Mark Harris and the Moriartys - George & Michael: Novels, Baseball, Chicago and God

"You will no more expect the novelist to tell you precisely how something is said than you will expect him to stand by your chair and hold your book". Mark Harris American Novelist 1922-2007

In my Arcturus Calendar for October 7 it says, "De Soto visited Georgia, 1540." This hands me a laugh. Bruce Pearson also visited Georgia. I was his pall-bear, me and 2 fellows from the crate and box plant and some town boys, and that was all. There were flowers from the club, but no person from the club. They could of sent somebody.

He was not a bad fellow, no worse than most and probably better than some, and not a bad ballplayer neither when they give him a chance, when they laid off him long enough. From here on in I rag nobody.

Mark Harris - Bang the Drum Slowly

Mark Harris wrote great novels. I read The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly while I worked nights at Orchestra Hall, which paid for my tuition at Loyola University. I worked - didn't get fired anyway.

I read these books on the recommendation of Dr. William Heibel of the English Department at Loyola. Years later, Dr. Heibel would serve on my Master of Arts Oral Examination panel - he was brutal and a great guy.

Bang the Drum Slowly is a secular parable set in the 1950's - its narrator is a fireball pitcher for the fictitious New York Mammoths by name of Henry Wiggen.

Henry Wiggen is a talented athlete and sharp student of human nature - in the off season Wiggen sells insurance to the natures who inhabit the team clubhouse. One of the more ignorant, sad and lonely members of the Mammoths is the rube catcher Bruce Pearson who would make Shoeless Joe Jackson appear to be Baseball's Noel Coward.

Wiggen and Pearson room together and Wiggen learns that Pearson is dying of cancer.

Wiggen tries to make Pearson enjoy his own talents, gifts and humanity in his last days.

The novel was made into a beautiful film and teamed two wonderful actors Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarty.

Recently I learned that Moriarty's grandfather, George, had been born and raised in Chicago's Stockyards and was great baseball player.

George Joseph Moriarty

Positions: Third Baseman, First Baseman and Outfielder
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 0", Weight: 185 lb.

Born: July 7, 1885 in Chicago, IL (All Transactions)
Debut: September 27, 1903
Teams (by GP): Tigers/Highlanders/WhiteSox/Cubs 1903-1916
Final Game: May 4, 1916
Died: April 8, 1964 in Miami, FL
Buried: St. Mary Cemetery,in Evergreen Park, IL
Relatives: Brother of Bill Moriarty

and more . . .


George Moriarty
Street-tough George Moriarty carved a career in baseball that spanned more than 50 years, as player, coach, manager, umpire, executive, and scout. As a player, Moriarty played with Ty Cobb on the Detroit Tigers, and used his aggresive baserunning to swipe home 11 times. He later succeeded Cobb as manager of the Tigers, after becoming an AL umpire. Moriarty spent two decades as an arbiter before joining the Al office as a public relations official. He later scouted for several teams, until his death in Miami in 1964.
Career Batting Stats
G AB H R HR RBI SB AVG SLG OBP OPS OPS+
1076 3671 920 372 5 376 248 .251 .312 .303 .616 95.9
Teams George Moriarty Managed
Detroit Tigers (1927-1928)
Born
George Joseph Moriarty was born on July 7, 1885, in Chicago, IL.

Died
April 8, 1964, Miami, FL

Batted: Right
Threw: Right

Major League Debut
9 27,

Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1903
John Titus
Hans Lobert
Solly Hofman
Lee Tannehill
George Moriarty
Jake Stahl
Three-Finger Brown
Chief Bender
Red Ames

Post-Season Appearances
1909 World Series
Notes
Actor Michael Moriarty, known for his roles in the television show Law and Order, and the baseball movie Bang the Drum Slowly, is the grandson of George Moriarty.


Michael Moriarty's grandfather played with Ty Cobb and could be as mean as that iconic sociopath, but retained more humanity and good humor. From Wikipedia:

It is reported that once while Moriarty was umpiring, Babe Ruth, who was at bat, stepped out of the batter's box and asked Moriarty to spell his last name. When he had spelled it out, Ruth reportedly replied, "Just as I thought; only one I." The baseball card shown to the right of this text spells Moriarty's name incorrectly - with "two I's."
Moriarty also was noted for his influence on the life of Tigers first baseman Hank Greenberg. During the 1935 World Series, Moriarty warned several Chicago Cubs players to stop yelling anti-semitic slurs at Greenberg [2]. When the Cubs players persisted with their remarks, Moriarty took the unusual step of clearing the entire Chicago bench - a maneuver that got him fined by then-commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis [3]. Later, when Greenberg was pursuing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, Moriarty kept the final game of the 1938 season going until darkness made it impossible to continue. Greenberg finished the night two homers shy of Ruth's record [4].
In his biography, Hank Greenberg recalled:
Much later in my career George Moriarty and I became very good friends. Back in the early 1900s he played third base for Detroit, and he used to steal home. Somebody wrote a poem about him, and the title was “Never Die on Third Moriarty.” All through the rest of his life George felt he knew something about stealing home. When he was umpiring on third base . . .

Not only that George Moriarty was a musician and songwriter.

thus -

Despite his combative field persona, off the field Moriarty could be more congenial, maintaining close friendships with Jesuit priests at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. Moriarty also fancied himself a lyricist, and collaborated with Richard A. Whiting on the tune "Love Me Like the Ivy Loves the Old Oak Tree."

A great American Novelist created a character who plays America's past time. A great athlete competes and flourishes in that mileau. His grandson goes on to play the character created by Mark Harris and goes on to become a great American Actor

God seems to know what He's doing.



http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moriage02.shtml?redir

Seven (7) Homicides in My Neighborhood ( Morgan Park) Since New Year's Day

Chicago's Media, Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers and Thugs have created the Thug Comfort Zone. -

Comfort one -

The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk (Alasdair A. K. White "From Comfort Zone to Performance Management"

Click my post title for Red Eye's Homicide Charts

These seven people died in my neighborhood because Thugs feel free to do so. The feel free to do so, because murder has no consequences - The Chicago Media always takes the side of the murdering thug and helps Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers like Jon Loevy and G. Flint Taylor make millionaires of murderers.

Chicago's Media ( Frank Main/Mark Brown & etc) are spoon fed bullshit and lap it up like gluttons.

Showing 7 homicides in Morgan Park since Jan. 1, 2009.
Name, age +
Story Date +
Time Block Cause +

Locale

Brandon Berry, 20
> Read more 2/13/10
8:30 p.m. 11200 S. Hermosa Ave. Gunshot
Street
Anthony Watts, 26
> Read more 12/9/09
9:50 p.m. 11300 S. Aberdeen St. Gunshot
Apartment
Robert Watson, 29
> Read more 12/9/09
9:50 p.m. 11300 S. Aberdeen St. Gunshot
Apartment
Kevin Johnson, 20
> Read more 4/14/09
5:03 p.m. 1600 W. 119th St. Gunshot
Parking lot/garage
Gregory Robinson, 14
> Read more 3/13/09
10:35 p.m. 1100 W. 110th Pl. Gunshot
Street
Otis Matthews, 29
> Read more 3/9/09
11 p.m. 11600 S. Church St. Gunshot
Sidewalk
Jojuan Miller, 34
> Read more 1/3/09
4:44 a.m. 11300 S. Racine Ave. Gunshot
Alley

Jan Schakowsky Insists Dead Babies Mean a Healthy America!

Dimbulb Democrat Jan Schakowsky, still under scrutiny as a Turkish Spy by the way, insisted to MSNBC's own Gay/Abortion Advocate Loudmouth Rachel Maddow that American Health Care requires dead babies:

While the Hyde Amendment initially banned public funding of abortions except in cases of rape, incest or the life or health of the mother, Stupak's amendment could end abortion coverage for people whose health insurance currently covers the service. His amendment would ban women who get government subsidized insurance to enter into a plan that covers abortion services--even if women wanted to pay for the plan themselves.

"[Stupak's amendment] went way past the current law," Schakowsky told Maddow--adding that Stupak talked several Democrats into thinking his plan was the status quo. "The pro-choice members [of Congress], 42 of us who signed a letter that said we want to maintain the status quo and will not vote for [the bill] if it has the Stupak language."

When Maddow asked Schakowsky whether the pro-choice members of Congress would vote down the health care bill if it included the Stupak language, Schakowsky said they "absolutely" would.

Planned Parenthood paid good money for Jan Schakowsky since she was a back-benching pain in the rump in Springfield and now GE giving this nitwit more air time.

Maddow and Schakowsky? Muy Simpatico! except to unborn children. These two odious harpies need to go.

Doreen's Frozen Gourmet Pizza - Herakleophorbia

I am a devout Catholic and an empiricist -in most things beyond metaphysics. I am not a devotee of Vito and Nick's, Fox's, Milano's, Roseangela's and Barraco's pizza because I am a south side parochialist, but because I ate pizza from Buddy's Pizza at 79th & Paulina as well as Caruso's on Ashland.

I was blessedly schooled in fine pizza, as a kid from Bordeaux, or Napa might say that he had sampled some Okay wine. I grew up in Pizza Utopia. Palermo's on 63rd! Falco's on Archer! Oh, Happy Land! Someone exclaims, " We're having pizza!!" and a south sider's mind races - "'Kay -don' panic. Be nice. Don' get your hopes up. It might be OK but expect Red Baron or Saltines with Brooks Ketchup on 'em. You're in Indiana for Crissakes. Calm down."

Doreen's in the heart of Calumet City and Hegewisch!

Doreen’s Gourmet Frozen Pizza Outlet Store located at:
130 State Street
Calumet, City, Illinois 60409
Phone: (708) 862-7499

Doreen's
13201 South Baltimore Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60633
Phone: (773) 646-0063

Later, while studying at Loyola University -north of Madison Avenue - I experienced Pizzeria Uno & Due and My Pi ( Greek Logo) - nice. Lou Malnati's ? If it's in front of me. Home Run Inn? Ditto.

I lived in Indiana from 1988-1998 - Pizza desert.

The south side of Chicago, Blue Island, Calumet Park, Calumet City and Chicago Heights were blessed by Italian immigrants who know how to toss pizza - thin to win and thick for the Micks. Mrs. Panatera made a gravy ( red tomato sauce) that if it were ladled over my son Conor's old New Balance mud dancers I'd devour that footwear.

I developed my gustatory tastes and sensibilities along with my passion for literature.

Last week, while shopping at County Fair Foods* for my three kids who eat like they're going to the Chair, I discovered Doreen's Gournet Frozen Pizza. Most frozen pizza's taste like the boxes that contain them; however, Doreen's Pizza ( jalapeno pepper) lifted me to Jove's Beard and Juno's Knockers! I recalled this passage from H. G. Wells!

Quite ordinary persons you perceive, both of them, outside their science. Or if anything on the unpractical side of ordinary. And that you will find is the case with “scientists” as a class all the world over. What there is great of them is an annoyance to their fellow scientists and a mystery to the general public, and what is not is evident.
There is no doubt about what is not great, no race of men have such obvious littlenesses. They live in a narrow world so far as their human intercourse goes; their researches involve infinite attention and an almost monastic seclusion; and what is left over is not very much. To witness some queer, shy, misshapen, greyheaded, self-important, little discoverer of great discoveries, ridiculously adorned with the wide ribbon of some order of chivalry and holding a reception of his fellow-men, or to read the anguish of Nature at the “neglect of science” when the angel of the birthday honours passes the Royal Society by, or to listen to one indefatigable lichenologist commenting on the work of another indefatigable lichenologist, such things force one to realise the unfaltering littleness of men.
And withal the reef of Science that these little “scientists” built and are yet building is so wonderful, so portentous, so full of mysterious half-shapen promises for the mighty future of man! They do not seem to realise the things they are doing! No doubt long ago even Mr. Bensington, when he chose this calling, when he consecrated his life to the alkaloids and their kindred compounds, had some inkling of the vision,—more than an inkling. Without some such inspiration, for such glories and positions only as a “scientist” may expect, what young man would have given his life to such work, as young men do? No, they must have seen the glory, they must have had the vision, but so near that it has blinded them. The splendour has blinded them, mercifully, so that for the rest of their lives they can hold the lights of knowledge in comfort—that we may see!

H. G. Wells - The Food of the Gods Chapter I, part 1.

Yes! That We may see and later eat it!

True genius you shall know by this sign!

Doreen’s Pizza, Inc. originated in 1986 on the south side of Chicago as a small take-out and delivery pizzeria with only one table in the dining area to accommodate customers who needed a quick bite to eat.

Being praised as the best pizza in the area, owner Bob Wisz decided to take this pizza perfection to the masses -- and began selling his pizzas frozen to local bars. Word quickly spread and people all over the area raved about his product and asked for it to be sold near them. Bob quickly expanded and started selling his soon-to-be famous pizza in many different types of businesses catering to a variety of age levels. Today, Doreen’s Gourmet Pizza is hand-made in our manufacturing facility in Calumet City, Illinois. To provide our customers with nothing but the perfect pizza, our facility makes only pizza – not burritos and not chicken pies.

We use only FRESH ingredients, including the vegetables, the sausage and the 100% real cheese that tops it all off! We go the extra mile to ensure our pizza is fresh when it comes out of your oven – and tastes just like it -- just like the moment it was made fresh and frozen in our facility.

All of our pizzas are fresh frozen and never precooked. This allows the blending of each ingredient and its unique flavor to combine uniformly to create that special Doreen’s taste! And our pizzas are packed with toppings for your eating pleasure! In fact, our Deluxe Pizza weighs nearly TWO POUNDS!
You can avail yourself of Doreen's Gourmet Frozen Pizza at these sensible and classy locations!

ILLINOIS -

Baltimore Foods - Hegewisch

Berkot's Super Foods - Dwight, Coal City, Braidwood, Watseka, New Lenox, Manteno, Mokena, Manhattan, Wilmington, South Wilmington

Bizios Fresh Market - Olympia Fields

Brookhaven - Mokena, Burr Ridge, Darien

Casey's Market - Western Springs

County Fair - 108th & Western - Chicago

Country Squire - Chicago Heights

Fairshare - Midway Airport - Chicago, Roosevelt Rd. - Chicago

Fairway - Lockport, Sauk Village, Dolton, Riverdale-144th & Indiana

Green Leaf Foods - Michigan Ave. - Chicago

Lincoln Park Market - Chicago, IL

Lupita’s - Calumet City

Misch Bros. - Calumet City

Pete’s Market - All locations

Potash Bros. - Chicago, IL

Presidential Market - Presidential Towers Chicago

Quality Supermarket - Watseka

Randy’s Market - Orland Park

Sentry Foods - Midlothian, IL

Strack & Van Til - Chicago - Elston Ave., Plainfield

Sunset Foods - Libertyville, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Northbrook

Tony's Finer Foods - Chicago (on Belmont, Central, Elston, Fullerton), Melrose Park, Bridgeview and North Riverside

Trudy's Pantry - Lansing

Ultra Foods - Hanover Park, Calumet Park, Chicago - 87th & Kedzie, Chicago Heights, Downers Grove, Forest Park, Joliet, Kankakee, Lansing, Lombard and Wheaton

Village Farmstand - Calumet City

WALT’S - Beecher, Crete, Frankfort, Homewood, South Holland and Tinley Park

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Doreen's Outlet Store

Visit our Doreen’s Gourmet Frozen Pizza Outlet Store located at:

130 State Street
Calumet, City, Illinois 60409
Phone: (708) 862-7499

Click here to view products available at our Outlet Store!




Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
9:30 - 4:30 9:30 - 4:30 9:30 - 4:30 9:30 - 4:30 9:30 - 4:30 Closed Closed
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Doreen's Pizzeria Restaurants

Don’t forget to visit Doreen’s Pizzeria, featuring our delicious namesake pizza. Two convenient locations in the Chicagoland area to serve you.

Dyer Restaurant
726 Joliet Road (US 30)
Dyer, Indiana 46311
Phone: (219) 865-9988



Chicago Restaurant
13201 South Baltimore Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60633
Phone: (773) 646-0063






Do, click my post title.

* County Fair Foods
www.countyfairfoods.net
10800 South Western Avenue
Chicago, IL 60643-3226
(773) 238-5576

Ralph Martire and The Endless Illinois Snow Job

Ralph Martire, the mouthpiece for Tax Increases in Illinois, is everywhere! He is like the endless 'Chance of Snow -100%' warnings for Illinois.

If it is snowing and it is - now, yesterday, and tomorrow - it is up to Illinois residents to grunt and strain and heft and heave the burden. If it is Tax Increases, and it is -now, yesterday, and tomorrow - its the work of the Snow King, Ralph Martire who has pie-charted and schmoozed the media since he took his sheepskin. It is, however, for the Illinois resident to grunt and strain and heft and heave the burden of taxes.

The Civic Federation has linked arms with the Snow King and calls for more Illinois Taxes.

Ralph Martire snows on Illinois about entitlements, infrastructure and education.

Here is Ralph Martire pie-charting and parsing about Illinois Education as reported by the tough and fair minded Jeff Berkowitz:

Ralph Martire, a liberal and Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, contends the evidence shows vouchers don't work. He cites, for example, to a federal government funded research study that Martire contends supports his view. However, Martire's favorite study to cite on education simply compares private and public schools, it doesn't study the impact of school vouchers.

Peer reviewed credible studies on school vouchers

Moreover, Tillman says that Martire is wrong and that there are many studies that demonstrate that vouchers work well. Tillman argues that based on all the peer reviewed credible studies on vouchers, they work extremely well. In short, Tillman believes that choice improves outcomes. That's true with charter schools and school vouchers.

When consumers have choices, they can benefit from competition, resulting in more efficiency and innovation. Producers, in this case schools, offer improved quality and services, and at lower prices. In response to Martire's argument that school vouchers don't work, Tillman said if that is the case, people wouldn't use the vouchers, that is, they would simply stay in the public schools, so "what do we have to lose by trying school vouchers? What, indeed?

Click my post title for more Snow melted by Jeff Berkowitz. Nice, Jeff!

The Chicago Media Ten Cent Head Club never connect Ralph to the endless snow jobs.


What indeed? More Snow of course! Ralph Martire is taxed with giving 'scientific' cover for Tax-A- Holic Progressive boondogglers.

Here is Ralph Martire - Googed by your humble helot hack/blogger - pie-charting and parsing for more heavy, wet miserable Tax Blizzards!

Daley orders more budget cuts
Medill Reports: Chicago - Jessica Q. Chen, Aaron Stern - ‎Feb 11, 2010‎
"It's hard to fathom given how lean things are … that this won't impact services," said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget ... Lawmakers advocate unlikely bills
Peoria Journal Star - Brian Feldt, Doug Finke - ‎Feb 20, 2010‎
“It's purely pandering,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “It's evading the issue. ... Despite budget woes, lawmakers push tax breaks
Rockford Register Star - Brian Feldt, Doug Finke - ‎Feb 19, 2010‎
“It's purely pandering,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “It's evading the issue. ... School Vouchers-School Choice: The Obamas, hypocrisy and social justice
ChicagoNow (blog) - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎
Ralph Martire, a liberal and Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, contends the evidence shows vouchers don't work. ... How The State Budget Crisis Imperils Lower-Income Students
Progress Illinois (blog) - ‎Feb 12, 2010‎
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's Ralph Martire tells us that those families in lower-income districts are likely to get hit with higher ... Unfunded mandates bill part of larger school funding push Posted By John Myers ...
Catalyst Chicago - ‎Feb 19, 2010‎
... as many as a dozen, says Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and a school finance expert. ... Memo From Turner: Could it Have Changed Scott Lee Cohen Outcome?
Chicago Daily Observer - ‎Feb 7, 2010‎
No one in our state, except possibly Dawn Netsch, Paul Vallas or Ralph Martire understand economics and budgeting as well as Dan does. ...

Memo to our Media Dim-bulbs - Ralph Martire is the Illinois Tax Snow King! Shucks,Girls, let's give Ralph Martire his Props for all the Taxes Now and to Come!

http://news.google.com/news/search?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=ralph+martire&as_qdr=m&as_drrb=q&cf=all

Ralphie Martire! Keep the Duck!

The MUCH respected Civic Federation ( Fanfare of Trumpets Please!) wants Illinois Tax-payers to kick in more dollars that they don't have to pay for what Ralphie Martire* demanded and got from 2004 on!

Hey, The Sun Times said so!

That same tax increase has been advocated since 2004 by another civic watchdog group, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

Allow us to soften the sticker shock of such a tax increase by putting it in context:

Ralph Martire takes money from people who earn salaries and provides cash, goods and services to people who do not.

In 2004. Ralph Martire, as he has done so all of his career, poached income from the Illinois Taxpayers, with the say-so and go-ahead of Illinois Progressives like his Chinaman Dawn Clark Netsch.

Akin to shooting a duck that lands on a farmer's land:

Ralph Martire shoots a duck out in the country - Kankakee,or Papineau, Illinois let's say. As he's retrieving it, a farmer walks up and stops him, claiming that since the duck is on his farm, it technically belongs to him - like his income. After minutes of arguing, the farmer proposes they settle the matter "country style."

"What's country style?" asks the city boy Ralphie.

"Out here in the country," the farmer says, "when two fellers have a dispute, one feller kicks the other one in the balls as hard as he can. Then that feller, why, he kicks the first one as hard as he can. And so forth. Last man standin' wins the dispute."

Warily the Tax Hawker Ralph Martire agrees and prepares himself. The farmer hauls off and kicks Ralph a good 'un in the groin with all his might. With now three Adam's Apples in his gullet Ralph Maartire falls to the ground in the most intense pain he's ever felt, crying like a baby and coughing up blood. Finally he staggers to his feet and says, "All right, n-now it's–it's m-my turn."

The farmer grins. "Aw, hell, you win. Keep the duck."

When every wage earner and tax-payer in Illinois gets to line up and go Country Style on Ralph Martire and the fine folks of the Civic Federation, a Doomsday Tax Increase will be just jake with me.


* January 1, 2001
Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability ( "CTBA"). He also serves as a regular columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, the State Journal-Register and The Herald News on issues involving government accountability, tax, fiscal and budget policies. Ralph served on the budget advisory board to Governor Rod Blagojevich's transition team, where he acted as chairperson of the state revenue subcommittee. Ralph was the principal author of a study CTBA produced that identified revenue enhancement proposals to address the 2002 fiscal crises in the state of Illinois. Five of the proposals identified in that study ultimately became law. Ralph also was a key member of the research team that produced the groundbreaking "State of Working Illinois" report, which detailed industry, employment, wage and benefit trends in Illinois over the last 15 years. A joint project of CTBA and Northern Illinois University, the State of Working Illinois has been featured in over 150 media (print and broadcast) placements nationwide.
Ralph was the recipient of the 2004 Ben C. Hubbard Leadership Award, presented annually by Illinois State University to an individual whose leadership has significantly benefited education in Illinois.

Christopher Buckley Wiggles and Giggles - Never Bring a Silver Spoon to a Baling Hook Brawl with Long Shoremen

Si tacuisses, philosophus manisses Boethius

Christopher Buckley, America's Bertie Wooster and parallel universe Kennedy Kid, took his Highland walking stick to the backs of American Helots and overweight Patriot re-enactors for redefining his Old Man's Conservative Order of Battle.

Novelist, wit, gad-about, and androgynous political cut-and-paste-er Chris Buckley, who helped elect President Obama in 2008 and had gone to ground since then, is back.

Hip! Huzzah.

Buckley like Kennedy is an American Brand name like Hilton or Kardashian.

Chris Buckley sports natty Anglophile habiliments in town in a custom pinstriped peak-lapelled single-breasted suit, pocket square, fawn waistcoat, watch fob, and homburg hat and in the fens Barbour Classic Beaufort Jacket, knee-high hose over moleskin breeks Dunmoor fleece waiscoat, Sutherland tweed driving cap and lined Capeskin gloves - marvelous. Accessoried with language as well, Buckley gives out against his blood kin and the Official Image of White House Opposition - fat, racist rustic ruffians who detest the President because of the color of skin:

One might then logically ask, wouldn’t it have been simpler, and more honest, to issue a J’Accuse Obama! instead of a windy yadda-yadda about first principles and why are liberals wiping their arses with the Constitution?
I have some thoughts about the growls and yips emanating from the podium and—ahem—Teleprompters at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, where CPAC is holding its auto-da-fé, but in the tradition of Sharonesque brevity, why don’t we leave it there until tomorrow.

One might, but President Obama had plenty of help leading the Nation to this economic and spiritual nadir, Young Buckley - You, Wee Davey Brooks, Dame May Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy, Kathy Parker and other youthful conservatives all took the MSNBC coin.

Tah!

Dick Simpson and Gang Trot Out Corruption Stage for Dave Orr

What a phony piece of garbage this report happens to be.

This is nothing more than a swell BGA/Progressive/Media/UIC dung-heap upon which Cook County Clerk David Orr intends to crow his Mayoral Platform of Reform.

Daley will hand Dave his mustache months before Dave asks the 19th Ward, 11th Ward, 18th Ward, 14th Ward and 47th Ward to send some helpers to get him some signatures.

However, the Media Howler Monkeys will paste up some serious nonsense for the dim-bulb soul patchers.

Slap it on thick, Girls!

The UIC (a real hallmark of 'distinguished fugitives') and the BGA (Andy Shaw's Golden Parachute) study is a mere Google search of convictions that deftly avoids the indictments, trials and conviction IVI-IPO sanctioned crooks who went to the Iron Hotel for Reform Looting sprees.

Nice try there, Cupcakes.

Andy Shaw's BGA and Professor Dick Simpson presented a nice thirty-three page study ( The Idiot's Guide to Chicago Crooks -not Our Progressive Crooks, but Regular Democratic Crooks) that is merely a litany of Cook County convictions.

The bottom line is that only Dave Orr ( former Mayor of Chicago who did not lift a finger while Burge was a Cop)is to be trusted, because he brought in the Hugo Chavez manufactured voting machines.

Give it a thumb-through. It is as informative and valuable as the palm cards that Todd Stroger bought in January.

Click my post title for the breathless NBC ( the clowns who pushed out Steve Rhodes when he refused to tweak his take on corruption the Tribune Managing Party Animal - in the Chicago Media) link and then click on the BGA pdf link.

The Corruption Cesspool is the Media's wallow as well Dick and Andy.

BTW - Dave Orr - will stay Clerk. He's got no where else to go.

President Obama's Saturday Address

Good morning, and thank you for joining me. Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me or you’ve worked with me or you’ve supported me.

Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.

. . .( pause) I am also aware of the pain my behavior has caused to those of you in this room. I have let you down, and I have let down my fans. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior has been a personal disappointment. To those of you who work for me, I have let you down personally and professionally. My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners. . . (pause -Manly Stare) . . But still, I know I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I am embarrassed that I have put you in this position. . . .( Pause -Winsome smile) . . . I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I’ve done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It’s now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I’ve made. It’s up to me to start living a life of integrity. . . .( pause -Heroic toss of the Head) . . . I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, the Dalai was here Thursday. . .nice guy . . . Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught. The Dalai was here you know.

As I move forward, I will continue to receive help because I’ve learned that’s how people really do change. Starting tomorrow, . . . maybe not . . .

Finally, there are many people in this room, and there are many people at home who believed in me. Today I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again.

Thank you. Gibbs, is this thing on?

Most of the text of this fictional address and more can be read by clicking on my post title. God, I love to cut and paste! I gotta stop eating the stuff . . .playing hell on my old teeth.

Tiger's Sorry -Big Deal. The Guys of Affordable Group Services are the Real Heroes !

But with man it is wholly different. He possesses, on the one hand, the full perfection of the animal being, and hence enjoys at least as much as the rest of the animal kind, the fruition of things material. But animal nature, however perfect, is far from representing the human being in its completeness, and is in truth but humanity's humble handmaid, made to serve and to obey. It is the mind, or reason, which is the predominant element in us who are human creatures; it is this which renders a human being human, and distinguishes him essentially from the brute. And on this very account - that man alone among the animal creation is endowed with reason - it must be within his right to possess things not merely for temporary and momentary use, as other living things do, but to have and to hold them in stable and permanent possession; he must have not only things that perish in the use, but those also which, though they have been reduced into use, continue for further use in after time.

Pope Leo XIII - Rerum Novarum


Affordable Group Services is an alcohol/drug rehabilitation program that shows addicts the 'way to go home' - through learning a skilled trade.

This Hazel Crest based addiction recovery/vocational skills training operation run by John Dunleavy is below-the-radar Cinderella Story.

Men who have beaten themselves to the canvas can find a way back onto their feet in into the fight of their life - recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and a return to dignity.

The Southtown Star's Carole Sharwarko writes a story that throws Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon into the cheaps seats. Front Pages are devoted to Tiger Woods and his apolopalooza yesterday - who shives a git?!

Read Carole Sharwarko's saga of John Dunleavy and the heroes of Affordable Group Services! Click my post title for this powerful story!Writer Carole Sharwarko is a Hero!

Here's a taste:

Sometimes an idea is so simple and perfect, you can't imagine why no one's thought of it before. But even the best idea needs a champion, a walking embodiment of its potential.
At Affordable Group Services, every man who stays out of the bottle and off the pipe is that champion. Each man who chooses an honest day's work over a life choked by addiction personifies a concept conceived in 2003.

What's Lacking? Any Sense of Transcendence

Here's a fabulous Lord Elton and his catamite at some huge event.

This morning, I heard that Elton John proclaims that Jesus is Gay. Last year Jesus was a Community Activist. Before that, Jesus was an Anti-Semite.

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you're as good as dead."

Faaaaaabbbulous! and just in time for Oscar Buzz, Lord Elton!

I always thought He ( Joshua Bar Joseph - The Christ) was a Jewish Carpenter's Apprentice . . .Well Goodbye Yellowbrick Road!
For talk radio I listen to WLS AM/NPR ( for laughs)/Relevant Radio - for news, weather and information. Relevant Radio is Catholic Radio - ( 950 AM) until about 6PM when it becomes Avenue 950 ( Home to the wonderful Skinny and Houli Show which gave Chicago its voice back) with great jazz - Classic Cool!

Don and Roma punctuate every syllable with Healthy Trinity. NPR low-talks news about mistreated Muslims in London who wanted to fight police torture with fertilizer and blasting caps - diversity rocks the Casbah! Relevant Radio presents the news and more - we get great aphorisms beyond Ridley Scott's Gladiator!

What we do in life echoes in eternity. Awesome, Maximus.

On Relevant Radio at drive-time is Father Larry Richards, a stiff collar out of Pittsburgh, PA. He has a great sense of humor. On one show I heard a guest talk about how Pro Lifers are making impacts on young people because they address not only the immediate fears and anxieties of an unwed teen mother-to-be ( school, career hopes, friends, family expectations) as well as the transcendent implications of killing a child. Great stuff.

Lord Elton and his catamite have more substantial porgies in the hot oil.

American Media took the Death of God in 1960's seriously and nailed the Old Guy's Cultural Coffin shut tight. The transcendent - that which reminds us that we are not alone and responsible for what we do every moment is what is lacking in what passes for American culture - this want in our spiritual diet gave us Hope and Change over Courage and Commitment; Graphic Novels (Comic Books) over The Great Books; Jersey Shore over Death of Salesman; Avatar over Best Years of Our Lives; SEIU over American Labor Movement; Abortion and Gay Marriage over the American Family; Carbon Footprint Policing over Mankind.

The Alternative Lifestyle is the norm. Jimmy Kimmell is Alastair Cooke. John Stewart is Walter Cronkite. Keith Olbermann is Oil Can Harry and Rachel Maddow is Ward Bond. Our Media and our public education system and our university group thought have taken the Hegelianism of dopey John Dewey closed the door on Yaweh, Allah, or God. No one told them to shut up, read something or do some hard work.

Relevant Radio is one way to get some transcendence back into our diets. It is Catholic Radio and catholic means universal. I listen to Klezmer music, read Issac B. Singer and still put Mayo on a Bacon Sandwich - give it a try.


Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).

Pied Beauty 1918.

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; 5
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: 10
Praise him.

Polish Catfish Are in Illinois Waters!!!!! Save the Asian Carp - Lock the Dams and Damn the Locks!

Silurus glanis - (Polish - Sum Pospolity) It stands to reason that Polish Catfish are in Illinois Waters - Polish Flag Vessels Sail into Calumet Harbor and - given the Eco Fascists squirming about the Asian Carp - Polish Catfish lurk in Illinois waters. Wait until the GLBT Water Task Force announces these finds -

Latvian Clams
Irish Eel
Pisan Pike
Beluga Bullheads
Belorussian Redears
Swiss Snail-darters
Carpathian Snallies
Greenland Gars
Albigensian Heresies
Fully Kreusaned Flyfishers
Jaegermesiter Saugers

I'm wetting my britches already!!!!

Gee, let's just follow the easy instructions found in the media by helpful glue-sniffers and amyl nitrate wafting activists:

Don't Flush! That's Selfish! Save and Save Your Waist and the Planet!If all Illinois residents would just poop in our handy Blue Barrels placed under their porches and replenished with freshwater from under their gutter downspouts( outside) and extras in their showers ( Inside -Low Flow Heads Only) we would be helping rid this planet of its greatest enemy -Man. Dinah Shure -Huffington Post

Lord , Lord, Lordy, Lord, Lord Catfish a'coming! We are doomed! Again.

The European Catfish is the worlds largest catfish. They are (is)indigenous to continental Europe east of the river Rhine, and are found as far north as Norway. They are voracious carnivores, mainly nocturnal, and given to hiding in dark places under banks and overhanging roots. These monster fish are believed to be able to live for over 100 years, and can grow to enormous sizes. During 2004 several catfish weighing in excess of 60 kilos have been caught in Polish waters.
The Wels catfish is easily distinguished from other catfish by its broad head, truncate caudal fin, mottled coloration and immense size. See a picture of a truely monsterous catfish here.

Catfish feed on live fish, frogs or virtually anything they can swallow that crosses their path! With some patience they can be taught to eat strips of raw meat from your hand. Catfish taste great and have a taste similar to eel. Here are some of our favourite catfish recipes*.

We are happy to offer free advice on the best locations in the west of Poland for MONSTER European Catfish, e.g. the river Obra Legend!

http://polishpoland.com/catfish.htm


*

Battered Beer Catfish

3 lb. catfish
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 12-ounce beer
¼ cup minced onion
3 cups vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium mixing bowl blend flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper together. In a separate medium mixing bowl beat egg well, add beer and minced onions, mix well.
Cut the catfish into 2 inch cubes or strips. Heat the vegetable oil. Roll the catfish into the flour mixture, then dip into the beer-egg mixture, then back into the flour mixture. Place flour and dipped catfish into the deep-fry, cook until golden brown.



Mustard catfish

Hot mustard
Tabasco sauce
minced garlic
salt
black pepper
2 pounds catfish fillets
cornmeal
olive oil

Combine seasonings in plastic storage bag, shaking to form mixture. Add fillets and marinate for up to 4 hours. Drain fillets, dredge in cornmeal and deep fry in fish fryer or pan fry in frying pan until golden brown.

Illinois Politcal Pundits Custis and Thurl Keep It Simple . . .

Hat Tip to Max Weismann.


Custis:"Limut Awl politishuns to twew turms:
Wan in Off-uss. . . "

Thurl: ". . . N'Wan in prisun:Illenoy awlreddy duz this, 'N ut seemz tah bee workin' fur thum. . . . Dawg!"

Custis: " That's no Dawg. That's My Hawg."

Thurl: " I uz talking to the Hawg."

Free George Ryan!

Governor George Ryan was convicted. He was sentenced to six and one half years in a Federal Prison ( first in Oxford, WI and since then Terra Haute, IN), he has been stripped of his pensions and is nearly destitute.

George Ryan was convicted by Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald with the testimonies of political rats like Scott Fawell, Larry Warner, Roger Stanley -" The Hog*" and others.

George Ryan's trial was a kangaroo court played in the media like no other - George Ryan never went on Survivor, nor did Lura Lynn Ryan publicly disgrace herself - you know eat bugs for a TV fee. Carol Marin tried to do that. Judge Pallmayer? You can have her.

I never voted for George Ryan. I was heart-broken by the death of Willis Children, who died due a Secretary of State - pay-to-play political ploy that George Ryan inherited from Illinois Secretary of State/Governor Jim Edgar, but Edgar . . .?

Here is Prosecutor Fitzgerald - whose work on the Blagojevich Looting almost guarantees that Loopy Narcissist will never spend a holiday at Club Fed; Fitz pulled the trigger on Blago, when it appeared that it might interfere with President Obama's Innauguration - it did. Fitzy needed to rework Blago's indictment, because the Supreme Court will overturn the ruling on which George Ryan was convicted - Here's Fitzy!

"Ryan is charged with betraying the citizens of Illinois for over a decade on state business, both large and small. By giving friends free rein over state employees and state business to make profits-and by steering those profits to his friends and, at times, his family-defendant Ryan sold his office." Did he?
I followed the case. Ryan was convicted in the Media.

George Ryan was convicted because the Media and his political enemies and too many of his friends wanted him convicted. The Judge behaved accordingly it seems to me.
It was rigged deal with Real Rats( noted above) doing the knotting.

Free George Ryan!

*

Judge lets 'The Hog' go to Costa Rica to visit his son

Chicago Sun-Times | August 29, 2003 | Steve Warmbir | Copyright (c) 2009 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through ProQuest Information and Learning Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to ProQuest Information and Learning Company. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

The Hog gets to go to Costa Rica.

A federal judge Thursday granted a request by Roger "The Hog" Stanley, a significant player in the corruption under former Gov. George Ryan, to travel to Costa Rica for a week to see his 2-year- old son and try to get the boy a passport so he can visit this country.

Stanley was "ecstatic" with the ruling, his prominent attorney, Michael Ettinger, said.

Stanley, who is getting divorced from his wife in the United States, has the boy from a relationship with another woman living in Costa Rica.

Federal prosecutors "were not crazy"…

Heart warming.

Ash Wednesday - My thoughts turn to The Fox and Pheasant Pub in Chelsea, London

It is Ash Wednesday, I went to Mass this Morning at St. Cajetan's Parish in my neighborhood. I will get ashes in St. Anne, IL where Mrs. Marietta Frogge is being waked.

Death - Memento Mori. Got it. A woman just called and said, "I heard Leo is closing in June." No, Ma'am - not now; not as long as a Lion breathes.

The Lion's breath called to mind the absolutely most lively and soul lifting place on earth. The Fox and Pheasant Pub in Chelsea or London.

Last, chin-waged with worthies there in 1998 in the company of Master Conor Hickey (eight years of age); Mistress Nora Hickey (thirteen) and Patrick Mulligan, BA ( Notre Dame), MA ( U of V), late-of-La Lumiere School.

The Fox and Pheasant was home pub of a retired British Army Colonel who took to Master Conor and daft wagered ( Lord, Yank, you've taken me for another Chocolat Flake! Astounding good luck!)with the Hoosier-born lad ( he said "Dang" quite often in those days)over Lance Armstrong's prospect in the Tour'dFrance.

We chatted with the owners of the Chelsea Football Club*; sundry tradesmen; charming Sloan Rangers and America loving Brits.

The draft (draught) beers came from the now closed Bishops Brewery of Broughton.

All things pass. Memento Mori and remember your change, Yank!

Hidden away in Billing Road, off Fulham Road, you'll find the Fox & Pheasant in this tranquil mews. The theme continues inside with no games machines or music.

There are two bars, both relatively untouched, with low ceilings, pine flooring, painted beams and half panelled walls. The lounge is marginally more comfy. The furnishings are simple; wooden pews and small round tables, the exceptions being a carved fireplace and some very unusual splay-legged chairs.

The bar servery area is classic, with small glass panelled screens forming a booth. A tiny hatch faces the entrance, once used for 'off sales'. The beers are well kept and the service attentive and friendly.

In the mid 19th century, two small cottages were knocked through to create this delightful pub. Then, this area would have been on the edge of the countryside, but although its name implies a country connection, until a few decades ago, it was called the Bedford Arms.

Facilities include a dart board and a nice garden area at the rear which allows children until 5 o'clock. It's adjacent to Chelsea's Football Ground so if you don't like crowds avoid match days.

paulk, 2008-09-26

*http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Splash

God Welcomes Home Marietta Frogge - Martinton, Illinois

Calvin Frogge was a WWII Naval Aviator and after the War he wooed Marietta McCue - Marietta took to Calvin's wooing. These two young Martinton, Illinois kids married and raised two boys on a small farm in Iroquois County, Illinois.

Calvin raised acres of popcorn for Popeye Brand Popcorn and worked as a machinist. Marietta raised the boys, took the piglets into the home in winter, worked the fields, detasseled, cooked for, washed and fed the three men. Everyone went to Mass and everyone prayed on their knees. This was French French Catholic Illinois and only a hectare or two from the Dutch Calvinists in Wichert,IL and the Dutch could break an anvil with prayer.

Marietta and Calvin raised Jim and Tom. Jim and Tom became Catholic High School school teachers and coaches. Both Jim and Tom were standout athletes at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, Illinois. Jim went on to Yale and played football with Brian Dowling and Dick Jauron and was coached by ABC Sportscaster Tim Weigel and then returned to coach and teach Physics and Chemistry at Bishop Mac. Tom went to John Carroll and taught English and coached at Bishop McNicholas High School in Cincinnati, OH.

Calvin and Marietta operated a small farm near the Indiana State line and went to dances at the Knights of Columbus and they acted like the teenagers who fell in love with one another for sixty years. This, I witnessed.

Calvin and Marietta always held hands; always hugged; there was always a tactile recognition of the power and force of the love between them. At weddings and baptisms Calvin was never more than a hand span away from his girl Marietta - Marietta McCue.

At my wedding, in the Knights of Columbus Hall in Kankakee, attended by three hundred members of my family and more than two hundred folks from Kankakee and Iroquois Counties, Calvin and Marietta were about the very last to leave and helped me and Charlie Olson and my brother Kevin load up the gifts and arrange rides for the over served.

Calvin and Marietta were devoted to one another and they were best pals.

Marietta went home to Christ on Monday night in a skilled care facility in Danforth, IL. Calvin is having a very tough time. I lost my best pal in 1998 and it is tough, but God never gives us more than we can handle. Calvin is a tough, wiry Illinois Dirt Farmer, but Calvin managed to woo Marietta McCue.

God grant Calvin Peace. Marietta, as with all women, is way ahead of you, Calvin!

Chicago Journalism - Sneering or Steering: Rich Miller Sneers at 47th Ward Working Stiffs

Sneering is one of the occupational hazards of journalism. It is also one of the most inexcusable. For no one ever sneered without intending to amuse some by hurting others.

Kevin Myers - The Irish Independent
and then here in Illinois we have snarkly little Rich Miller, Eric Zorn, & etc.

Voila!

Question of the day

Thursday, Feb 11, 2010

* Who were the biggest losers on primary day? No snark*, please, and fully explain all your answers. Thanks.

Rich Miller - The Capitol Fax Blog

Anyone over the age of twelve who employs the term snark in prose should be hand tailored into a tight fitting Pork Chop Suit and placed in an Englewood Pit Bull arena - with very high and greasy walls.

Jesus Christ Almighty! These prissy mopes probably say 'Off the Hook!' and 'It's Money!' and watch Jonas Brothers on You Tube! I tend to sneer at powerful and influential people who nevertheless need to belittle powerless and voiceless people.
I will probably go to Hell for sneering ( an eternity of NPR/Studs Terkel Ramblings & etc), but at least I do not snark.

Snark means you are too tired, wan and Oh So bored to make a snide remark and thus snark. I am vigorous! A vigorous pain in the ass, to be sure, but Vigorous! I readily sneer at powerful and fatuous Puffer Fish.


Snark is one of our Birkenstock neologisms meant to allow one to sneer at someone or thing and somehow avoid a much needed ass-kicking.

Last Thursday, Rich Miller's snark-free Capital Fax Blog asked readers and commenters to tally whom they felt to be The Biggest Losers in the Illinois Primary. This followed the previous Day's Snark Free
catalog of winners.

Snarkless Rich Miller tallied his own losers to include this

- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 11, 10 @ 11:19 am:
. . . 47th Ward Regular Democratic Organization: The hacks can’t hack it no more. In fact, they haven’t been able to hack it for years. Ann Williams was the final nail in their pathetic coffin.

Snark, snark, snark (cough) and snark Again!

Euphues - the Anatomy Wit in Illinois needs a proctologist!

I was directed to the Miller Snark-ology by a 47th Ward Regular Democratic worker. This is a guy who takes a day off of work . . .actually many days . . .to gather valid signatures for candidates ( very often Progressive meatheads for whom no one would do a thing, but politics being about addition & etc.), stuff door fixtures and mailboxes, hang posters, put together, deliver and post political signs and speak well of candidates though saying that "Yes, Julie Hamos and Jan Schakowsky did ,in fact, resemble Margaret Sanger on them old gold coins, might have brought up his morning's Red Bull.

I like Ward and Precinct workers. I do not care for Snarking Loudmouths and Quicksilver Bigshots. . . .it's just me.

You see, Ann Williams ( of whom Miller and SEIU/Progressives wildly approve) defeated Dan Farley ( a sound and good man). Hence, the Miller Snarkless, mind you, sneer.

Capitol Fax Blog is the Illinois Must Read!!!! . . . I don't. I gave it a pass a few years ago when it seemed to me SEIU and other paying entities wanted more bang for their bucks and posts were edited accordingly.

I do know, without Rich Miller's assistance, that Alderman Gene Schulter runs a Ward Organization that is Service Oriented - Schulter gets elected and elected and elected and elected. He never seems to want for volunteers and help from many,many, many people. Not only John Fritchey would be no where near where he believes himself to be without the Hacks that can't Hack it, but many other Really BLUE - Ain't She Great Democrats who could not find a Chinaman on 22nd Street.

Rich Miller is a snark - Big Snarker; V.I.P. Way Important Snarker. The Hacks are little insignificant and hard working people who get other people elected. The Hacks just might go a Hunting for the Snark. That'd make some great reading.

*Snark -Combination of "snide" and "remark". Sarcastic comment(s).
Also snarky (adj.) and snarkily (adv.)

Bob Whitfield - Chicago Historian Credits Both Mayor Daleys with Chicago's Glorious Architecture

Mayor Richard M. Daley is hammered by everyone: the Media that licks his hand and then bites the fingers that feed and sustain it; the public employees who work for the City and Mayor; Rainbow of Coalitions that Mayor Daley tries to appease and please; the hacks on the outs and hacks who can never really get in in; the over taxed residents and the guys who begin their drinking day at the earliest possible opening hour.

Mayor Richard M. Daley can't get a kind word that lasts longer than a snow flake on a hot griddle - or a perfunctory "thank you" for a favor granted.

I never had a public job - thank God. I vote and I talk to people who actually vote.

One gentleman with whom I have exchanged thoughts on the Chicago public scene is a southern gentleman and Chicago resident since the mid 1970's - lawyer and architectural historian Robert Whitfield.

Mr. Whitfield is remarkable for his thick resume and experiences as a Citizen of the World - grew up in New Orleans, lived in Paris, London, and New York, but holds Chicago as the greatest City of the Planet.

Chicago is a cultural composite of the best that Europe has to offer, New York apes, and the lesser cities Xerox. Mr. Whitfield attributes this greatness in large part to the architectural glories and the two Chicago mayors who made this possible - Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley.

Mr. Whitfield has developed a manuscript that cites the two Chicago Schools of Building Design - the one marked by Burnham/Sullivan/Root and the other by Mies Van der Rhoe/Lohan/Murphy & Jahn -culminating in the magnificent Millenium Park.

Mr. Whitfield has met some political opposition from "locked in" architects with great power in getting his manuscript taken to the next level. Hey, this is Chicago! Politics is everywhere - getting your kid onto a T-Ball Team (". . . see Mr. Crotty up at McGuffigan Park") to getting your wife placed away from the kitchen door in a restaurant. If you are Lois Weisberg, no reservations needed. If you have to be the Widow Gert Schatzmann from McKinley Park and Old St. Maurice's over by Archer, we shall see. Oh, so sorry. Gert is S.O.L. - seated out in the lobby ( and you thought I'd make some low-minded, south side gutter-snipe vulgarity).

Mayor Richard M. Daley could use a genuine thank you from a real Chicago Booster - Bob Whitfield. Maybe some one who rides the same elevator up to Five could pass this on.

Pass this on to His Honor.

Click my post title for a few of Bob Whitfield's Favorite Buildings and Loop Streetscapes.

My favorite view of Chicago is the inner drive south bound - at night - coming up on the Field Museum. Glorious City!

There is no single volume history of the First Chicago School of Architecture in the 19th century and the Second Chicago School in the 20th century. Consequently, there is very little public understanding of the powerful continuity between the pragmatic American modern architecture in the 19th century produced in Chicago and the modern architecture produced in Chicago by Mies van der Rohe and the Second Chicago School in the 20th century. Furthermore, I am unaware of any publication which emphasizes the importance of the contribution made by Richard J. Daley and his son as powerful patrons of Chicago architecture in the 20th century. In my opinion, it is very important that the historic record of modern architecture and the city of Chicago be corrected in regard to both of these matters.

Robert Whitfield 2010

Andy Thayer and Why Chicago's Media Refuses to Connect the Dots: Gays Disrupt Catholic Mass and that is Okay - even Heart Warming

Gay Activists who disrupt a Sunday Mass make a heart-warming story for the Chicago Tribune. Only last week, Chicago Tribune Religion ( 'Spiritual but not all that Rules Stuff') Columnist Manya Brachear smeared the Catholic Campaign "Catholics Come Home." Ms. Brachear took an opportunity to portray the Catholic Faith as an oppressive mind set - divorce is not taken lightly in the Church and, for Manya, well, that's just mean.


Manya Brachear would probably not find this incident and point of view particularly mean:

. . . 100 men and women who had gathered outside the cathedral Sunday morning to protest the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage and other stances that they see as unjust to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
The protesters waved rainbow flags and shouted slogans like, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go!" and, "Holy Name, holy shame!"

It wasn't the first time gay-rights activists have protested on Valentine's Day as a chance to champion equal rights and target the Catholic Church.

Last year, the Gay Liberation Network helped organize a march from the city building in which marriage licenses are issued to Holy Name to show support for gay marriage, said Andy Thayer, the group's co-founder.

"We want to drag the church's bigotry out of the closet," said Thayer*, 49.

Now, that is a non-sequitur for the ages Andy! If the famous bigotry is so evident it must therefore be out of the closet - Everyone knows, Fabulous! Then, how is your protest making the Evident Bigotry public?

Black Churches tend to be pretty up-front about Homosexuals and Homosexuals are not welcome it seems to me. A real head scratcher that one. Andy are Gays/Lesbian/Bisexuals and Transsexuals AFRO-phobic? Hmmmm?

Andy Thayer - please, take your crusade to some Chicago's firebrand African American* Churches and avoid the sting of the charge of Racism in the GLBT Community. Why exclude Black Churches from your civil disobedience?

The Chicago Tribune will never ask those questions - cowards parse and obfuscate.


Here's why. Black Churches are off limits to Progressives. So are Muslims. So are Jews. Catholics are open to hostility in the Emersonian/Thorouean/Progressive Movement. "Hey, hey! Ho, Ho, Homo Bigots Gotta Go!"

Yesterday, Andy Thayer, who works for Lawsuit Lotto Lawyer Jon Loevy - who makes millions of dollars by suing the Chicago Police whenever an arrest ne'er-do-well drops an eye-lash, led a screamingly shrill group of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/and Transsexual ( GLBT)Activists to the steps of Holy Name Cathedral, It was St. Valentine's Day and what better way to tell the same-gender bedmate in one's life that your impulses are activism than howling at Catholics.

Gays are not allowed to marry in the Catholic Church.

Capitalists are not welcome in the Communist Party of America.

However, Andy Thayer is not only a GLBT Activist, but a stout anti-Police Brutality Activist and a shrill Anti-War Activist. Andy Thayer is there.

The Chicago Tribune makes the planned and co-ordinated assault on American Catholics' Freedom to Worship seem like a spontaneous grassroots event. No Dots are ever connected when a story is meant to present Progressive Agenda tale.

Simple blokes like myself read the newspapers and watch the news and we seem to recognize the network of involvement by Chicago's very few Andy Thayers. Google an Andy Thayer and then count up his press coverage. Errol Flynn on a bender never got such coverage. One must ask . . . oh, one must, because Andy Thayer does not conduct zesty and loud protests at Black Churches on West and South Sides -opting for the Gold Coast insularity and PC protection at Holy Name Cathedral, Could it be that Andy Thayer is coward and hypocrite as well as a celebrated activists of all agendas?

Gotta ask, because Meg Twohmey of Chicago Tribune sure as Hell did not .

Black Churches and their worshippers are militant and devout. Knowing many Black Ministers and their congregants the way I do, I believe that Andy Thayer's organized hypocrisy and closet bigotry ( seems like Andy the GLBT Activists hate Black People) are taking the coward's way out in avoiding 'equal opportunity' protests. Perhaps not.

Andy Thayer goes big target Catholic Church, because Catholics rarely ever push back.
When we do the parsing and obfuscation begins -"Well, How Can Deny Two Lovers the Right to Marry?"

Well, Jasper, hetero sexual ( breeders) who do not seem suited can also be denied the Sacrament of Marriage. They might need to marry outside of the Church while their passions dampen on the way civil disunion - divorce. My editor over at Chicago Daily Observer reminded me of great quote from a Cdobs article that ran last year.

Several Months ago, a Catholic monk wrote a fine piece in the Chicago Daily Observer.
In reaction the New York Times - the Progressive Anti-Catholic Flagship - that could not avoid giving some Trappist Monks a slap in what should have been a 'feel good' story. Brother Stephen wrote

In the progressive intellectual frame, there are only three kinds of Catholics: Unaccountable powerful men (who are quite probably libidinous, and nefarious), ignorant and oppressed masses (preferably with colorful customs and heart-warming aspirations for self betterment), and unexpectedly intelligent and altruistic people who are credits to the race (or to the religion, as it might be). The best we could hope for was a credit to our race story, which is largely what we got.

The Chicago print and electronic media is dominated by a Progressive mind-set that wants to obliterate the fact that Chicago remains a Catholic City Culture. Pounding out Catholic pimp-slap stories like Manya Brachear's or presenting GBBT assaults on worshippers as merely the extension of Emersonian Americanism is means by which Progressive Agenda Victim addicted Editorial Boards reach out to less insightful brothers and sisters.

In response to the smears by Andy Thayer's loudmouths, Archdiocese of Chicago Spokesperson Colleen Dolan gave a rock solid answer to the assault squad of GLBN and Andy Thayer that will have Bruce Dold and his pious band of Progressive Star Chamber Editors rolling their piggy little eyes, "They may not like it, but it's the teaching of the church that marriage is between one man and one woman," Dolan said. "Those of us in the church don't get to choose what the teachings are." ( Megan Twohey Chicago Tribune)


The Church Militant needs to get so.

* from Democratic Underground:


black pastors are speaking out against gays
A growing number of black pastors are speaking out against gays, with many claiming that the "homosexual agenda" is the No. 1 problem facing black America. 4/28

Rev. Gregory Daniels
The Rev. Gregory Daniels says if he 'chose' not to be gay, so can others. And they should, he adds, because homosexuality is destroying black America.
Read More

Face Right
Black Religious Opposition to Gays Rising
By Brentin Mock

Bishop Eddie Long takes to the pulpit wearing a crisp, two-piece suit. Long’s been known to dress down in tight muscle shirts and leather vests when preaching, but for this sermon it's business attire. A flock of young men from his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta surround Long's pulpit.

"We're raising our young boys to be just like the women," he bellows to his congregation, which today numbers more than 25,000 people. "We keep telling men to get in touch with their sensitive self."

Almost 45 minutes into the sermon, captured on a videotape that is for sale in his church's bookstore, Bishop Long grows louder and angrier...........




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Southtown Star's Steve Metsch Nails a Great Story! Rock and Roll St. Laurence High School

St. Laurence High School in Burbank, IL ( roughly 77th & Central Ave. over by State Road, what's by the Olde Barn Restaurant) is run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

A young teacher at St. Laurence*, Fine arts director Frank Loulousis, has swelled the arts program by introducing Rock and Roll.

Well done!

Southtown Star Ace Reporter and Solid Commentator Steve Metsch ( an agenda-free writer BTW) nailed a terrific report on this great story.


Here's a taste:

They rehearsed in a room with a poster reading "Live to Play Live."
That they do.
After ripping through "Werewolf," a song by Every Time I Die, Mullen discussed what the club means to him.
"I've been drumming about five years. This club definitely helped me. Playing every day, improving every day, coming back, sounding better and better.

Click my Post Title for the Full Magilla! Great Job Steve!

Go Vikings! * Colors Gold and Black and you gotta love Mitch Ryder!