducts, where the streetcar turns the bend around.

THE REBELS: 47th Street and Ashland;63RD STREET IMPERIALS; 63rd STREET BEER CLUB;
V's: They hung around behind Gage Park High School.
69th STREET LOAFERS: Mostly Italian from 69th and Hermitage:DUKES OF HERMITAGE.
Hung around Hermitage Park and 59th and Hermitage:SAWYER BOYS: They hung at Sawyer school at 53rd and Sawyer;WHIPPLE STREET BOYS;ARTESIAN COBRAS: (a greaser gang who evolved from the 59 Street Supreme rulers, and most of whom were weightlifting fanatics) issued a statement concerning the call by Food Critic, Public Relations Maven and Later-day Kropotkin Don Rose to protest a planned reunion of septuagenarian and octogenarian Chicago Police Veterans in celebration of their Service and Protection of Chicago during the attempted coup by Cadillac Commie Cupcakes at the Democratic Convention:

From ABC Seven ( Andy Shaw Free Since 2008)-

June 23, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A police watchdog group says it will march in protest of a planned reunion of Chicago officers who worked during the 1968 Democratic convention.
The Chicago convention was marked by protests and violence. The group Chicago Copwatch says the planned reunion celebrates police violence against demonstrators. They plan to march this Friday, June 26, - the same day of the scheduled Chicago riot police reunion. They also delivered a letter to the mayor's office asking him to condemn the reunion.
"These were unprovoked assaults by the police on several occasions in Grant Park, on Michigan Avenue," said Don Rose, activist.
"The Chicago Police Department, the City of Chicago, broke the laws they were obligated to uphold," said Patricia Hill, African American Police League.

Chicago Greaser and Street-corner Guy* Coalition Spokesguy Niti Capone, III had this to say, " These Fruits came around the park over by the viaduct on Ashland and tried to get Vinny, Me and the Three Parisi Brothers to come downtown and help them toss 7-Up bottles of Pee and Irish Confetti at the Bulls, but we done that already and there was 16" Ball-game at Sherman Park with Slinky Ryan from Wood Streets and those Micks what live south of the tracks, across from Our Lady A Mount Carmel and all go to Leo, but their sissies what go to Big Weed (Little Flower H.S.), like this skinny little turd name Hickey who goes to all our dances and ain't too much of a damn pest, because he's tight with Tony DiPolito and the Vasi Brothers. We go to Harper and Hubbard and Parker, but we go to Church and all.

So, this Fruit** in the Dickie and Tweed and Beatle Boots says that they gonna bring Revolution! We start yankin' his pud! Then he gets his panty-hose bloated and cracks wise and Larry with the three fingers from Murray Park gives him a crack because Larry's brother is in Vietnam fightin' the Chinese Reds.

The Fruit near pee'd his cords - wearin' cords in July - and cries, 'We're Your Brothers! Off The Pigs!' and Larry gives him another crack. Then the other Fruits in the Volkswagon, we all drive Chevies, and its gots these plastic wallpaper flowers for Peace, start bawling so we swarm them and take a tire iron to the hood, which is the trunk of those Fag Wagons. We're all frisky on Sneaky Pete's ( Tall Schlitz with Ripple Red poured in) and got the giggles over these Room 222 Fags. We toss our lit Luckies into the Hitler Bug and they all start cryin' like little bitches.

We crack the bunch of them and they're all cryin' about 'callin' the Cops' and We yell back -'Off The Pigs! Dude!' The Cops from Englewood always treated us Okay and Mr. Pape was a cop and his cousin ran the Little League. So we called a bunch of the guys that we used to bloody up in the parks and at the parties and Parish dances - the Polacks, Harps, Hunkies, Mex-es and Ricans - all great guys. I was in the Army for two years with a couple of Polack Gaylords from Back o' the Yards and two Psychos from Canaryville - lovely gents.

If you see that Mick runt Hickey, let him know that my cousin Emil ain't forgotten that he cut-in on a slow dance at VIZ with Trolly Manuppa and he still ain't real happy. You ain't that Hickey are you? Jesus, you was in shape what happened? Just kidding. No, really? Don't do pull-ups anymore?

Anyway, we called the old guys to come out and support the Old Cops. The Fruits are still fruits and hate America.

Yeah, we made some calls we'll be there to help the Old Time Coppers."

Click my post title for Chicago Stone Greasers - splendid historical record - no Kidding! The Photos for the south side gangs are the work of Chicago Historian and Photag Mr. Larry Raeder who grew up in the Sherman Park Hood. Mr. Rader has been an invaluable source of knowledge for Crime Biographer Rose Keefe and Historian Richard Lindberg.

* Greaser was an attitude - generally but not exclusively of Italian, Polish, Czech, Mexican. Puerto Rican ethnic origin
Street-Corner Guy was a person attuned to proximity to smokes, beer, Pop, eats, mischief - often Irish, Jewish, German, Belgian, and Swedish


** Fruit, Fag Sissy, Cupcake, Shirley & etc ( archaic - Pre -PC) - generally a person of whom one has slight regard and middling concern due to aura of Self-absorption, infidelity and poor or unacceptable habits of dress and coiffure.

"Mr. Foster and Leo were there for me when I needed it, and I made up my mind then and there that I'm going to be here for Leo kids." - Leo's Cannon

2004 Class A Champions Leo High School coached by Leo Man Noah Cannon - That's Frank Clair who went on to Star at Loyola University! Did I mention that I wrote a book about Leo High School? Dan McGrath Leo '68 could write rings around me with Flu, Elephantitis and a bum tooth on a bad day.


Chicago Tribune Sports Editor Dan McGrath ( Leo High School 1968) is the king of the declarative sentence. Today, Dan McGrath features Leo High School Basketball Coach Noah Cannon, as part of an on-going series dedicated to African American heroes.

Noah Cannon was following his usual routine that September morning in 1994: chocolate milk and a doughnut from Linda's Grocery on his way to senior-year classes at Leo High School, where he was the starting point guard.

Some neighborhood thugs had other ideas. They jumped Cannon as he left the store, demanding money, and his last memory of the confrontation is a whiskey bottle smashing into his head above his left ear. It nearly killed him.

Cannon staggered east on 79th Street, bleeding severely. A fellow student dashed into school to alert Bob Foster, then principal of Leo, who had the kid call for an ambulance while he tended to Cannon.

"The turning point in my life," Cannon says. "Mr. Foster and Leo were there for me when I needed it, and I made up my mind then and there that I'm going to be here for Leo kids."Cannon returned to Leo to teach history and help coach basketball after graduating from Elmhurst College. In 2003-04, his first season as head varsity coach, Leo won the Class A state title. Despite an all-male enrollment of less than 300, it's poised to make a run in 3A this season with a 19-2 record and the Catholic League North title.

Leo High School has a rich and active history of Courageous and Committed men and woman who give back to Life.

Dan McGrath is the best prose craftsman in American journalism - elegant, understated, honest, clear and accurate. Facta Non Verba!