Is there any great cause today that can be said to unite the American people? While we were in Paris a couple of weeks ago, we thought of two: the control of drugs and the defeat of AIDS. But neither cause finds the people altogether trusting of government or confident that our country is doing […]
Tag: Vol. 18 No. 39
Issue of Jul. 13 – 19, 1989
Posted inNews & Politics
More News From Lake Lillian
To the editors: As President of the Lake Lillian Civic and Commerce organization, I am writing you in response to, as you phrased it, your “brilliant disquisition on corporate cash management and boondock banking” [The Straight Dope, May 5]. On behalf of the City of Lake Lillian, I would like to take issue with the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu’s new record, Cloudland, is a pop monstrosity: it’s Eraserhead crossed with disco, or the Archies with a cleft palate. “Sloop John B” is transformed into a lurid rocker on a song called “Nevada!”; “Breath” equates a failed relationship with urban renewal. Which is to say that it’s a Pere Ubu album, despite the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Well-Connected Man
Hi, I’m Phil Krone, political adviser, real-estate consultant, bon vivant. Want to have lunch?
Posted inNews & Politics
The Stats Are in the Mail
To the editors: Contrary to what Florence Levinsohn states in her response to my letter which appeared in the June 16, 1989 Reader, I did not give her just one figure when I provided her with information for her article, “School Revolt” [May 26]. As I recall, I mailed to her most, if not all, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang
It’s hardly the Wolf Gang anymore–bassist Lafayette “Shorty” Gilbert is the only member of Howlin’ Wolf’s last working band in the group, aside from saxophonist-bandleader Eddie Shaw–but this joyous aggregation of bluesmen continues on in Wolf’s grand rowdy tradition. Shaw’s sax playing combines the fiery intensity of Wolf’s classic Delta shout with the honking funk […]
Posted inNews & Politics
How Victor Can Read
To the editors: As I read Joy Calhoun’s article “First Person: Why Victor Can’t Read” Reader (June 16, 1989), I thought that the story she had chosen for reading to the children about a father and a son who came to earth to fish, as not appropriate. More so, since even Ms. Calhoun herself (as […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Flag Scam
To the editors: Sorry guys but I’m not taking this [Hot Type, June 9; Our Town, June 16]. Who told that turkey down in Hicksvill Illinois that he could decide for me what to do with my tax money? Nobody asked me. Do you know how I have to scramble to get those dollars I […]
Posted inNews & Politics
That Was Me, and I Don’t Fit the Description
To the editors: I have every reason to suspect that I was one of the “little old ladies” sitting behind critic Jack Helbig during El Salvador recently [June 30]. I am average sized, average aged, and a theatregoer from a time Helbig’s parents do not remember. I never whisper in theatre and am seldom “uncontrollable.” […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Weighty Matters
To the editors: I thought Cecil Adams did a fine job on the angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin issue [Straight Dope, December 23], but your readers might also be interested in knowing why the controversy was considered significant. Thomas Aquinas and other medieval theologians were concerned with the relationship between Spirit and Matter, a dichotomy between two kinds of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Fallacy of the Illicit Minor
To the editors: I commend your excellent research and accurate reporting in your article, “Is Nothing Sacred?” [June 9]. As I know most of the people whom you interviewed, I would like to respond, mainly for the benefit of non-Episcopalians. Jim Rosenthal’s comments (p. 36) display both fallacious reasoning and inaccuracies. Every introductory logic course […]
Posted inFilm
Dream Stuff
MACAO, OR BEYOND THE SEA *** (A must-see) Directed by Clemens Klopfenstein Written by Klopfenstein, Wolfram Groddeck, and Felix Tissi With Max Ruedlinger, Christine Lauterburg, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Shirley Wong, and Che Tin Hong. 1. Some part of me feels an enormous gratitude for movies that I don’t fully understand. The compulsive legibility of commercial movies–designed […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hull House Theater: The Early Days
To the editors: For all the acclaim given to Robert Sickinger for his success at Hull House Theatre during the 1960’s [Calendar, April 28] Hull House had, in fact, established itself as a center for innovative theater many years ago. The harsh economic realities of World War II abruptly ended a long tradition of stimulating […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Lights and liquor: Wrigleyville residents are losing the power of the beer ban
For almost a year now peace has reigned at Wrigley Field. The Cubs have their lights, the fans a pennant run, and the residents of nearby Lakeview, well, they’ve more or less accepted the fact of night baseball. But last month the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill that would abolish one of home rule’s […]
Posted inNews & Politics
How to Deal With Commonwealth Edison
To the editors: How well advised are readers of the Reader’s “Neighborhood News” of June 16th 1989 by writer Ben Joravsky when he tells ratepayers–and who isn’t!–not to thumb their noses at Commonwealth Edison. But what can a person do? So you fight and you lose–leaving it up to Edison to do the right thing–but […]