Cicadas, Conrad Black, Thug Cops, Ravinia

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 to pick it. Give the kid a Kleenex and shop at CarMax. Then fire the idiots who designed the billboard.

The News

• They are filming the next Batman here. Christian Bale is complaining about the rubber muscle suit. Humid in Chicago, Mr. Bale?
• More thug cops beating up on ordinary people. This week's low life did it on camera at a bar pool table. There's plenty of good guy cops, but the rash of morons who are cops stomping on the little clearly need a visit from Dr. Phil, or better yet, Dr. Kevorkian. Dr. Phil has a conscience; we need Dr. Kevorkian instead to do what he does best.
• Conrad Black's trial looks to be closing up. I wonder if he will get the Paris Hilton treatment.