By Steve Rhodes
1.“Daley Mocks Meeks Over N-Word.”
Frankly, I don’t have a problem with Meeks – or rappers – using the n-word, given the context with which they do so. All non-blacks are prohibited from using the word, as they should be. People who don’t see the difference are never going to understand why.
2. Basis of a compromise on the ongoing big-box ordinance debate? “Chicago Federation of Labor president Dennis Gannon said he has trouble believing Target would turn its back on $58 million in city subsidies at [its] North and South Side projects.”
Perhaps the city’s subsidies to retailers should be tied to an agreement to paying the wages outlined in the new ordinance. If the retailers want to go it alone, so be it. Pay the wages they wish, but don’t take the city’s (taxpayer’s) money.
3. Celine’s Country Bluegrass Blues?
4. From testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday:
Sen. John McCain: You said there’s a possibility of the situation in Iraq evolving into civil war. Is that correct?
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: I did say that, yes, sir.
McCain: Did you anticipate this situation a year ago?
Pace: No, sir.
Isn’t that the way it goes? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is always the last one to know.
5. A full line of putting greens solutions.
6. From testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday:
Sen. Hillary Clinton: Yes, we hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios, but because of the administration’s strategic blunders and, frankly, the record of incompetence in executing, you are presiding over a failed policy. Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld, why should we believe your assurances now?
Don Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense: My goodness.
7. “I have never painted a rosy picture,” Rumsfeld said. “I have been very measured in my words. And you’d have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I’ve been excessively optimistic.”
But a review of . . . nah, too easy.
8. This looks good.
“The Last Slide Projector is an hour-long documentary film that tells the story of the production of the last Carousel slide projector by Eastman Kodak. The film documents the end of an era and traces the varied histories of an apparatus and a medium that has been central to family memories, to education, to art history and to the development of both cinema and corporate culture.
“Beginning with Kodak’s announcement of their decision to cease production, the film chronicles the process of ending for a number of people who were intimately involved with the production and use of the projector. The film also considers the Carousel projector’s role in the story of the Eastman Kodak company and how recent changes in the company reflect shifts in American manufacturing more broadly.
“A prime example of the transition from the analog to the digital, The Last Slide Projector explores some of the consequences of technological progress and planned obsolescence and examines the impulse toward nostalgia that loss and endings often inspire. Paige will be at the screening and available after for a discussion.”
At Mess Hall, 6932 North Glenwood Avenue; Morse stop on the Red Line. Friday, August 11, 7:30 p.m.
9. “Be Here To Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt.”
10. Irony alert: Tribune Company announces layoffs but increases stake in CareerBuilder.com.
11. “Here’s happiness, which equals food + bondage, for a mere $5.49. I’d call that a ‘lunch special‘ all right.”
12. “National Disgrace: Oprah Highlights Illinois Education Gap.”
13. “A spokesman for Emanuel declined to specifically address White’s charges [linking the Daley patronage scandal to Emanuel’s campaign], dismissing him as a tool of the National Republican Congressional Committee.”
Perhaps it takes a tool to see one, given that Emanuel is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
13. Even though Sun-Times editorial page editor Steve Huntley wants us to “stop griping about Exxon’s ‘excess profits,'” isn’t he accidentally arguing today that Big Oil is in bed with the terrorists?
14. “Eileen Sahli, the mayor’s liaison on homelessness and supportive housing, said she was unaware that homeless families were being relocated to public housing in other cities and emphasized that it’s not part of the city’s policy on eliminating homelessness.”
Still, they’ll take it.
15. “14 Classic Tom Petty Opening Lines.”
The Beachwood Tip Line: Raised on promises.
Posted on August 4, 2006