At the beginning of the pandemic, I became mildly obsessed with a video of Limp Bizkitplaying a Moscow venue in February 2020. I wasn’t drawn to the performance so much as to the sight of front man Fred Durst, who’d been an emblem of white male millennials’ bottomless teenage angst at the turn of the century–like a nu-metal Santa Claus, he wore a gray-and-white beard radiating from his chin. Nothing else has quite crystallized for me how much time has passed since Limp Bizkit could compete with blockbuster boy bands and sell albums by the millions. As Durst barked lyrics about the indescribable anger specific to youth, he looked like an authority figure out to ruin a teenager’s day–except that he was wearing what appeared to be an oversize blue-jean jumpsuit. From a distance it looked a little like pajamas, which did more than Limp Bizkit’s most infantile outbursts to underline the unintentional goofiness running through their rap-rock.
When it comes time to explain pop-music phenomena to future generations, Limp Bizkit provide one of the more confounding challenges. Among the late-90s nu-metal acts to emerge following the pioneering work of KoRn, Limp Bizkit weren’t the most novel (Deftones), the most charismatic (Incubus), or the most worldly (System of a Down). They haven’t left nearly the imprint on pop culture as Linkin Park, and their guttural grooves may be the only popular product of that era that sounds dumber than Kid Rock. But wasn’t that part of the point? Limp Bizkit’s focus on polishing up lowest-common-denominator aggro rock gave them their own lane, where few others did so well–and that, I suppose, is something. When the Jacksonville group issued their breakthrough (and “best”) album, 1999’s Significant Other, most mainstream “alternative rock” was about as daring as white bread, and their sludgy mix of funk, metal, and hip-hop could at least make parents blush. At their height, Limp Bizkit savvily retooled their grimy sound into something catchy that could commingle with lighter radio rock, and Durst relentlessly exploited pop music’s tolerance of puerile lyrics: never forget that in their first big single (“Nookie”), he rhymes the title with “cookie.” (It works . . . for Limp Bizkit.) Their omnipresence now far behind them, Limp Bizkit have followed an odd path over the past decade, yielding one forgettable album (2011’s Gold Cobra), a brief flirtation with Cash Money Records (which begat a Lil Wayne collaboration, 2013’s “Ready to Go”), and rumors of a forthcoming sixth album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants. Given the inevitable fan attrition over the years, Limp Bizkit’s apparently robust legacy is baffling, as is their prominent spot on the Lollapalooza lineup–and that’s perhaps the nicest thing I can say about a group led by a famous Florida man known for his red baseball cap. v
The Tokyo Olympics open Friday, when the world’s athletes will march behind their flag-bearers. And when they do, the peanut gallery on what they’re wearing will be open, too.
Olympic gear makes for lively social media fodder, starting with the hours-long Parade of Nations. The year-long wait due to the pandemic has given enthusiasts extra time to ponder what they love or hate.
There’s the Czech Republic and its traditional indigo block-print design with matching fans, already the butt of some jokes. It follows the country’s loud umbrellas and neon-blue Wellington boots of 2012 in London, along with its “Beetlejuice” stripes in Rio in 2016.
Israel’s athletes have see-through nylon jackets with huge pockets, while Emporio Armani decked out Italy’s team in track suits with a reinterpretation of Japan’s rising sun in the colors of the Italian flag: red, green and white. Liberia received the gift of designer Telfar Clemens, the buzzy Liberian American who makes sought-after bags and created their kits for the first time.
Things used to be a lot simpler for the athletes, fashion wise. In the beginning, there was no parade, or opening ceremony for that matter. Athletes wore whatever they chose, often walking with the equipment of their sports.
“In the early days it was no big deal,” said David Wallechinksy, executive board member and past president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. “People would just come on. If a team wanted to dress alike they did.”
Wallechinksy unearthed an image in an archival film showing the 1924 British curlers walking in the Winter Games parade in Chamonix, France, their brooms held high.
In the beginning, clothes were optional altogether, during competition anyway, according to scholars. Athletes often performed in the nude in Ancient Greece. In more modern times, parade uniforms often pay homage to a host country, in addition to traditions, athletic feats and patriotic flourishes.
This year, the pandemic has brought on another element: masks.
Australia has on offer for athletes a sand-colored blazer lined with the names of the country’s 320 Olympic gold medalists. For the closing ceremony, Canada’s Olympic organizers teamed with Levi’s to produce a denim “Canadian tuxedo” jacket alive with Japanese street-style graffiti to be worn with white denim pants.
Team Canada will wear this denim jacket during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.Hudson’s Bay via AP
“This is the gang that comes after you if you say you tried watching ‘Schitt’s Creek’ but couldn’t get into it,” New York Times culture writer Dave Itzkoff tweeted of the look in April, several months after the jacket was unveiled with Team Canada’s other gear.
Alison Brown, host of the Olympic fans podcast “Keep the Flame Alive,” said outfitting Olympic teams, including those competing in the Paralympics, isn’t easy.
“They have to fit all kinds of body types. Think tiny gymnasts, brawny weightlifters and lanky basketball players. They have to convey something about the nation, honor the host, be serious enough for the solemnity of the occasion but practical enough to be comfortable for hours of standing in the heat,” she said.
Count Brown among the fans of the Czech uniforms, done by Zuzana Osako in Prague. They include the team’s mainstay, a gymnast, built into the design. Men will be in blue vests with white pants and women in blue blouses and white skirts.
“They managed to blend elements of Czech folk tradition, traditional Japanese indigo dying techniques, and a call out to the great Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska, but still keep the outfit wearable and comfortable for the heat,” Brown said.
Of Canada’s denim jackets, she said: “I think I wore something similar in 1987. I wonder if anyone over 12 really wants to wear it.”
Lucia Kinghorn, vice president of design at Hudson’s Bay, which helped created Canada’s uniforms and other Olympic gear, is aware of the scorn.
“For as many naysayers, we have even more fans,” she said. “We’re proud of the thoughtful design behind Team Canada’s clothing and happy that so many people are talking about it.”
Brown was similarly unimpressed by the looks for Team USA. They include blue denim pants for the opening parade and white denim pants for the closing ceremony.
“The U.S. has stayed with the same designer, Ralph Lauren, as it has for years, leading to another yachting look. Yawn,” she said. “Also, it’s expected to be very hot in Tokyo. Jeans, a knit top, scarf and a blazer? Who wants to wear denim in that kind of heat and humidity?”
The denim is lightweight in a stretchy fabric.
Japan’s uniforms harken back to those worn by the Japanese team at the opening ceremony of the last Olympics to be held in Tokyo, in 1964. Back then, jackets were red and trousers were white. The colors are switched this year.
“It’s in line with the many call-backs organizers are including to 1964,” Brown said.
Her favorite parade look so far is Mexico’s. The Mexico Olympic Committee held a national vote online to choose the opening ceremony looks from three designs created by High Life. The winning design honors Oaxaca in a single, brightly colored lapel.
“The blazer includes one floral lapel in traditional Zapotec embroidery. So beautiful without being costumey,” Brown said.
This image provided by High Life Mexico shows the opening ceremony outfits for team Mexico. High Life Mexico via AP
The embroidery was done by Oaxacan artisans, making each lapel among the 150 blazers a different custom design, said Jeannette Haber, marketing director of High Life. The artisans, she said, were “happy to be part of the project, and that their designs and their work could have this worldwide exposure.”
Whole collections for sale to consumers are built around what Olympic athletes wear during opening ceremonies.
“It’s a great moment for these brands to show their team spirit and their innovation in new technologies,” said Ted Stafford, fashion director of Men’s Health magazine and market director for Esquire.
That includes a cooling unit Ralph Lauren built into a white denim jacket for the Team USA flag-bearer.
“It’s the world stage and it sets the tone,” Stafford said. “It’s more than just a big fashion show.”
The Cubs have forged a $100 million partnership with DraftKings that could pave the way for Wrigley Field to house the first stadium sportsbook in Major League Baseball. But, it can’t happen unless the City Council lifts the ban on sports betting in Chicago.
Now, an influential alderman wants to do just that.
At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), whose burgeoning Near West Side ward includes the United Center, introduced an ordinance that would lift Chicago’s home-rule ban on sports betting and establish parameters for the city to issue those licenses and make money from it.
Under the plan, sports betting would be authorized either at Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Soldier Field, the United Center and Wintrust Arena or in a “permanent building or structure located within a five-block radius” of those stadiums.
Sports wagering would also be authorized inside inter-track wagering facilities and inside a Chicago casino, which has been authorized by the Illinois General Assembly but is years away from being built.
No more than 15 kiosks or wagering windows would be allowed at each location unless bettors can also purchase food and drink.
No one under age 21 would be allowed to place a bet. Sports wagering would be prohibited from midnight to 10 a.m., Monday through Thursday; midnight Friday to 9 a.m. Saturday; and 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The city would issue two types of sports wagering licenses: “primary” and “secondary.” Primary sports licenses would start at $50,000 a year and cost $25,000 for annual renewal. Secondary sports licenses would start at $10,000, with an annual renewal fee of $5,000.
Burnett openly acknowledged his ordinance is likely to trigger a heated debate over the pros and cons of sports betting and the danger that sanctioning sports wagering might somehow encourage Chicagoans who can least afford it to blow their paychecks.
But Burnett said the cold, hard reality is that sports betting has already been legalized by the state.
“Wrigley and the United Center — they’ve both been talking about setting up a spot for it. So this ordinance needs to be passed in order for that to happen. We’ll see where the Council wants to go with it,” said Burnett, chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.
“In my community, it’ll bring more people to the United Center. They may spend more money. It helps with the sales tax and also the amusement that these guys pay. So there is some upside. … There’s more benefits for the state, but there’s some auxiliary benefits for the city.”
What about the downside?
“The only downside would be that folks who do it anyway may get addicted to it,” he said.
“But, I can take you to every office in this [City Hall] building. Everybody’s doing squares, pools and all kind of other things in regards to sports [betting]. … And a lot of people are doing sports betting on their telephones,” Burnett said.
“That’s a conversation we can have once we get it introduced. I’m just bringing it to the table so we can all talk about it.”
The
Fans gather in April 2019 at Gallagher Way, the plaza along the west side of Wrigley Field. The Cubs and DraftKings have said they may add a sportsbook betting operation and restaurant complex to an existing building or constructing an entirely new facility near Wrigley. But they need the Chicago City Council to make sportsbooks legal in the city.Getty Images
Construction of a new building or renovation of an existing building would require a change to the planned development that paved the way for the Cubs to renovate Wrigley and develop the land around it. So would sports betting of any kind, since gambling is outlawed in Chicago.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), whose ward includes Wrigley, has acknowledged sports betting is a “reality across the country” and, more recently, in Illinois and that, “in one way, shape or form, it’s coming to major league sports and to all of the stadiums.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said she will also insist on “tight restrictions” on sports betting.
“We’re not gonna turn our neighborhoods into the Las Vegas strip,” the mayor has said.
Cubs spokesman Julian Green has said the partners hope to build an addition to the $1 billion Wrigley campus that could be a year-round attraction unto itself, Green said.
“DraftKings says this would be their largest sportsbook in the country … with a food and beverage option and betting. In the winter months, you have Super Bowl. You have March Madness. Having a facility where groups may want to come in and watch the Super Bowl or March Madness — that’s something we could accommodate. We have always had a goal to continue to develop Gallagher Way and have year-round activity around the ballpark,” Green has said.
“Where? We don’t know yet. That would be discussed with the city. … We have a tower where our front office is located. There’s also the space that was part of the planned development over near Sheffield and Addison. The DraftKings club used to be over there… Now we don’t have anything over there on that mini-triangle parcel. We could look at options at the office tower or there.”
Legal sports betting was introduced in Illinois as part of a massive gambling bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker two years ago. All 10 of the state’s casinos have launched sportsbooks, as have two racetracks. As it stands, Chicago bettors have to drive to one of those physical locations outside the city to place a wager or register for a mobile betting application.
Large arenas like Wrigley and Soldier Field, with capacities exceeding 17,000, can apply with the Illinois Gaming Board to open books, but none has so far.
Meanwhile, thousands of Chicagoans already place bets on their phones with mobile sports gambling operators — legal or otherwise. Bettors across Illinois have wagered more than $4.6 billion on sports since the first legal bet was placed in March 2020. Black market wagers are still thought to be close to that figure, too.
The NBA offseason — if you can call it that — is here. The Milwaukee Bucks officially flipped the league calendar to summer on Tuesday night, capturing their first title in 50 years and turning out the lights on a season that navigated its way through a pandemic to crown a new champion.
There isn’t much of a break, of course.
The NBA Draft, with the Pistons holding the No. 1 pick and presumably the chance to choose Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, is fast-approaching on July 29. Free agency starts in less than two weeks, on Aug. 2. Most new contracts can be signed starting Aug. 6, and summer league opens two days after that.
“We made it. We crowned a champion,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during the trophy ceremony in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. “I have to say playing through a pandemic required enormous resilience from all 30 teams. Thank you to every team and every player in the league for a tremendous season.”
And now, it’s already next season.
The good news is there’s a sense of normalcy, even amid a pandemic, and the NBA plans to continue along that path. Training camps will begin in late September, as is the new normal. Preseason games are back in early October, and the league’s 76th season — even though it’ll be celebrating its 75th anniversary all year long — starts Oct. 19.
That’s not even three months away.
The pandemic was the storyline of the entire season — obviously, since it has been the storyline across the entire planet — and no one in the NBA expects that next season will be able to start without the continued threat of COVID-19. Protocols will remain in place; how many and how strict will depend on the virus and what’s happening in the world in a few months.
“I think the players have a better understanding of sort of what we’re up against in trying to run this business and I think we have a better understanding of the players and what it’s like to travel the amount they do and to the stresses they’re under, the emotional and physical burdens they’re under by competing at this level,” Silver said at the start of the finals. “And hopefully we can continue to build on that.”
Some issues to watch over the coming days and weeks:
INJURIES
Players missing time with injuries was a major issue this season and the offseason already has seen more news on that front.
Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers just had surgery to repair a partially torn ACL; injuries to that ligament, unfortunately, aren’t rare in basketball, but partial tears are not exactly common. The Clippers haven’t said how long they think he’ll be sidelined. ACL reconstruction tends to cost players several months, and that means the start of Leonard’s season is in obvious doubt.
FREE AGENCY
Chris Paul helped Phoenix get to the NBA Finals and now has a decision to make about his $44 million option for next season. He could opt-in and stay, or opt-out — and quite possibly still stay, if he and the Suns work out a new deal.
There will be plenty of seasoned veterans on the market, including Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley. Leonard could be a free agent as well, if so inclined.
An interesting situation to watch will be Victor Oladipo, most recently of Miami and someone who would like to remain with the Heat. He’s coming off another leg surgery and may not be ready to start next season, which could certainly affect his number of suitors — and how much they will be willing to offer him.
THE DRAFT
Detroit picks first, followed by Houston, Cleveland and Toronto. Orlando has two picks in the top eight and Oklahoma City has three picks in the first 18 — the start of the massive haul of draft capital that the Thunder have acquired in recent years.
NEW COACHES
At minimum, seven teams will open next season with new coaches — Washington, New Orleans, Dallas, Indiana, Orlando, Boston and Portland.
Assistant coaches have been hired in some places and the staff shuffling will continue in many NBA cities over the next few weeks. The draft, free agency and summer league will provide the first hints on how the teams with new coaches will change their respective franchise’s approach this coming season.
THE RAPTORS
The NBA still hasn’t said if the Toronto Raptors can truly be the Toronto Raptors again.
The inability for teams to cross the U.S.-Canada border during the pandemic meant the Raptors couldn’t get in or out of their home for games, so this season was spent with them displaced in Tampa, Florida. And while the Raptors spoke highly of Tampa, they don’t want to be back there.
There are good signs in that regard — among them, the Toronto Blue Jays will be playing their home games in Canada again starting July 30 — but there has been no official announcement yet from the league that NBA teams will be able to cross the border this fall.
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible, the head of the World Health Organization told sports officials Wednesday as events began in Japan.
How infections are handled is what matters most, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.
“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” he said.
The number of Games-linked COVID-19 cases in Japan this month was 79 on Wednesday, with more international athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel.
“The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases,” Tedros said, noting the athletes who already tested positive in Japan, including at the athletes village in Tokyo Bay, where most of the 11,000 competitors will stay.
Teammates classed as close contacts of infected athletes can continue training and preparing for events under a regime of isolation and extra monitoring.
Health experts in Japan have warned of the Olympics becoming a “super-spreader” event bringing tens of thousands of athletes, officials and workers during a local state of emergency.
“There is no zero risk in life,” said Tedros, who began his keynote speech minutes after the first softball game began in Fukushima, and added Japan was “giving courage to the whole world.”
The WHO leader also had a more critical message and a challenge for leaders of richer countries about sharing vaccines more fairly in the world.
“The pandemic is a test and the world is failing,” Tedros said, predicting more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide before the Olympic flame goes out in Tokyo on Aug. 8.
It was a “horrifying injustice,” he said, that 75% of the vaccine shots delivered globally so far were in only 10 countries.
Tedros warned anyone who believed the pandemic was over because it was under control in their part of the world lived in “a fool’s paradise.”
The world needs to produce 11 billion doses next year and the WHO wanted governments to help reach a target of vaccinating 70% of people in every country by the middle of next year.
“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it,” Tedros said. “It is in our hands.”
He’s on the board of trustees at Duke, his alma mater where he played for Mike Krzyzewski. He’s an investor, broadcaster, public speaker, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, co-owner and vice chairman of the Atlanta Hawks, and a member of the board of directors at the NCAA.
He says no to plenty of things. And then USA Basketball came calling.
That call led to Hill adding one more job to his portfolio. When the Tokyo Olympics end, he will replace Jerry Colangelo and become managing director of USA Basketball’s men’s national team — a most challenging task that he’ll begin with the Americans just a few months away from resuming qualifying for the 2023 Basketball World Cup and with an eye already on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Another opportunity to represent your country, to serve your country in this capacity, that was the reason for me,” Hill said. “I think also understanding how important, how significant the Olympic experience was for me back in 1996 and wanting to help recreate for young men who are coming through the NBA and want to be a part of this. It’s almost a calling in a lot of ways.”
Hill will not be in Tokyo for the Olympics, the first one where the U.S. will play under Gregg Popovich after Krzyzewski’s three-Olympics, three-gold-medals run ended. Hill’s absence is only because of logistical challenges; the rules don’t allow for unlimited personnel with a team, even in non-pandemic times, so Hill’s in-person involvement with the team picked for the Tokyo Games was limited to its training camp in Las Vegas.
He spent time whenever he could with Colangelo, picking his brain on whatever came to mind, even squeezing in chats on the team bench just a few minutes before exhibition games.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him be that person,” Colangelo said. “When Coach K and I put things together back in ’05, ’06, we talked about building infrastructure that would carry on after we’re gone. And I believe that’s really what’s transpired.”
It’s not like Hill needed to see what the Olympics are like. He has a gold medal, helping the U.S. win one at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
His mission now: Take the torch from Colangelo and win more, many more.
“Grant has been around us over the years and our training camps, because of relationships with myself, with of course Coach K, his coach in college,” Colangelo said. “He’s very aware. There’s been a lot of conversation. There’ll be plenty more conversation. And it’s not rocket science. It really isn’t. It’s all about relationships, and he’s very good at relationships so I feel very confident in passing this on to Grant Hill.”
Colangelo assumed the managing director role in 2005, after the Americans lost three games in the 2004 Athens Olympics and finished with an extremely disappointing bronze medal. His job since has been to oversee the selection of players and coaches for the senior national team — and he has a chance to end his run with four Olympic golds in four tries.
“No question, these are big shoes to fill,” Hill said. “Jerry has been incredible. His vision, strategic thinking, his will to make this successful. He commands a room with his presence. I’ve seen others who’ve been legends in the game just have such reverence for him, and rightfully so. I mean, I’ve sat with him and just talked about his career. I’m amazed at many things I didn’t know about his various contributions to the game of basketball.”
No matter whether the Americans win or lose in Tokyo, Hill will have to move quickly.
Qualifying for the World Cup will resume in November, almost certainly with G League players. There will be coaching decisions to make, NBA players to start recruiting for the next World Cup, a plan to be hatched on whether to try to have one core group for both the 2023 tournament and the Paris Games.
He’s eager. He believes he’s ready, too.
“I had an incredible run as an athlete,” Hill said. “And now, to still work and serve this particular game in a number of roles, including this, it’s consistent and it’s aligned with what I feel about the game of basketball. It’s an incredible leadership opportunity, an incredible challenge, but it really stems from a love of the game and wanting to continue to work in it and serve it and make it better for those who come after us.”
WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center Honors will return in December with a class that includes Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, “Saturday Night Live” mastermind Lorne Michaels and actress-singer Bette Midler. Organizers expect to operate at full capacity, after last year’s ceremony was delayed for months and later conducted under COVID-19 restrictions.
This 44th class of honorees for lifetime achievement in the creative arts is heavy on musical performers. The honorees also include opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.
All will be honored on Dec. 5 with a trademark program that includes personalized tributes and performances that are kept secret from the honorees.
Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said the current plan is to pack the center’s opera house to full capacity and require all attendees to wear masks. But the plans remain fluid and Rutter said they’re ready to adapt to changing circumstances depending on the country’s COVID-19 situation.
“We don’t know for sure what it’s going to be like,” Rutter said in an interview. “But don’t you think we all deserve to have a party?”
The 43rd Kennedy Center Honors class was delayed from December 2020 as the center largely shut down its indoor programming. A heavily slimmed-down ceremony was finally held in May of this year, with a series of small socially distanced gatherings and pre-taped video performances replacing the normal gala event.
“We know how to do it now. We will make whatever adjustments we need,” Rutter said. “We’re going to be wearing masks right up until we don’t have to.”
Midler, 75, has won four Grammy Awards, three Emmys, and two Tony Awards, along with two Oscar nominations. Her albums have sold over 30 million copies. In a statement, Midler said she was “stunned and grateful beyond words. For many years I have watched this broadcast celebrating the best talent in the performing arts that America has to offer, and I truly never imagined that I would find myself among these swans.”
Mitchell, 77, emerged from the Canadian coffee shop circuit to become one of the standard-bearers for multiple generations of singer-songwriters. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine declared her 1971 album “Blue” to be the third-best album of all time. In a brief statement, Mitchell, said, “I wish my mother and father were alive to see this. It’s a long way from Saskatoon.”
The Dec. 5 ceremony will be the centerpiece of the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary of cultural programing. The center opened in 1971 and a young Diaz, now 81, actually performed at the grand opening of the opera house.
“It’s a very special thing,” said Diaz, a bass-baritone from San Juan, Puerto Rico. “It’s such a great privilege to be able to say I shared this space with all these geniuses.”
Gordy, 91, founded Motown Records — the Detroit-based hit factory that spawned what became known as the Motown Sound and launched the careers of a huge list of artists, including Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Marvin Gaye and Martha and the Vandellas.
Gordy said in an interview that he always held President John Kennedy as one of the greatest leaders in American history.
“So to be honored in his name just means the world to me,” he said.
Michaels, 76, is a comedy institution unto himself — creating and producing “Saturday Night Live” since 1975 and producing dozens of movies and television shows, including “Wayne’s World,” “Kids in the Hall” and “Mean Girls.” He received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award for lifetime achievement in comedy in 2004.
Not normally an on-stage performer, Michaels recalls the Mark Twain evening as “mostly nerve-wracking” because he spent the evening dreading the traditional end-of-night speech he had to deliver.
But the Kennedy Center Honors bring no such pressures, and Michaels said he intends to sit back in the special honorees box at the opera house and see what surprises the organizers have in store.
“You don’t have to give a speech at the end, which is huge,” he said. “You’re just there with your friends.”
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Follow Khalil on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ashrafkhalil
I’m hard on the medical profession. Since 2013, I’ve gone through three primary care physicians, four therapists and two dermatologists. It’s not always my fault. A few of them left for better jobs in different fields. It’s just a coincidence that they made these life changes after meeting and treating me.
After each change, it felt like I was starting over….
I didn’t mention my multiple experiences in the world of neurology, but it was the same thing, different body part.
It began in 2012. I was at a Chicago Cubs baseball game with a friend. While walking up the aisle to the upper deck, I started lilting to the left until I walked into the railing. My friend, who is a pediatrician, looked at me strangely. I shrugged and said no big deal; I just lost my balance. He said maybe I should get it checked out. I blew him off.
A couple of months later I was at a Northwestern University football game with the same friend. Again, we were walking up a ramp to our seats when I once again started walking to the left. This time I hit a wall before I could straighten out my gate. This time my friend wasn’t as nice about this. He told me he was going to call me and bug me about this every day until I went to a doctor to figure out what was going on.
Although I never gave him the satisfaction of letting him know he was right, I realized something strange was occurring. Besides the walking problem, I had suffered a couple of falls. All of it scared me enough to try to get to the bottom of what was happening to my body. Enter neurologist number one.
He had me go through a series of tests that took a couple of months. He found a lot of things that it wasn’t. The tricky part was finding out what it was. Eventually, it was determined that I had Parkinson’s Disease. It was scary, but it could have been worse. This is what he told me:
“I know it sounds bad, but you’ll be okay. This will change the way you live, but it won’t kill you. You’ll probably die of something else before this gets you, but it should be a long time before that happens. Next time I see you we’ll work on some strategies to deal with this.”
Those were the final words I ever heard from him. A few weeks after this discussion, neurologist #1 suffered a stroke. He retired from practicing medicine. I began the search for a new neurologist.
It was another change and I felt like I was starting over….
I was also having some health insurance issues so it was recommended that I go to Stroger Hospital. State-run health care…OY! They recommend you get there at 6 am, line up for a couple of hours so you can get a low number. That may or may not get you in to see someone who will do intake….OY! I decided to get there at 9 am and take my chances….OY!
It didn’t turn out too bad. I was out of there by 4 pm. Seven hours to give them my vitals. At least I also had an appointment to see a primary care doctor….two weeks later. Sigh… a good thing I was forewarned. Good thing I brought a book.
Two weeks later, I met with the doctor. Oh yeah, even with the appointment it was a two-hour wait….yeah, another book. We talked for an hour before he was convinced that I needed a state-funded neurologist. I checked out and was told to call to set up an appointment for neurology. The earliest one was two months away. They said to check occasionally for cancellations. There were no cancellations.
I finally met with neurologist number two…Dr. James Miller. When I walked into his office, I was greeted by some classical music. It turned out to be Beethoven. He asked if I like it. I told him I was more of a Beatles/Rolling Stones type of guy. We decided to exchange favorite pieces of music from our favorite genres and talk about them at the start of each meeting. It was a good way to bond. We then got down to business.
All the tests that were done with the first neurologist were redone. I even had an MRI scheduled on what was Chicago’s coldest day in more than a decade. Because the appointments were so hard to get, it took close to six months for the man I was now calling Dr. Jimmy to make the diagnose.
Same thing, different place. Parkinson’s Disease!
Doctor Jimmy told me basically the same thing as the first doctor. We had an in-face appointment at the start of each year. He was also always available if something had changed or if I had any concerns. It was a great relationship for many years…..and then came Covid.
We had our yearly meeting in February of 2020, so when the pandemic hit I didn’t think much about how it was going to change our doctor-patient relationship. We weren’t due to meet for almost an entire calendar year. But in the summer of 2020, I received a phone call. Dr. Jimmy was retiring. I knew he had been thinking about it for a couple of years, but he decided to move it forward. He gave me a recommendation for a new neurologist, but I decided to wait to follow up.
At the start of 2021, I looked for the new doctor’s information but had lost the paper I wrote it on. Typical. No big deal. I’d find someone else.
But once again, it was a change and I felt like I was starting over…….
When it was time for my yearly neurology appointment, I thought about it but didn’t do anything. I was more concerned about Covid and vaccinations. I’ll get to the new doctor eventually. Occasionally, actually more than occasionally, my significant other would ask what I was doing about finding a new neurologist. I’d tell her it was on my agenda of things to do. Finally, about a month ago, I decided I needed to find a new neurologist. It was go-time!
I Google-searched neurologists. Every time I found someone who I thought I may be interested in seeing, there was a snag. Either they didn’t take my insurance or they weren’t taking on new patients. Frustrating! Finally, I emailed one of my contacts at the Parkinson’s Foundation. She got me hooked up with a nurse at Rush Hospital. The nurse hooked me up with a new neurologist….Number THREE!!
I finally met her on Monday. Actually, there were two doctors. I gave them my history, including my relationship with the previous doctors. They both then ran me through a series of tests that took a couple of hours. We then discussed what they found. They gave me recommendations on what to do next. It included occupational and physical therapy with an emphasis on more exercise. They have a holistic belief in treating Parkinson’s that includes less drug treatment until the point where it’s totally necessary. Cool….works for me. They also said we would meet every four to six months instead of yearly. When I said how about six months, she responded with whatever the patient wants is fine with them. COOL again!!! Definitely works for me!!
As I left, I told them I was relieved that I finally found a new neurologist. She responded with “Everyone should have a neurologist. See you inJanuary.” Actually, I think it’s going to be sooner than January because I’m going to accept her offer for occupational therapy. It can’t hurt, right?
So yeah, it was another change and more starting over, but people always say that change is a good thing. My cynical self usually says to myself ‘yeah, right’, but it was true in this case. Even after only one appointment, I have a feeling this relationship may go on for years to come…knock on wood. As Louie said to Rick at the end of the film Casablanca, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
My so called friends think it’s time to edit this section. After four years, they may be right, but don’t tell them that. I’ll deny it until they die!
I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for four years.
It started as a health/wellness thing and over the years has morphed to include so many things that I don’t know how to describe it anymore.
I really thought this was going to be the final year of the blog but then Donald Trump came along. It looks like we’re good for four more years..God help us all!
Oh yeah…the biographical stuff. I’m not 60 anymore. The rest you can read about in the blog.
Catching up on capital improvements for physical plant.
334 more teachers, 400 more custodians, 78 more nurse, 44 more social workers and more.
After-school and summer programming.
STEM, STEAM and other new programs.
Paying down billions of debts.
You’ve got to read the full details in the story to get the feel for the magnitude of the increased spending. For years, nay for decades, all we’ve heard is the bellyaching from teachers, their union, school administrators and liberal do-gooders that the Chicago Public Schools are a mess because it is so grossly and unfairly underfunded. (Of course, some of that money will go for free condoms for elementary students, as you as 10 year old.)
That’s $21,000 to spend per child, including other things besides instruction, such as teacher pensions and debt payments.
Obviously, Chicago school need to thank taxpayers from around the country for the largesse to fill the budget hole left by the Covid-19 pandemic. And to the inflation tax that every consumer will pay because so much of the need money came off the busy printing press.
There’s truth to the argument that performance is correlated to some degree with money spent (see north suburban school districts). But how much is enough? Here’s betting that the whining will continue about Chicago schools not getting enough money–because whatever they’re getting will never be enough.
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The City Council will move Wednesday to turn a financial albatross on Chicago taxpayers into an economic engine with potential to generate $3.1 billion in new tax revenue for the city and create nearly 10,000 jobs.
Before adjourning for the summer, aldermen laid the groundwork for a development team to build a seven-million-square-foot, mixed-used development on the site once occupied by Michael Reese Hospital.
In a rapid-fire series of votes, the City Council is poised to:
o Sell the 48.6-acre site to the Farpoint Development-led team known as GRIT Chicago for at least $96.9 million.
o Earmark $60 million from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $3.7 billion capital plan to repay developers of the project known as “Bronzeville Lakefront” for new and improved roads and a two-acre park at the site that stretches from 26th Street south to 31st Street and from Lake Park Avenue west to Vernon Avenue.
o And authorize zoning for nearly 8 million square feet of residential and commercial uses.
The first phase of the roughly $4 billion project is to include a research facility operated by Israel’s highly regarded Sheba Medical Center, plus senior housing and a community welcoming center on the southern portion of the property.
Plans ultimately call for 4,800 residential units, with 20% set aside at reduced rents for people with lower incomes. The developers also are required to pay $25 million toward expansion of nearby schools once they’ve completed 3 million square feet of construction.
At the first of three committee hearings this week, local Ald. Sophia King (4th) said the massive project will bring “billions of economic development dollars into our city, back into our tax base.”
She credited the Michael Reese Advisory Committee for “a lot of the community benefits that you see.” That includes “20% on-site affordable housing,” a senior building, a $25 million commitment for education and a “20% write-down on 10% of all the retail” for local businesses.
“We’re gonna have a Bronzeville welcoming center/digital museum which will pay homage to the Bronzeville community, the storied history that’s there that has impacted the world. We’ll be able to have people come in locally and world-wide to see that
“There’s design guidelines throughout the entire development that will make sure that we pay homage to Bronzeville and the Michael Reese site. Each sub-area has to at least include $25,000 to that. We’re also making sure that the community center is sustainable. There’s 50-cent impact fee that will go to the operating costs for that.”
King said the project has literally been a labor of love.
“That first building to the north of Prairie Shores — that was my first home in Chicago. So, it’s kind of full-circle. That was about 35 years ago. And both of my kids were born at Michael Reese. So, it’s personal — not only to me, but obviously to the community,” King said.
The infrastructure work must be designed, engineered and completed to city standards within three years at a cost of no more than $60 million. If the final tally is higher, GRIT Chicago must eat those costs.
Chicago taxpayers will also be asked to bankroll $31 million to remove hazardous waste left behind by a radium processing plant that had been on the northern end of the property more than 100 years ago. That money is expected to come from a nearby tax increment financing district.
Deputy Planning and Development Commissioner Tim Jeffries has argued new roads are needed for a campus “fairly disconnected from the rest of the grid” with few access points.
“This configuration may have been appropriate at one point — especially for a closed campus like Michael Reese. But it’s just not consistent with the requirements of modern development,” he said.
Bronzeville Lakefront project is the “largest and only multi-billion- dollar private project planned in a minority community,” Jeffries said.
“The project and the investment it represents, however, cannot proceed without the basic infrastructure necessary for development to occur. This agreement would provide this critical and required first step.”
Thirteen years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley convinced the City Council to borrow $85 million to purchase the site of the shuttered hospital to pave the way for construction of an Olympic Village. But it never was built, and the price of the property rose to $91 million after the city’s stunning first-round knockout in its bid for the 2016 Summer Games.
When the property was not unloaded to private developers within five years, the price rose to $96 million and the city was forced to start making payments on the loan.
Chicago taxpayers had been assured there was no chance of that happening, as top mayoral aides said they were certain Chicago would host the 2016 Olympics — and even if the city didn’t, developers surely would gobble up the land.
Daley and his team turned out to be wrong on both counts. Rio de Janeiro won the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. And the Michael Reese property — cleared of all buildings except the 72,800 square-foot Singer Pavilion — has remained vacant and a drain on the city’s taxpayers.
That financial albatross has now been replaced by the dream of a brighter future — never mind that the ambitious project will take at least 20 years to build.
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