When I was in high school, and I’m fairly sure I’m remembering this correctly, a teacher was dating a student. She wasn’t his student, and she was a senior, and I don’t think their relationship was a deep, dark secret, although they were discreet. I’m also fairly sure they married shortly after graduation, so I have to assume her parents knew. A little Googling reveals that he was employed by the district for many years, and may well still be. He was a rookie then, so let’s say he was…23, 24? And she was 18, maybe 17. That’s an age gap that wouldn’t turn a head if they were a few years older, or if this happened a few years earlier. To this day, I have no idea how it slid past the administration, but maybe her parents approved, and – hell, I don’t know.
But even then, I think it was understood that the teacher wasn’t a child molester. (It might have been a little creepy, but they did get married, after all.) The problem with people like Dennis Hastert isn’t that he’s a molester, but that he abused a power relationship, that he imposed himself sexually upon someone in a subordinate position. It’s about consent, and when it’s appropriate to even ask for it. But a 17-year-old is at least physically an adult.
I believe the term for this is not pedophilia, but ephebophilia, describing a sexual attraction to adolescents. A while back I was complaining about the May-December – no, March-December – sexual relationships that turned up in Jim Harrison’s later fiction, between a 60-something man and a 15-year-old girl. The character says he thinks 15 is the cutoff, a thought I find pretty fucking gross, and still do. But there has to be a cutoff somewhere. Arbitrarily, we set ages of consent or legal majority. A 17-year-old might legally be a child, but they’re not.
If you’ve had one in the house, you know what a maddening mix of both they can be.
Fuck Dennis Hastert, anyway. Imagine groping some poor high-school boy, after telling him a massage will help him lose weight.
And speaking of him, Neil Steinberg’s column about the very same.
I pay less attention to internet culture these days, and this is why.
The new hockey arena in Detroit will be called the Little Caesar’s Arena. NO ONE likes this (and there are still more than $200 million in public dollars in this goddamn thing). I hate the new era.
Have a great weekend, all.
Brandon said on April 29, 2016 at 2:58 am
And: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/ted-cruz-lookalike-says-she-hasnt-even-heard-of-him/ar-BBsd3yp
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David C. said on April 29, 2016 at 6:05 am
When you read something and Breitbart is in the headline, you are instantly absolved of any responsibility to read. Just like you’re not required to listen to your crazy uncle liberty the moment he says the democrat party.
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adrianne said on April 29, 2016 at 6:24 am
I love reading the New York Times opinion pages on Friday for the compare/contrast between Paul Krugman (usually spot on) and David Brooks (an incoherent mess). This Friday did not disappoint. While Brooks babbles on about “If not Trump, what?” Krugman nails why the Democrats have done pretty well this year while the Republicans are falling apart. To wit:
“The Democratic establishment has won because it has, however imperfectly, tried to serve its supporters. The Republican establishment has been routed because it has been playing a con game on its supporters all along, and they’ve finally had enough.
And yes, Mr. Trump is playing a con game of his own, and they’ll eventually figure that out, too. But it won’t happen right away, and in any case it won’t help the party establishment. Sad!”
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alex said on April 29, 2016 at 7:38 am
Funny you should mention a teacher/student relationship/marriage. We had one of those in Huntington in the early 1980s between the show choir teacher and a senior girl. Stranger still, he recently came out as gay.
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Pam said on April 29, 2016 at 8:09 am
Little Caesar’s Arena? I thought nobody even liked their pizza! Maybe it will get shortened to “the LC” or “Lil C” or something.
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basset said on April 29, 2016 at 8:09 am
And the lookalike has agreed to do porn? Oh, come on, surely they’re making this up…
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_571aa703e4b0d4d3f7237467
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 29, 2016 at 8:17 am
Doubly funny you should mention that, as end-of-seventies in my corner of NW Indiana we had a band director marry a student the year after graduation (he was relatively fresh out of college, arriving her senior year), and he also divorced her not long ago and came out as gay. No idea where this string of anecdotes is going, but I had the same thought Alex did reading Nancy’s intro.
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beb said on April 29, 2016 at 8:40 am
I read the entirety of Steinberg’s column before the page finished, which is what is wrong with the internet. Too many ads, pop-up ads, auto-play ads, third-party ads that never get around to loading. Then Flash crashes and suddenly your browser can work again…
Student-teacher relationships are inherently creepy because there is no way to escape the inherent power structure involved. In the least creepy case it’s still a relationship between a responsible adult and a high school student.
But Hastert’s case is different. Where a girl falling love with a man is natural in 80-90% of the time, a man making sexual advances to a boy is unnatural in 80-90% of the time. Anyway, this wasn’t a case of falling in love, blah, blah, blah. These were viewed as molestations by the victims, they were considered traumatizing. There’s no series of dots that can connect the one to the other. And how transgenders fit into this I don’t know.
(And PS, Hastert was convicted of trying to avoid bank reporting laws, not child molestation. Like Al Capone, Hastert was punished for something other than what he was infamous for.)
Transgender use of restrooms can be solved with additional “Family” restrooms, but in the mean time who walks around in a restroom undressed? In my experience men coming into a restroom avoid eye contact, avoid talking, get their business done and go. Your mileage may vary. Public showers are a different matter and will probably take some time to sort itself out. I suspect that the people most disturbed by transgenders in the bathroom are people who have thought of putting on a dress in order to spy on women. Knowing they’d do it if they could they find it easy to believe that other people would do it too.
Riots at a Trump rally last night. Who didn’t see that coming.
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Linda said on April 29, 2016 at 8:43 am
Adrianne @3, you didn’t warn me that Brooks was going to travel and rip himself from the shelter of the bourgoisie to get in touch with the nation’s pain. I see innocent taxi drivers being harangued and quoted as he tries to get in touch with the underclass, whom I predict will be entirely rural white conservatives, unless he can find some African American preachers.
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Kirk said on April 29, 2016 at 9:01 am
They might wind up calling that arena the Pie.
One of my high school classmates, whose dad was the principal (and had Nixon bumper stickers on his VW), wound up marrying the divorced, bible-thumping football coach. Can’t remember how long after we graduated, but not long enough not to seem weird. They remain happily married these 45 or so years later, enriched by their devotion to the Shaklee Products pyramid scheme.
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ROGirl said on April 29, 2016 at 9:02 am
It could have been worse, Little Caesar’s still isn’t as bad as Domino’s.
Despite his annoying website, I agree with Steinberg’s point. It’s all connected.
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Peter said on April 29, 2016 at 9:06 am
Not to be picky, but I disagree on a couple of points: Dennis Hastert IS a child molester, because molesters operate by abusing a power relationship.
Regardless, that picture of Hastert in Sternberg’s column just said it all: I may be old, but I’m still an asshole.
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john (not mccain) said on April 29, 2016 at 9:32 am
Corporate names on public facilities are annoying enough in and of themselves. But it’s an extra turn of the screw when they keep changing all the time. Our local enormodome started out as Marine Midland Arena, not too awful as these things go, but then became HSBC Arena. A couple of years ago when HSBC departed it became First Niagara, a definite improvement and actually sort of nice considering this is the Niagara Frontier. But now Key Bank is buying First Niagara so it’s going to change yet again, I’m sure. And isn’t there already one of these things named for Key Bank? I guess I should be grateful Trump isn’t buying it.
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alex said on April 29, 2016 at 10:14 am
Jeff, I suspect maybe it’s not so uncommon after all. In those days teacher/student sex wasn’t as scandalous as it is now. I’ve known numerous people who have disclosed that they had sexual trysts with high school teachers and considered it consensual and great fun, although they if they ever do some serious introspection or undergo psychotherapy I suspect they would change their minds.
One of my best friends, a woman, was married to a male teacher in the 1980s who was at that time doinking a female student of my acquaintance. I only learned of it from the acquaintance maybe ten years ago. My friend divorced him because of his infidelity with a colleague’s wife but they still remain friends. I cannot bring myself to tell her that he was involved with students, but it has changed my impression of him for the worse, and I still have to see both of them socially.
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Jeff Borden said on April 29, 2016 at 10:22 am
You’re all going to love watching NBA games starting in 2019, when the league will allow corporate sponsorship logos on the uniforms. It’s probably just a matter of time before every team uniform in every sport looks like a NASCAR jump suit. Greed marches on.
Dennis Hastert’s case is sickening, all the more so for his public posturing on the subject and his declaration while in Congress that child molesters should get life sentences. And, of course, he was happy to scold Bill Clinton for the Lewinsky affair. Think about the top guys in the GOP back then. Serial adulterer Newt Gingrich was forced out of the speaker’s seat and his replacement, Bob Livingston, never even got to raise the gavel before his own extra marital affair brought him down. Hastert was considered a “safe” choice and now we know he was a child molester. Yuck. What a harmonic convergence of creeps.
Speaking of creeps, I get to hear the dulcet tones of Raphael Cruz these days since Chicago radio stations beam into NW Indiana. His booga-booga bathroom campaign ads are deeply disgusting, but then, so is he.
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Joe K said on April 29, 2016 at 10:23 am
Detroits problems have been a subject for years in this blog, and yes they do have problems, I flew over Detroit Thursday morning about 2 am and looking down from the air it looks pretty nice until you see blocks of dark areas where there aren’t any lights and you know there is nothing there, that being said and not having a dog in the fight after reading the story I’m puzzled why people are upset over this new arena, I understand it’s a lot of taxpayers money going in but it seems like it is a win win for the city. Jobs are created to build the thing and it sounds like it’s more than one building, it is helping revitalize the downtown area bringing more people to the stores and restaurants which will bring more jobs, what is the down side? So what it’s named after a pizza chain, sounds like the family is investing in there home town.
Pilot Joe
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Julie Robinson said on April 29, 2016 at 10:28 am
“They remain happily married these 45 or so years later, enriched by their devotion to the Shaklee Products pyramid scheme.” Thank you, Kirk, for my first laugh of the day.
Hastert had a stroke, but cynically I think that wheelchair is just for sympathy.
If Little Caesar’s is only coughing up $120 million to the taxpayers’ $200 million, shouldn’t the arena be named Blatant Boondoggle Arena?
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Bitter Scribe said on April 29, 2016 at 10:35 am
To me the funniest fiasco about corporate sponsorship of stadiums was when they had to change Enron Field to Minute Maid Park after Enron was revealed to be a nothing but big pile of ripoff.
(Does it still have that stupid slope in deep center? I stopped paying attention to the Astros when they switched to the AL.)
Jeff @15: Eventually they may become like pro soccer jerseys, where the team crest is this tiny badge, dwarfed by multiple corporate logos.
Bimbar Bakeries, makers of Bimbo bread, was (still is?) a major sponsor of Mexican pro soccer. I always got a kick (rimshot) out of seeing those macho Mexican soccer players running around with “BIMBO” emblazoned across their chests.
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Sherri said on April 29, 2016 at 11:25 am
If you want a preview of what NBA jerseys will look like in the future, watch the WNBA this summer.
http://storm.wnba.com/photos/swedish-jersey-press-conference/
There was a student teacher marriage in the class ahead of mine. She graduated, married the teacher, and had a job at the school the next fall as a secretary.
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adrianne said on April 29, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Jeff B. for the thread win for “harmonic convergence of creeps.”
The top of my head nearly came off this morning reading the weasel-words story in the New York Times about the Trump-Clinton campaign and the woman card. Luckily, Connie Schultz, longtime newspaper columnist and wife of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown blew up the story with this posting on Facebook:
A few thoughts on the first two paragraphs of this story by two reporters whose work I respect a great deal. Truly, I try never to miss their stories, they’re that good. This is not a critique of them, but rather of the language we use when we talk about Donald Trump.
1. Trump isn’t just “accused” of misogyny. He has a history of behaving and talking like a misogynist.
“I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say, ‘Rosie, you’re fired,'” he said of Rosie O’Donnell.
“(Arianna Huffington) is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision,” he wrote via Twitter.
His comments on Megyn Kelly, after she reminded him during the first Republican debate that he has called women he doesn’t like “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals”: Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever.” Later, via Twitter, he called Kelly a “bimbo.” Earlier this week, he said Hillary Clinton’s only strategy was to play “the woman’s card.”
“Women,” he’s said, “you have to treat them like shit.”
These statements are evidence of misogyny, not accusations of it. And he doesn’t care.
“You know,” Trump has said, “it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.”
2. It is my great relief to report that not only “many women” find some of Trump’s attacks on Hillary Clinton to be “sexist.” Many men do, too. Good men. Men who love their mothers and their wives, their sisters and daughters, their friends and co-workers. I hear from these men every day — in threads on this wall, in email correspondence and in private conversations.
Let us not cast hatred for women as only a woman’s issue.
3. I understand the challenges of writing reported stories about Donald Trump, one of which is to avoid appearing to punish him for hating us. He openly disdains the media, and enjoys inciting crowds to mock journalists at his rallies. We tread a fine line in describing his behavior without looking as if we are taking it personally. Also, some editors who never have to deal with Trump face-to-face can be too quick to temper their reporters’ coverage to avoid another avalanche of outrage from Trump fans.
I ask that we journalists not tip-toe around the obvious hallmarks of who Trump is. Because here’s the thing: It’s not as if Trump ever appears to regret his misogyny. He revels in it. And whenever we in the media point it out, the biggest smile on any stage, in any photo op, is his.
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Jakash said on April 29, 2016 at 12:25 pm
From basset’s link about the Cruz lady @6: “I think a lot of XHamster viewers really wanted to see her in action.” I’m sure such a distinguished organization knows its clientele, but seeing her photo makes me wonder about that. Here’s hoping that the lucky, ill-informed couple does a lot more research though — if their video doesn’t include a Zodiac killer component, they’re not making the most of their opportunity…
Beb, the Sun-Times, which publishes Steinberg’s column, was notorious in the city for having an awful website. They supposedly revamped it a few months ago and people seem to think it’s better, but I still have the problems that you note and hate it. Neil put his whole column on his blog (in addition to being in the paper) for quite a while, since the website was so bad. It seems that with the new version of the S-T website, he’s gone back to linking to the paper. I understand his wanting to send the traffic to his employer, but wish he’d stuck with his previous policy.
I think they should just call the Little Caesar’s arena “The Slice.”
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brian stouder said on April 29, 2016 at 12:29 pm
I second Adrianne’s nomination, and also thank her for the marvelous excerpt from Connie Schultz.
Good stuff!
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beb said on April 29, 2016 at 12:52 pm
I don’t know why people are upset that Illitch, who owns both the Red Wings and Little Caesars, who put his pizza company’s name on the stadium. it’s what everyone does these days. Maybe they’re just miffed that it’s not a good pizza. As for the amount of public money going into the stadium I really believe that the city or state, whoever is providing the funding, should demand a percent ownership in the club. That would not only slow the call for more public financing of private venues but provide a revenue stream for the city that goes on forever.
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Brandon said on April 29, 2016 at 12:59 pm
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lawmaker-calls-for-illinois-to-revoke-hasterts-pension/ar-BBsqkHW?li=BBnb7Kz
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LAMary said on April 29, 2016 at 1:35 pm
In my high school I can think of four teachers who married students. Two were before my time by a couple of years, one married a girl in my class (the band teacher married a cheerleader) and the fourth was a couple of years after I graduated and the teacher was a woman marrying someone about ten years younger.
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adrianne said on April 29, 2016 at 1:40 pm
In my husband’s high school class, a (male) music teacher embarked on an affair with one of his (male) students during senior year. The student’s family moved away, and he ended up living with the teacher for a time. The teacher was barely out of college, but that kind of relationship still gives me the heebie-jeebies. It just is ripe for exploitation.
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alex said on April 29, 2016 at 1:56 pm
As a measure of just how much things have changed, I knew of a gay male teacher (who is also a sociopathic liar and klepto) who was let go by one of the Fort Wayne Catholic high schools in the late ’80s or early ’90s for sexual improprieties with students, but there was no criminal action or news coverage. It was all very hush-hush. Same sumbitch ruined an online obituary memory book of one of my friends who recently died by posting a totally fabricated account of their great friendship that never was. In fact my friend would have been rolling over in his grave had he not been cremated he detested this lying psycho asshole so much.
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Deborah said on April 29, 2016 at 2:50 pm
In Little Bird’s high school there was a teacher student affair. Apparently many of the students knew about it but not the administration (or parents). It may have continued for a while after the young woman graduated. But she later married a much older man and is a born again Christian now.
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adrianne said on April 29, 2016 at 3:40 pm
Hey, Nance, I’m going to Hillman Awards Tuesday night in NYC. For web journalism, the Sidney Hillman Foundation is honoring this guy: Curt Guyette, the Flint Water Crisis, ACLU of Michigan Democracy Watch Blog.
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brian stouder said on April 29, 2016 at 3:40 pm
Unequivocally wrong; no nuance, no gray area, no ambiguity; zero tolerance.
In recent years our local schools have gotten pies-in-the-face on several occasions on issues like this, and it would be an egregious violation of trust for the administration to plug their ears and look at the sky and say “LA LA LA LA LA LA”
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Dexter said on April 29, 2016 at 3:42 pm
The new arena name made me cringe and let fly a barrage of whines of outrage to the sites where I was buried in hundreds of same-feels…most everybody hates it except for the “Well, Mr. Ilitch has a right to…” people.
In Ohio it’s still 18. Twenty some years ago I read a newspaper story of an irate mother who turned her 17 years and 11 months old teenager’s 18 year old boyfriend in to the proper child protection agency. The kids had been “going all the way”, and the daughter was excited and shared it with her mom.
The boy had no money so the public defender just went along with the prosecutor and entered a guilty plea, the young man entered the system and was sent to state prison for maybe four months, brought back on probation, banned from contact with the offended family..and I remember this well because back in 1985 my 16 year old stepdaughter told my wife she had begun having sex with her 17 year old boyfriend. I knew the kid a little bit, and he seemed old for a teen…and six years after they broke up, my daughter laughingly told us, “…he was really 23!” I was mad and probably could have just called some agency and started some real shit against that adult man, and was going to do it but my wife and the girl herself told me no, and the girl said she would deny everything and make up some story about just fooling us…so I dropped it. Do over? I’d take it to the courthouse with a vengeance. But what did I know? After all, back in 1966 when I was a junior in school…a HS basketballer, we made it to the final game of our Indiana Sectional, and we played the school from Butler. Their coach was a dumpy horse-shoe ring fat guy named Jim something…and it was common knowledge to even us, from miles away, that this creepy motherfucker was dating one of the cheerleaders. We heard they were married the week after high school graduation.
Also, when the step-daughter was in high school, the associate band leader was dating the fat girl under his tutelage. This was three decades ago. These two are married, still inseparable, you can see them grocery and Walmart shopping all the time…holding hands walking around…so shit! None of my business …or is it?
So today the step-daughter is doing well, a nurse practitioner in Nevada, married to a school teacher, three days ago bought a new motorhome, became a grandmother twice in the past year.
A few times over the years I have said “The way that adult man used you was very wrong and criminal…what do you think about that time now?”
She just laughed and said “…one time we went to our kitchen to make popcorn and “did it” as he sat on a kitchen stool and I climbed on top…and you were watching TV and totally oblivious to it all…”
I guess that was her way of saying, “So you really didn’t give a fuck, did you?” Or something like that…anyway, I dropped the subject that night. Enough.
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Dexter said on April 29, 2016 at 4:03 pm
In the 2015 movie “Trainwreck”, Amy Schumer and her sister are cleaning out dad’s house as he is moving to a home, and they find an old photograph, and Amy jokes “You ‘did’ Mr. X here in this photo didn’t you?” Sister is startled and denies it, and Amy says “I did!” And once again I cringed. Shit ain’t funny.
In 1990 we had a Little Caesar’s here and you could get a lunch special, a square slice, a tasty well-made salad and a drink for hardly any money, and I ate there and at the Auburn, Indiana LC frequently. Then a story broke in The Freep about Mike wanting to close these places and take LC into the “fancy restaurant” type business model. That didn’t play out so well and soon LC was back , copying Monaghan’s Domino’s model.
Eventually we got a drive-through LC, maybe four years ago. This is the worst fucking pizza ever…it actually stinks. I kept trying, and it just got worse. I love Papa John’s but we don’t have one, so we make or own pizzas or maybe once in a great while share a Pizza Hut pie. If you’re alone, a personal pan at The Hut is just $3.60 and it’s enough for one person.
Now when we’re in Toledo, the local LC on Lewis Street makes great-tasting $5 pizzas…so what the hell, Ilitches? 🙁
Anchovies…always, sometimes, or NEVER NO FUCKING WAY— ARE YOU CRAZY?? !! 🙂
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brian stouder said on April 29, 2016 at 4:51 pm
Yes, I know, it is essentially silly to click on Fox News, and then be surprised by anything they say.
SO – I clicked to this article about the Trump-riots in California –
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/29/protest-chaos-follows-trump-to-calif-gop-convention.html
and I was genuinely puzzled as to what the woman they quoted at the end was trying to say. Her enigmatic comment, which ends the article, exudes an almost Mona Lisa-like quality
Ly Kou, 47, of Ontario, said she likes Trump because he has vowed to put the country first. “It’s obvious that America loves Trump,” said Kou, who is from Laos, as she pointed at the waiting throng. “This thing about him being racist? Look around the crowd.”
What?
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Sherri said on April 29, 2016 at 5:13 pm
Please, please, please, can I have Bobby Knight and a chair at the Republican convention this summer?
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a44452/donald-trump-bob-knight-nuclear-weapons/
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LAMary said on April 29, 2016 at 5:32 pm
alex, at the same time the straight teacher student affairs in my high school were going on two male gay teachers were fired for being gay. This was about 1970.
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Deborah said on April 29, 2016 at 7:06 pm
I signed up for a woman card from the Hillary Clinton campaign. I can’t wait to flash it around.
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Sherri said on April 29, 2016 at 8:43 pm
Me, too, Deborah!
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James Moehrke said on April 29, 2016 at 9:32 pm
Speaking of stadium names, it’s always a struggle to remember that the Oakland Coluseum, home of the Oakland Athletics and the flighty Raiders, is now called the O.CO Coluseum. Trips off the toungue, doesn’t it?
The latest news about the Raiders is that their owner is exploring decamping to Las Vegas. This after his bid to move to L.A. once again was squashed.
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alex said on April 29, 2016 at 11:31 pm
Pizza-Pizza Park.
What’s not to like about that?
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Deborah said on April 29, 2016 at 11:59 pm
JC I meant to say something earlier about the rain sounds thing. I couldn’t get it to work. I love the sound of rain and thunder storms so I would like to figure it out.
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Dexter said on April 30, 2016 at 1:28 am
If the Raiders get the OK from Goodell’s office and move to Las Vegas, you can bet your ass MLB and NBA will follow within a few years. This old as time taboo because of sport book gambling is about to crash down like…yeah…a house of cards.
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Sherri said on April 30, 2016 at 1:51 am
The NFL already plays games in London every year, with three scheduled for next season, and sports gambling is legal there. Never mind that Robert Kraft (New England Patriots) and Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys) are both invested in DraftKings, one of the big daily fantasy sites, which is indistinguishable from gambling.
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Crazycatlady said on April 30, 2016 at 2:18 am
Little Caesars is bad pizza and a bad name to saddle on the Red Wings. Why not Hockey Town Arena? It’s been Hockey Town here for Years!It’s about money, not hockey.
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Jolene said on April 30, 2016 at 7:58 am
I contributed to get an HRC woman card too. Seemed like it would be fun to have. Am thinking I might call the campaign to see how much I would have to contribute to get more. Would like to send them to my sisters and nieces and hand some out to friends. In fact, I think the campaign should come up with an ” Honorary Woman ” card for men.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 30, 2016 at 8:47 am
FYI – watching the musical “Pippin” when your child is a senior is gut-wrenching, even more so when your son is up on the stage (Lewis, for those who know the show). It’s amazing for lots of us parents to think about how we reacted to the show when we saw it years ago, and what it means to us now.
But it’s quite a production, and I recommend anyone dealing with deferred dreams and frustrated hopes in their lives to see it wherever you might find it being done . . . and my son’s cast has a young woman who made me forget about seeing Ben Vereen in it within the first two minutes, no small accomplishment itself.
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Kirk said on April 30, 2016 at 10:20 am
As of this month, sponsorship deal in Oakland is over, so they’re just calling it the Oakland Coliseum.
There are more than 100 pizza places in Columbus, so no need to eat any of the crappy corporate pizzas. Papa John can shove his pie up his right-wing ass, and the others I’ve tasted suck. Local pizza is the way to go. Panzera’s is my pie.
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Deborah said on April 30, 2016 at 10:38 am
Jolene, I had the same thought about getting a bunch of woman cards and giving them away. On the website it says there are a limited number though.
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susan said on April 30, 2016 at 11:06 am
Deborah @47 – You could just print your own. That’s what I’d do if I wanted some of those things. Does Hillary Clinton really need the five bucks-a-pop her campaign is charging for these? She does get some mighty big donations from some mighty big donors. You’d think they’d have a special for the little people, oh, something like ten bucks for a dozen.
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Sherri said on April 30, 2016 at 3:59 pm
I found this interview with Parag Khanna, author of “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization” thought-provoking.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/29/six-maps-that-will-make-you-rethink-the-world/
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Sherri said on April 30, 2016 at 4:05 pm
On the other hand, like far too many non-fiction books, it sounds like there’s a thought-provoking essay lost in a padded out book: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/books/review/connectography-by-parag-khanna.html
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Deborah said on April 30, 2016 at 7:39 pm
Last weekend in Chicago was glorious, then Monday was in the 80s, a little too hot. After that we’ve had 5 straight days of miserable weather, gloomy, cold and windy, today it rained, the whole damned day. I’ve filled up my little cart umpteen times today and shuttled stuff across the street to the new place. I hope it doesn’t rain on Monday when the movers come, but it probably will. We only have big stuff to move now and boxes of books.
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Andrea said on April 30, 2016 at 9:06 pm
My son has a regatta at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club this weekend. He just called and said it is the nicest, fanciest yacht club he’s ever been to. (He’s a junior member at Chicago Yacht Club and sails for his high school team.) It even has a bowling alley in it… wonder why?
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Dexter said on May 1, 2016 at 1:30 am
The worst name other than the soon-to-be expired O.Co is US Cellular Field, formerly New Comiskey Park, south side Chicago. Perfectly fitting for a town that seems hard-core German and conservative mostly is Great American Ballpark along the mighty Ohio in Cincinnati. And it’s also a wonderful, beautiful baseball cathedral. Heinz Field (if the Steelers home football stadium is still called that) is most appropriately named. Most anachronistic has to be Wrigley Field, Chicago…old man Wm. Wrigley of spearmint fame sold out to da Trib years ago and now the multi-billionaire Ricketts family are in charge. I guess TD Ameritrade Field would really suck as bad as US Cellular Field, true…I hope partner Laura Ricketts has a full share in the decision making of the club…while Joe Ricketts is a moderate, Laura is an openly gay liberal…she can balance out the rest of the crazy right wing nuts in that family.
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Deborah said on May 1, 2016 at 8:06 pm
Well we had an awkward evening. We spent the whole day schlepping stuff across the street so we decided to go to our neighborhood bistro for dinner. At the next table from us was a young gay couple, a mom and stepdad. Towards the end of the meal the gay son said something that the mom took to be offensive and all hell broke loose. She started crying and the stepdad yelled and it was a scene. That was a first for me to see such high drama in public like that. Yowza.
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brian stouder said on May 1, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Dinner theater!
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Deborah said on May 1, 2016 at 8:37 pm
Brian, when they finally left a young couple sitting at the table on the other side of the distraught family struck up a conversation with us. They were as blown away as we were and the guy said he was going to go straight home and call his parents and tell them he loved them.
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MarkH said on May 1, 2016 at 8:49 pm
Dexter @31 — Some things in your post just don’t add up. The newspaper story you recounted falls apart for one big reason: the age of sexual consent in Ohio is, and always has been, 16. That would mean a false complaint was filed with a state agency, which engaged in a false prosecution, and the defendant would have had a slam-dunk case for legal malpractice, public defender or not.
Also, you appear to be able to rest easy on the legality of your step-daughter’s conduct with the 23 year old while 16, her attitude issues aside. Jeff(tmmo) has to have been involved in cases like this, maybe he can weigh in. Here is a page that further delineates the issues.
http://www.columbuscriminaldefenseattorney.com/2014/01/06/what-is-the-age-of-consent-for-sex-in-ohio/
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 1, 2016 at 10:25 pm
Sadly, we have reason to bookmark this in our office for frequent reference; I think our division head has a hard copy taped to the side of her locked file cabinet.
http://www.oaesv.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Ohio-Age-of-Consent-Fact-Sheet.pdf
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 1, 2016 at 10:28 pm
15 year old girls and 18 year old boys are where we have the most angst, tsouris, and general fershizzle.
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