Month: January 2022

There are thieves in this world. They steal the works of others and publish them without paying. In some cases, they do not even credit the creators.

There is a continuing discussion among creators of how to handle thieves. Some claim they should not be called criminals- thieves- it is unprofessional. They should be treated with dignity and respect. That will stop them from infringing and hopefully get them to pay for using copyrighted material.

Chicago poet Harriet Monroe wrote an ode for the opening event of the 1893 Chicago World Columbian Exposition. She fought the men who ran the exposition to recognize poetry as an art. She fought those same men because they did not want a woman poet creating the opening poem for such a prestigious city event. Harriet Monroe prevailed.

The ode was seventy-eight pages long, a combination of poetry and performance art. Ms. Monroe copyrighted the poem. A thieving reporter from the New York World, a Pulitzer paper, obtained a copy of the poem. He telegraphed it to the paper. It was claimed to be the longest telegraph sent from Chicago.

The New York World, run by a thief named Joseph Pulitzer, published the poem without permission from Harriet Monroe. I always wonder why the reporters and news entities are so proud to get an award named after a thieving miserable bastard who ran the equivalent of a tawdry tabloid. It tells you all you need to know about journalism and journalists

Harriet Monroe sued over the theft of her work. If there was one thing thieving Joseph Pulitzer hated the most, it was writers with lawyers. He threw the legal and political weight of the New York World and his media empire against Harriet Monroe.

Pulitzer believed he could not lose. Pulitzer was wrong. Harriet Monroe won her lawsuit after it went to the United States Supreme Court. The ruling set a precedent for copyright law infringement.

Harriet Monroe was awarded five thousand dollars by the courts. Pulitzer also had to pay her legal fees and court costs. Had Pulitzer or his paper asked permission to publish the poem, it would have only cost them two hundred dollars.

Harriet Monroe is a forgotten hero to creators. She stopped the newspaper thieves with her lawsuit. The ruling in her case protects creators to this day. Monroe is largely forgotten, while the scoundrel, Joseph Pulitzer, is lionized, go figure.

Harriet Monroe used the award and financial help from Chicago’s elite to establish Poetry Magazine, which led to founding the Poetry Foundation. This is what she is known for. The copyright case is treated as a mere footnote of her life.

Harriet Monroe matters. She took on one of the most powerful men in America. She prevailed. Harriet Monroe set the standard for all creators to stop the theft of their work and get paid.

Harriet Monroe is a true Chicago person. Tough, unbendable, and a fighter for what is right.

If the thieves steal your work, be like Harriet Monroe. Go after them tooth and nail. Be a bully and shamer. Creators confuse professional and professionalism. Professionalism is the rules of conduct, ethics, and practices. Professionals get paid.

“When you cook, there is a great deal of love. You cannot cook indifferently. You have to give a lot of yourself. Cooking is the purest act of love, whether it’s for your kid or your grandmother or your lover or your wife. It’s always to give.” (Jacques Pepin/Artnet)

I learned how to cook at an early age by watching my parents. They were passionate about food. They were foodies before the term was coined.

Cookery and food eventually turned into a passion. I took some classes at a culinary school to up my game. I have enough to equip a small restaurant between my parents’ equipment and the stuff I bought over the years. I have more knives than any one person should own. I have over two hundred cookbooks and books about food. For a time, I wrote a food blog with recipes or writing about food issues.

During the late 1970s, firehouses were burglarized when the firefighters went on their runs. A police officer would be assigned to sit in the unattended house until the firefighters returned. I had to do that one evening.

I got to the house as the cook had just finished laying out his dinner prep. He was not happy he would have to leave, and dinner would be late. He was making pasta with meat sauce. I told him not to worry. I would cook the sauce. All he had to do was cook the pasta when they got back. He was leery but agreed. He ran out and left me in the kitchen.

I put everything together, diced, sautéed onions, peppers, and garlic. I browned the meat, seasoned it all, added the tomato products to the pot, put it on simmer. I made the salad and put the dressing in a container. I cleaned up the kitchen and sat down to watch television.

The firefighters came back about two hours later. The cook immediately went into the kitchen and tasted. He had a smile on his face. I took off. About a half-hour later, I was called back to the firehouse. The fire lieutenant wanted to know if I could switch jobs since I could cook. This brought some laughter at the cook’s expense. It was the first time I cooked for people other than my family. Firefighters take their cooking seriously. Some of the best meals I ate were in firehouses.

When I took care of my mother, I cooked for her and her care workers every day. She enjoyed the meals, and that made me happy. She refused to part with some recipes. Every answer was that it was too much work or too difficult. I asked her why she always said that when I finally pried a recipe from her. She smiled and said if people knew how easy it is to make things, they would not ask you to do it. I have three boxes of her recipes, some written and others clipped from newspapers and magazines.

I volunteered to help cook a Christmas dinner for residents at a Salvation Army center for the past few years. Chefs Alan Lake and Gary Wiviott lead a group of chefs and, volunteers spending the day prepping and cooking a prime rib dinner with all the fixings. They have been doing this for several years. Other volunteers set up tables and chairs, decorate, and turn the gym into a dining hall.

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The dinner is table service. Volunteers go to various stations. The plates are filled with salad, prime rib and sides, then delivered to the tables. The first year I volunteered, I walked through the gym while serving the meal. One gentleman in his 30s just sat and stared at his plate. I asked him if anything was wrong. He told me that this was the first time anyone had served him a meal. Due to the COVID pandemic, I did not volunteer for the past two holidays.

I love cooking for others more than myself. Since COVID, I rarely cook for myself. The grocery stores are packed with stupid humans who forget there is a pandemic and get too close to others or refuse to adhere to other precautions.. Evidently, saying, “Stay the fuck away from me,” is considered hostile violence to the overindulged, privileged shoppers. One good thing, I ate in many places and sampled a lot of good food.

Chicago is the best food town in the country. We do not needPR firms to hype our restaurants. It is no hard to find the good stuff, from fine dining to a modest ethnic food cart. You can source ingredients to cook any ethnic cuisine. We have it all and it is the best.

2020 through 2021 were in the realm of you can’t make this s**t up. 2022 is starting off that way.

According to the Block Club Chicago, “Chicagoans are reporting problems at the largely unregulated pop-up sites: Results never come in. Workers fail to wear masks or gloves. Some facilities have tried to charge for tests that should be free.”

The operative word is unregulated.

The City of Chicago and the State of Illinois claim they are not responsible for regulating COVID testing sites. The sites are considered a business, not a health facility. Apparently, just about anyone can open and operate a pop-up testing site. Unlike other businesses the city and state regulate and sometimes overregulate, it appears pop-up testing sites are immune. They are not only immune, but they also have herd immunity, as they are popping up all over the city.

“I honestly felt like if I didn’t have COVID after going, I would have it upon leaving, which [in my opinion] is a major reason to avoid testing in the future,” he said.” (Block Club}

Other complaints:

• Filthy facilities
• Unmasked/ungloved staff
• Staff violating simple protective measures
• Accepting cash payment for free tests
• Charging for free tests
• Asking for Social Security numbers (Forbidden)
• Not returning test results
• Returning test results when none were submitted
• Inaccurate test results
• Improper testing procedures

This is ridiculous. The government is not supposed to look ridiculous. This is Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois, where the governments are run and administered by incompetents.

The article does not state if these “businesses” are licensed or supposed to be licensed. If so, their licenses must be on public display. If they are not licensed, they can be shut down immediately.

It would take nothing for the city or state to put these rogue pop-up testing sites out of business by labeling them health facilities or forcing them into compliance. They could send in health and building inspectors to cite them and shut them down. Are the storefronts even zoned to provide health testing services? Simple solutions to a simple problem. Something our simpleton leaders are incapable of figuring out. Instead, they claim they are not responsible and abdicate responsibility. The city of Chicago does not care about safety. Just look at their epic failure in handling the continuing violent crime wave throughout the city.

In the meantime, people wait in long lines at these pseudo-testing sites only to be scammed and conned by fraudsters. The city and state claim they can do nothing. Same old same old Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois. Nothing changes except the names. Buffoonery and incompetence are the norms. Simple solutions to simple problems evade our supposed leaders.

If you do not want to be scammed, conned, or the victim of an incompetent city, state, and county, this link will let you find legitimate testing sites.

The days of the week are still Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow, The Other Day, What Day is It. The days of our lives heading into another year of COVID.

Experts and elected officials keep talking about returning to normal when and if the COVID pandemic is over. What was or is normal? COVID struck in 2020. We hoped 2021 would be better. There was light at the end of the tunnel. Turns out the light was the COVID train barreling toward us loaded with variants as 2022 approached. We still wear masks, carry vaccine proof, seek out tests, and listen to conflicting advice on how to safely go about our lives

For those of us who do not work, days are routine. Every day I do crossword puzzles. I have gone through dozens of pens. I go for long walks, weather permitting. I only visit with people in my small bubble. When I go out, it is only to places that practice safety protocols. At night, I seek out mindless entertainment. Day after day, wash, rinse, repeat.

Self-survival is the first and highest law of nature. I am a survivor.

I know people or their family members who caught COVID. Some suffered. Some died. Every day I read about the suffering and death from this disease. I read about the long haulers who are suffering from the mild to severe after-effects of COVID. I know people with compromised health issues, making them more susceptible to catching COVID. Their precautions border on paranoia, and I do not blame them.

Our social circles shrunk to pods of people we feel safe with. It is like living in a bubble. It is hard to believe almost two years sped by. I remember the last time I celebrated with friends, St. Patrick’s Day, 2020. The next day, the lockdowns and mandates started. I masked up, socially distanced, and excoriated anyone who got too close to me. I was loud and vulgar. I do not care about anyone’s oh so tender sensitive feelings. I do not care about propriety or etiquette. When it comes to self-survival, I believe in Damon Runyon’s philosophy. “After me, everyone else comes first.”

The spread of COVID is competing with the spread of violent crime in Chicago. For almost two years, City Hall promoted ways to keep us safe from COVID. They did and do little to keep us safe on the streets or in public spaces. If COVID does not get you, chances are good one of our pampered violent criminals will.

The figures, as of December 31, 2021:

• 4533 people were shot
• 791 souls were shot and killed
• There were 841 homicides
• There are daily armed robberies in many neighborhoods
• There are daily carjackings all over the city

One way or other, chances are you will be shot, killed, traumatized, or infected. It looks like 2021 dealt 2022 a Dead Man’s Hand.

Mayor Lightfoot issues threats of punishing establishments that do not obey mandates. She is silent on the violent crime wave. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx pampers violent criminals instead of prosecuting them. They refuse to accept their “reform” policies are failing miserably. Only the coddled criminals are benefitting from “reforms.”

While scrolling through social media, I see a lot of anger over the new spread of COVID. People are fed up with living under mandates. Some feel they have been lied to by the medical experts, especially the worsening variants. I do not see anger over the violence pandemic in Chicago. I do not see people believing the Mayor, State’s Attorney, and the inept Chicago Police Superintendent are lying to them. I do not see editorials from our cowardly news media excoriating Lightfoot and Foxx for their epic failure to keep us safe.

When will it end? When will we get back to normal, whatever that was? When will Sunday, Monday, Tuesday… return? When will we feel safe on our streets? When will COVID and violent crime be curbed?

Like COVID, violence did not take a holiday this New Year, and like COVID, violence will continue to plague us.

It does not look like 2022 will be better than 2021. Yeah, Happy New Year.