A Bunch of Things You Might Or Might Not Have Known About Fred Chopin and George Sand, BUT Got Compiled Anyway So You How Smart I am

I hate lists.


I really hate lists.
Commies compile lists - for future exile or execution.



People who admire Commies imitate them and make them mainstream


Americans are too tolerant of Commies and the people who admire the Reds - they'll be sorry some day. Me? I'll be dead and long judged by God. God don't make lists.  He takes you individually.
The only guy who should make lists is Santa.




One Christmas I received the Book of Lists from three different people, who thought like millions of others that I would want to know about

• Famous Freemasons with flatulence 
• Whigs murdered on Christmas Day 1853
• Cumquat eaters of Connecticut
• Democrats who sneezed
• Popes who break-danced for Lorenzo Magnifico
• VD Victims of Cole Porter
• Hemingway's Beat-Downs by Better Writers

Likewise, I detest TOP TEN ( or any number)  Lists of anything.


Psychologists used to warn us about people who never recovered from potty-training - the anal retentive like the passive aggressive rules our world.


I go to restaurants and if the food is good and prices, as well as the service is good, I return for another meal.   Then, if asked by anyone, 'have a good meal anywhere?' I might mention the place.


People no longer tend to communicate with other people. They refer to pre-caste lists, or worse, go to an APP.


Why is it import to compile things like

• 866 things we know about Donald Trump's inner ear infections
• 5 Things We Do Not Know, But Will Guess about Race Relations in Cairo, IL
• 7 Explanations for Michael
• 9 Steps to Good Grooming That Do Not Involve Soap, Water and Alcohol

Santa is the only one who should continue to compile lists of any type.


Oh, by the way - Chopin dated George Sand for nine years and then died.


Here is a Lis. . . .catalog of Chopin's greatest works. That cat could tickle them 88s! Compiled by the good people of Wikipedia - I have no time for such nonsense . . .far too busy,

• Op. 10, 12 Études:

1. Étude in C major, Waterfall (1830)
2. Étude in A minor, Chromatic (1830)
3. Étude in E major, Tristesse, or L'adieu (1832)
4. Étude in C♯ minor, Torrent (1832)
5. Étude in G♭ major, Black Keys (1830)
6. Étude in E♭ minor, Lament (1830)
7. Étude in C major, Toccata (1832)
8. Étude in F major, Sunshine (1829)
9. Étude in F minor (1829)
10. Étude in A♭ major (1829)
11. Étude in E♭ major, Arpeggio (1829)
12. Étude in C minor, Revolutionary (1831)

• Op. 25, 12 Études:

1. Étude in A♭ major, Aeolian Harp, or Shepherd Boy (1836)
2. Étude in F minor, The Bees (1836)
3. Étude in F major, The Horseman (1836)
4. Étude in A minor (1832–1834)
5. Étude in E minor, Wrong Note (1832–1834)
6. Étude in G♯ minor, Thirds (1832–1834)
7. Étude in C♯ minor, Cello (1836)
8. Étude in D♭ major, Sixths (1832–1834)
9. Étude in G♭ major, Butterfly (1832–1834)
10. Étude in B minor, Octave (1832–1834)
11. Étude in A minor, Winter Wind (1834)
12. Étude in C minor, Ocean (1836)

• Trois nouvelles études (1839):

1. Étude in F minor
2. Étude in A♭ major
3. Étude in D♭ major

Impromptus[edit]

• Op. 29: Impromptu No. 1 in A♭ major (1837)
• Op. 36: Impromptu No. 2 in F♯ major (1839)
• Op. 51: Impromptu No. 3 in G♭ major (1843)

• Op. 66 (posth.): Fantaisie-Impromptu in C♯ minor (1834)

Mazurkas[edit]

Main article: Mazurkas (Chopin)

• Op. 6, Four Mazurkas (1830–32)

1. Mazurka in F♯ minor
2. Mazurka in C♯ minor
3. Mazurka in E major
4. Mazurka in E♭ minor

• Op. 7, Five Mazurkas (1830–32)

1. Mazurka in B♭ major
2. Mazurka in A minor (1829, revised 1830)
3. Mazurka in F minor
4. Mazurka in A♭ major (1824, revised 1830)
5. Mazurka in C major

• Op. 17, Four Mazurkas (1833)

1. Mazurka in B♭ major
2. Mazurka in E minor
3. Mazurka in A♭ major
4. Mazurka in A minor

• Op. 24, Four Mazurkas (1835)

1. Mazurka in G minor
2. Mazurka in C major
3. Mazurka in A♭ major
4. Mazurka in B♭ minor

• Op. 30, Four Mazurkas (1837)

1. Mazurka in C minor
2. Mazurka in B minor
3. Mazurka in D♭ major
4. Mazurka in C♯ minor

• Op. 33, Four Mazurkas (1838)

1. Mazurka in G♯ minor
2. Mazurka in D major
3. Mazurka in C major
4. Mazurka in B minor

• Op. 41, Four Mazurkas (1839–40)

1. Mazurka in C♯ minor
2. Mazurka in E minor
3. Mazurka in B major
4. Mazurka in A♭ major

• Mazurka in A minor (No. 50; "Notre Temps"; 1840; pub. 1841 in Six morceaux de salon, without Op. number; B. 134; KK IIb/4; S 2/4)

• Mazurka in A minor (No. 51; "Émile Gaillard"; 1840; pub. 1841 in Album de pianistes polonais, without Op. number; B. 140; KK IIb/5; S 2/5)

• Op. 50, Three Mazurkas (1842)

1. Mazurka in G major
2. Mazurka in A♭ major
3. Mazurka in C♯ minor

• Op. 56, Three Mazurkas (1844)

1. Mazurka in B major
2. Mazurka in C major
3. Mazurka in C minor

• Op. 59, Three Mazurkas (1845–46)

1. Mazurka in A minor
2. Mazurka in A♭ major
3. Mazurka in F♯ minor

• Op. 63, Three Mazurkas (1846-7)

1. Mazurka in B major
2. Mazurka in F minor
3. Mazurka in C♯ minor

Published in Poland during early years[edit]

• Two Mazurkas (unnumbered; 1826; pub. 1826, without an Op. number; B. 16, KK IIa/2-3, S 1, No. 2):
  • a. Mazurka in G major
  • b. Mazurka in B♭ major

With opus numbers[edit]

• Op. posth. 67, Four Mazurkas (Nos. 42-45; pub. 1855):

1. Mazurka in G major (1833)
2. Mazurka in G minor (1849)
3. Mazurka in C major (1835)
4. Mazurka in A minor (1846)

• Op. posth. 68, Four Mazurkas (Nos. 46-49; pub. 1855):

1. Mazurka in C major (1829)
2. Mazurka in A minor (1827)
3. Mazurka in F major (1829)
4. Mazurka in F minor (1849; Last composition)

Without opus numbers[edit]

• Mazurka in C major (1833; pub. 1870; B. 82; KK IVB/3; P 2/3)
• Mazurka in D major (1829; pub. 1875; B 31/71; KK IVa/7; P 1/7)
• Mazurka in B♭ major (1832; pub. 1909; B. 73; KK IVb/1; P 2/1)
• Mazurka in D major "Mazurek" (doubtful, 1820?; pub. 1910; B. 4; KK Anh Ia/1; A 1/1)
• Mazurka in A♭ major (1834; pub. 1930; B. 85; KK IVb/4; P 2/4)
• Mazurka in D major (1832; pub. ?; P 2/2)

Nocturnes[edit]

Main article: Nocturnes (Chopin)

• Op. 9, Three Nocturnes (1830–32):

1. Nocturne in B♭ minor
2. Nocturne in E♭ major
3. Nocturne in B major

• Op. 15, Three Nocturnes (1830–33):

1. Nocturne in F major
2. Nocturne in F♯ major
3. Nocturne in G minor

• Op. 27, Two Nocturnes (1835-6):

1. Nocturne in C♯ minor
2. Nocturne in D♭ major

• Op. 32, Two Nocturnes (1836–37):

1. Nocturne in B major
2. Nocturne in A♭ major

• Op. 37, Two Nocturnes (1838–40):

1. Nocturne in G minor
2. Nocturne in G major

• Op. 48, Two Nocturnes (1840–41):

1. Nocturne in C minor
2. Nocturne in F♯ minor

• Op. 55, Two Nocturnes (1843–44):

1. Nocturne in F minor
2. Nocturne in E♭ major

• Op. 62, Two Nocturnes (1846):

1. Nocturne in B major
2. Nocturne in E major

Posthumously published[edit]

With opus number[edit]

• Op. posth. 72 (No.2 and No.3 are works other than Nocturnes):

1. Nocturne in E minor (1827–29)

Without opus numbers[edit]

• P. 1/16: Nocturne in C♯ minor, Lento con gran espressione (1830)
• P. 2/8: Nocturne in C minor (1837)
• A. 1/6: Nocturne in C♯ minor (Nocturne oubliée) (spurious)

Polonaises[edit]

Main article: Polonaises (Chopin)

• Op. 26, Two Polonaises (1833–36)

1. Polonaise in C♯ minor
2. Polonaise in E♭ minor

• Op. 40, Two Polonaises (1838–40)

1. Polonaise in A major, Military
2. Polonaise in C minor, Funeral

• Op. 44: Polonaise in F♯ minor, Tragic (1840–41)
• Op. 53: Polonaise in A♭ major, Heroic or Drum (1842–43)
• Op. 61: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A♭ major (1846)

Published in Poland during early years[edit]

• KK IIa No. 1: Polonaise in G minor (1817; First composition)

Posthumously published[edit]

With opus numbers[edit]

• Op. posth. 71, Three Polonaises:

1. Polonaise in D minor (1825)
2. Polonaise in B♭ major (1828)
3. Polonaise in F minor (1828)

Without opus numbers[edit]

• KK IVa, Five Polonaises:

1. Polonaise in B♭ major (1817)
2. Polonaise in A♭ major (1821)
3. Polonaise in G♯ minor (1822)
4. Polonaise in B♭ minor, Adieu à Guillaume Kolberg (1826)
5. Polonaise in G♭ major (1829)

Preludes[edit]

Main article: Preludes (Chopin)

• Op. 28, 24 Preludes:

1. Prelude in C major (composed 1839)
2. Prelude in A minor (1838)
3. Prelude in G major (1838–1839)
4. Prelude in E minor (1838)
5. Prelude in D major (1838–1839)
6. Prelude in B minor (1838–1839)
7. Prelude in A major (1836)
8. Prelude in F♯ minor (1838–1839)
9. Prelude in E major (1838–1839)
10. Prelude in C♯ minor (1838–1839)
11. Prelude in B major (1838–1839)
12. Prelude in G♯ minor (1838–1839)
13. Prelude in F♯ major (1838–1839)
14. Prelude in E♭ minor (1838–1839)
15. Prelude in D♭ major, Raindrop (1838–1839)
16. Prelude in B♭ minor (1838–1839)
17. Prelude in A♭ major (1836)
18. Prelude in F minor (1838–1839)
19. Prelude in E♭ major (1838–1839)
20. Prelude in C minor, Chord or Funeral March (1838–1839)
21. Prelude in B♭ major (1838–1839)
22. Prelude in G minor (1838–1839)
23. Prelude in F major (1838–1839)
24. Prelude in D minor (1838–1839)

• Op. 45: Prelude in C♯ minor (1841)

Posthumously published[edit]

• P. 2/7: Prelude in A♭ major (1834, published 1918; ded. Pierre Wolff)
• A. 1/2: Prelude in F major
• Prelude in E♭ minor, Devil's Trill (recently found)

Rondos[edit]

• Op. 1: Rondo in C minor (1825; arr. piano 4-hands 1834)
• Op. 5: Rondo à la mazur in F major (1826)
• Op. 16: Rondo in E♭ major (1832)

Posthumously published[edit]

• Op. posth. 73: Rondo in C major for two pianos (1828; arr. piano solo 1840)

Scherzos[edit]

• Op. 20: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor (1831–35)
• Op. 31: Scherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor (1836–37)
• Op. 39: Scherzo No. 3 in C♯ minor (1839–40)
• Op. 54: Scherzo No. 4 in E major (1842–43)

Sonatas[edit]

Main article: Piano sonatas (Chopin)

• Op. 4 (posth.): Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor (1828; pub. 1851)
• Op. 35: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Funeral March (1839–40, Funeral March composed 1837)
• Op. 58: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor (1844–45)

Variations[edit]

Main article: Miscellaneous compositions (Chopin)

• Op. 12: Variations brillantes in B♭ major on "Je vends des scapulaires" from Hérold's Ludovic (1833)
• B. 113: Variation in E for Hexameron (1837; pub. 1839)

Posthumously published[edit]

• B.9: Variations in E for flute and piano on "Non più mesta" from Rossini's La Cenerentola, KK. Anh. Ia/5, (? 1824; pub. 1955) ^[1]
• KK. IVa/6: Introduction, Theme and Variations in D on a Venetian air, piano 4-hands (1826; pub 1965)
• B. 12a: Variations in D major or B minor on an Irish National Air (from Thomas Moore) for 2 pianos, P. 1/6 (1826)
• B. 14: Variations in E major on the air "Der Schweizerbub: Steh'auf, steh'auf o du Schweitzer Bub", a.k.a. Introduction et Variations sur un Lied allemand (1826; pub. 1851)
• B. 37: Variations in A, Souvenir de Paganini (1829; pub. 1881)

Lost[edit]

• KK. Ve/9: Variations, (January 1818)
• KK. Vb/2: Variations in F, piano 4-hands or 2 pianos (1826)
• KK. VIIa/3: Variations on a Ukrainian Dumka for violin and piano, by Antoni Radziwill, completed by Chopin (by June 1830)

Waltzes[edit]

Main article: Waltzes (Chopin)

• Op. 18: Grande valse brillante in E♭ major (1833)
• Op. 34, Trois grandes valses brillantes:

1. Waltz in A♭ major (1835)
2. Waltz in A minor (1831)
3. Waltz in F major (1838)

• Op. 42: Waltz in A♭ major (1840)
• Op. 64, Three Waltzes:

1. Waltz in D♭ major, Minute Waltz (1847)
2. Waltz in C♯ minor (1847)
3. Waltz in A♭ major (1840, some sources say 1847)

Posthumously published[edit]

With opus numbers[edit]

• 1852: Two Waltzes, Op. posth. 69:

1. Waltz in A♭ major, L'Adieu (1835)
2. Waltz in B minor (1829)

• 1855: Three Waltzes, Op. posth. 70:

1. Waltz in G♭ major (1832)
2. Waltz in F minor (1841)
3. Waltz in D♭ major (1829)

Without opus numbers[edit]

• 1868: Waltz in E minor (1830), B. 56, KK IVa/15, P. 1/15
• 1871–72: Waltz in E major, B. 44, KK IVa/12, P. 1/12
• 1902: Waltz in A♭ major, B. 21, KK IVa/13, P. 1/13
• 1902: Waltz in E♭ major, B. 46, KK IVa/14, P. 1/14
• 1955: Waltz in A minor (1843–1848), B. 150, KK IVb/11, P. 2/11
• 1955: Waltz in E♭ major (Sostenuto), B. 133, KK IVb/10 (not always classified as a waltz)
• 1932: Waltz in F♯ minor, Valse mélancolique, KK Ib/7, A. 1/7. Reattributed to Charles Mayer as Le Régret op. 332^[2]

Miscellaneous pieces for solo piano[edit]

Main article: Miscellaneous compositions (Chopin)

• Op. 19: Boléro in A minor (1833)
• Op. 22: Andante spianato in G major (1831–4)
• Op. 43: Tarantelle in A♭ major (1841)
• Op. 46: Allegro de Concert in A major (1832–41)
• Op. 49: Fantaisie in F minor (1841)
• Op. 57: Berceuse in D♭ major (1844)
• Op. 60: Barcarolle in F♯ major (1845–46)

Posthumously published[edit]

With opus numbers[edit]

• Op. posth. 72:

1. Nocturne in E minor (1827)
2. Marche funèbre in C minor (1827; B.20)
3. Three Écossaises (1826; B.12)
   1. Écossaise in D major
   2. Écossaise in G major
   3. Écossaise in D♭ major

Without opus numbers[edit]

• B. 17: Contredanse in G♭ major (doubtful) (1827)
• B. 84: Cantabile in B♭ major (1834)
• B. 109: Largo in E♭ major (1837)
• B. 117: Andantino in G minor (arr. of the piano part of the song Wiosna; 5 different MS exist) (1837)
• B. 129a: Canon in F minor (unfinished (1839))
• B. 133: Klavierstück in E♭ "Sostenuto" (1840; sometimes classified as a waltz)
• B. 144: Fugue in A minor (1841)
• B. 151: Album Leaf (Moderato) in E major (1843)
• B. 160b: 2 Bourrées (1846)
• P. 2/13: Galopp in A♭ (Galop Marquis) (1846)
• KK. Vb/1: Andante dolente in B♭ minor (lost)
• KK. Ve/3: Écossaise (? date; lost)
• KK. Vb/9: Écossaise in B♭ major (1827; lost)
• KK. VIIa/2: 3 Fugues (A minor, F major, D minor; arr. from Cherubini's Cours de contrepoint et de fugue)

Piano and orchestra[edit]

Concertos[edit]

• Op. 11: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor (composed 1830)
• Op. 21: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor (1829–1830)

Miscellaneous[edit]

• Op. 2: Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni, in B♭ major (1827)
• Op. 13: Fantasy on Polish Airs, in A major (1828)
• Op. 14: Rondo à la Krakowiak, in F major (1828)
• Op. 22: Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante, in E♭ major (1830–1831)^[3]

Cello and piano[edit]

• Op. 3: Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major (1829–1830)
• B. 70: Grand Duo concertant in E major (1832; written jointly with Auguste Franchomme)
• Op. 65: Cello Sonata in G minor (1845–46)

Violin, cello and piano[edit]

• Op. 8: Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in G minor (1830)

Voice and piano[edit]

Main article: Polish songs (Chopin)

Posthumously published[edit]

With opus numbers[edit]

• Op. posth. 74, 17 Songs (1829–1847; Polish)

1. "The Wish" ("Życzenie") (1829)
2. "Spring" ("Wiosna") (1838)
3. "The Sad River" ("Smutna Rzeka") (1831)
4. "Merrymaking" ("Hulanka") (1830)
5. "What She Likes" ("Gdzie lubi") (1829)
6. "Out of My Sight" ("Precz z moich oczu") (1830)
7. "The Messenger" ("Poseł") (1830)
8. "Handsome Lad" ("Śliczny chłopiec") (1841)
9. "From the Mountains, Where They Carried Heavy Crosses [Melody]" ("Z gór, gdzie dźwigali strasznych krzyżów brzemię [Melodia]") (1847)
10. "The Warrior" ("Wojak") (1830)
11. "The Double-End" ("Dwojaki koniec") (1845)
12. "My Darling" ("Moja pieszczotka") (1837)
13. "I Want What I Have Not" ("Nie ma czego trzeba") (1845)
14. "The Ring" ("Pierścień") (1836)
15. "The Bridegroom" ("Narzeczony") (1831)
16. "Lithuanian Song" ("Piosnka litewska") (1831)
17. "Leaves are Falling, Hymn from the Tomb" ("Śpiew z mogiłki") (1836)

Without opus numbers[edit]

• "Enchantment" ("Czary") (1830)
• "Reverie" ("Dumka") (1840)

Lost works[edit]

• Polonaise for piano, composed 1818. Presented by Chopin to the Empress Maria Teodorowna, mother of the Tsar, on the occasion of her visit to Warsaw on 26 September 1818.
• Variations for piano, composed 1818. Mentioned in the "Pamietnik Warzawski" of 1818
• Polonaise 'Barber of Seville' for piano, composed 1825/11. In 1825/11 Chopin wrote to Bialoblocki: "I have done a new Polonaise on the "Barber" which is fairly well liked. I think of sending it to be lithographed tomorrow."
• Variations for 2 pianos in F major, composed 1826. Listed by Louise Chopin
• Variations on an Irish National Air (from Thomas Moore) for 2 pianos, composed 1826. Stated to be "in D Major or B minor."
• Waltz for piano in C major, composed 1826.
• Andante dolente for piano in B♭ minor, composed 1827. Mentioned in the list of Louise Chopin
• Ecossaise for piano in B♭ major, composed 1827. Mentioned in the list of Louise Chopin.
• Waltz for piano in D minor, composed 1828. Given in Louise's list, with the date, and entitled (? by Louise) 'La partenza' ('The departure')
• Waltz for piano (supposedly) in A♭ major, composed 1830/12 (?).

The Old Ranger's Report from 50 Acres Park in Evergreen Park

Howdy, Folks, this is the Old Ranger bringing you our news from the Driving Range at 50 Acres Park in Evergreen Park, Illinois!

Well, Folks, the bucket blasters have been hitting farther down range, now that the weather has turned around -like a Kardashian spouse.

Why only yesterday, I was out at 5:45 AM riding the range on my trusty Kubota Public Works vehicle and learned that:

• Someone has been hitting all the way out to the 300 yard marker or there abouts.  There were at least two dozen white roundies all nestled in the tall grass
• Our Bucket Buyers ( $ 5 for small and $ 10 for a large) are Slicers and not Hookers.  Must have been several hundred Titleist pearls hugging the right side range net and I had to dismount the Kubota more times than my old back can tolerate - not complainin' mind you, just sayin'
• Beer is still $3 for Miller High Life, Miller Lite and $4 for Modelo
• We have Snickers, Skittles, M & Ms ( plain and peanut), Chips and Slim Jims for measly $1.00 each
• Hot dogs, chips and a can of Pepsi, Sprite or Water for $ 3.00.
• A crew of rangers, including yours truly, who serve your desires - Shucks Gino, Frank, Dan, Steve and me would come over and make you breakfast,  if Mayor Jim Sexton gave us the go -ahead.
• The Disc Golfers are thicker than flies on a used Slo-Poke left on a porch swing
• Dogs are having more fun than a teenage boy with two . . .paper routes
• Mr. Kevin Kelly ( Leo HS '70) inspected the facilities and questioned the Old Ranger about his get-up-and-go and that sassy hitch in his step

50 Acres Park is best out door fun on the south side.

Come on out; jaw with us Rangers; visit the horse barn;

hit some of that white range caviar out to the far markers; grab a beer and a pop at our umbrella shaded tables and have some vigorous and healthy exercise!  

Well, I must attach the big rake to my trusty Kubota and clean up the campus.  The Old Ranger needs to  see more of you, Folks!

See you all on the range at 50 Acres Park - 2701 West 91st Street - in Evergreen Park Illinois!

My Lunch with Jeanne Ives

Yesterday, I took the Rock Island Metra from 103rd to La Salle Street station for an 11:30 luncheon of the Finance Committtee of Ives for Illinois.  I was flattered to be invited, because I do not have two-nickels to rub together.

I helped Chicago Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan form  the Irish for Ives which will host a fundraiser at Reilly's Daughter on Monday, March 5th between 5-7PM.  That will be a great event, where traditional Democrats like me can ask Jeanne Ives about their public service pensions, Bosco Rauner's lie, that Representative Ives shovels Mike Madigan's snow covered sidewalks over on Kedvale & 64th and how she plans to get Illinois back on its feet.I passed out some fliers to my fellow passengers who either accepted them, or politely declined.  Most took them.  One woman chatted me up and said that she will probably go to the event.

Jeanne Ives has nowhere near the money to respond to Governor "Bosco" Rauner's calumnies.  This same place-holding creep, tried to hijack the funeral of Commander Paul Bauer and equated drinking chocolate milk to solving race relations.   As such many 19th Ward residents are buying the ads from Governor Bosco, like they were words coming from a burning bush:

                      She's a Madigan crony!
                      She is hateful, bigoted and wants my pension

All without any examples given other than repetitions of Eric Zorn, or Sun Times talking points.

The worst comes from a shirt-tail cousin of mine with a swell County job, who will be working to re-elect Toni Preckwinkle shortly.

If you see the "Irish for Ives" posters up on the South Side, let the businesses know you won't support them. I saw one on 111th in Mt Greenwood today and they immediately agreed to take it down. There's supposed to be a fundraiser for her at Reilly's Daughter Oak Lawn. Let them know too.

He attached a smear piece from Daily Kos 2013 about Ives the Union Buster though the same Union Buster has been supported by IUEO 150.  Jeanne Ives must be scaring the hell out of people who want to keep things going the way they are.  They know if Ives knocks Rauner out in the primary, JB Pritzker will not have the planned can of tomatoes in the 15 round bout in November.  Nor, do they want Jeanne Ives to face Chris Kennedy, let alone Progressive Boy Toy Biss.   So union leaders who were all-in for Rahm want Rauner to lay down in November for them all.

The rank and file union membership are stuck with the property taxes, the water bills, the lousy schools and are told who not to vote for.

Union voters must declare in a primary polling place and people have big ears, adapted to the slightest volume thanks to street cash and Rauner has plenty.  I takes a very special kind integrity to take an unsanctioned ballot in Chicago.

Tearing down posters and threatening business boycotts?   These same union loyalists shop at WalMart and regularly cross picket lines to snag an Italian beef.   Hey, it's a free country. . .still.

I arrived at the Union League Club and was asked to man the greeter's table for a few minutes, which I did and introduced myself while I handed out name tags.

A gentleman by the name of Mike Schultz was carrying a huge briefcase and asked me, " I suppose Ives is a Democrat, this being Illinois.  I am coming from Wisconsin and satyed here over night."

I explained that Jeanne Ives was running against Gov. Bruce Rauner in the March Primary as a Republican and he asked me about her.  I explained that Ives is the only Pro-Life candidate for the office of Governor by either Party,  was a comon sense fiscal conservative who wants to halt the run-away pension crisis while easing the pain of the victims of former Governor Jim Edgar's IOU briberies, a West Point grad and Army officer, mother of five children two of whom serve in the armed forses and honest,tough and good humored, happy person.

Jeanne Ives came up the stairs and we met for the first time, " Pat Hickey, it's nice to see a Facebook person in person."

I introduced the Guv to Mr. Schultz.

Mr. Schultz is a dreamer, of German, Irish and Japanese blood, who grew up in Bridgeport.  His grandmother lived two doors down from the real Mayor - Richard J. Daley.   Schultz went on to explain that he was selling a product that he helped developed - a pain relieving lotion made from hemp oil.  He is searching States for the expansion of his business and is skipping Illinois as toxic to innovation and industry.

Mike Schultz gave me a bottle of the lotion for my retired carpenter brother who is crippled up with artheritis in his knees, hands, shoulders and ankle.  He is no fan of Trump, Rauner, or Ives.  I am a huge fan of Jeanne Ives.

Mr. Schultz bid farewell and said, " I am very impressed with you, Mrs. Ives.  Best of luck!"

We were called into lunch/

I knew Dan Proft and was astonished to see him  with whiskers.  I was introduced to Jeanne's husband Rich, who is an engineer and a West Point man.  He had been with Kenny Construction, when the great flood washed through the Loop.  Rich is like  . . .every guy I know in this neighborhood, funny, embarassed to be there, serious about his wife and his family.   Rich Ives would be at ease at Kens, Barney Callaghan's or Hinky Dinks.  Alas,Mr. Ives gave up beer and smokes for Lent.

There at my table sat Mike Houlihan with two gentleman donors, as well as Dan Patlak, the only Republican in Cook County government, and Representative Tom Morrison.  We later joined by Mr. Spencer from Christ the King Parish.  Jim Tobin and John Powers sat with the Ives' and Chair of Finance Committee Mr. Vince Kolber, an elegant Polish gent from Seneca, NY who adopted Illinois as his home state, built a mechanical service corporation RESIDCO, funds The Little Sisters of the Poor and The Big Shoulders Fund.   Real robber-baron type.

We began with the Pledge of Allegiance and Mr. Kobler explained his notion of fund-raising which matched that of the great Bob Foster of Leo High School - make everyone an investor.

Most people believe that fundraising is whale-hunting. Everyone seems to believe the notion of nailing down a million dollar give, as the pinnacle of success. No.  Leo High School defied the know-it-alls for decades, including my own two, but counting on committed people.  Leo's Alumni are like 17th Century Jesuit Black Robes - they drag in new converts and turn those converts into missionaries.

Jeanne Ives has the support of this Democrat because she is honest, happy and heroic.  One older gentleman in  Mount Greenwood told me " She's gonna win!  The little girl has alot of hard bark on her." That, she do.

Vince Kobler is accepting checks for Ives for Illinois and he wrote another huge one yesterday. Vince Kobler had writtne big checks for Governor Bruce "Bosco" Rauner, until he proved himself to be the fraud that he happens to be.  Jeanne Ives was handed a check in the amount of $ 300,000.

Mike Houlihan and I felt the change in our pockets.

Jeanne Ives thanked Mr. Kobler, who himself had run for Congress in the 5th District in 2016, for leading her 'rag-tag band of insurgents'  who depend upon people power to get her message out.

Ives noted that all Rauner has is money, lots and lots and lots and lots of money.   Fund-raising is the art of friend making.

Jeanne Ives praised Mike Houlihan and me for our work on the upcoming Reilly's Daughter event.  In a room full of well-to-do women and men, it was uncommonly nice of Jeanne to recognize two broke boys.

Like I said, fund-raising is friend making and Jeanne Ives was on way to Peoria.  She had just comeback from Decatur, Belleville, and Watseka, Illinois, where union members learned the truth about Ives for Illinois from Jeanne Ives herself.

I wish my shirt-tail cousin and a few of louder partisans were as fair-minded.


I met Jeanne Ives and I don't have two-nickels together.


Wonder if Rauner, or JB Pritzker would give me two hoots in hell?


It's your vote.

Hey leave up the signs.  Don't go to the event.  Even better, don't vote.

I am Not A Jew, But I Played With One, As a Kid. Obama's Shinola is Ticking: God Bless Israel!

 Obama wears a Shinola watch; of course he does. "While the main reason for President Obama's visit to Detroit on Wednesday was to shine a light on the recuperating auto industry, he also made a point of stopping by the city's finest watchmaker. Since 2011, Shinola has been crafting American-made timepieces in the Motor City, helping transform its image and neighborhoods along the way. "Esquire.  President Obama is waiting to help destroy Israel and burnish his progressive legacy.

"Does Mr. Obama want to be remembered as the President who criminalized Israeli citizenship," asks the Wall Street Journal

Yeah, I think that he would be perfectly fine with that.  He and Israel's Prime Minister have not been two for a four-some.

Israeli diplomats gird for the possibility that President Obama may try to force a diplomatic resolution for Israel and the Palestinians at the United Nations. The White House has been unusually tight-lipped about what, if anything, it might have in mind. But our sources say the White House has asked the State Department to develop an options menu for the President’s final weeks.
One possibility would be to sponsor, or at least allow, a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction, perhaps alongside new IRS regulations revoking the tax-exempt status of people or entities involved in settlement building. The Administration vetoed such a resolution in 2011 on grounds that it “risks hardening the position of both sides,” which remains true.
But condemning the settlements has always been a popular way of scoring points against the Jewish state, not least at the State Department, and an antisettlement resolution might burnish Mr. Obama’s progressive brand for his post presidency. Wall Street Journal

Have I mentioned that I am of Irish Catholic descent?

No Shinola, Sherlock. I am as Catholic as Tim Kaine, maybe more so.  I know American Catholics who hate Jews and really hate Israel.  I never understood that?   These days, the salt-water Irish I chat with who have come to America from Kerry, Clare, Mayo. Galway and Derry, really seem to hate Israel.  To a person they are very well educated, hard working, fair-minded and generous, but they all seem tained with the Noam Chomsky contrarian mindset, so fashionably sophisticated and European.

That I follow, but can not for the life of me understand.

The Irish and the Jews have had a long and firm grip on one another's suffering, history and contribution to Western Civilization.  The Israeli Defense Forces, fighting for the nation's existence, was formed on the tactics and strategies of the Irish Republican Army of 1921.

Not only were many of the Zionist military tactics in 1940’s Britain and Palestine drawn from pre-war IRA bombing campaigns in Britain but the Irgun was re-organized “on IRA lines”, according to Walton, by Robert Briscoe, father of Fianna Fail TD and Mayor of Dublin Ben Briscoe, who travelled secretly to Britain in the pre-war years to meet and advise Irgun representatives.
Briscoe Senior, himself a Fianna Fail TD for many years, had impeccable IRA credentials. He accompanied Eamonn de Valera to the USA on a lengthy fund-raising trip during the Anglo-Irish war and also was sent by Michael Collins to Germany in 1919 to procure arms for the IRA. A former Chief of Staff of the IRA’s boy scouts, na Fianna Eireann, Eamonn Martin was Briscoe’s best man at his wedding and he hated the British, describing himself in a memoir as a self-appointed professor holding “the chair of subversive activities against England”.
Another Irish Jew who strongly supported both Irish Republican and Zionist terrorism was Isaac Herzog, the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland who emigrated to Palestine in 1936 where he was appointed to the chief rabbinate, the most powerful clerical position in the Jewish world. MI5 kept him under close surveillance and asked the Irish police to keep tabs on Briscoe.
He wrote in his memoirs that he elected himself “to a full Professorship with the Chair of Subversive Activities against England,”
 (See more at: )

These facts have been Progressively white-out-ed and erased from historical considerations. Note well, British MI-5 after WWII was run by the Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five's Marxist affections and the Soviets were no friend of Israel.

Over the years, younger Irish people ( under 75) came to believe that Palestinians never slaughtered Jews in 1920s, that the Grand Mufti was a Quaker and that the survivors of Holocaust were everything Hitler said they were in the Nuremberg Laws. They forgot that Sean MacStiophan and Menachim Begin were pals.  This was the result of the Irish Government's BBC culture that sprouted post-DeValera.

However, even after Kim Philby was proven to be a Soviet mole, the Old Boy OxBridge affections for Animal Farm rooted in academia and the BBC nestled in Old Blighty and Old Erin's bogs.

Israel morphed from a harbor from the Holocaust to Nazi Germany in the memes of the elites.

Irish politicians are seem unanimously anti-Israel: Michale Higgins, Enda Kenny, Mary Robinson & etc. Yanks are as bad.

America apes every Etonian fashion from Carnaby Street and Beatlemania to a World Without Borders and the Garden of Gaza. aways a few years behind.  The Brit anarchists were burning tires under viaducts, while Kurt Cobain was learning to string his own Silvertone. Long before Occupy and the Battle of Seattle,  Sophisticates, love Occupy and Black Lives Matter.

I am not that sophisticated.

I know Jews, love Jews, admire Jews and hung around with Jews.  From Danny Levy, Little Flower High School Class of 1970 to Phil Scharf, second violin Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to Si and Shirley Blitzstein who hired Catholic kids from Leo, Brother Rice and Little Flower at Mr. Lee's in the old Evergreen Plaza, I have known only honesty, humor, talent and American patriotism from my Jewish friends and neighbors.

President Obama is sophisticated,

His cabinet is full of sophisticates, like Valerie Jarrett who has done more for Persian hegemony in the world than Cyrus and his Celtic United Nations Ambassador Samantha Powers, who only recently took the side of Israel against the emerging nations dictators and sheiks.



That was in February, and Powers told Israel:

“When we see bias, injustice or the continuation of strife within the United Nations, it is not because the UN created all of this, it is because the UN gathers governments and gathers problems, and being in the UN doesn’t change the biases of those governments,” she said.
Power, whose visit was seen by some analysts as a sign of renewed US interest in jump-starting peace talks, admitted that the situation was not ripe for new negotiations, though the US would continue to pursue a two-state solution.
“I would expect that pursuit to continue, and right now we hope the parties will take steps to move them closer again to restart negotiations, which is not a position they are in now,” she said. “We will dedicate ourselves to that as long as we are in office.”
Power also expressed hope that students participating in the Model UN would soon be able to sit behind a “Palestine placard,” backing the importance of a two-state solution.
“You must strive to wade side by side into the toughest issues, because it is you and your children and the generations following them who will reap the benefits of the peace you’ve built, or else endure the suffering of ongoing strife,” she urged the students.

Things change.  Putin is about to shell Aleppo into dust, the Presidential election is seven days away, Iran and Valerie Jarrett want to make sure President Obama rolls up the carpet on Israel before he leaves office.

The worst option would be an effort to introduce a resolution at the U.N. Security Council setting “parameters” for a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. The French have been eager to do this for some time, and one option for the Administration would be to let the resolution pass simply by refusing to veto it. Or the U.S. could introduce the resolution itself, all the better to take credit for it.
As the old line has it, this would be worse than a crime—it would be a blunder. U.S. policy has long and wisely been that only Israelis and Palestinians can work out a peace agreement between themselves, and that efforts to impose one would be counterproductive. Whatever parameters the U.N. established would be unacceptable to any Israeli government, left or right, thereby destroying whatever is left of a peace camp in Israel.
The Palestinians would seize on those parameters as their birthright, making it impossible for any future Palestinian leader to bargain part of them away in a serious negotiation. Arab states would find their diplomatic hands tied, making it impossible to serve as useful intermediaries between Jerusalem and Ramallah. It could refreeze relations with Israel even as they finally seem to have thawed.
President Obama may be the last man on earth to get the memo, but after decades of fruitless efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it might be wiser for the U.S. to step back until the Palestinians recognize that peace cannot be imposed from the outside. If Mr. Obama is still seeking a Middle East legacy at this late stage in his presidency, his best move is do nothing to make it worse.

Samantha Powers is an accomplished person who actually wrote her own books and President Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.  Powers has been in the United Nations since August 2013.  Perhaps she has learned to see the world differently.  President Obama is the same man who took the Oath of Office in 2009 - the exact same man.  Valerie Jarrett never leaves his ears.

Many American Catholics who buy into the Social Justice Warrior facade detest Israel and support the Obama Palestinian gambit.  Catholic Activists like Kevin Clark, a member of International Solidarity Movement went Israel and encourage American students to throw themselves in front of IDF bulldozers in Gaza.  The blood of Rachel Corrie, for whom the Irish OXFAM Gaza Flotilla flagship was named, is not on the hands of Israel, but on Clark the Social Justice Warrior.  This guy is bad and he has the ear of Catholic social justice sheep. 

I grew up believing that deeds and not words marked the character of people.

We all can be fooled, tricked, gulled, anesthetized, or  made oblivious.  A few of us don't mind any of the afore mentioned conditions.

My Irish cousins forgot that Israel is not Nazi Germany.  My Catholic coreligionists need to leave moral equivalency to the Unitarians and too many of the other Mainline faiths.

I know that Shinola can be a watch and a swell shoe polish.  I know that Israel is our best friend on the planet.  President Obama?  Not so much.

First Wave Feminism: Mary of the Sorrows - Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens

Women are the superior gender.

Women are tougher than men. Tougher means - can take it. Not faster. Not stronger. Not as warlike. Not as in-your-face competitive, nor as instinctively feral.

Men are feral in the same way that a chihuahua thinks it is a Rottweiler.  We like to think of ourselves as wild, independent and fierce, until we get a cold, or the Cubs blow another year into the records.



The ideal woman is Mary, Mother of God.  Even the Islamists bent on attacking her churches in France pay her grudging tribute in doing so.  Mother Mary seems to scare the holy hell out of them. Devout Muslims  honor Mary, in the same manner that they respect the faiths of their neighbors.

Mary is the First Wave Feminist, not the Madame DeFarge vampire attributed to French Revolutionary nonsense and feminism itself - that should get the gals with unshaven legs and Park Avenue Planned Parenthood harpies yowling. Mary Mother of God, Mother of Jesus and wife to Joseph the Carpenter showed the power of women through bearing the sorrows that no man could endure.

Nope, 1789 years before the French slaughtered their neighbors wholesale, in Roman occupied Palestine a woman suffered seven sorrows.

Today is the feast of Mary of the Sorrows and her sorrows are commemorated in the Rosary.
The Sorrows are these:

The Prophecy of Saint Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)
The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27:57–59)
The Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)

Mary was no Scarlett Johansson kick-boxing her way out of a jam in some Marvel comic movie.  Mary taught women, the superior gender,  that suffering is our lot and not some annoyance.
There was not a damn thing Mary could do to change, put off, or ignore any one of her sorrows - there was no contraception for the words of a prophet, fleeing oppression, losing a little boy at church any more than confronting the sacrifice her Son chose to carry on his head and back like Roman lashes and cruciform timbers

Mary could not lawyer-up.  Legislate agony out of her way.  Her way, the Romans later called the Via Dolorosa - the street of sorrow.

Faux Feminism objects to a woman enduring anything - an unwanted child,  a place in line,  tepid water at the place setting, men who hold doors open and ask ' allow me?'  Unendurable.

Real women suck it up and order their 'boys' husband and sons to 'cowboy up, for Crissakes!' women can take it. Women endure and men medicate.

Women are the superior gender, even the feminists who embarass side with crass, selfish and vain materialism.

Women are superior to men, but their natures disallow the quick fix, the easy path, or the evolved solution to suffering.  Women should never want to be like us.  Thank God and His Mother for that.