Author: pvbella

88 years ago, a Greek immigrant bought the Lincoln Tavern at 1855 W. Madison, across from the Chicago Stadium, with bounced checks. He paid back the debt. One day, the owner came across a goat that fell off a livestock truck. The bar became Billy Goat Tavern, and a legend was born.

The immigrant was William “Billy Goat” Sianis. In 1964, he moved his bar to the underground Michigan Avenue, surrounded by the Chicago newspapers. He added a grill. Billy Goat Tavern and Grill became a newspaper hangout. It also became the best saloon in Chicago. As far as bars go, it is the GOAT.

When I was 18 years old, they changed the law to let us drink beer and wine. Billy Goat’s was where we went to when I was in college. It was inexpensive, and we could brag we drank downtown. The legal change did not last long. Too many suburban kids were getting injured or killed in traffic crashes. Suburbanites are notorious for ruining things for the rest of us.

When a college friend was getting married, he wanted to have his bachelor party at the Goat. When we showed up, they put the tables together for us. Other than that, it was the same as before. Just guys drinking, eating, and having a good time.

Later, shortly after I became a Chicago Police officer, I went there. As I sat at the bar, the bartender put an Old Style in front of me. I gave him a look. He smiled and said, “I always remember my college guys.” We talked, I told him what I did. He told me Mike Royko and Studs Terkel were at the end of the bar. He introduced me to them. We had pleasant conversations while getting tipsy. I wound up taking a long, expensive cab ride home.

One thing that makes Billy Goat Tavern and Grill a Chicago icon is consistency. Even with the remodel, the environment has not changed. The food is still good, and they serve one of the best classic no-frills burgers in Chicago. Even Julia Child sang the burger’s praises when she visited the Goat. No matter which one of their outlets you visit, the food is always the same, and the prices are reasonable.

I still go there now and then when I am downtown. I was there for the last game of the 2016 World Series. The Goat was packed with people and reporters from all over the world. I sat at the bar with two reporters. One was from Australia, and the other was from New Zealand. Sam Sianis, the owner, brought the goat out. I tried to explain to the two reporters about the curse of the goat. They were not interested. Other locals tried to get them interested, but they did not get it.

I wanted to attend the Cubs home opener last season, but the weather prediction was chilly to cold and windy. We went to the Goat instead. It was crowded with like-minded people and just as good as being at Wrigley.

Legacy newsman Rick Kogan wrote “A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream,” about the iconic saloon. It remains one of the best books written about a Chicago saloon.

Chicago old-school saloons were and are still social focal points. Many of the iconic places are gone, replaced by themed bars. Fake dive and “old man bars” (Whatever the f**k that means), or worse, phony “speakeasies” that infantile publishers like Chicago Magazine and Time Out Chicago heavily promote. The writers at these comic rags do not know their asses from a hole in the ground, yet they continually lie to the public about these horrid fake places that serve overpriced booze, beer, and crappy expensive food to gullible young oh so precious people looking for an “experience. It is all lies, AKA fake news.

While Billy Goat Tavern and Grill is the GOAT because of its 88-year history and consistency, there are still some good saloons left in this city. They do not get the publicity that the precious fake-themed bars get, nor do they want it. We who are habitues of these places like it that way. We do not need a bunch of precious people pretending they are slumming. Worse, if they annoyed one of us and we told them to go f**k their mothers, they would probably break out in tears, call the cops, and go on social media or Yelp to vent their social grievances while demanding justice. PRECIOUS FEELINGS MATTER!

Congrats to the Sianis family for providing 88 years of honest drinks, good food, entertainment, and good cheer. May they survive another 88 years.

Today is Black Friday. A day when good patriotic, genetically deficient Americans swarm the downtown shopping areas, malls, and big box stores to buy stuff they do not need and more stuff for gifts. It is the Great American con game. Stuff is supposedly on sale, so the zombie schlubs come out in masses to load up on credit card debt with high-interest rates they will pay off over the next year.

I and my credit cards are safe from such nonsense. My time and money are valuable. I refuse to drive around aimlessly in parking lots looking for a space, jostling crowds in stores, and waiting in long lines to pay for junk that supposedly is on sale. I also refuse to stand outdoors in line at dawn waiting for the stores to open. Only low IQ less-ons do that.

I detest the sight of the typical American mindless zombies with their devil spawn nose miners in tow. They mindlessly fill their shopping carts with junk. Then they do that other great American zombie family pastime, stuffing their maws with junk food.

On Monday, called cyber-Monday, my credit cards will be safe too. I am not a red, white, and blue patriotic good ole ‘Merican consumer. There is no duty or obligation to go into debt for future garbage.

I prefer to shop for gifts at small retailers, especially businesses in my neighborhood. My shopping list is small, so I do not have to break the bank. I buy gifts I think the recipients will enjoy versus the latest, newest, “fantastic” gizmos or fashions. I have what I need, so I do not have to shop for the latest, greatest crap the retailers are pushing.

As I get older, the whole idea of American over-consumerism is getting worse every year. It is not just Black Friday. One of the worst shopping days I witnessed was a weekend before the Super Bowl. I was buying necessities in a big box store. Many people bought the latest biggest screen TVs to watch the game and to impress their friends and family members. I wondered what they did with last year’s huge screen tv. They also stocked up on beer, booze, and oversized bags of snack items for their parties. All to watch a bunch of overpaid Ken Dolls play a fake contact sport.

The American consumer waits all year for these special shopping days without realizing retailers are conning them. Worse, they save nothing if they buy with credit cards and spend months paying off the balances plus interest. Yeah, such a deal.

I am making my shortlist now for Giving Tuesday. Since I will not be wasting money on junk, I have some excess to donate to good causes that help people in need. I will select two or three organizations to give money to. It is a less expensive and better investment than giving my dough to a retailer.

I wrote this sitting in my favorite saloon. Just my luck, the dreaded bar pest victimized me. The menace kept annoying me no matter how long I ignored him. Geez, you would think he got the hint. Then the SOB bought me a beer. Did he think I would really engage him? I kept trying to ignore him and he kept coming to my table, pestering the s**t out of me.

I have been following the controversies over the World Cup, especially the ones caused by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. I thought American politicians said and did stupid things. But Ingantino takes the Gold Medal for stupidity.

I am kinda sorta conflicted over the controversies swirling around the competition. The players want to express their views over issues on their uniforms, with banners, tee shirts, and other items. Ingantino keeps threatening the teams with penalties and disqualification.

Qatar is a very insulated and religious state. On the one hand, I am a believer in “When in Rome…” The teams are guests in Qatar and should respect their host’s laws and social norms. Yet, Qatar has a horrid human rights record on a host of issues. Many of the young competitors disagree with the government’s human rights record and want to express their disagreement in various ways. A few also want to protest their own countries’ abuses. Yet, the FIFA rules prohibit these protests.

Infantino said “I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled,” but added “I feel like it” while claiming he knows what it means to be discriminated against because he faced bullying as the son of Italian immigrants with “red hair and freckles” while growing up in Switzerland. He later blurted out: “I feel like a woman too!” (Forbes)

I fault FIFA and Gianni Ignatino for creating this mess and for angering the players and countries taking part in the games. He is trying to be The Great Appeaser to the Qatari government. He is making himself look like a less-on (Lower than a moron), and his organization looks like horses a$$es.

I will enjoy watching the games. I am no longer an American football fan unless I root for any team who plays and beats the Chicago Ken Dolls. Soccer and rugby are way better than professional football, which is as fake as professional wrestling.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the feast, but do not forget to be grateful for what and who you have. Today is Drunksgiving, one of the most liquor-sodden evenings of the year. It is one of the most catastrophic and deadliest days of the year because of drunken driving crashes. Please, if you take part in this madness, do not drink and drive. Take a cab, ride share, or another way to and from the bars and your home. Do not be a statistic or cause one. Do not drink and drive. Make it home safe so you can be grateful on Thanksgiving Day and enjoy the feast and the company of your loved ones..

It is Monday. The weather is warmer than the weekend, and the sun is bright in a cloudless sky. It is also a typical Monday. The McCaskey Ken Dolls lost again yesterday. The die hard, hormonally charged self-pleasuring fans and sportswriters are singing Justin Fields on field praises on social media. With all the hype about Fields, one would think the only reason he doesn’t walk on water is because he doesn’t want to get his shoes wet.

These slobbering less-ons (lower than morons) seem to forget two important things. One, football is a team sport. It is not a one-man Ken Doll Quarterback game. Two, the object of playing games is to win. All Field’s stats and records are meaningless and irrelevant if the Ken Dolls do not win. The die-hard fans and sportswriters keep displaying their epic stupidity every Monday morning.

While writing this, I was in a bar, watching the World Cup, USA vs Wales. Soccer is a real sport, unlike professional football, which is as fake as “professional wrestling.” The game ended in a draw, 1-1. Soccer is way more exciting, and the players are tougher and more resilient. There are no Ken Dolls in soccer.

The municipal election season is in full swing. Mayoral candidates lined up this morning to turn in their nominating petitions at the Board of Elections. They and aldermanic candidates have until the 28^th to turn in their petitions. Mayoral candidates need 12,500 signatures to get on the ballot. This means more junk mail, yard sign blight, and ridiculous campaign ads.

Expect the usual promises, AKA lies, from these oily mouthed strumpets running for office, especially those running for reelection. Mayor Lightfoot is touting her long list of failures as successes. Her most important job, ensuring public safety, is an epic failure. She hired a charlatan and fraud mercenary as her Superintendent of Police and refused to fire him when all his plans, strategies, and deployments failed miserably and still are.

Lightfoot allowed herself to be bullied into submission by Chicago Machine Boss, Toni Preckwinkle. She not only stopped criticizing State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, but she also endorsed her for reelection. It was and still is a stunning act of cowardice. Preckwinkle and Foxx are two of the drivers of violent crime in Chicago through their lenient treatment of people arrested for violent crimes and gun possession crimes.

Lightfoot must go. She did not earn a second term. The city needs a leader who can make tough decisions and call out other’s failures, like Preckwinkle’s and Foxx’s. Chicago needs someone who is unafraid to call those two who threw public safety under the bus for a specious socio-political agenda based on falsehoods and lies.

The problem is twofold. With so many candidates in the race, it is difficult to determine who is the better one to lead this city. Some of the more popular candidates have strengths. A few have both strengths and weaknesses. The large number ensures there will be a runoff election if they all stay in the race, and no one gets a minimum of 50% plus one vote. This plays into Lightfoot’s favor, as runoffs usually go to the incumbent. We cannot let that happen this time. Our very lives or wellbeing of safety depend on ousting Lightfoot.

“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” — Henry Van Dyke

Thanksgiving is on Thursday. The Christmas shopping season starts the next day. Thanksgiving is a secular holiday. It is the only holiday that celebrates gratitude.

Humans have celebrated a “holiday” related to gratitude since ancient times. After the harvest, people celebrated the bounty in various ways. That whole garbage about the Pilgrims and Native Americans being the first Thanksgiving in America is pure horse droppings. Native Americans had been celebrating a harvest festival for eons. They just celebrated with their new neighbors. The feast was wild game, fish, and whatever the Pilgrims and Native Americans cultivated.

Let’s remember why we celebrate and forget the history, legend, lore, or myth. We should ignore those imbeciles who want to change the name to something more socio-political appealing to assuage their fictional guilt. We celebrate once a year to be grateful for what we have, no matter how much or little. As a friend used to say, “If you have a roof over your head and a loaf of bread under each arm, you should be thankful.”

“The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about?” — Nora Ephron

We dedicate the day to food, as it should be. It does not matter what you prepare for the feast. You are sharing the love. There is no rule that turkey must be on the menu. Make whatever you want. It is your choice how you celebrate. Just do not forget why we celebrate. To thank God, some other deity, the Great Comedian, or your friends and family for whatever you are grateful for.

Every year I think of all the things I am grateful for. It is a list of little things. It does not change much from year to year.

I am grateful for every day I wake up, take a breath, my feet hit the floor, and live another day.

I am grateful for my family.

I am grateful to still have a somewhat sound mind.

I am grateful for living in Chicago, the best city in the nation.

I am grateful to have the bare necessities of life, food, shelter, and clothing.

I am grateful that I can still cook the feast with family and friends.

I am grateful for my friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, beliefs, or lack thereof.

I am grateful for our police, firefighters, and EMTs, who keep us safe 24/7/365.

 I am grateful for the emergency utility workers who respond to outages no matter the weather.

No matter your station or status in life, there is always something or someone(s) to be grateful for.

This Thursday, celebrate gratitude, then enjoy the feast, family, and friends.

I woke up at 0-dark-thirty this morning. It was cold and snowing. The snow was falling gently in the dark, sticking to the grass but not the sidewalks or streets. It won’t be long before the sounds of snow blowers and shovel scraping replace those of leaf blowers, rakes, and lawnmowers.

Starting December 1^st, the dreaded winter overnight parking ban will take effect. Parking is prohibited from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. on over 100 hundred miles of city-designated streets until April 1^st. It does not matter if there is snow or not. The city will tow your car. There are 500 miles of streets that prohibit parking if there is two inches or more of snow. If you park on these streets overnight, the city will tow your car. Check those signs, or trudge down to the auto pound to pay the piper twice for the parking ticket and the tow. Oh, and hope your car is not damaged.

Since this is the first snowfall, the season of Dibs officially begins Dibs is reserving a shoveled-out parking space by putting barricades in the street to claim it. Dibs is a decades-old winter tradition in Chicago. Some people claim Dibs all winter long. They do not wait for the heavy snow. They claim their parking space when there is little snow or even a threat of snow.

People get creative to the point of setting out a dining table set with plates and silverware. There are plastic Christmas religious statues, inflatables, children’s plastic playhouses, nativity scenes, standing frozen pants, and other unique items. The usual items are milk crates, sawhorses, or lawn chairs, some with boards stretched across.

Dibs is technically illegal. According to the municipal code, streets will not be obstructed with items including “crates, boxes, or hogsheads” (Barrels). Like many in Chicago, including our politicians, no one cares about silly laws.

Dibs is controversial and leads people to damage cars, arguments, or even violence. Violent crimes committed over Dibs should not be a worry as our Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, will not prosecute crimes of mutual combat.

Columnists and editorial boards have written pro, con, and humorous articles about the practice over the decades. Former mayors supported the tradition. Mayor Lori Lightfoot discourages Dibs, though she understands it- whatever that means.

How popular is Dibs? There are social media pages about the tradition, like this one on Pinterest. There is a Facebook page, too- Chicago Dibs.

Dibs is a form of tolerated subversiveness in this city of rogues, rascals, and reprobates. Your neighbors take to the streets with their shovels and snow blowers to clear a parking space, then put up the barricades. They worked hard for it, risking the widow making heart-a-stroke. They earned it. That space is theirs. “Whose streets? Our streets.” Why should some lazy, low-life motherless mook, mameluke, or jamoke reap the benefits of their hard work?

There is a Judge Dibs in Chicago. He is wise beyond his years, like the ancient Greek philosophers. Judge Dibs decides dibs cases based on the rules and the situation, using the “Dibstitution.”

Judge Dibs is tough but fair. He named me the Lord High Chamberlain of Dibs. However, I would have preferred Lord High Executioner, but Illinois eliminated the death penalty. I was honored to have such a title bestowed upon me. But I do not have the time to execute my duties. I have my own problems with people blocking my side driveway because Illinois issues driver’s licenses to blind people.

Some claim Dibs is uncivil. They believe people who toil should not reap the fruits of their labor. According to these apostates, we should be kind and understanding towards each other. A few go so far as to suggest people shovel out parking spaces for their neighbors or even the entire block. It is an act of kindness and a neighborly thing to do.

There is one problem with this line of thinking, if you call it that. Chicago, the “City of Neighborhoods,” does not have Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I don’t know if they noticed, but Mr. Roger’s is dead, like their brain cells.

Winter is coming. Snow is coming. Dibs is the natural order of things. Let there be peace on Earth and Dibs in Chicago.

As Judge Dibs states:

“Respect Dibs. Revere the Dibstitution. And love thy neighbor, baby. So let it be written. So let it be done.”

Well, the McCaskey Ken Dolls lost to the Detroit Lions. They are not the Monsters of the Midway. They are the Ken Dolls of the fashion runway. Like last week and the week before, the Chicago sports media will spend days gloating over Justin Fields’ accomplishments and the stats he put up, while sidestepping the loss. Field’s stats and records are irrelevant and meaningless if the TEAM LOSES. Football is supposed to be a team sport, not a one-man show. Fields is a loser, with the rest of that pathetic team.

Then we have last week’s election. Some areas are still counting results but it appears the Red Tide, Wave, or whatever the party and political pundits called it, turned into a Red drip, like the clap. The GOP, like the McCaskey Ken Dolls, is clueless. They pi$$ed off the country with their extremists so badly that many GOP candidates became unelectable in areas populated by people with more than one brain cell.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley claimed the Republican Party has to change and build a new party to win elections. If that is true, when are Hawley and all the other tertiary syphilitic-infected extremist elected officials going to resign or not run again in the future?

Like Justin Field’s stats, the minor GOP wins are irrelevant and meaningless. Politicians from both parties refuse to listen to their constituents. The leadership of both parties in the House and Senate cannot or will not control their firebrand extremists. The extremists do not fear the leadership or care about them. They are defiant in their popularity.

Elected officials from both parties refuse to concentrate on issues people care about, the bread-and-butter kitchen table issues we face daily. They are consumed with cultural, social, and religious issues and waging constant political warfare. Too many are more concerned with their social media following than doing their jobs.

We have a municipal election coming in April. The field is getting crowded with candidates for mayor of Chicago. Congressman Chuy Garcia threw his hat in the ring for a second run for the Fifth Floor. Garcia joins a growing list of candidates trying to unseat Lightfoot. Lightfoot is the worst mayor since Big Bill Thompson, but with a crowded field, she can win again if the election goes to a runoff. Every candidate agrees on one issue. Chicago needs a change in leadership.

I hope that voter turnout will be larger than this past election, where a paltry 40.77% voted. That was a disgustingly low turnout for such an important election. The upcoming mayoral election will be the most important in our lifetimes. The faltering and failing Lightfoot must be defeated. We need a mayor who will fight for the people instead of allowing themself to be bullied into submission by Machine Boss Toni Preckwinkle.

Chicago politics is like the Chicago Bears. Incompetent leaders are in charge of both, and the news media ignores the failures and celebrates the bread and circuses.

Today is another beautiful fall day. The weather is mild. The sun is shining, and there is hardly a cloud in the sky. I am sitting in one of my favorite drinking establishments while writing this. There are no bar pests today. Bar pests are people looking to talk to anyone. They talk and never shut the f**k up. You cannot even get a word in edge-wise, like leave me the f**k alone.

There is no conversation about yesterday’s election. No one is celebrating or complaining. It’s as if no one cares who won or lost. I wonder if any of the patrons even voted.

If you did not vote, you have no privilege to complain about elected officials. You are no patriot. Your political opinions are worthless hot air. There are 1,540,821 registered voters in Chicago. Only 628,244 voted. It is pathetic and disgusting that only 40.77% of Chicago voters showed up at the polls. What is wrong with these people?

If someone complains about an elected official or political party, the first thing I ask them is if they voted. If they say no, I cut them off. I do not want to listen to their manic ravings. If they go on, I walk away. People who do not vote are worthless citizens. They are responsible for the election, and worse, the reelection of horrid politicians.

Governor J.B. Pritzker handily beat the deplorable Darren Bailey in the Illinois gubernatorial race, winning a second term. Bailey ran a dirty campaign based on lies and his total ignorance of how government and governance work. Worse, an affiliated PAC ran horrendous ads and sent prevaricating mailers. Bailey may be a good representative for his downstate constituents. He can keep representing them. The man did not lose. He still has a job as a state senator. He is still on the state payroll.

Some Republicans are touting Bailey as a GOP leader in the state senate to fight the governor and the Democrats. Bailey should be nowhere near a leadership position. Besides being an extremist and Christian Nationalist, he would be at constant war with his fellow legislators and the governor. We do not need open warfare in Illinois. It is bad enough both parties in Washington are constantly battling instead of working for the people. They are more concerned with their Twitter following than serving.

Democratic Machine Boss, Toni Preckwinkle, handily won the election. I guess there are still people who believe she is a reformer instead of a typical old-school political machine boss. She is one of the major drivers of criminality, especially violent crime, in Chicago and adjoining suburbs with her control of the courts and the State’s Attorney’s Office. She has the blood on her hands of all the murderers and victims of violent crime in Chicago.

We have the municipal election coming up in April. One would hope more people will vote to send Lori Lightfoot to the unemployment line. Hope died in Chicago. Too many supposed citizens are to apathetic or lazy to vote. No matter how easy they make it with mail-in ballots and early voting, just over 40% of registered Chicago voters turning out is unconscionable.

There were some big winners in this election. They were not candidates. They were the political consultant class and the people who run PACS. No matter who wins or loses elections, they win the big money. They get rich on the backs of the idiot politicians who hire them or agree to let them represent them. They are the only real winners in every election.

Numerous people reported a series of loud booms at around 10:30 p.m.; many said they specifically heard seven of them.

The reports came from neighborhoods that included Lincoln Park, Lake View, Uptown, Ravenswood, Avondale, Logan Square and Albany Park.

Several people attributed the booms to fireworks and described clouds lighting up. (News Radio 78)

That’s all, folks. Seven neighborhoods reported loud booms Thursday night. Some with bright light. Security or door cams caught some blasts.

The above is the only news report on the loud booms. I searched yesterday morning and afternoon, and this morning. Not one other supposed Chicago news media entity in Chicago reported on the multiple blasts. There was no word from the Chicago Police or Fire Departments. Nothing from the mayor or the alderpeople in the affected wards.

Except for the citizens who heard the booms, there was not one peep. Zero, zilch, nada. Inquiring minds want to know why there was no coverage or official statement over these apparent simultaneous multiple blasts across the Northside of Chicago. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Maybe that is why there are no reports of the incident.

Why is there no speculation about what caused these multiple simultaneous booms? Was it some social media prank? Some dare? Was it a natural or weather phenomenon?

I found a story from the spring of this year where similar simultaneous incidents occurred in Rogers Park. That may have been a TikTok challenge using homemade bottle bombs. Was Thursday’s incident something similar? Three people I talked to are upset over almost zero coverage of these incidents, except by News Radio 78. They are also upset that the Chicago Police did not have a statement on this.

This is Chicago under Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the total degradation of what used to be called journalism. It is a pity The Fifth Floor of City Hall and the Fourth Estate are equally useless. The Chicago news media only reports what they are told. To keep them aroused, the city and Police Department generate XXXX pornography, data and data analytics, which are meaningless. But, hey, those reporters sure drool and slobber in self-pleasing pleasure when they get them.

Will we ever find out what happened Thursday night? Don’t count on it. Remember the Cool Hand Luke movie quote; “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” That is the state of Chicago today.