By Steve Rhodes
1. “[Ald. Tom] Allen teed off on next week’s unprecedented closing of Chicago’s marquee shopping strip amid word that Winfrey did not give local Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) the 45 days’ notice required before permits are issued for most other outdoor ‘special events’,” the Sun-Times reports.
Oprah don’t need no stinkin’ permits. Permits are for chumps.
“Special Events spokeswoman Cindy Gatziolis said the Winfrey premiere did not require 45 days’ notice, saying it is not a special event.”
That might be the best sentence written anywhere on the planet today.
But to be fair:
“This falls under the category of film and TV production. Those require a two-day notice. This has been much more than a two-day notice,” she said.
Or, more notice than the city council had to read, debate and vote on a 75-year parking meter lease. But in this city, that isn’t it a special event either.
*
“[Daley] says this one PR stunt for Oprah’s show will ‘create jobs’,” writes Mark Rhoads at Illinois Review. “How many jobs and for how long? Daley does not say. How about committing right now to an after-action report and give us a count of the jobs that get created – city or private sector jobs and who gets them.”
2. “An angry caller left racist and hate-filled phone messages – even saying ‘I pray to God you get AIDS and die’ – at the office of Cook County Commissioner Deborah Sims after she cast the deciding vote upholding a controversial sales tax,” the Sun-Times reports.
“‘What our commissioners have done on this board to flame the fire of racism [has] allowed these people to have free rein,’ the Rev. Walter Turner said, naming white suburban commisioners Tony Peraica, a Republican, and Larry Suffredin, a Democrat, as the culprits.
“Sims agreed: ‘I think they fueled the phone call.’
“The two men were on the radio Wednesday night and called her a ‘liar’ and a ‘flip-flop . . . in the same vein as the call,’ she said.”
Except, you know, the getting AIDS and dying part.
But other than that, in the same vein.
3. “Some people, I won’t name newspapers, believe support has dropped,” Olympic sprinter Connie Moore said at a Chicago 2016 rally, the Tribune reports. “We’re here to prove otherwise.”
You’re here to prove all those people who answered the Tribune’s poll were mistaken about how they feel?
“She then led the crowd in a cheer: ‘Chicago 16 – woo hoo’.”
*
“Rally speakers included restaurateur Billy Dec, president of Rockit Ranch Productions, who showed a few of the 50 pro-bid videos he has made, each featuring a different celebrity.”
And then he kicked it. Maybe with Paris Hilton. They might have even pounded sushi.
4. Speaking of Billy Dec pounding sushi . . . I talked with Outside the Loop host Mike Stephen this week about our “20 Tweets” feature. You can check it out here.
5. “Mayor Daley was flipping through a list of properties suspected of harboring gang and drug activity when he came across a familiar name,” the Sun-Times reports.
“The homeowner on the sheet was Jacquelyn Heard, his longtime press secretary.”
Adds Beachwood reader Matt Farmer: “The Mayor then reviewed a list of structurally unsound porches and a database filled with pothole repair requests. Later that morning, he did one hundred push-ups, showered, and had breakfast with his wife.”
And then he ended his day by not looking over a list of new hires or new city contracts.
6. Today’s Worst Person In Chicago Media: Patrick Curry, WGN-TV News Assignment Editor.
7. Exercising the Urban Cowboy way. (“There’s a lot going on here.”)
8. Roulette is for suckers.
9. “Chicago Man Wins Nugget Rib-Eating Contest.”
10. “A Chicago musician claims that a song he wrote in 1968 was later performed by the Jefferson Airplane rock group, included on a concert recording and subsequently made part of the group’s repertoire, without giving him him any credit or compensation,” the Sun-Times News Group reports.
“Songwriter Syl Johnson is now suing the California-based band to get that recognition and maybe some financial compensation.”
11. Blago Brother’s Bull Session. Exclusive access to self-serving propaganda.
12. Trustee Politics. Who Quinn Will Name.
13. The Grave Dancer Lives!
14. Crosstown Clunker. What a waste of a city’s rivalry.
15. Biden’s Bullshit. Stimulus claims at odds with reality.
16. Spelling bees, belt-sanders, barbecue and honky tonk.
–
–
The Beachwood Tip Line: Belt-sanding.
Posted on September 4, 2009