Odds and ends with some a bit odder than others:
Some good-looking lawn signs: A colleague offered this unsolicited political assessment Monday afternoon as we talked about the coming election. “Oak Park has the best-designed political lawn signs of any neighborhood around,” she said. Fair point. The same designers seem to be working on the print and digital ads, too.
That said: Why does Tom Cofsky, running for re-election to the school board at OPRF, feature a turtle (could be a tortoise) in his ads? This is a toddling turtle with a winning smile. So that helps. And his website domain is SeeTomRun.com.
Sustainability: Here’s a first. One of the campaigns is promoting a lawn sign recycling project, post-election. So instead of storing these signs in your cobwebby garage and hoping Cofsky pulls out the turtle if he runs again in four years, you can now have them shredded and turned into park benches, RC bottles, or plexiglass barriers set between elected officials at public meetings.
OK, it’s tall: Saw a construction crane set up on the site of the next senior citizen project on the south side of Madison at Euclid. It’s bigger than a breadbox.
Ramen. Oh, yes, ramen: Lovely to see the excitement growing for the eventual arrival of Kyuramen, a noodle shop at 118 N. Marion St. Have no idea why I’d be excited about a noodle shop. But I remain open to being amazed.
That said: I’m also the guy who missed the appeal of a fast-food chain, Raising Canes, which only serves chicken fingers. OK, also cole slaw. Nearest one I know is on Harlem south of Cermak Road.
Sox opening day: Yes, the White Sox opening weekend in Anaheim was a clever setup for a team boasting it is heading to the World Series. Pretending they can’t hit, catch or pitch is going to lull the American League Central into a semi-stupor. And having three starters faking injuries to start the season is brilliant.
Late Sunday evening when the Sox tied the game at 4-4 without recording an RBI, I thought maybe the team was jumping the shark.
That said: Thursday afternoon I’ll be at the Sox home opener, courtesy of my brother John. Same routine for maybe 15 years now. Even with capacity limited at 12,000, this will be a stunning crowd to be part of. Thank God for vaccines.
That also said: The Texas Rangers selling out a capacity house for its opener is insane.
Hemingway doc: Ken Burns has taken over three nights of PBS this week for six hours on Ernest Hemingway. An Oak Parker, you know. Two small stories. When I was a teen, I worked at Cannon’s Book Store on Oak Park Avenue, just north of Lake Street. Owned by Mrs. Helen Cannon. She was ancient and infirm back in the early 1970s but she loved sitting in her chair behind the counter looking out at Scoville Park and making fairly crochety observations. If you were lucky, you got her talking about Grace Hemingway, Ernest’s mother and Mrs. Cannon’s semi-contemporary. She wasn’t a fan of Mrs. Hemingway. Too controlling. Wasn’t a fan of Ernest Hemingway. Low-brow, smutty. OK, there wasn’t much she liked.
Was at the library years back looking through microfiche at issues of Oak Leaves. Was trying to find something. Don’t remember what. However, what I did stumble on was the paper’s 2 inches of coverage of Hemingway’s death by suicide in July 1961. It reported the initial family claim that the death was accidental while Hemingway cleaned a rifle. My recollection is that I looked forward a few weeks and there was no further coverage.
