AS IT SHOULD BE
Seventeen candidates – seven Democrats, nine Republicans, one independent
– are running to succeed U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, who’s quitting after one
term. Judging from the resumes, it’s an impressive lot: Harvard, Stanford, Brown,
William and Mary, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and Dartmouth.
There are lawyers, business executives, a psychologist and an M.D. Democrat
Barack Obama was a community activist and is now a constitutional law professor
and a state senator; Republican Jack Ryan, an ex-partner at Goldman Sachs who
quit to teach high school students on Chicago’s South Side. Debates should be
vigorous, the voting on March 16 difficult. What could be better?
CACTUS JUICE
Local cowboy singer and occasional Illinois Times contributor
Randy Erwin Skalicky gets a sweet serenade in a book published this month by
Routledge. Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World
is said to be the first-ever reference book about this peculiar art, and somehow,
we don’t doubt this claim. Author Bart Plantenga devotes a full page to Skalicky
(who usually drops his unpronounceable surname for his showbiz endeavors): “Think
juice from a cactus during a drought, and you come up with Randy Erwin. His
voice is clear as a proverbial bell in a very tall steeple on a very clear day.”
Says Skalicky: “Could you be sure to mention that’s not my picture on the cover?”
MAYOR HO HO
Santa gets a hand from Mayor Tim Davlin at noon Saturday, Dec. 20.
The first 500 kids at the Santa House (south side of the Old State Capitol Plaza)
between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. get a free book. No word on whether aldermen will
be assisting Santa’s elves.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2003.
