By Steve Rhodes
1. “What started out as a personal tribute to her grandmother has evolved into a grand art project that is on display for the masses at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago,” the Palm Springs Desert Sun reports.
“Yreina Flores Ortiz, 32, created a 3-foot-by-4-foot ‘papel picado’ banner – translated into English as punched or poked paper – out of tissue paper that is part of an altar centerpiece for the museum’s Day of the Dead exhibit that runs until Dec. 11.”
2. “Today, two giant mascot characters representing the Textbook Rebellion, a national coalition for lower college textbook prices, will join forces with Illinois PIRG at Truman College to gather petition signatures and distribute information about making textbooks affordable,” Illinois PIRG says in a press release. “The event will take place in the front lobby of Truman College’s main building from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and members of the media are encouraged to come at 11 a.m. for Q&A with an Illinois PIRG issue expert and local students affected by the high cost of textbooks.
“The mascots are visiting campus as they travel cross-country on a six-week, 40-campus tour rally support for the issue. Their spectacular larger-than-life costumes visually represent the problem, outrageously expensive textbooks that frequently exceed $200 a piece, and the solution, affordable alternatives such as freely available ‘open textbooks.'”
3. “By 1919, the city of Chicago became over-populated and streets became a hazardous place to be” students at Eastern Illinois University learned this week. “The Irish began beating blacks on the south side of Chicago. The beatings became know as the ‘Black Belt.'”
4. “A volunteer holds the end of a 47-foot long bratwurst as Chicago’s Berghoff Restaurant goes for the Guinness World Record for the Midwest’s Longest Brat on Thursday September 15, 2011.”
5. “[Pork] rinds are also the object of an intense rivalry, with Rudolph’s claims to being ‘largest pork rind manufacturer’ hotly contested by Chicago’s Evans Food Group Ltd. ‘No question, we are the No. 1 pork rind maker in the world,’ says Alejandro Silva, Evans’s CEO and principal owner.”
6. Bill Daley Under Fire.
7. On this weekend’s Sound Opinions: “Funkmaster Bootsy Collins walks Jim and Greg through a history of the genre.”
8. Good fortune for the execs at Deerfield-based Fortune Brands.
9. “An Ohio-based manufacturing company wants a total of about $3.7 million in local and state incentives to move its national headquarters to Chicago,” the Tribune reported this week.
“JMC Steel Group, which has already secured $2 million from Illinois, is requesting an additional $1.12 million from the city. It came one step closer to its goal on Tuesday, when the city’s Community Development Commission approved that amount in tax increment financing funds to subsidize renovations of the company’s new offices.”
10. “Illinois’ unemployment rate shot up almost half a percentage point in August to 9.9 percent,” AP reports. “It was a fourth straight month of diminishing job prospects that state officials blame on weak consumer confidence and the struggles of the national economy.”
11. The Week in Chicago Rock.
12. The Monster Rally Movie Promo That Aired In Chicago in 1977.
13. The Week in WTF.
14. In a special weekend appearance, I’ll be behind the bar on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and possibly from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. if needed for the late shift.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Like a highway song.
Posted on September 16, 2011