Glory but an empty name;
Spite of all that I have gone through,
’Tis, I find, a losing game:
Without interest, without money,
Nothing can a soldier gain;
Though he be the sole survivor
Of a host of comrades slain:
What avail these glitt’ring honours,
Which a queen laid on my breast;
Though I’ve sought them from my childhood,
Would I’d fallen with the rest:
Then my heart had not been broken
Life had fled without a sigh;
Hunger presses—I am fainting—
Ought a soldier thus to die? - The Old Shekarry
n.b. from the word shikaree, or hunter
“I actually am calling you about, I think you appoint his replacement, don’t you,” Pritzker said in one 2008 call.
Pritzker was asking about a report that Blagojevich was going to appoint Alexi Giannoulias “to something in Washington.” Giannoulias was the state treasurer at the time and if he was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, it would have opened a vacancy for the treasurer’s position, which Pritzker wanted. . . . “We still have politicians in this state who are on the take. We’ve got to get rid of them. We’ve got to make sure that we find them out. We’ve got to make sure they get prosecuted.” JB Pritzker the Illinois Panic Governor and pandering panjandrum.
n.b. - the old BS
Part IV - Outlaw Yarns of Longbeach
Recap Parts I-III
Wesley Dioneo is the only son of Chicagoland real estate tycoon, Martin Dioneo and his society maven wife Allyson. Martin Dioneo caught the COVID-19 virus from his Laplander personal trainer and is on a ventilator in Chicago's Northwestern Medical Center. Allyson is holed up in the couple's massive east Lake Shore Drive apartment building a score of yards from the iconic Drake Hotel.
Allyson has sent Wesley Dioneo to the family get-away home at Stop 30 lake Shore Drive in Long Beach, Indiana. Wesley is a senior at St. Ignatius College Prep and had been since the school shut down on March 16, 2020. Ally immediately sent Wesley to Long Beach, where he can be safe.
Wesley invites over his pals and trusted companions, the Nardo Bothers and Habib( Declan & Brian) and Habib Samer for a few days of social distancing, Super Smash Brothers and Pater Dioneo's Czech beer cellar. The quartet do what young men do - eat, play and spirit up the atmosphere with verbal assaults upon cant and cowardice.
___________
The Martin Dioneo house at Stop 30 Lake Shore Drive in Long Beach sits on the dune above the lake. Long Beach was created as a resort town for weekend getaways salving the bumps and bruises of the affluent from Chicago. There are three Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes in this beach community, where females out number the males. This haven is thick with Irish Catholics from Chicago's once blue collar neighborhoods who have made it in politics, the markets, the courts, or through honest knavery.
The Dioneo House*, is modest for a real estate mogul and at $1.5 million dollars offers the connection to the middle class that helps keep Martin Dioneo grounded and centered beyond his fabulous wealth. His father, Bosco, helps with that and steers his son and grandson back to the real people and away from the celebrated lamprey eels who swim only to find new life sustaining backs to do their swimming. Long Beach, indiana boasts a few of such.
Hunter Biden resides here and the former Vice President and would-be President has a habit of stumbling upon youthful beach bonfire parties and offering a little of touch of Uncle Joe in the night.
Long Beach is a happy community of year round residents and their weekender neighbors. Martin loved getting away to his house above the waters.
Now, ventilated and under constant care at Northwestern Medical Center, Martin is in a medically induced coma under constant care and attention. What goes on in that coma is Martin's to know. He was a heavy cigarette and cigar smoker, until this past year and the virus spawned by that bat dinner in Wuhan is no friend of pink gray or black lungs. Mrs. Dioneo, Ally, saw no purpose in wringing hands and hovering near her cell phone and got herself appointed to Governor Pritzker's COVID-19 Task Force where used her entitled voice on all matters medical and political.
Ally sent Wesley to Long Beach - away from harm and out of from under her feet. Wesley was cool with that.
In this time of the Coronavirus plague many youthful refugees find themselves isolated and lonely. Wesley Dioneo never gets bored.
Wesley plays chess on the computer, writes essays to himself on many subjects and plans his next moves beyond the pampered nests that he is privileged to call his homes. He is accepted at Yale, Princeton and Northwestern for the Fall of 2020. However, Wesley Dioneo has been infected by his grandfather Bosco with a sense of obligation to God, Nation and himself. Bosco lost a number of toes from the retreat from Chosin Reservoir in 1950 and added a level of honor that seems far above of the reach of lesser men and women. Wesley's sense of honor and duty is as terminal, but as yet untested.
After two weeks of isolation and unable to take in the glories of Spring in Indiana - the dogwood is emerging from cold black bark of Winter's Maples, Cedars, White Pines and the Black, Blue and Green Ashes. The pines are thick and unchanging and so is this self-Quarantined life.
" Brian are you working for your Dad?" The Nardo Brothers worked at the family's Submarine Sandwich Shoppe on Karwick Road.
" Wesley, how is your Dad? and No he and Mom have suspended operations for a few days until they get an Ok from the City about PPI's , sanitizers and plastic screens. We are free for the time being."
" Dad is still in the coma and no change. This sucks. My Grandpa goes to Northwestern every day and gets turned away. Mom is working with the governor. You and Corm want to stay over for a couple of days? Dad's cellar is load -ED with Staropranen and KruĊĦovice. ... let's fire up Smash Bros and tell tales. Habib is getting dropped off when his Mom goes to the hospital. He says she is expected to be on call forever, now. How about the girls? Think they can get away? "
The girls were six lovely ladies who had been friends and even 'dates' with the four young Social Distancing Outlaws.
Principally they are - Addison Pawliak, Paisley Ewan, Aaliyah Justice, Genesis Mullen, Kennedy Lynch, and Amy Kinsley Briddlestone. They seemed a Northwest Indiana demographic composite. Addison was a second generation Steel Family girl who worked as car hop at Carlson's Drive-in on Coolspring. Paisley's father and mother were partners with Winston & Strawn. Aaliyah Justice and Genesis Mullen were cousins whose grandfather was pastor of the most important AME Church in Michigan located in the Pines along Route 12, Kennedy Lynch's father had been the long-time principal of Notre Dame Grammar School, until a teacher accused him of verbal sexual harassment. The Gary Diocese went along with the specious claim and summarily discharged a wonderful and effective school man, Such are the times and customs of a people who abandon their liberties out of fear. Last among this garland of roses was Amy Briddlestone, whose family owned a horse riding academy near LaPorte on Johnson Road.
Amy Briddlestone had set her cap for the carelessly dashing Wesley Dioneo and had teased Habib in order to find her way into the meditative Mr. Dioneo's heart.
The four young men caucused up first for twelve hours of Smash Brothers and ice cold Czech beers with pizzas and snacks engineered from the Dioneo larder.
Wesley descanted, " Gentlemen! You three have been my anchor and my engine. I have never wanted with men such as yourselves, Were we garrisoned on the Pecos and facing hordes of Comanche, I know that each one of you would spend his last .44 in my defense. That said, I propose that when we have best one another on the game console and quaffed just the right amount of Saromparmen, that we organize a story fest with the women. Each of you will tell a story and I will judge the best of the lot. The prize will be my kayak."
A chord of notes accompanied the outburst of "Dude" in a triangle of spontaneous agreement.
When the ladies would arrive the next day at 1 PM, Nine tale tellers would compete for the kayak. In the mean time, Declan told this yarn.
" A few years ago, my freshman year at La Lumiere, I met John Paxson the Boss of Bulls. We were shooting outside the paint and in came the man who scored the winning basket in 1993 - Old # 5!!1 Well, he and I played horse."
Declan, a stocky but solidly athletic man of 6' with a bush of black curly hair often referred to as a JewFro, was greeted with trio of disbelieving voices, including his Irish twin brother Brian who also played for the La Lumiere Lakers and was teammate of Declan and present when John Paxson made a visit to the National Champion's Marsch Gym.
" NO WAY!!!! You lying sack of shit, Declanc! WHEN? When, did you best John Macbeth Paxson at horse? "
Nonplussed? ( I love that contronym!) Not a bit! Declan drew himself to his full 6' of manhood and rejoined, " Look, Dipshit, you and the Champions were bored with the old man and hit the showers and the Main House as quick as boiled asparagus. I however, eschewed the buffet and played the man. H. O. R.S. E. that's horse and no horseshit. He was cool. He wasn't always bald you know."
Declan would take his tale to the grave.
Declan was an Outlaw and an honest man.
PART V - Enter the Ladies
*"One of the best buys on the water, this well-built home sits on 60 x 125 lot with 5 bedrooms 3.5 baths, and fantastic views from every level. Great opportunity to create your own memories at your own private beach! After a fun day of swimming and romping in the sand, more fun awaits on the deck where you can watch the sunset and hear the beautiful sound of the waves. Many updates over recent years, including roof, gutters, down spouts, and new Thermopane Anderson windows. This is a prime location offers plenty of parking space for guests (6-7 spaces!) plus an attached 2-car garage, won't last,"
