Once upon a time, the Chicago Bulls transformed their roster from one of the youngest and underdeveloped in the NBA to one with three all-stars and two stars on the rise.
The Bulls’ new starting lineup, currently without barring any new roster moves, looks like — Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Patrick Williams, and Nikola Vucevic.
To understand the current fried chicken sandwich battle (also known as “The Chicken Wars”), one must go deeper into history and study the origin story of our iconic fast-food restaurants.
Like a greasy version of The Iliad, this epic poem sets “the table,” so to speak, for the fast-food universe. This, my friends, is how it all got started.
The Food that was Fast
The year was 19 hundred and 21 Food was cooked slow, each burger one by one There was a kingdom, the greatest you ever saw In the south of Kansas, a land called "Wichita" Inside was a king who was hungry and moody He's what we'd call today, "A bit of a Foodie" He yelled at his cooks, "Work faster! Work faster!" When he missed a meal, it was a disaster He loved burgers, pizza, fried chicken in buckets French Fries and tacos, and crispy chicken nuggets "Bring me more!" he'd shout. "Did you not hear what I told ya?! "And refill my goblet with ice. And some fresh Coca Cola." The king had many sons and daughters who all loved to cook There was a servant named Sam who kept their recipes in a book And one of the cooks, named Elizabeth Tree Taught the kids how to cook, completely free Each child believed, when their Dad passed down the throne, That the kingdom would become theirs and theirs alone They'd lead the kingdom as chef and ruler And polish their crown at the local jeweler In the winter of '21, the day finally arrived An illness hit the king that he would not survive The chefs brought him steaks grilled over briquettes He was dying of an illness called "The Meat Sweats" He ordered his children to come in together Even his youngest, who was still a bed wetter He cleared his throat, and with what strength he had left He shared his vision for food while the kids were bereft "I imagine a day when food will be fast When long sitdown dinners are things of the past It won't matter whose rich or what bloodline is in you, All people will have access to the same Dollar Menu." "A family can eat for a couple of dollars, All will be welcome, both blue and white collars, And all 'round the country our kingdom will reign Historians will say: "It's the era of the Fast Food chain." So, come to your father and receive your blessing Put a smile on, Ronald, this should not be depressing I'll begin with my eldest and carry on down the line Then we'll feast on pork chops. They're still in the brine." "Son, I know we've had troubles, and it's been quite a hassle But you'll launch the first chain and name it "White Castle." Some will say A&W did this two years before you, But that's fast food history and I don't wish to bore you." "Harland, my son, "The Colonel" they'll call you That boy Matthew Stewart, he'll sure try to maul you But fight back you will and you'll give him a lickin' You'll bring to the world: Kentucky Fried Chicken." "Ronald, sweet Ronald, the one they call clown, You'll be the most famous in all of the towns A bright beacon of light, your arches will shine You'll make the McRib, made of bar-b-q swine." Wendy, oh Wendy, my daughter of red hair, You'll bring the world burgers shaped like a square! And Arby, my daughter, you'll cause quite a stir But stick to your guns, America's roast beef, yes sir!" Glen, in a world of burgers and fries You'll bring to your customers quite a surprise They'll choose how they like their tacos, with hard or soft shell You'll stay open late at the notorious Taco Bell Ah, young prince, who has eyed my crown and my ring, From this day forth you'll call yourself the, "Burger King" And Jimmy, my son, always dressed like a pirate You'll launch Long John Silvers and yeah, that one will be kind of weird The king started to cough and the servants rushed in He caught his breath and looked at his remaining children With what strength he had left, he took a deep breath The last blessings he'd give before meeting his death "And last but not least, we have the purveyors of pizza Pepperoni, sausage, supreme, even just cheese, ya? Son, take the lessons you've learned from this ol' geezer Make your pizzas Hot-n-ready, my sweet Little Caesar!" "Frank, there'll be a day when you fall into a rut But remember, my son, no one out pizzas the hut Tom and James, you guys know how it goes, You'll bring to Michigan the fast Domino's." "And Godfrey, sweet Godfrey, not yet potty trained You'll make sure the bathrooms stay nice and maintained Shine the porcelain throne and deliver those pink urinal cakes But remember, in public restrooms, everyone makes mistakes." "You'll all face stiff competition but must never surrender Sons and daughters, you are, the Fast Food Avengers! And on the very last page of our little family recipe book Elizabeth put instructions for the greatest sandwich ever cooked." "Servants, please come and bring me the book Gather, my sweet children, let's all have a look This is the one sandwich to rule them all What's taking so long? Find me Sam in the hall!" The servants scoured the kingdom, looking high and low They asked each other, "Where's the book? How should I know?" And while they searched, the king drew his final breath The children hugged each other in tears, mourning his death Miles from the kingdom there was a man on a horse He carried the book and was set on his course With the recipe in hand, master plan underway Sam was off to Georgia. The future home of Chick-Fil-A Thank you for stopping by the Medium Rare blog. The "Chicken Wars" story will continue in two weeks with Part 2 going up on Wednesday, August 18th. To subscribe to the Medium Rare blog, please email me here and I'll get you setup. Have a great rest of your week!
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Arby’s, Avengers, Burger King, chicken sandwich, fast food chains, fast food restaurants, fried chicken sandwich, fried food, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, White Castle
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I was born and raised in Midland, Michigan and moved here to Chicago a couple years ago after graduating from Hope College. I live in the city with my beautiful wife Ashley.
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Fast Food Avengers: The Chicken Wars (Part 1)on August 4, 2021 at 12:28 pm Read More »
Recently, the Biden administration announced its own list of the “Dirty Dozen” of disinformation when it comes to the accepted dogma on vaccines. One of those on the list is Chicago native and now Florida resident, Dr. Joseph Mercola. Mercola, an Osteopathic doctor has been in practice for more than 20 years. He is known as an “alternative” medical practitioner and has created a small empire from offering advice to millions through his online site, Mercola.com, and from selling vitamins and supplements.
After Jen Psaki, press secretary for Joe Biden announced the “Disinformation Dozen,” the New York Times did a hit piece on Mercola. This is the lead on the article:
Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines…
Mercola announced in the video posted below and on his email newsletter that he will be removing all his content, not only on his vaccine opinions, but on all subjects, including general health.
He will still post the information but remove it after 48 hours. There will be no searchable library.
No matter what your view on vaccines, vitamins, and alternative health, this is an intolerable way to control information. What this means is that the government is the de facto censor of speech.
Watch the video below. This is a frightened man.
Old-fashioned liberals, are you proud?
Leftist-Democrats, when will you admit you are simply Marxist tools?
Americans of all beliefs, beware. You may be on the list of “disinformation” spreaders soon. You may then have to rescind and grovel for your “sins” and revoke 25 years of your life.
###
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news and opinion, Uncategorized
Tags:
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Yes, I LOVED TV Dinners. I’m sure they have every chemical known to man — and some that weren’t, but they were square and cool at the same time. And you really did eat them in front of the TV.
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Alex Banin interlaces pop melodies and R&B vocals with an intuitive grace that seems to transcend her 23 years. On her new debut EP, Did I Imagine, she uses past relationships as an entry point for reflection, unpacking old connections in an attempt to move on. The songs are a study of memory–of how distance, time, and emotions can warp the past.
Born in London, raised in New York City, and now based in Chicago, Banin says songwriting was always “in the background” as she grew up–something she did alone. Self-taught except for a few childhood piano lessons, she viewed it purely as a private creative outlet. It wasn’t until late in high school that she started sharing her work with others–and it still took her another few years to begin pursuing music in earnest. By that point, pretty much everything else in her life had taken a back seat to fencing.
Banin says she started fencing when she was seven because she thought “swords were cool.” She began college in 2016, arriving at Northwestern University in Evanston as a fencing recruit. The team became the center of her world for almost four years, and its demands–frequent traveling and early-morning practices–meant she had little room to polish her music or learn to get comfortable performing it.
Banin found herself stealing moments during fencing practice to jot down lyrics. She also found community with other musicians at Northwestern, she says, which transformed her formerly solo songwriting process and ushered her into Chicago’s music scene “pretty naturally.”
In some ways, she explains, the way she got into fencing mirrors the way she got into music. “[Fencing] got out of hand at some point,” she says. “I just liked it. And I started competing locally, and then it just grew from there. Kind of like how music started too–I liked it, and then you start meeting more people and doing it more seriously. And now I’m here.”
Late in 2019, before Banin had played a single show, she signed with Chicago music management and artist development agency Loop Theory. Did I Imagine is self-released, but Loop Theory helped her produce and release some of her early singles, as well as create the accompanying art and videos. The agency’s current roster includes Brittney Carter, Dre Izaya, and Heir Porter.
[embedded content]Banin quit fencing in January 2020, two months before what would’ve been the end of her final season. She says she’d been “battling” with the decision, but she was able to use those two months to give her first public performances–at Soho House in the West Loop and at SPACE in Evanston–right before the pandemic hit.
“I’m glad I made that decision, even though it felt hard in the moment,” she says. “I didn’t feel like an artist before. Now it feels real. It was always fun, but it feels more purposeful. I guess the difference is we’re making songs–before it was ideas.”
Being in community with other musicians has also been eye-opening for her. “I’d never really been with creatives, and this makes so much more sense,” she says. “It’s really freeing. It’s definitely what I want to be doing with my life, especially right now.”
COVID-19 promptly derailed her fledgling career as a performer, of course, and graduating during lockdown confronted her with its own set of questions: “Where am I gonna live?” she asked herself. “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna make money?” She’d been planning on playing more shows. “I went back to just writing songs by myself a lot,” she says. “A lot of music came out of it.”
Banin wrote two of the singles that preceded Did I Imagine, “About April” and “Hawthorne,” back-to-back in lockdown isolation. On the melancholic “About April,” released in June 2020, she speaks to a past lover about their relationship hitting the rocks. Over a delicate guitar and tapping synths, she sings about the breakup as though it’s a waking dream: “There’s nothing underneath all of the peeling tape / Entire pools could hold our weight / You bought your shoes to fly away.”
“Hawthorne,” which came out in November, shares the hushed tones of “About April,” so that Banin’s voice rings out with quiet intensity. Accompanied by subdued keys, she describes an untrustworthy love: “I don’t really care / Yeah, body languages speak / Guess that our love’s insincere / But it’s all that I need.”
The material on Did I Imagine departs somewhat from the restless interior monologues and gloomy beats of these singles–its four songs are bigger, brighter productions, both in sound and spirit. While she was finishing the EP this spring, she was finally able to leave the house, travel, and connect with musicians in real time–people she’d become used to working with virtually.
The recording process was liberating for Banin. Though she recorded most of the vocals in Chicago, other parts of the EP she crafted on trips to Los Angeles, where she worked with Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids on opening track “Closure.” She also visited Minneapolis to work with frequent collaborator vlush, whom she’d met in Chicago; he assisted on “Closure” and produced “Rolling,” whose verse from Pivot Gang rapper Saba is the only feature on the project. Chicago bassist, DJ, and producer Timmy V made the beat for “Forget About It,” and most of the mixing and mastering happened here too: Elton “L10MixedIt” Cheung of Classick Studios and Matt Hennessy of VSOP Studios lent Banin their talents, respectively.
Banin worked on the songwriting during quarantine, when she was thinking a lot about old relationships and trying to put herself back in years-old situations. “Forget About It,” where she faces up to her longing for a past lover, had its beginnings in 2019, but she revisited it for the EP. The closing song, “Brooklyn,” focuses on a mercurial relationship from four years ago.
As its title suggests, Did I Imagine hinges on the imagination: to write these songs, Banin decluttered her memory, even amid uncertainty, and pieced together her recollections in sometimes abstract shapes. She uses songwriting to channel her frustrations–she uses the word “venting” to describe the process, and for her it’s the root of her music.
Right from the outset, against the house- and funk-laden rhythm and snappy, propulsive bass line of “Closure,” Banin censures a former suitor. “Baby, that’s if you noticed / You’re out here bogus,” she sings. “Maybe you need to focus / On your emotions.” The feeling is pure in its simplicity: a love that was once nourishing is now draining.
The wistful “Rolling” opens with a dissonant, off-putting, heavily processed voice, then recalls a story of possible heartbreak. On “Forget About It,” Banin’s burning vocals make the case for shaking off the past–but the old sentiment she’s feeling is cavernous: “Miss you like a lover would / Missing you so damn good / I’ll just roll this Backwood / And forget about it.”
“Brooklyn” is the only song given a real-world location, but it still leaves us in a dream state: “And you were too broken / I couldn’t relate to you when we were in Brooklyn,” she sings. “I tried but I can’t replace you / Everything you said to me / Disintegrates in memories.”
So far Banin has made one video from Did I Imagine: a bizarre visual story for “Forget About It.” At Rogers Park vintage and costume store Lost Eras, she found several oversize, wearable bunny heads a la Donnie Darko or Alice in Wonderland and became obsessed. “They’re like these handmade heads from the 50s–like, this lady made papier-mache bunny heads,” she says. She bought one and rented six more for the video.
Directed by Michael del Rosario, the video surrounds Banin with people wearing bunny heads or snug full-head masks of blank white fabric; they’re at what looks like a birthday party and in a movie theater, where the bunny people make out and eat popcorn. At one point, she puts on one of the bunny heads herself in the middle of the street, interspersed with mundane footage like a phone conversation.
The cover art for Did I Imagine, shot by photographer Nathan Valencia, shows Banin seated against a green backdrop beneath a spotlight, a bunny head at her feet. The prop, she says, goes “along with the imagination theme and people living in a fantasy world in the real world.”
She admits that some of the memories she revisits on the EP may be more fantasy than reality. “Did this happen the way that I remember it? When you remember and you’re painting a better picture than what was there, you don’t really remember,” she says. “You’re filling in the spaces, and it’s so nice, but it’s not necessarily real. That’s how I wrote this–I was very retrospective and introspective.”
In her effort to move on, Banin lets her intuition guide her. Her investigations of past relationships push her to accept and welcome those memories–either for what they are or for what she’s remade them to be.
Banin feels kinship with Chicago’s music scene, and making Did I Imagine only deepened it. “I started here. Everything I know is here or people that I met out of here,” she says. “It’s accessible. There’s a lot of creativity here.”
Moving on is a theme of the EP, though, and Banin herself plans to move in September. She’s headed to LA, she says, to explore some opportunities that have come up there. She’s not sure how permanent it’ll be–but then again, that’s true of everything she’s done so far. v
For most of the pandemic, I’ve been making sure to spend some time and money on Bandcamp every time a Bandcamp Friday rolls around. On the first Friday of most months since March 2020, the platform has passed along its usual cut of sales, in the process earning itself tons of positive exposure and incentivizing fans to help artists and labels offset revenue losses due to COVID-related venue shutdowns. According to a recent blog post by Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond, the 13 Bandcamp Fridays so far have resulted in a total of $56 million in sales.
Bandcamp Fridays appeared to end this spring–until this past weekend, May 7 was the final date announced. Fortunately, this turns out to have been just a pause, rather than a full stop, and beginning with Friday, August 6, Bandcamp Fridays will continue through the end of 2021. Even if it turns out that December really is the last one this time, though, Bandcamp will remain a good choice for supporting artists and labels–as Diamond points out, during Bandcamp Fridays an average of 93 percent of the money spent reaches the artist or label (after processing fees), and on an ordinary day that number is 82 percent.
As I always do, I’ve tried to round up everything the Reader has published that covers a release available on Bandcamp. Since this time my search would have to span three months, not just one, it would’ve resulted in a pretty huge list if I’d been as exhaustive as possible–so for your sanity (and mine), I restricted myself to album reviews and feature-length stories. If you were actually hoping for a huge list, well, you can always dig into our archives for more coverage of Bandcamp releases. And of course we’ve published 13 Bandcamp roundups already–four from this year plus nine from 2020 (all linked in the December 2020 post). Wherever you get your ideas, make sure you carve out a little time on Friday to find something new.
Arthhur, Occult Fractures
Astrachan, Astrachan
Bachelor, Doomin’ Sun
Angel Bat Dawid, Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1: Doxology
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Fly or Die Live
Anthony Braxton, 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017
Canal Irreal, Canal Irreal
Chord, Imperfect Authentic Cadence
Colleen, The Tunnel and the Clearing
Thomas Comerford, Introverts
Cumbie, EP
Lucy Dacus, Home Video
DJ C, Do Radly
DJ Manny, Signals in My Head
Drama, Dance Without Me
Dinosaur Jr., Sweep It Into Space
Sandy Ewen, Keith Rowe, and Damon Smith / Gooseberry Marmalade, Houston 2012
August Fanon & Defcee, We Dressed the City With Our Names
Fuubutsushi, Fuubutsushi (???), Setsubun (??), Yamawarau (???)
Ganser, Look at the Sun
Great Deceivers, Great Deceivers
Jean-Luc Guionnet, L’epaisseur de L’air
Hide, Interior Terror
Izzy True, Our Beautiful Baby World
Japanese Breakfast, Jubilee
Jyroscope & Montana Macks, Happy Medium
Liam Kazar, Due North
King Woman, Celestial Blues
Roy Kinsey, Juke Skywalker Vol. 1
Quin Kirchner, The Shadows and the Light
Koeosaeme, Annulus
L’Rain, Fatigue
Les Filles de Illighadad, At Pioneer Works
Lovesliescrushing, Bloweyelashwish, Girl Echo Suns Veils, Xuvetyn
Mike Lust, Demented Wings
Mdou Moctar, Afrique Victime
Monobody, Comma
Georgia Anne Muldrow, Vweto III
Nadja, Luminous Rot
Nature’s Neighbor, Otherside
Paper Mice, 1-800-MONDAYS
Perturbator, Lustful Sacraments
Pixel Grip, Arena
Emily Jane Powers, Isometry
Sage, the 64th Wonder, Hierophant
The Scientists, Negativity
Hyunhye Seo, Strands
Devin Shaffer, In My Dreams I’m There
Mark Solotroff, Not Everybody Makes It
Spectacular Diagnostics, Natural Mechanics
Split Single, Amplificado
Squirrel Flower, Planet (i)
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Superwolves
Yasser Tejeda, Interior
Torres, Thirstier
Udababy, Udababy
Ulna, Oea
Various artists, Arc Mountain
Various artists, Punks in Peoria
Various artists, Situation Chicago
Various artists, Situation Chicago 2
Woongi, Fruits of the Midi
Yautja, The Lurch v
One of the few positive aspects of the pandemic is how it’s highlighted the importance and irreplaceability of our relationships, even as a tangled web of geographic and public health considerations has often made it unclear when (or even if) we might be able to see one another after prolonged separation. A Sky Record, the new album from Boston dream-pop duo Damon & Naomi and Japanese experimental guitarist Michio Kurihara, was born out of a friendship that started a quarter century ago, when Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang met Kurihara’s old band, long-running Japanese psych outfit Ghost. The two groups joined forces for the 2000 release Damon & Naomi With Ghost and kept the door open for further collaborations; Kurihara and fellow Ghost guitarist Masaki Batoh contributed to Damon & Naomi’s 2011 album False Beats and True Hearts. The material on A Sky Record began to take shape when Damon & Naomi toured Japan in 2019 and met with Kurihara to record at suburban Tokyo studio Peace Music, and reached its final form while the musicians were isolated on opposite sides of the globe. Serene opener “Oceans in Between” conjures just this sort of circumstance, with Yang singing about love and longing across a vast distance before Kurihara’s electrifying guitar solo appears like a wistful message in a bottle that’s somehow reached its intended recipient from a world apart. “Split Screen” grapples with how technology can bring us together while making us feel further apart, but throughout the album, water and nature remain ever present, and each song rolls like a gentle wave. (This might be because during quarantine Kurkowki and Yang developed an interest in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast, which broadcasts the conditions on the seas around the British Isles–they even pay tribute to the program in the sublime “Sailing By.”) As solemn as A Sky Record can get, it never feels weighed down by its burdens and heartaches. At times it taps into the beauty of caring enough to be hurt by loss, but it also feels like a quiet celebration of resilience–and of the knowledge that this too shall pass. v
DEAR ABBY: My husband of three years informed me that he’d had a brief affair and fathered a baby. We worked through it, and I decided to stay in the marriage. The mother of the child is in a new relationship.
I am 10 years older than my husband and have grown kids. I am not interested in raising any more. I have friends, hobbies, outdoor sports and activities that I enjoy in my free time, and I’m not giving them up. (My husband enjoys these activities, too.)
He told me he plans to have visitation with the baby in our home every other week. I have no objection. In fact, I see it as a perfect opportunity to go on some out-of-towners with my girlfriends. (We plan to yuk it up and enjoy some spa services.)
Abby, my husband hasn’t a clue what to do. He has never even changed a diaper. I told him he will have to learn quickly or adjust his visitation plans because I am not helping him with his baby. I worked hard while I raised my kids and made all the sacrifices necessary. We have close relationships as adults. We live nearby, and they sometimes accompany me on my adventures.
When they have kids of their own, I plan to be an involved grandparent, but I would never expect my husband to give up his weekends to wipe their noses. (He would refuse, by the way. I know this because he has said so.) His stance on stepparenting is different now because it involves a baby. I’m wondering if I should stay in the marriage. — TOOK CARE OF MY OWN
DEAR TOOK CARE: That’s a good question. It’s one you might discuss with an attorney to determine what the result will be financially if you exit the marriage. Do nothing in haste. However, once you have done that, if you are unwilling to disrupt your plans and help your husband with a responsibility that should be solely his, tell him you don’t plan to spend weekends babysitting the result of his careless, adulterous affair.
DEAR ABBY: My family will be expecting me to attend the funeral of a relative who, as few of them know, was an abusive monster. I want to support the people I love, especially the abuser’s niece, who is very close to me. However, I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I can’t imagine sitting through the service, listening to speeches about what a “wonderful” man he was and accepting condolences. My absence will undoubtedly generate comments and questions. I have spent many years dealing with the after-effects of his abuse. How should I handle this? — SURVIVOR IN PENNSYLVANIA
DEAR SURVIVOR: A funeral service may be a way to honor the deceased, but it is also intended to comfort and support the grieving relatives. A way to manage this would be to sit in the back of the room, quietly get up to “visit the bathroom” for most of the eulogizing and return as they are wheeling the “dearly departed” out so you can support the grieving niece by showing her you were there.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more sociable person, order “How to Be Popular.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)
The Chicago Bulls‘ most recent free agency move included a second sign-and-trade by giving Thaddeus Young and Al-Farouq Aminu, along with a 2025 first-round pick and two second-round picks, for four-time all-star DeMar DeRozan. With the Bulls getting away from the trade without including Lauri Markkanen, where does he stand with the team now?
The front office duo of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley did their best impression of Seby Zavala (or Rafael Ortega, depending on your Chicago baseball preferences) by hitting three home runs in the same game. They acquired Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and now DeRozan.
Two people were killed, and eleven others were wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago, including a 30-year-old man who was fatally shot in Gresham on the South Side.
The man was standing on a corner about 3:30 p.m. in the 7500 block of South Damen Avenue when a white-colored Kia approached and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said. He suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of the body and was transported to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead. He has not yet been identified.
Hours prior, a man was fatally shot in East Garfield Park. The 21-year-old was in a parking lot about 11:46 a.m. in the 3300 block of West Warren Boulevard when someone fired shots from a gray sedan, police said. The man was struck multiple times and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He hasn’t been identified.
In non-fatal shootings, a 39-year-old man was shot in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side. He was driving about 11:10 p.m., in the 4400 block of South Richmond Street, when a male fired shots at him, police said. The man was struck in the back and drove to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He is in fair condition.
About an hour prior, three people were wounded in a shooting in Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side. About 10:30 p.m., they were outside at a large gathering in the 3700 block of West Chicago Avenue, when three males fired shots at them, police said. A 34-year-old man was struck in the arm and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment. He is in good condition. A 53-year-old woman was struck twice in the leg, and a 68-year-old woman was struck in the stomach and leg. They were taken to Stroger Hospital, where they are also in good condition.
An 81-year-old man was critically wounded in a shooting Tuesday night in Hermosa on the West Side. Just before 7 p.m., the man was standing on the street in the 1700 block of North Tripp Avenue when someone shot him in the back, police said. He was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital initially in critical condition, Chicago fire officials said, but was later stabilized.
A 16-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting Tuesday afternoon in Englewood on the South Side. The teen was walking down the street about 4:30 p.m. in the 7000 block of South Union Avenue when he heard shots and felt pain, police said. He was struck in the abdomen and transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.
A 16-year-old boy was shot Tuesday morning in East Garfield Park on the West Side. The teen was walking home around 4:10 a.m. in the 300 block of South Albany Avenue when someone opened fire from a dark-colored Honda sedan, police said. He was struck once in the leg and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
Four others were wounded in shootings citywide.
Two people were killed, and nine others were wounded in shootings Monday in Chicago.
After a week of training camp, the Sun-Times’ Patrick Finley breaks down what he’s seen:
Tantalizing. His physical tools — from his arm strength to deep ball to 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed — are unlike that of any Bears quarterback prospect in franchise history. Now he needs to harness them. We’ve seen receivers shake their heads when he rifles a fastball on a short cross. He’ll learn not to do that.
Andy Dalton has looked like the most consistent quarterback Matt Nagy has ever coached in Chicago. That’s not to say he’s headed for stardom, or even that he’ll even be the starter on Thanksgiving. But he’s brought stability to a franchise that desperately needs it at the position, if only to buy Fields more time to incubate.
Their training camp problems are run-of-the-mill compared to the Packers starting camp with Aaron Rodgers’ airing of grievances and the Vikings putting three quarterbacks on the reserve/COVID-19 list while boasting, reportedly, the worst vaccination rate in the NFL
Beside the four players they put on the reserve/COVID-19 test Tuesday? The Bears have five players on their roster who have made the Pro Bowl while wearing the wishbone “C.” Two have yet to play a snap in camp: running back Tarik Cohen, who’s recovering from knee surgery, and safety Eddie Jackson, who hurt his hamstring while training.
The last time Damien Williams played in a game, he should have been named Super Bowl MVP. After a year off, he doesn’t seem to have lost a step. With Cohen still out, Williams has seized his opportunity to be a mismatch nightmare in the pass game.
Trusting that two of the three of Desmond Trufant, Duke Shelley and Kindle Vildor can handle cornerback duties opposite Jaylon Johnson and in the slot. Trufant turns 31 next month and has been healthy for 15 of a possible 32 games the last two years. Still, general manager Ryan Pace said the Bears still feel he “has the stickiness to play man coverage.” We guess Pace will miss Kyle Fuller soon.
First-year coordinator Sean Desai — who is hardly new to Halas Hall, but we’ll count him anyway — has brought an energy to the defense that it lacked under Chuck Pagano. The “Takeaway Bucket” — a laundry bin into which defenders dunk footballs after fumbles and interceptions — is hokey but sends the right message. After leading the NFL in takeaways in 2018, the Bears have finished in the bottom third the last two years.
