Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“The city’s beaches, houses of worship, businesses and even some aspects of City Hall are reopening, starting this Memorial Day weekend, according to a Friday update from Mayor Jerome Prince,” the Northwest Indiana Times reported last week.


“Prince said he worries Gary’s beaches will have exceptionally large crowds due to the anticipation that residents in neighboring Illinois will venture to Indiana this holiday weekend.
“Many outdoor activities in Illinois remain closed due to COVID-19 restrictions as cases continue to rise.
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Though I can’t say if any of these folks were from Illinois, Gary’s mayor was right to be concerned. CBS2 Chicago reported Sunday that Indiana beaches were pretty full.


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Yikes, that came out small. Here’s the text:

So we’re up in Lake Geneva visiting [a family member]. She lives in a little town on the other end of the lake from Geneva called Fontana. Big boating spot. Wisconsin is completely open (or functionally so anyway) and there are people everywhere.
No masks.
No distancing.
We are lunching on her patio with masks and distancing and such so there’s no real reason to be too anxious but I find myself having a panic attack.
This is awful, the world is screwed.

We’re doomed.
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Oh, and:


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Illinois Unemployment Office Not Working
“An [Illinois Department of Employment Security] spokesperson says they have processed about 75,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims in a week, but they do not know how many have been approved or paid out,” CBS2 Chicago reports.
And that’s really the most important part of processing claims. I mean, anyone can take claims . . .

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“The Illinois Department of Employment Security announced Friday it will notify 32,483 claimants whose personal information might have been viewed because of a ‘glitch’ in the newly-launched Pandemic Unemployment Assistance portal,” Capitol News Illinois reports.
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Hot Dogs Are Hot – And Leveraged
“In normal times, Memorial Day weekend might be the first time you’d consider buying hot dogs since last summer. But of course, these are not normal times, and there’s a good chance you’ve tasted snappy, meaty (possibly microwaved) frankfurter flesh more recently than that,” Entrepreneur reports.

“We’re going into our bigger months of June and July now,” says Joe Quinn, co-founder of Brooklyn hot dog company Feltman’s of Coney Island. “But since March, it’s been like July every month.”

“Market research from Chicago-based data-analytics firm IRI shows that in mid-March, at the height of panic-buying, hot dog sales were up 127 percent from the same time last year. And people are buying in bulk, too: eight-packs, 10-packs, 24-packs have all been flying off the shelves. That’s probably because hot dogs are an obvious quarantine choice: long shelf life, protein-dense, easy to prepare and kid-friendly.”
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On the flip side . . .
“The future of a $700 billion market for risky corporate debt rests on companies like Portillo’s Hot Dogs, Chicago’s famous fast-food chain,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Portillo’s owed about $550 million in loans when it stopped serving inside its 62 restaurants in March. It was suddenly at risk of going bust and credit-ratings firms quickly slashed grades on its borrowings.
“The company’s loans sit on the books of dozens of collateralized debt obligations , which buy up risky corporate debt and package it into securities. With sales way down, many of those companies have gone from just being risky to teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Retailers like Neiman Marcus and J.Crew Group Inc. have already tipped over the edge.”
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Why Science Denialism Persists
Galileo, GMOs and COVID-19.
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Related: ‘Muddled And Misleading’ | How Textbooks Discuss Climate Change.
“In an analysis of dozens of middle school and high school textbooks, we found that descriptions of climate change were superficial and contained errors; some did not discuss the topic at all.”
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Also related: These Are The Fake Experts Pushing Pseudoscience And Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus Pandemic.
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ChicagoReddit

No A/C in my apartment from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram

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Six Feet Apart: Leonel, May 23rd, 2020. #sixfeetapart #chicago #mexitaco

A post shared by Meg Handler (@meghandler) on


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ChicagoTube
Vocal Coach Reacts To Tom Waits (“Chicago”)

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BeachBook
Hockey Is Not For Everyone.

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This Family’s Repeated Strep Throat Infections Frustrated Their Doctors.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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The Beachwood Rib Tip Line: Chewy.

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Posted on May 25, 2020