Thursday, October 30, 2014

So Long as Candidates Like Jim Oberweis Run, The GOP in Illinois is Done - Toast, Fork Ready





The Illinois GOP is stuck on stupid and regular Democrats from the evaporating middle class are force fed mediocrities every election cycle..  Candidates ( Dem or GOP) for high State of Illinois offices always allow the Progressive ( read nasty, leftist smug cranks) Democrats to define them. As a result, voters must always hold the nose and vote.

There are no Democrats anymore; there are only Progressive scripted worshippers at the altar of the  Illinois Secular Trinity:( Saul Alinsky, Dr. Quentin Young and Abner Mikva)  who control the gold and silver talents in the Temple of Middle Class Doom.  With enough money and a very compliant Chicago media, mediocrities can be presented to the Chicago citizen as later-day  saints, like Jan Schalowsly, Mike Quigley, Dick Durbin and the Governor of Illinois.  The individual gored ox goes a long way in getting middle class worker bees out on the hustings and into the polling booth, to be sure, but nothing works for the Progressive machine like the GOP.

Witness debate number two between Senator Dick Durbin and Notre victime de ce cycle - Jim Oberweis.

Jim Oberweis allowed Durbin to tell Illinois voters exactly what the Prog Dems want him to be = “Jim Oberweis has the most extreme position on gun control of any major candidate in Illinois,”   Gun control?

Again, “It’s so amusing to watch him race to the tea party to win the primary and race as fast away as he can when it comes time for the general election,”  the Tea Party?

The same groups of earnest people who want stay in the middle class and whom Durbin unleashed the IRS upon?  Yep.  Jim Oberweis rolled over like the Chiweenie he happens to be and Durbin did not even give Jim's belly a tickle. “I’ve never been a member,”  Oberweis whimpered.   Durbin could have called Oberweis a member of the June Taylor Dancers and a Nazi war criminal and allowed the defining to roll.

Until, the GOP develops something like a backbone.  Illinois and the middle class will continue to be the Little Miss Punching Bag of America.  Grow a pair. 





Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Oberweiss Campaign and Last Night's Debate



Illinois politics is a dog fight - a fight between two dogs. At last night's debate, Dachshund Dick Durbin showed up and Chiweenie Jim Oberweiss submitted.

Hence: 
In the Primary Dachshund Dick went unopposed and Chiweenie Jim outspent a man who stands on two legs

This political minute was brought to you by the Illinois Combine

So long, Jim!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fight The War on Women! Don't Lecher. Let's Move. . .to the Kitchen.

 



 Lechery -noun: "excessive or offensive sexual desire; lustfulness." Webster's Dictionary
Kinkiness comes from low energy. It's the substitution of lechery for lust. Germaine Greer: "A groupie's vision" (October 1969),

I detest lechery.  There is nothing more unbecoming a man void of Christian backbone, manly steel and American patriotism, than to act the leering fob and dandy moueing daintily but with an undercurrent of threat at a winsome maid, or mouthing veiled intentions of delights to come. Pathetic.

Thank God, for all of the daughters of Sappho who happen to be the leading voices Feminism, pitching up the tone of battle-song in this our current and eternal War on Women.

Hell, I surrendered to the superior gender decades ago.

To Ms, Greer's point cited above as the last refuge of us lazy scoundrels. Lechery is a lazy man's lust.  Lechery begets the objectification of women. I'll have none of it!  I am an energetic satyr!!!!  A good natured goat and a randy roisterer.

To fight lechery I stay brisk with the spatula, bowl and whisk!  Cook baby!

Here is my cooked offering.

                                        Hickey’s Don’t Lecher Meatloaf*

Ingredients

·                                 1 pound lean ground beef
·                                 1/2 pound ground veal (or more ground beef)
·                                 1/2 pound ground lean pork
·                                 2 eggs
·                                 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
·                                 3/4 cup chopped parsley
·                                 1/2 cup finely chopped chives
·                                 3 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped  and 1 tablespoon dried basil 
·                                 Thick cut Bacon slices to cover top
·                                 2 dashes each Tabasco, Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce (long arm dashes)


Directions

·                                 1
Preheat oven to moderate (350°F).
·                                 2
Put on chefs gloves or sandwich bags (disposable and not brown paper) In a clean mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients except the bacon slices. Using the hands, blend well - work the hell out of it. You do not want a typical breaks too easy meatloaf.
·                                 3
Line a nine-inch pie plate with aluminum foil and shape the meat mixture into an oval loaf. Place the loaf on the foil and cover with bacon slices.
·                                 4
Bake one and one-half hours. Do not eat !!!!!   Put it in the icebox and eat something else.   Chill over night. Slice thinly and serve over red onion circle on good coarse pumpernickel bread. 
 Photo

Woman can't get enough of my cold meat loaf and rough cut pumpernickel!

* a carnal interpretive hand dance in and through the chuck, pig and baby calf derived from the New York Times Book of Recipes. 

Monday, October 20, 2014

If Quinn Don't Win, Illinois Could Become as Soul-less As Fenwick (Quinn's Alma Mater Not Anymore)



He's a Soul Man.

". . . and I feel that my high school( Fenwick)  has lost its soul," - Governor Pat Quinn March 15, 2013

“We're in the fight of our lives for the soul of our democracy,” - Governor Pat Quinn October 19,2014

Does Governor Pat Quinnhave custody of soul?  The metaphysical matter that is Caused and Causes?  The Immortal human essence?  Let's find out 
Vote Accordingly. 


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Governor Pat Quinn - Old Twitters and the Staties



Pat Quinn" Hey Trooper, you're blonde right?"


State Trooper, " That's afirmative, Governor.
Pat Quinn, " I just got a text from Mike Madigan about my polling. What does IDK stand for?"
State Trooper "'I don’t know,' Governor."
Pat Quinn "OMG, nobody does!"

Friday, October 10, 2014

Tours - A Macro-Historical Victory over Islam, A City in France and Home of a Soldier Saint


Macro-history is an attempt to create a model of the cultural-historical process that will explain historical change for all societies-civilizations. The proposed model operates in the spirit of the social sciences, not as a philosophy, focused on patterns of change and not some goal or end of history. It was developed as an alternative to the various myths of progress current in the West from Liberalism to Marxism, and should be tested both empirically and theoretically.

Hey, that's nice.  I see things from a moving vehicle most times.

I drive the Dan Ryan Expressway every morning (southbound) after picking up Leo High School students on my northbound weave through Englewood, Grand Crossing, Bronzevill, Bridgeport and Canaryville.  At 59th Street, the west side view is dominated by the Gothic magnificence of Chicago Embassy Church, formerly known as St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church.

For decades, this beautiful view was magnified by a gold-leaf statue of a horseman with beggar  by his side.  That statue was blown down by a huge of gust of Chicago wind.  The statue represented n event in th elife of Roman cavalryman stationed in Gaul (France) in 317 AD,  The soldier was MartinSanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316 – 8 November 397) 
He was still an unbaptized catechumen when he was forced to join the army at 15. The Roman army apparently had a law that required sons of veterans to serve in the military. Still, Martin found this so far removed from his desire to be a Christian monk that he had to be held in chains before taking the military oath. Once the oath was administered he felt bound to obey. He was assigned to a ceremonial cavalry unit that protected the emperor and rarely saw combat. Like his father, he became an officer and eventually was assigned to garrison duty in Gaul (present-day France).
Even in the military Martin attempted to live the life of a monk. Though he was entitled to a servant because he was an officer, he insisted on switching roles with his servant, cleaning the servant's boots instead of the other way around!
It was on this garrison duty at Amiens that the event took place that has been portrayed in art throughout the ages. On a bitterly cold winter day, the young tribune Martin rode through the gates, probably dressed in the regalia of his unit -- gleaming, flexible armor, ridged helmet, and a beautiful white cloak whose upper section was lined with lambswool. As he approached the gates he saw a beggar, with clothes so ragged that he was practically naked. The beggar must have been shaking and blue from the cold but no one reached out to help him. Martin, overcome with compassion, took off his mantle. In one quick stroke he slashed the lovely mantle in two with his sword, handed half to the freezing man and wrapped the remainder on his own shoulders. Many in the crowd thought this was so ridiculous a sight that they laughed and jeered but some realized that they were seeing Christian goodness. That night Martin dreamed that he saw Jesus wearing the half mantle he had given the beggar. Jesus said to the angels and saints that surrounded him, "See! this is the mantle that Martin, yet a catechumen, gave me." When he woke, it was the "yet a catechumen" that spurred Martin on and he went immediately to be baptized. He was eighteen years old.

Martin later refused to use his weapons in a coming battle.  He told his commander that he would not spill blood, but he was no coward.  Martin declared, " I am a soldier of Christ."  To prove so, he offered to be placed unarmed and in the front-center of the infantry.  This impressed his leaders, but the enemy surrendered before battle was given and Martin was allowed out of army when his time was up.  He became a priest and most reluctantly, the Bishop of Tours.

Martin of Tours was St. Francis of Assisi one thousand years before that lovable saint was born.  He was a capable administrator, even though he spent a great deal of time tending to the poor and sick and he was also a tireless defender of Catholic teachings, though most persons tended to be druids, or army camp followers of the cult of Mithra.  Martin, a soldier, led from the front and over time his example changed hearts.  Tours became wealthy center of trade and also philanthropy. For the next 400 years Tours flourished in finance, but more so in faith.

During this time, a great challenge to Christianity swept out of the Arabian deserts, conquered Roman Syria  Eygpt, Carthaginian North Africa and most of Spain.  The Sword of Islam wielded by The Prophet and the Caliphate (his successors) forced all other faiths and folk to submit to the Koran or pay the tax, or face beheading.  Most submitted with no problem, or paid up.  No one knows the exact numbers of the decapitated

A group of Germanic gents, The Franks, had settled in Roman occupied Gaul, converted to Christianity, yet retained their warlike impulses for slaughter with the scientific application of martial strategy from the Romans. One especially fierce Christian was Charles of the Austarasian Franks. When the Caliphate moved into Gaul Charles and his like-minded cousins were having none of it. They adopted a strategy.

The Battle of Tours (often called the Battle of Poitiers, but not to be confused with the Battle of Poitiers, 1356) was fought on October 10, 732 between forces under the Frankish leader Charles Martel and a massive invading Islamic army led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman, near the city of Tours, France. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and Emir Abd er Rahman was killed. This battle stopped the northward advance of Islam from the Iberian peninsula, and is considered by most historians to be of macrohistorical importance, in that it halted the Islamic conquests, and preserved Christianity as the controlling faith in Europe, during a period in which Islam was overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires. 
Franks, led by Charles Martel. Estimates of the Frankish army defending Gaul vary, but by most accounts were between 15,000 and 75,000. Losses according to St. Denis were about 1,500.
Muslims, between 60,000 and 400,000 cavalry, (most likely closer to the lower number) under Abd er Rahman; besides source differences, this army is difficult to estimate in size, since it was often fractured into raiding parties to carry out the pillaging and plundering of various richly cultured Frankish centers; however, the entire Muslim army was present at Tours by Arab accounts. During the six days he waited to begin the Battle, Abd er Rahman recalled all those columns raiding and pillaging, so that on the seventh day, when by both eastern and western accounts the Battle began, both armies were at full strength. . . . No later Muslim attempts against Asturias or the Franks was made as conflict between what remained of the Umayyad Dynasty, (which was the Umayyad Emirate and then Caliphate of Iberia) and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad prevented a unified assault on Europe. It would be another 700 years before the Ottomans managed to invade Europe via the Balkans.
Christianity and Western culture was saved.    Art, music, philosophy and architecture continued to reflect man's debt to God and despite the obvious misdeeds of Christian kings and popes and their minions - beautiful music, magnificent paintings and sculpture and the printed word moved men toward things eternal.  Judeo - Christian man lived to aspire as well as submit to God's majesty.  Name a great Muslim composer.

Martin of Tours gave a beggar a cloak and that act gave us a capella song and chaplains.  Both words come from that deed. Imagine if Charles the Frank had decided to cave to the Caliphate. or parse his submission in surrender?  Charles became known as The Hammer - Charles Martel. From his wild loins came a breed that produced Europe's greatest king Charlemagne, or Karl Der Grosse to our German cousins. Charles The Hammer saved the city of Tours and also knowledge of Martin of Tours.



On the Dan Ryan Expressway at 59th Street, just past the L tracks St. Martin of Tours remains in grey limestone pointing back to God.





Thursday, October 09, 2014

Old Schools Football: Mount Carmel v. Leo at the Kroc Center October 10th



It will be Melee Mighty Mangles from every sort of angle, when the Carvan comes into the Lion's House!



The hits will keep happening, of that you may be sure . . .Outcome?  A great game between two Chicago Catholic League traditions when Brown and Cream tries to dominate Orange and Black.

Be at the Kroc Center for two great games

JV - Mount Carmel at Leo 5PM
Varsity - Mount Carmel at Leo 7:30 PM

At the Ray and Joan Kroc Center : Home of the Leo Lions

t's Senior Night at tomorrow's varsity football game against Mt. Carmel at the Kroc Center (1250 W. 119th St., Chicago). Come celebrate our senior class and the last regular home game of the season. Our Frosh-Soph plays at 5:00 p.m. and Varsity at 7:30 p.m.

Take the Dan Ryan from the North or South and exit 119th and go east a few blocks - there is ample parking, so do not be afraid to bring your ample.   

My Vote - This November 4, 2014 in Precinct 23 of the 19th Ward of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

 

Poll Watcher - "Make sure you fill in the whole circle where you vote, Mr. Hickey."


       This will be the most contrarian vote of my citizenship in these USes of A.  I have voted in every election since I cast my first vote for Tricky Dick in 1972 - thanks so muckinfuch Michael Shakman, Jesse Jackson, Abner Mikva and Billy Singer.

I voted Democrat in every Presidential Election from Carter up to Obama '08.

We have evolved, we are told and my evolution as a voting citizen requires that I choose many fatuous blowhards over more complete blowhards, feebs and dummies.

                                   This is the La Brea Tar pits of Electoral Evolution!


How I will cast my ballot in th early voting follows - my votes are underscored.

                                              General Election Candidate List, November 4, 2014
                                                         Punch No. Party Status Candidate
United States Senator 
1 Democratic Richard J. Durbin Candidate
2 Republican James D. "Jim" Oberweis Candidate         
3 Libertarian Sharon Hansen Candidate

Illinois Governor

Governor & Lieutenant
Democratic Candidate
Pat Quinn &
Paul Vallas

Republican Candidate
Bruce Rauner & 
Evelyn Sanguinetti

 Libertarian Candidate
Chad Grimm &
Alexander Cummings


Attorney General 

Democratic Lisa Madigan Candidate
Republican Paul M. Schimpf Candidate
Libertarian Ben Koyl Candidate


"What is taking him so long?"

Secretary of State 
Democratic Jesse White Candidate
Republican Michael Webster Candidate
Libertarian Christopher Michel Candidate

Comptroller 
Democratic Sheila Simon Candidate
Republican Judy Baar Topinka Candidate
Libertarian Julie Fox Candidate

Treasurer 
Democratic Michael W. Frerichs Candidate
Republican Tom Cross Candidate
31 Libertarian

U.S. Representative, 3rd District 
Democratic Daniel William Lipinski Candidate
Republican Sharon M. Brannigan Candidate

State Senator, 18th District

Democratic Bill Cunningham Candidate
Republican Shaun Colin Murphy Candidate

State Representative, 35th District


Democratic Frances Ann Hurley Candidate
Republican Victor C. Horne Candidate

Unopposed Candidates to County Board -I'll do a write-in where needed; same to judges

Referenda

 General Election Referenda and Local Options

"Shall the minimum wage in Illinois for adults over the age of 18 be raised to $10 per
hour by January 1, 2015?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides prescription drug coverage
be required to include prescription birth control as part of that coverage?"
Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to require that each school district
receive additional revenue, based on their number of students, from an additional 3%
tax on income greater than one million dollars?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall the General Assembly of the State of Illinois appropriate additional funds to
provide necessary mental health services for the people of the State of Illinois?"

Yes
 No


                     To the Voters of Cook County:
Friday, September 05, 2014 Page 23 of 25

"Shall the Illinois General Assembly enact the Illinois Public Safety Act (Senate Bill
3659) which would require universal background checks for firearm transfers and
prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and
high capacity ammunition magazines?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of Cook County:

"Should the Illinois General Assembly amend the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program
Act to give local municipalities a role in the siting of medical cannabis dispensing
organizations and cultivation centers in its neighborhoods?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the City of Chicago:

"Should the State of Illinois account for concentrations of at-risk students living in
poverty or who speak English as a second language when determining how state
resources for education are allocated?"

Yes
 No


There!  I am so happy I could spit.


Wednesday, October 08, 2014

The Irish Sitter: Now This Is One Good Looking Woman! My Love for the late Hazel Lavery



On a painting trip to Brittany in 1904, Lavery, a widower since 1891, met Hazel Martyn (1887-1935), the daughter of a Chicago industrialist of Irish extraction. She was then engaged to a Canadian doctor, who died shortly after their marriage. In 1909 she and Lavery married. Hazel*, a beautiful and fashionable woman who herself liked to draw and paint, became Lavery's most frequent sitter. Her well known face and the characteristic red, purple and gold colour harmonies make The Red Rose immediately recognisable as a portrait of her. However, the canvas was begun in 1892 as a portrait of Mrs William Burrell. In 1912, it was transformed into a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, and in the early twenties it was, for a brief period, a portrait of Viscountess Curzon.
Lady Hazel Lavery was a rare beauty.  There are many good looking Women and women considered to be sexy.  To me, sexy is never skanky, cheap, over-board or manly.  Men are lumpy hideous creatures only kept in check of the savage natures by beautiful women.

I fell madly in love with Hazel Lavery the first time I cashed in my Travellers Cheques for Irish dough at Shannon Airport.  Poor Ireland went to Euro and back to the Third World.

A01.JPG

Hazel Lavery's looks went on money - Irish money.  Her looks were the corporeal representation of the ideal Irish icon Cathleen Ni Houlihan .

* Hazel Lavery: The portrait to the left is Lady Hazel Lavery (1880-1935). From 1928 to the early 1970’s, Lady Lavery’s portrait adorned all Republic of Ireland banknotes as the female embodiment of mother Ireland. A love for Ireland and a keen interest in Irish politics often brought Mrs. Lavery to Dublin where she assisted the Nationalist cause. With her husband, renowned artist Lord Lavery, she hosted the historic Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 at her home in London which finally brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. Famed for her close friendship with the Irish patriot Michael Collins, she continued to fight for his causes after Collins’ assassination despite threats to her life and unfair comparisons to Kitty O’Shea.

Watching Eamon De Valera dismantle the Treaty and the diplomatic links she had worked so hard to establish, Lady Lavery died in 1935 at the age of 55, believing her life to be utterly without purpose. She received at token of appreciation from the Irish government when they placed her portrait on their currency, the Irish pound, as a ghostly watermark representing love and patriotism.

Ask Me About My Racism




The Beverly Area Planning Association hosted the forum in the wake of racist graffiti that was spray-painted on several cars, garages and buildings over a two-day span beginning late Sept. 19. The Beverly Area Planning Association hosted the forum in the wake of racist graffiti that was spray-painted on several cars, garages and buildings over a two-day span beginning late Sept. 19.DNA Chicago
Now, how did I miss that?

There is nothing that tickles my fancy more than any opportunity to scratch and sniff at the scabs on my see-through- 2nd Generation Irish pelt and considering the horrible systemic racial darkness of my heart.

Me and mine are just about the most low-down, dirty, arm-pit smelling, Hairy Ape nasty, bunch of bull-whip cracking Thornbirds who ever Riverdanced poor colored folks into a Melissa Harris Perry level of righteous outrage to soil Mammy Earth's clean and wholesome gravel.

My racist comings and goings begin upon waking and leaping from my dollar stuffed pillows and mattress and shaving my white privileged mug with a straight razor no stranger to violence and blood.  My infringement upon the Souls of Black Folks begins when I pull into the driveway of a single- mother of two whose car happens to be a victim of race hatred these last three years and expect the poor woman to accept a ride from this ChiRish bully to work. Then, I go to work at an all boys Catholic high school funded almost entirely by my black hearted Irish Cousins, where we do good out of White Flight Guilt alone!

There is no limit to the lengths that I will go to make people of different colors obliged in some dark and twisted expiation for my sins. The only people more active in tormenting African Americans and getting more privilege would be the Jews, according to NPR, Rev. AL and Pork Chop Louie Farahkhan, but Micks take a back seat to none when it comes to racial hate, or race guilt and scab-yanking.  You should hear my Ofay glad-handing bonhommie when I pick up the twelve young black scamps from Englewood to Bronzeville every school day.

I watch every Ken Burns documentary and see the strange fruit swing from every limb in Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood enough to no that hatred is the only by product squeezed out of these bones and sinews.  Bill Moyers continues the fine public work begun by William Lloyd Garrision, Jospeh Medill and carried on by Reverend Al Sharpton from Ferguson to 111th & and Rock Island line in Morgan Park.

Any chat about race is a monologue and usually a pretty loud one where I must nod with conviction that I only watch the first twelve minutes of Armistad and the last fifteen minutes of Glory.

It is very important that I recognize that I secretly delight in every act kindness, affliction, raised-eyebrow and every outrage manufacture by Reverend Jackson, or Reverend Al as just another nail added to the White Tower of my privileged life.

Dog whistles, or codes will always catch me out.  People better than me will define me. Gee, black people do not like being defined, from what I hear.  White folks have defined who I am - NPR, Ken Burns, Bill Moyers, Eric Zorn, Carol Marin . . .Gosh I guess we are equal!

The very best people continue to say so.

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Dick Durbin Affiction - Oral Sphincter of Oddi

Thoughtful? Confused? Bewitched,?Bothered, Bewildered? Caught in a Fib? No. This is an affliction cuased from  a nasty case of  Illinois voter amnesia and untreated hubris.  Senator Dick Durbin's pie-hole remains puckered in confused and much 'pu-upon' martydom due to a career in the Senate marked by pandering, posing, posturing and punishing people he just don't like. The man has swallowed gallons of bile and spleen squeezings, causing a build up of smarm. The resultant malady - a kind of Oral Sphincter of Oddi.

There is a cure for this malady, but it is generally treated by proctological surgeons.  That pucker will remain permanent, unless we all help on Election Day.


The poor wee man. 

$ 45.000 Per Night. 'What a Dump.'



Hey, the price is nice.  George Clooney just popped something like $12 million for his wedding.  If you got it, spend it. Just don't forget to tip 'The Help,' as Illinois Congress critter Jan Schakowsky calls us Helots.

Me?  I like to stay at the Chalet Landhaus on in New Glarus, WI.  The mutuels are outstanding and the breakfast is the Cat's nuts - a total Swiss dish smorgasbord and the rasberry scones are sinful.

Picture

However, swells with some serious coin for disposal might enjoy this get-a-way package.






Nevertheless, SOMEone will bitch.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Cappy Dick sez, "Hey Mateys! Try This Presidential Puzzlement and Win V explain thisaluable Prizes!



"Okay Boys and Girls unravel this brain teaser from President Obama - "I recognize the contradiction in a contradictory land and a contradictory circumstance," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." "We are not going to stabilize Syria under the rule of Assad," whose government has committed "terrible atrocities," Obama said.
"On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, ISIL, Khorasan Group — those folks could kill Americans."




Time's Up! Here's the clue -  "On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, ISIL, Khorasan Group — those folks could kill Americans."

Okay, Mateys!!!!!!!!!  Join the crew next week when President Obama belabors the obvious!!!!!!!!!!



Saturday, September 27, 2014

Now, Who Wants to be Putin Pabst in His Icebox?



“Pabst Blue Ribbon is the quintessential American brand — it represents individualism, egalitarianism, and freedom of expression — all the things that make this country great,” - The Russian owner of Pabst, Ð•Ð²Ð³ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ð¹ Kashper. or Yevgeniy Kashper AKA Eugene Kashper

Kashper’s parents, Jewish refugees from Communist Russia, brought him to the US in 1976 when he was just 6 years old, according to a source close to the entrepreneur.
Kashper went on to study at Columbia University. It was only after graduating from college in 1992 that Kashper set out to build a beer empire in the Eastern bloc.
Now, Kashper is “very concerned about being viewed as Russian” in light of the “recent political climate,” according to the source.
I drank the Mountie as a young scapegrace.  I was a delightful young chap and as merry-hearted as Sigmund Romberg opereretta.



Yes sirree, that's how I see the young scamp whose very entrance to a roomful of boon-chums and toothsome trollops would make the rafters roar with wholesome good fellowship and rollicking song. Often after a a few cheeksful of Drewrys, I'd coax one nd sundry to join me for a jaunt around the Ward in my alligator powered chariot -Mon Bijou! Ubi sunt!

Now to the case at hand.  The issue mind and not the score and four container of cans.

The Mountie was and remains Drewrys Beer.  A malted grain beverage for discerning pintsmen with modest purses. Now, Pabst was a great American beer brewed and distributed by a generous German immigrant family that donated a large estate in Oconomowoc, WI for use of a Catholic novitiate of the Augustinian Order. The family is out of the brewing business and continues charitable work.

Pabst is the beer of choice for the hip and aged.  I have watched old gents and soul patched knit hat cowboys blow the foam from a sudsy growler of Pabst in unison and sweet cross-generational tribute to common tastes.

One of the most energetic patriots I know, Dan Kelley of the north side, attorney, philanthropist, wit and swordsman, quaffs his Pabst with gusto.

However, ownership can breed contempt ( e.g. Trump, Willis, The Cell) for the values of the common man and the chicks he digs.

I'd apply the jewelers eye to the sight of a hefty purchase of Pabst,Red White and Blue, or Lone Star beer these days.  A Ruskie owns them.

No sir, to paraphrase Eliot Rosewater, "I tell you, boys," he went on, "if those Russian landing barges come barging in some day, and there isn't any way to stop 'em, all the phony bastards who get all the good jobs in this country by kissing ass will be down to meet the conquerers with vodka and caviar, offering to do any kind of work the Russians have in mind. And you know who'll take to the woods with hunting knives and Springfields, who'll go on fighting for a hundred years, by God? Drewrys beer drinkers.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Chicago: The World Class City - All Net and No Smelt






Romantics will delight in dining lakeside, with a view so close they can toss a coin into the ageless waters and wish for a love to match.
Economists will adore the prices. Shrimp, fish, oysters and other seafood are not only tasty but also a bargain for the pricey Near North Side.Both types of lovers quickly join the regulars at Rocky`s: anglers with their tackle boxes and police officers who dock department boats at the bait shop near Navy Pier.Among the more popular items are the large, french-fried shrimp ($4.50 a half order) and Rocky`s fish sandwich ($1.50), a treat for those familiar with fast-food versions. While both are prepared in a crunchy batter, the shrimp and fish themselves are moist and tender. -Manuel Galvan, Chicago Tribune 1987

Oh, My God! I'm so excited I could moisten my chinos!  Rahm Emanuel has bullied Jimmy Fallon NO Less into yet another vist to Chicago, A World Class City!

Jimmy Fallon came to Chicago when Skinny Sheahan invited Fallon to take the Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics and Rahm was given the full credit.

That's how it goes in Chicago. Anne McGlone Burke working for the Chicago Park District in 1968 runs the firrst Special Olympics in Soldier Field and the the Kennedy Clan takes credit.

That's how you get World Class, change historical facts, erase landmarks and stick to the narrative.

Chicago 2014 is a city with a silver bean, Pritsker Pavillions, Lois Wesiberg Dancing Dervish diversions, cows on parade, Marilyn Monroe softy-core-porn statuary and no where to grab a bag of fried smelts for under $12.   World Class baby.

Chicago was a town - My Kind of Town, Frank's Kind of Town a town that Billy Sunday could not shut down and one could park without taking out a second mortgage.

I guess I am just a grumpy old man who thinks that Toni Preckwinkle, Pat Quinn, Forrest Claypool and Rahm Emanuel could not carry  Wilson Frost's jockstrap. Shucks, I thought that thirty years ago.

When the Fire Department Gym and Rocky's Shrimp and Smelts were demolished to make room for Navy Pier parking, Chicago went from a Sears Roebuck catalog town to the edgy Abercrombie & Fitch world class city inhabited only by members of Smashing Pumpkins, BillyDec, Chief Keef and Richard Roeper and former Mayor Daley perched on a bench in the Viagra Triangle where he can smoke a stogie, as far as we know. -World Class, baby!

Me, I like smelts.  I like them pan fried, deep fried and when I'm Fully Kreuzened - live.  The absolute best was Rocky's.  Rocky's was the stuff of legend - as architecture and as cuisine.  The Italian family owned fried fish palace operated as a bait-shop, as well as eatery, "It`s named for Joe ``Rocky`` Panzo, who was born in Italy before the turn of the century and came to Chicago during the Roaring `20s. "

Rocky's was open from April Fools Day to Thanksgiving.





In 1981, I took my pal Mark Manning, who was in residency at Grant Hospital to Rocky's. Manning, now a semi-retired surgeon in Del Rio Texas, is a Southie from Boston and no stranger to fine fried fish, as in Kelly's on Revere Beach and the No Name over by 151/2 FishPier in Boston, waxed rhapsodic on Rocky's fare.  He had the clams, (" These OUR CrowHawgs, Hick, not clams!"), the shrimp ("These ain't shrimp they're midget prawns or something.") and then had his first ever smelts. Manning was hooked. . .or netted, by these fresh water sardines. Smelts were his caviar. "Hick, Pal-ey, lets stroll ovah to Rocky's" became his mantra throughout his stay here in Chicago, through his career as an Air Force Surgeon and to his recent call from Texas.  " Rocky's . . .I still get all weepy on that place."

Me too.

I miss alot of the great things that made this town - neighborhood saloons with one choice of draft beer and that great cork smell from the beer soaked and reuseable cork or wood pulp coasters; mom and pop stores, dime stores. butcher markets, pop in bottles, Ward bosses who not only tool a few envelopes, but the time to listen to complaints of anyone in their fiefdom and five very different newspapers who hired good writers.

I love Chicago.  I liked it better when it was a town.