By Steve Rhodes
“A Japan-bound commercial airliner landed safely at O’Hare International Airport Monday afternoon after one of its engines malfunctioned over the northwest suburbs – but not before it had to dump about 4 percent of its total fuel load over Lake Michigan in order to land,” the Tribune reports.
“To make the half-million-pound jetliner, which carried 189 passengers, light enough to land safely, the pilot swung over the lake and dumped about 1,450 gallons of jet fuel. Only a miniscule portion of that made it to the water, which officials said remains safe for drinking and swimming.”
So what happened to the rest?
“When fuel is dumped above 5,000 feet, in temperatures above freezing, about 98 percent of it can be expected to evaporate before hitting the ground, Isham Cory said. In this case, that would leave about 32 gallons, all of it in widely dispersed fuel droplets.”
Pander Bear
“Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and – in a move sure to cause controversy – support their ability to hire and fire based on faith,” the AP reports.
Wait, which candidate is running for Bush’s third term again?
The Boss’ Blessing
“A few weeks ago, Alejandro Escovedo [of Chicago’s Bloodshot Records] found himself on stage in a Houston arena rocking one of his new tunes, ‘Always a Friend,’ with a pretty decent backing group: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. A You Tube video circulated soon after shows Springsteen throwing himself into the chorus while Escovedo grins like a kid who’s just been told school’s getting out a month earlier than usual,” Greg Kot reports.
[CLARIFICATION: A Beachwood reader says “For the sake of clarity, Alejandro Escovedo has recorded for Chicago’s Bloodshot, but is currently property of EMI/Capitol.”]
The Trib doesn’t give you the video – not even a link – but I will:
“‘I shook his hand for the first time ever a few hours before the show,” says Escovedo of Springsteen, the hook-up brokered by their mutual manager, Jon Landau. ‘We sat in his dressing room and ran down the song acoustically with the band. Later, before I went on stage, I was scared to death. But about halfway though [the song], the fear started to melt away and I just had the time of my life. I told everyone it’s like dropping into a 30-foot wave: You’ve got to go for it, and I did not want to die in front of 18,000 people.'”
As noted by Kot, Escovedo plays the Taste of Chicago on Friday at 3 p.m. with Gomez and the Old 97’s at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park.
McWrigley
Former Cubs president Andy MacPhail was a skinflint whose tenure here was a failure, but his sense of propriety helped keep Wrigley Field out of the hands of the barbarians while he was here; he once vowed he would never allow the famous red brick behind home plate to be marred with advertising.
“I wasn’t wild about the advertising on the outfield walls and advertising on the tarps and stuff like that,” he recalled last week. “There are a lot of things here I was reluctant to do but they moved on and I’m not so sure I wasn’t wrong . . . The world didn’t stop, they just moved on and they gave them more resources and obviously they’ve got a different plan in their immediate future.”
Now every inch of Wrigley is for sale. Wrigley Field as we once knew it is over, folks. And so is the magical phenomenon of the Cubs, strangled by its corporate minders and jumping over sharks.
Baking Cookies
* “Grandmother Proud To Have Lived Long Enough To see First Viable Female Candidate Torn Apart.”
* “Michelle’s Homemaker Side.”
Less Is More
“Kevin Nance, the Chicago Sun-Times art critic who also served as the newspaper’s architecture critic, will leave the Sun-Times on July 10 and will join the fast-growing Chicago firm of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture as director of publications,” Blair Kamin reports.
The Sun-Times will conduct a national search in order to bring the best replacement possible to the paper to serve one of the world’s preeminent architecture cities. In an alternate universe. In this one, look for Lew Lazare and Bill Zwecker to share the beat in their spare time.
Wild Thing
Our very own Marty Gangler is the Fan of the Week at Just One Bad Century.
The Beachwood Tip Line: In your head.
Posted on July 1, 2008