For What It’s Worth-Revisited

In the 1960s we had protest songs. We had Dylan, we had McGuire, we had Country Joe. Pete Seeger was temporarily banned for Big Muddy and Roger Daltry stuttered to his generation. And we had Buffalo Springfield. Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay, et al, asking what it was all worth. The harrowing lyric “Step out of line, the men come and take you away.”

Anne and I thought it was time to give those lyrics an update–of course, our lyrics are from a lefty point of view. I hope Stephen doesn’t mind.

For What It’s Worth

2020

Strange things are happening here.
What they are is abundantly clear.
There’s a man, with a blond head of hair,
Driving me and my friends to despair.

You know it’s time we stop.
Blue states, coming round.
Need someone,
To knock him down.

Mods and Left are fighting long.
Want to know which side you belong.
Primary fights – it’s such a grind,
It’s no wonder Joe Biden was outshined.

It’s time we stop.
Blue states, coming round.
Need someone,
To knock Trump down.

There’s some love now for young Pete.
With Amy’s troops he will compete.
But Bernie’s Bros thinks it’s their time,
While Bloomberg’s bucks have him solid on cloud nine.

We better stop.
Blue states, coming round.
Just one chance,
To knock Trump down

For more years of this “bleep”.
Consequences way too steep.
Don’t want Trump leading my parade.
Make him mad you know he’s gonna make you pay.

We better stop.
Blue states, coming round.
Or Constitution’s
Coming down.

We better stop.
Blue states, coming round.
It’s our best chance,
To knock Trump down.

Stop now….

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Amazon Stirs My Memories – Remember Old Chicago?

Amazon pays $50 million for former Old Chicago amusement park and megamall site–Chicago Tribune, February 12, 2020.

Who remembers Old Chicago? It was an odd place, a combination of amusement park and boutique stores under a giant dome, that was open in where-the-heck-is Bolingbrook in the late 1970s. It was no Riverview, and no Great America either. It bombed.

I took Barb to Old Chicago for our second date, back when I was still trying to find something unique to do each time we went out. That second date was as much success as the polo match on our first date. A few roller coasters (not Barb’s thing) and a dangerous-looking crowd (also not Barb’s thing.) No wonder I soon fell back to that old stand-by, dinner and a movie. It’s what we boomers did back then, and it’s what we still do, though the butt-shuffling Skokie Theater has been replaced by reclining sleeper seats at the Lincolnshire Regal.

Old Chicago wasn’t the only place trying the indoor amusement park concept. Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota has been more successful. My guy gang and I spent one evening there on our first regular-season baseball road trip (2005-White Sox are World Series Champs.) It too seemed dark and dingy, though the dangerous crowd I remembered from Old Chicago was replaced by cosplayers from some character convention going on in part of the mall. Scary in its own way…

The Mall did have one highlight for us, a monument at the location of the homeplate from Metropolitan Stadium, the ballpark pulled down for the Mall. Well, it is a highlight if you are all baseball geeks!

So what is Amazon getting for its $50 million investment? The dome is long-gone. What remains is a 119-acre site, upon which Amazon won’t yet say what it is going to build. My guesses? Maybe a distribution center so I can get my order of computer cables and kitty litter filled faster. How about drone parking lot so I can get my delivery of SLS-free toothpaste and vacuum cleaner bags even faster than that? Or maybe a secret listening post, where Amazon can listen to and analyze everything I say within 100 feet of Alexa–no wait, they already do that!

Well, Mr. Bezos, you didn’t choose Chicago for your HQ2. But you are choosing Chicago now–Old Chicago. May your billions multiply like grains of sand along the lakeshore. Just don’t build another roller coaster there-no one will come!

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I Collect Tees. How About You?

Are you a collector? Some people collect valuable things like stamps and coins. Some people collect trinkets from around the world, things like beer mugs or thimbles. Not me. I want things I can use, things with no value but the sentimental kind. I collect tee shirts and running shirts from wherever I can get my hands on them.

My closet has shelves and shelves of the colorful tops that make up my collection. A green tee from the Hawaiian islands shares space with a blue one from the Florida Keys on my “to be worn to the pool” shelf. An aqua tee from a fine Mexcian resort rests comfortably waiting for our next visit to Cabo. For sports-themed days at the lab I can pull out a Paulie Konerko or José Abreau White Sox tee, while psychedelic days have a couple of tie-dyed options.

But my running/work-out shirts are the heart of my collection. Short-sleeved tees, in cotton or some of the slicker sweat-wicking type of fabrics, dominate one wall. At least half of them are blue–a combination of UroPartners tops, spanning most of the 15 years here at the lab, and SeaBlue shirts from the annual UsToo Lincoln Park Run for prostate cancer support, education, and advocacy. (Yes, in a few months I will be asking you for a donation before this September’s run. Have your credit cards and checkbooks ready.)

Beyond all the blue, the variety starts. Shirts from multiple 4th of July 5K races in Lincolnshire, including a hideous neon green number. There’s a recent addition, a gray shirt from last year’s Labor Day Stampede in Buffalo Grove, where I powered down the homestretch like a buffalo myself, intent on maintaining my short lead on my daughter-in-law. A late kick I didn’t know I had.

A kick that also came in handy in some Northwestern University 4.1 mile “Runs for Walk” honoring their late football coach Randy Walker. Those are the source of my princely purple tees. Two other favorites are shirts picked up on our annual guys’ baseball trips: a blue Milwaukee Brewers shirt that made up for the massive traffic jam getting into the parking lot at Miller Park, and a gray and yellow Andrew McCutchen tee from Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, a beautiful stadium nestled along the Allegheny River. Andrew doesn’t play there anymore, but I still like the shirt.

Various fitness centers are well represented. A pair from the Buffalo Grove Rec Center are joined by a gray Charter One shirt, and a marvelously soft bright orange tee from Lifestart Fitness, my current favorite Westchester spot for cardio after work. To round out the collection, there are a few shirts that I have gotten as gifts, a Nike “Just Do It” one always reminding me to give it my all.

For running in the cool of the evening, I have a few long-sleeved tees, memories of long ago 10K races in Highland Park. The last of those, the 2002 trot, ended with bananas and Carol’s Cookies at the finish line, and, oh yeah, two stress fractures in my right leg. No, I haven’t run a 10K since.

Over time and many workouts and washings, some of my favorites have just withered away. But as long as I keep on going, the shirts will keep on coming. They mean more to me than a thimble ever could.

So what do you collect? What means something to YOU?

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A Loud Lady Tells The World How To Beat Trump

Hi, it’s Anne. Remember me?

I couldn’t watch either of the big events. No, I couldn’t watch him preen at his State of the Union address, though I did see the SloMo replay of Nancy shredding paper a few dozen times. And I couldn’t watch the impeachment farce vote. All that hypocrisy.

But what comes next? Along with the Iowa Caucus fiasco, the whole march to a never-going-to-convict impeachment reminded me of how clueless the Democratic party can be. Need more examples? Remember the Affordable Care Act rollout? Remember Hillary’s campaign?

My problem is that I agree with most of the ideals that the various parts of the Democratic Party support. Things like religious and sexual freedom from government interference. Things like available, affordable, health care. Things like a patched-up safety net, preferably one with some “bounce-back ” springs built in. Things like a belief in science. But how do we get there?

Here are this crazy lady’s suggestions to get Trump out of the White House before it is too late and we solidify the Age of Trump and his minions. You know who they are-President Ivanka, President Don Jr., President Barron.

HOW TO BEAT TRUMP

Screw the long, drawn-out primary system this year. Iowa has already shown us what can go wrong. Get all the potential candidates in a back room and come up with ONE candidate who can win the key swing states. To me, it’s someone from the center, because this is the year to WIN, not the year to push a particular agenda.
Let everyone else withdraw from the primaries. Think of the money you can all save.
Inspire those looking toward a more revolutionary approach with a Vice-Presidential candidate that will be ready to lead in 4 or 8 years. Surely any drastic overhaul in our way of life can wait that long if it accomplishes deTrumpification in November.
Every Democratic leader, from the most northern Aleutian Island to the southern-most Florida Key, needs to offer strong support to the chosen candidate. No back-biting. No “It should have been me’s.” UNITE, UNITE, UNITE.
Mike Bloomberg, keep spending your millions. But spend them in support of the candidate of a united Democratic party, not yourself.
Mitt Romney, your “profile in courage” impeachment vote was a nice start, but you have so much more to do. Run for President on a third party. Any third party! It was rumored that you would do it in 2016. Now is the time. You have no chance to win, but you can be a spoiler, siphoning off the votes of any Republicans who haven’t lost their mind to Trump Nation. Be the Ralph Nader we need.
Get out the vote!

This may be my fantasy. But we can do this! Share the word!

Anne U Phylaxis borrows this blog from Les every once in a while. Write to her at anne.u.phylaxis@columnist.com

photo credit: cszar Say Aah via photopin (license)_

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Do You Know This Man?

Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, I run lists or floor plans through my semi-sedated brain. What was the address of every home I have ever lived in? What was the layout of the apartment my family moved to in 1963? What was the name of every First Lady in my lifetime?

Usually, I know the answer. It may be a hard-wired, obvious answer (Jackie Kennedy) and sometimes I have to ponder a bit (you could get to the front balcony from either the door in my bedroom or climbing out the left living room window.) But I usually don’t stump myself.

That is, I didn’t stump myself until last night. My 2 a.m. puzzle was to remember every vice-presidential major party candidate from 1960-2016 (yes, my night time mind-rambles are very specific.) I was doing quite well, zooming through Miller and Humphrey and Edward. Gore was a no-brainer and so was Bush (H.W, who was Reagan’s VP; not W. who was no one’s VP.) The ladies, Ferraro and Palin, lit up my temporal lobe, although I had to kick out Tina Fey and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss as neither was ever really a candidate. A pity.

So what was it that finally tied my mind up in political knots? It turned out I had no idea, not a clue, as to who ran for vice-president in 2016 alongside Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Yes, there was someone running for vice-president less than 4 years ago even less memorable than Mike Pence, the cipher from Indiana (or Dan Quayle, the other cipher from Indiana.)

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you have forgotten, the man who won the popular vote for VP in 2016 was (drum roll) Tim Kaine, Senator from Virginia. Admit it, you didn’t remember that either. Mr. Kaine has remained in the Senate, even winning re-election in his home state in 2018. But if he was on “I’ve Got a Secret” I bet he could stump the panel with his skeleton in the closet. “I was a vice-presidential candidate in 2016.”

It seems that in this, the Age of Trump, everything else fades into oblivion. One can only hope this age will fade soon, too.

A shout out to Andrea Eisen, who correctly answered last week’s trivia question. She correctly identified John Sebastian as the only artist to have a #1 Billboard hit in the 1970s with a TV theme song (Welcome Back from Welcome Back, Kotter.)

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