Diary of a Newspaper Hawk

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The Taste of Chicago is coming June 29-July 8, 2007. Newspaper sales become a strange thing as tourists, and people from the suburbs who do not normally come into the Loop fall into overpriced chow lines. Sometimes, I sell three times what I might expect. People who want to look trendy-city will pick up the Sun-Times as if they read it daily. I'll take their foolish money. Other people present that they are business-sophisticates, and buy a New York Times, Wall Street Journal or Financial Times. Mostly young people, and almost always with dates. I get more tips than when my regulars come by. Speaking of tips. Made my day. Normally, I hate gift cards. I think they are the lazy man's Christmas or birthday gift. It is just cash in card form. However, a guy, one who stops occasionally gave me a gift card to Starbucks. It was worth $20.00. Why? He received one as a gift, an office party thing, but hates coffee. When he passes each day, he always asks, "Hawk, how's the coffe...

The humidity today was an invisible fog. The News The one is in the US World & News Report : The high school student who smugly held a banner at a school event that said " Bong hits 4 Jesus " was right to suspended, or at least, it was within the rights of his school to do so. I think the kid is an ass, and was not trying to make a statement. Nothing about his case compels me to think he is nothing but a boy without any real friends, looking to pretend he is a thinker. Also, Tank Johnson lost his job playing for the Chicago Bears after being stupid, driving drunk or high. I don't know what they story is. Got frustrated, stopped reading. Too bad. He seems like a nice guy. Instead, like the high school kid, he's just an ass.

I'm a movie buff. Not really. I like movies, and have seen a lot of old movies recently. Black and whites, like The Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy. The Top Movies of All Time list has been released, so I have been thinking about the great ones I have seen. Casablanca might top my list. Rain's a-coming, and it is going to be hard. My plastic is ready, but if it is windy, there sinks my sales. Ever buy a paper from a guy like me? If it is near 6:00, offer me half the price, and I might take it. Then, tip me a quarter. You'll get a nod and a thanks. I might even make sure you get a dry copy. The News Loser boys are on trial. (Post here and here ). The Chicago flavored mob has been kissing themselves at trial all week , and, although most of them are old and useless now, they are said to be have been even more useless when they were younger. The closest thing to the "Sopranos" they might have is the the tune they'll be singing in the pen. Wondering ...

The heat has continued to bring out the salary girls at lunch, swaying short skirts and men's integrity for weeks now. Thong shoes, short shorts, you know the sort. At a few corners, the bands are out. The AON Building has one, and there's one on Washington and, is it Adams? Usually pop blues. Works for me as the sound wafts through the corners and streets. Better than the bongo boys who play only one tune badly, and that guy with a saxophone. Nice try, pal, but even Bill Clinton plays better. Have you seen the Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Soprano spoof/parody? . Looks like the Clintons, desperate to reach into Bil's popularity, prefer to associate themselves with the mob. The News Stan Lee got his own action figure. Not a doll. Action figure. ( Comic-book legend Stan Lee gets his own action figure ) Speaking of mobs, and playing with things, the jury looks like it was chosen for the mob trial I told you about yesterday. What the mob boys will play with once they get se...

Rain, rain, go away. Ain't nothing worse to a newspaper hawk than thunderstorms. Rain is one thing, but throwing a little lightening into the mix and I become person non grata. That was yesterday. I think I sold two papers in the afternoon. I can't blame them, and I won't blame God, but if He wanted, He could've sent the rain in the middle of the night when I was sleeping. He didn't. Today is nice. Damp, humid, but, so far, cool, but getting hotter. The sight of a storm over Lake Michigan still thrills me. It is the closest thing we have to an ocean, and there is a kind of drama that doesn't happen on the streets all canopied by buildings and L-tracks. The News Conrad "The Dirty Rotten Bum" Black's trial looks like it is coming to a close. That's my nickname for him. If the guys in the mob get a nickname, he certainly deserves one too. Equal to him among human vermin is Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. Why do they call him a clown? B...

Blistering heat continues to make sitting on a milk crate in the Loop a chore. Mornings aren't so bad, but it gets worse with each hour. Coffee's not so much anymore, and that iced coffee thing is for the birds. Iced tea, on the other hand, hits the spot. Can't drink it all day, though. Got a cooler I drag with with me, one of those things with a long handle and wheels. Where were those years ago? You'd think that would have been an easy invention. Nope. Took til when, 10 years ago? I'm glad to have it. Old bones drag new things slowly. The News Ruth Graham , wife of beloved evangelist Billy Graham, has died. Chicago, at first look, might be seen as a Catholic town, but millions of Protestants live here, and, the fact is, Graham has never been anti-Catholic. Rather, he spoke about Jesus Christ as someone's 'savior' which is, from what I get, basically the same thing a Catholic says. Anyway, she's dead. Somewhat the same as a first lady, but, unlike p...

Is there a correlation between cicadas chirping and the intensity of heat? Sitting in a diner off west Washington today, I could hear them buzzing faster than a dental drill. Speaking of diners - saw a roach in one. Might've been a cicada. Either way, none for me, thanks. Papers have been selling hot. Cubs playing better, NBA Finals, and better morning weather all are adding up. Slower sales in the heat if the afternoon, though. The News Sadly, Woman and Three Children Found Dead Near Chicago . It looks like her husband did it. I don't know. They are from Oswego, but they found the bodies in Channahon. Cubbies won today.

Cicadas are in full bloom. Heard them on my way to Ravinia in Highland Park to hear Dr. John sing. He opened for some mediocre jazz singer. No cicadas in the Ravinia Festival Park, I'm glad to say, but their carcassed shells were everywhere. Kids were checking out exoskeletons right and left, like Christmas ornaments on a maple tree trunk. Windows closed, AC on, radio on, talking with someone in the car, noisy expressway -- and yet, cicadas. Some kid in Downer's Grove found a blue-eyed cicada . Not so many in Loop, though one guy was sporting one of these tobacco-spit colored insects on his suit as he came up out of his apartment building. I didn't ask. The thing doesn't sting, so I let him be. The guy gave me a buck for a Chicago Sun-Times, left me with the change. Why ruin a good thing? On south 294, there was a billboard showing a kid with a finger up his nose, advertising Grossinger Chevrolet. Why? As it seems, Grossinger sees itself as mucus that requires a child t...