WASHINGTON — Phylicia Rashad has found herself embroiled in controversy after expressing public support for Bill Cosby’s release from prison, with some prominent Black voices calling for her dismissal as dean of Howard University’s College of Fine Arts.
It remains to be seen whether Rashad’s position at Howard is in jeopardy, but the university quickly distanced itself from her comments.
Rashad, who played Cosby’s wife for years on the family sitcom “The Cosby Show,” was named dean of the college with great fanfare this year. Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction, ruling that Cosby’s agreement with the previous district attorney in 2005 should have prevented him from being charged in the 2018 case.
After the ruling, Rashad tweeted a picture of Cosby, with the message: “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
The tweet drew an immediate online response with a few expressing support but many others attacking Rashad for defending a man accused of drugging and raping multiple women over a period of decades.
Some of the harshest critics called for Rashad to be removed from her post, saying her apparent indifference to serial sexual assault allegations made her unfit for a position of authority over students.
Jelani Cobb, a Columbia University journalism professor and frequent New Yorker magazine contributor, tweeted directly to Howard University, bluntly stating: “This person should not be a Dean.”
Rashad’s support for Cosby is not new. She had publicly defended him during his years-long legal battles. But the rise of the #Metoo movement and her new position at a prominent educational institution have contributed to the intense backlash as Cosby goes free.
Hours after her tweet Wednesday, Rashad sent out a clarification, stating her sympathy for all survivors of sexual assault but not mentioning Cosby or his case.
“I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth,” she wrote. “Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.”
In a statement, Howard acknowledged Rashad’s clarification and said her initial tweet “lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault. Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies. We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and advocate their right to be heard.”
Rashad is a prominent Howard alumnus, and her appointment as fine arts dean was hailed as a homecoming, with Howard Provost Anthony K. Wutoh stating that her “passion for the arts and student success makes her a perfect fit for this role.”
Cosby, 83, had served nearly three years of a three-to-10-year sentence for drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand in 2004. After his release, he tweeted that he has always maintained his innocence and thanked his fans, supporters and friends who stood by him.
A 9-year-old girl was critically wounded in a shooting that also left a man hurt near the border of the Grand Crossing and Chatham neighborhoods on the South Side Thursday.
They were in the 800 block of East 79th Street when a car approached and someone inside opened fire about 2:45 p.m., Chicago police said.
The girl was struck in the head and taken to Comer Children’s hospital in critical condition, police said.
The man was shot in the foot and was in good condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
No arrests have been reported.
Earlier Thursday, an 8-year-old girl was wounded in a triple shooting that left a woman dead in Roseland on the Far South Side. The girl was struck in the arm and was in good condition at Roseland Community Hospital.
Candace Parker is not new to the hoopla that surrounds the WNBA All-Star game.
A now six-time All-Star, Parker knows very well how it all goes.
The league commissioner might contact you before your coach does, your teammates clap when you walk into the gym for practice or onto the bus for a game and social media buzzes about the biggest snubs.
For Parker, the most valuable part of the entire experience has been the memories, specifically with her daughter, Lailaa.
“I’m excited to share this with my family — my daughter,” Parker said following the Sky’s 91-81 win over Dallas Wednesday night. “The first All-Star game she went to she was sitting on the bench with me. She may have been three years old at the time.”
Parker’s first All-Star game was in 2013. She dropped 23 points, breaking Swin Cash’s previous scoring record in an All-Star game of 22 and was named Most Valuable Player.
Another special aspect of this All-Star appearance is sharing it with her teammates who were also selected, three-time All-Star Courtney Vandersloot and first-time All-Star Kahleah Copper. The Sky had the most players in the league on the top 36 vote-getters list with seven. Allie Quigley, Diamond DeShields, Ruthy Hebard and Stefanie Dolson all received top voting numbers along with the Sky’s three All-Stars.
Copper leads the Sky in scoring with 14.1 points per game. Parker said it’s special that people are finally seeing her value. During free agency ahead of the 2020 season, Copper and coach and general manager James Wade sat down for breakfast to have a detailed conversation.
The two discussed her future with the Sky but more specifically, what she wanted to accomplish and how Wade and the Sky could help her. Evolving from a role player to a starter and a leader along with becoming an All-Star were goals she and Wade shared.
“A lot of people probably thought we were being far-fetched, but here we are,” Wade said.
Stefanie Dolson, who was named to Team USA’s 3×3 basketball roster, will be in Las Vegas preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. She said that the entire team is planning to attend the All-Star game similar to 2019 when Vandersloot, Diamond DeShields and Allie Quigley were selected.
Dolson also shared deep pride in Copper’s accomplishment. The pair arrived in Chicago together in 2017 in a trade that sent Elena Delle Donne to Washington. Now in their fifth season with the Sky, Dolson said she earned this nod because she committed to improving all weak areas of her game.
“Both teams we’ve been on she’s been that spark,” Dolson said.
The Sky and the Connecticut Sun are tied for most All-Stars will three each. Vandersloot’s league-leading assist average of 8.7 plus her 11.6 points and 2.1 steals a game made her an obvious selection.
More impressive than any stat is her ability to dictate opponents’ defense. She’s always two steps ahead of her team, setting the standard for them to follow. Vandersloot is the fourth all-time assist leader in the WNBA with 2,062. Wednesday night she tied Ticha Penicheiro for most games recording 10 or more assists in a career (64).
The Sky have one of the most complete teams in the league this year with seven players scoring in double figures against the Wings Wednesday. On nights like that, all opponents can do is pick their poison.
“When we’re playing at our best it’s hard to beat us,” Dolson said.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday accused her political nemesis — indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th) — of being the heavy hand behind a call for Friday’s special City Council meeting on violent crime.
Lightfoot said both she and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown will be there — even though she firmly believes Burke “and his minions” orchestrated the meeting to stir the pot and “create chaos.”
“Do I think this is about public safety? No, I do not. Are we gonna be there to answer questions so residents are assured? Absolutely, we will. But let’s face the facts here. This is political shenanigans and you can figure out who’s behind it,” Lightfoot said.
“Burger King Ed is still alive and well. And he is messing around and trying to create chaos. … He can’t do it in a way that makes him public. But he’s doing it through puppets and trying to orchestrate chaos. We’ve seen this picture show in ’83, ’84, ’85, ’86. But guess what? Having seen that nonsense, it’s not happening again.”
Lightfoot’s never once mentioned the Council Wars that saw Burke and his co-hort — then Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak (10th) lead 29 mostly white aldermen in thwarting then-Mayor Harold Washington’s every move.
And she never once said the name “Burke.”
Nor did she say that her reference to “Burger King Ed” stemmed from the alleged shakedown scheme in which, the federal prosecutors say, Burke threatened to hold up renovation of a Southwest Side Burger King until the owners hired his private law firm to handle their property tax appeals work. It was near that same Southwest Side Burger King that Laquan McDonald was shot by a Chicago police officer, the now-convicted Jason Van Dyke.
“Burger King Ed and his minions — a guy who’s an indicted criminal — we’re not gonna let him stand in the way of getting work done for the people of this city. You can be sure of that,” Lightfoot said.
“We’ll be there. The superintendent will ask questions. We’ll answer questions. He will give a presentation not unlike what he’s doing [later Thursday]. But we’re not going to let people who just think that the City Council is political theater get in the way of doing the work on behalf of our residents. Shame on them if they think that they can `cause that’s not gonna happen.”
Burke could not be reached for comment.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) a driving force behind Friday’s meeting, said his seatmate Burke had absolutely nothing to do with orchestrating the meeting “other than being asked to sign on” to the call.
“No matter how much Lori Lightfoot tries to emulate Donald Trump with deflection and diversion, the fact remains that violence is what is driving us together. Her inability to keep Chicagoans safe is why we are meeting,” Lopez said.
“For her to continue to try and throw out the race card, the sex card and, now, the boogey-man Ed Burke card — all in an attempt to ignore reality — shows just how far off she has become.”
Lopez said he is “thoroughly insulted” at Lightfoot’s suggestion he was doing Burke’s bidding.
“She’s implying that someone like myself — a young Latino — is incapable of coming up with these ideas on my own. Constantly questioning my intelligence to do such things without being puppeted by someone else,” Lopez said.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), another driving force behind Friday’s meeting, scoffed at the suggestion that Burke was calling the political shots.
“Ed Burke has nothing to do with the homicides. He has nothing to do with the carjackings. He has nothing to do with all the crime that’s plaguing this city. He had nothing to do with the looting. He had nothing to do with her losing control over CPS. He has nothing to do with her about to lose control over CPD,” Beale said.
“This is just a deflection to get people to look off of her inefficiencies and her inability to lead this city. … I have not talked to Ed about anything. Nothing. I’ve never talked to him about” Friday’s meeting.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot “empowered people to have freedoms” by saying she didn’t want a rubber-stamp City Council and aldermen are taking her up on it, the mayor’s floor leader said today.
“I don’t see it as a rebellion. … I see aldermen being much more aggressive about what they want, how they want it and when they can get it,” said Ald. Michelle Harris (8th).
“Plain and simple, the mayor is on the record as saying that she doesn’t want a rubber-stamp City Council. When you give people the freedom to take their rights and use their rights to get what they need for their community, they are going to do that. The mayor has empowered people to have freedoms.”
Tension between the mayor and Council has been building ever since Lightfoot used her inaugural address to denounce the Council as corrupt, shamed aldermen into joining her and the Wintrust Arena crowd in a standing ovation for reform, and then that same day signed an executive order stripping aldermen of their “prerogative” over licensing and permitting in their wards.
She has promised to do the same for their unbridled control over zoning. But that would require a Council vote — one she is destined to lose.
That outcome was never more clear than it was last week, when Lightfoot suffered her first Council defeat.
By a 25-24 vote, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) succeeded in blocking part of the mayor’s pandemic relief package that invaded aldermanic turf; it would have required a separate ordinance be approved for every sign over the public way.
Lightfoot has not given up that fight. But she may have no choice, Harris said.
At 17, Eric Sanders already has a pretty interesting job: He travels across the South and West sides to formerly abandoned lots, where he harvests, cleans and stores flowers.
Eric landed that job through a program run by Chicago Eco House, which turns empty lots in Englewood, Woodlawn, Washington Park and West Garfield Park into flower farms.
Eco House is a non-profit organization that helps at-risk youth ages 16 to 24.
Last year, it opened a store, Southside Blooms, that operated out of the Eco House headquarters, 6439 S. Peoria St. The store sold flowers grown at those farms across the city, and it provided training and jobs to some of the young people the group serves.
But today, Southside Blooms opened its own brick-and-mortar shop at 6250 S. Morgan St.
Youth employees with Southside Blooms can become floral assistants after training, harvesting flowers from the shop’s farms across the South and West sides to make bouquets.Chicago Eco House/Southside Blooms
“The impetus behind (Southside Blooms) was really just this dogged belief that we can come up with some solution to really stem a lot of out-of-control violence and poverty that the South and West sides have come to be known by,” said Quilen Blackwell, founder of Chicago Eco House.
Last year, Chicago Eco House reached out to youth through schools or block clubs on the South and West sides, like Crushers Club, to let them know about Southside Blooms.
This year, the shop partnered with Cook County Juvenile Probation to connect with more at-risk youth. Blackwell said the partnership will create “a pipeline for youth who are incarcerated … [to] get back on their feet.”
Before their 13-3 victory last night, which included six home runs, the White Sox lost relievers Aaron Bummer and Evan Marshall to injuries. Somehow, someway, the Sox have managed to stay in first place for 56 days this season and every day since May 7, despite a mounting list of injuries, Daryl Van Schouwen explains.
The Blackhawks are considering a trade involving veteran defenseman Duncan Keith, according to a report today. Keith, who will turn 38 on July 16, has spent his entire NHL career with the Hawks.
The Cubs blew a seven-run lead yesterday, suffering their worst loss of the season and closing out a brutal June for the team. If the goal is giving yourself the best chance to win on a nightly basis, right-hander Jake Arrieta isn’t doing that for the Cubs right now, writes Russell Dorsey.
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Yesterday, we asked you: What would you like the city to do for your neighborhood? Here’s what some of you said…
“Stop renaming streets and use that money in poor and middle-class communities to enhance and give skills to young adults.” — Patricia Jones
“Instead of liquor stores and churches on every corner, add some trauma centers because the urban communities are in dire need of healing. Englewood, Roseland, North Lawndale, etc. are so dark — why is it so dark? Put some lights in these areas, please. The majority of the vacant houses, buildings, etc. in most of these areas are not on the market for the local residents to buy. Why?” — Kashmir Bonner
“Build a sports center, a pool, skating park or a woodshop. Have a service kitchen that can be rented out to help non-store front food vendors prepare their foods.” — Maria Guerrero-Suarez
“Fund our school correctly, make the lights brighter on the street and cut the vacant lots. I live in Chatham.” — Carol Smith
“Build us a library because we haven’t had one in the Avondale neighborhood ever! Make it a multi-use center with a library, a senior community center and affordable housing. It’s been done so there is precedent.” — Zoby Soto
“Add grocery stores or a business district in the Clearing, Garfield Ridge/Midway area.” — Valentin Galvan
“Living wage jobs for workers. Skilled worker training programs for youth not going to college. Incentivize home ownership and finance business ownership within impoverished communities. Train and develop youth from at-risk communities to become law enforcement in their own communities. Sensitivity training for police with police settlements coming out of their personal pensions and insurance instead of taxpayers pockets.” — Dion Williams
“Reduce the width of car lanes to promote slower/safer driving and with this new space, develop protected bike lanes on every major street or increase the outdoor space a business can operate in front of. Give the streets back to the people!” — Ethan Robert.
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A 17-year-old boy has been charged with carjacking two women in Mount Greenwood last month.
The teen is accused of carjacking a 32-year-old and a 66-year-old June 6 in the 3100 block of 103rd Street, Chicago police said. In the same incident, this teen is also accused of robbing two men nearby.
In addition to two felony counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, the teen is also facing two felony counts of armed robbery, police said.
The teen, who isn’t named because he is charged as a juvenile, is expected in court Thursday.
A large wake from a tugboat pushing a massive barge on the Chicago River caused a motorboat to capsize and the drowning of a 7-year-old passenger, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the boy’s family.
Victor Lobato Ochoa, of Little Village, was tossed from a 16-foot motorboat into the river by waves created by the tugboat and barge speeding in a no-wake zone in the early-evening hours of July 22, 2020, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit cites a report from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that concluded the cause of the accident was the “force of the wake” from the tugboat and barge that together spanned 271 feet.
Chicago Fire Department divers found Ochoa’s body trapped under the capsized boat. He was flown by helicopter to Mercy Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Five of the eight other passengers aboard the boat received treatment at a local hospital.
“This wake had a reverberating effect where it would bounce off the wall of the river and then basically clash together, compounding the effect,” attorney Mike Gallagher, who is representing Victor’s family, said at a news conference Thursday at his law firm’s office in the Loop.
Except for one adult who could swim, everyone on the boat was wearing a life preserver, Gallagher said.
“Victor had a life preserver on, but somehow got out from underneath it while he was trapped underneath the boat,” said Gallagher, noting that a life preserver wouldn’t have saved his life because the boy was trapped for about 20 minutes underwater before he was freed.
“There’s no day that I don’t wake up and hope to see him there,” Victor’s mother, Mariana Ochoa, said Thursday. “I go visit him every day at the cemetery.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages from four companies that own and operate the tugboat and barge, including Lehigh Hanson Services. A message left with Lehigh Hanson was not returned Thursday.
Victor was a helper and a rule follower, the type of kid who’d tell someone who looked sad “Everything will be OK,” Mariana Ochoa said. He dreamed of being a firefighter and was headed into the second grade at McCormick Elementary School.
Mariana Ochoa wipes away tears as she speaks about her 7-year-old son, Victor, who drowned in the Chicago River last year.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
“It’s heartbreaking because as a mom you will no longer see that young kid transform into a teenager, graduate high school, middle school and become what he dreamed to become,” his mother said.
“It is a great pain that one will have inside for the rest of their lives,” said Victor’s father, Jesus Lobato.
The family hopes the lawsuit leads to awareness and prevention of future accidents on a river where recreational and commercial boat traffic often come into close contact — a relationship that depends on the no-wake rule.
“If the boat had been, speedwise, slower, everything would have been fine because we were going home,” Lobato said.
Hip-hop legend Biz Markie is undergoing medical care, despite reports saying the rapper died, his manager says.
In a Thursday statement to USA TODAY, Markie’s manager confirmed the earlier reports were inaccurate.
“The news of Biz Markie’s passing is not true. Biz is still under medical care, surrounded by professionals who are working hard to provide the best healthcare possible,” Markie’s manager Jenni Izumi said. “At this time, we ask for your continued thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”
Izumi added:”Biz’s wife and family are touched by the outpouring of love and admiration from his friends, peers and fans alike.”
The 57-year-old rapper and DJ, whose real name is Marcel Theo Hall, has been open about having Type 2 diabetes, telling ABC in 2014 about the health risks his doctors said he was facing.
“They said I could lose my feet,” Markie said. “They said I could lose body parts. A lot of things could happen.”
The New York City native started his mainstream music career with the Juice Crew hip-hop group alongside DJ Marley Marlas the group’s beatboxer. Markie’s solo career gained traction with his hit single “Just A Friend”from his second studio album “The Biz Never Sleeps.”
The song, which samples Freddie Scott’s “(You) Got What I Need,” features verses about unrequited affection, with Markie rapping and singing the chorus off tune alongside a piano. The 1989 single stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 22 weeks.
Markie has made many TV and movie appearances according to IMDB,including his appearance on several episodes of the sketch comedy show “In Living Color,” portraying a beatboxing alien in “Men in Black II” as a beatboxing alien, and had several cameos on the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba for his segment “Biz’s Beat of the Day.”
A young woman in California, newly vaccinated, flashes a smile and a peace sign as she poses for a prom photos. She feels strange but elated without her mask.
In Australia, a girl still clings to the fluffy border collie her family got to comfort them in the depths of lockdown last year. Recently, she had to shelter at home again because of a COVID-19 outbreak near her.
A boy in remote northern Canada, now a young teenager, feels relief when he lifts his T-shirt sleeve for the first of two vaccine shots.
A baby-faced teenager in Rwanda who wanted to be a soldier has changed his mind. The pandemic, he says, has shown him a different way to help the world.
They’ve missed their friends, desperately. They’ve struggled at times to stay motivated and focus on school from home, if access to their studies was even available.
Most are still awaiting their chance to get vaccinated but want to do so.
They are anxious and happy and frustrated and hopeful, seemingly all at once. But they say the pandemic also has given them newfound resilience and an appreciation for even little things.
Around the globe, these young people have one thing in common coming out of the pandemic: They have missed their friends desperately. AP
“I’m realizing that … if there’s an opportunity for memory making, you have to like go for it because there could be a chance that that opportunity will disappear,” said Michaela Seah, the young woman in California.
In March 2020, Michaela was isolating in her bedroom in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco. Sick with a fever, she stayed there for two weeks as a precaution to protect her family. It felt lonely, she said. But no one else got sick.
Little more than a year later, she walked across the stage at Palo Alto High School to receive her diploma. In early 2022, she will begin her freshman year at New York University with a semester in Paris.
“It’s a big jump,” the 18-year-old said.
The joy of rejoining the world — and especially reuniting with friends and extended family — seems to be a universal feeling.
“Being with them, hugging them,” said Elena Maria Moretti, a 12-year-old in Rome.
Last year, she was dancing hip hop alone in her bedroom and spraying disinfectant on packages her family got. Italy was among the first countries to experience huge death counts because of COVID-19.
Now wearing masks, she and her friends have been able to walk to school together and to study and visit at each other’s homes. Being separated from them for so long was “ugly,” she said.
Elena Maria Moretti, 12 (center), walks with friends to school in Rome.Gregorio Borgia / AP
Not everyone is feeling so free. In New Delhi, India, young brothers Advait and Uddhav Sanweria have sheltered at home for months as a second wave of COVID left more than 230,000 Indians dead in four months.
“We thought that the entire human population will be finished,” 10-year-old Advait said. “And Earth will remain nothing but an empty sphere with dead bodies.”
Uddhav, 9, still fears for their family, especially his grandparents, who’ve managed to stay well so far.
Manuela Salomao, 16, looks at her phone in the lobby of her residential building in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “The pandemic was not easy for a lot of people in Brazil. Many lost their jobs and could not socially distance because they needed to survive.”Andre Penner / AP
In Brazil, where the number of coronavirus cases is still surging, 16-year-old Manuela Salomao is frustrated with President Jair Bolsonaro, whose government repeatedly ignored opportunities to buy vaccines.
“The pandemic was not easy for a lot of people in Brazil. Many lost their jobs and could not socially distance because they needed to survive,” said Manuela, who lives in Sao Paolo.
The pandemic has caused her to grow up more quickly, she said — to become more empathetic, to think more critically and to study even harder.
In Melbourne, Australia, Niki Jolene Berghamre-Davis, who’s 12, just finished two weeks in lockdown. She’s relied on her family and their new dog Bailey to keep her company and learned to play the clarinet. She says online school helped her become more independent.
Niki knows other countries have had it much worse and is grateful that Australia has made it through the pandemic relatively unscathed.
“I would be really happy to spend time away,” she said.
Sweden, where her family has relatives, would be her first destination.
Tresor Ndizihiwe (center) plays with his friends after school at the Kimihurura Primary School in Kigali, Rwanda. Tresor says he enjoys playing with others after months at home when he wasn’t allowed to play with his friends or classmates because of the coronavirus pandemic.Muhizi Olivier / AP
In some ways, life as he knew it has returned for Tresor Ndizihiwe, a 13-year-old in Kigali, Rwanda. He can play soccer with his friends again and help his mother carry home food from the markets.
But returning to school wasn’t easy. First, he learned how much worse COVID had been and how his mother had tried to protect him from the realities. He’d also fallen behind because he had no computer or TV to access classes during lockdown.
Tresor, a top student before the pandemic, is determined to catch up and spends time helping his younger siblings practice reading.
At the start of the pandemic, he said he wanted to be a soldier. Now, he plans to be a doctor, “so, if another pandemic arises, I can help.”
In Nunavut, a territory in far north Canada, Owen Watson, 13, had hoped the remoteness of his homeland would help keep people there safe.
For months, partly due to occasional lockdowns and strict travel bans, the small capital city where he lives, Iqaluit, had no documented cases of COVID. In April, that changed.
“It got pretty scary,” Owen said.
But he breathed easier when his parents got vaccinated. Then, in June, he got the first of two Pfizer shots, newly approved for his age group in some countries.
“I’m feeling a bit more calm now,” he said.
For Freddie Golden, a 17-year-old in Chicago, the state of the world is overwhelming in many ways. As young Black man, he watched last year’s news about the police killings of George Floyd and others with a heavy heart.
Freddie Golden (right) with his family after his eldest sister’s college graduation June 5 in Providence, R.I. Freddie was grateful to get to travel to that, though, once there, the family still had to watch the ceremony on a screen away from the venue. Wilonda Cannon via AP
“I want to live life in a good way, not where bad things are continuously thrown at me,” said Freddie, who soon will begin his senior year at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School on the West Side.
His mother Wilonda Cannon watched as he struggled emotionally last year but also as he grew into a man, with broad, muscular shoulders and deepened voice. It was a reminder, she said, that time marched on.
“My family, especially my mom, helped pull me through,” said Freddie, who feels more ready to take on the world.
His big goal is to become an engineer – “to change the world with technology” — and play basketball in college. He has his sights set on Howard University in Washington.
“For kids my age … all across the world, it’s been a tough, stressful situation,” Freddie said. “But I feel like we all can push through. We all can do it.
July. Peak summer, at last. A long holiday weekend ahead. Escapist book season is here. What are you reading, and why?
Being a journalist, books are constantly pitched at me. Most are easily allowed to fly past without swinging. “This book is a must-read for all who want to understand the current crisis of identity and the importance of reaffirming European and in particular Swiss democratic traditions…”
But “On Skein of Death” by Allie Pleiter caught my attention, for two reasons.
First, it’s a mystery set in a yarn shop. You might recall that five years ago, staring into the abyss of the Donald Trump presidency, I took up knitting, hoping it might be a distraction from the gathering disaster.
Knitting proved harder than expected and I soon gave up. But not before several visits to Three Bags Full, the local yarn store, which seemed a perfect setting for a mystery. That might require some explanation. Whenever I visit a cactus show at the Botanic Garden, I amuse myself imagining that the quiet, pale succulent society members, when not in public hovering over their beloved prickly pears and saguaros, are privately at each other’s throats, riven with conflict, betrayal and death. Something like that.
Second, the author lives in a western suburb.
Pleiter grew up in New England, came here to go to Northwestern, as a theater major, then ended up in fundraising. She started writing professionally on a dare.
“The bulk of my career is in category romance,” said Pleiter, who has written 50 books and can have four in the works at any given time. “I’m such a passionate knitter. I’ve been putting knitting characters in my books for years. It’s part of my brand.”
A yarn company was looking to start a knitting-based mystery series.
“A colleague said, ‘You really ought to do this. I discovered I really enjoyed it. I loved the intellectual challenge of creating the mystery to be solved,” Pleiter said. “It’s fun to flex new muscles. Romance is a really specific kind of book. It’s fun to go out and do something completely different.”
“On Skein of Death” is what its author calls a “cozy” mystery: no graphic violence but lots of knitted apparel, baked goods and supportive friends.
I enjoyed “Skein” on a few levels. There was of course the yarn store. Sleuth-to-be Libby Beckett is the owner of Y.A.R.N, a knitters’ paradise in Collinsville, Maryland.
“Every knitter dreams of opening up her ideal yarn shop, and this was a chance for me to live that daydream,” she said.
The book struck me as a portal into the fondest dreams of suburban American women — the inadequate husband banished offstage before the action even begins. The band of caring, dynamic friends. The merely irksome (as opposed to toxic and insane) mother. The loyal dog. The appealing but not handsy potential boyfriend. The steady stream of baked goods. As someone who binge-read dozens of Robert Parker novels, I know the background, what Spencer and Susann are cooking for dinner, is as important as the crime itself. If not more. Solving the crime can seem almost secondary.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘secondary,'” Pleiter said. “It holds equal weight to mystery. For cozy mysteries, it is as much about the character and her community and the relationships. Readers want to fall in love with the sleuth and revisit her again and again and again.”
“Cozy mystery” is the name of the subgenre.
“It’s a pretty standard mechanism,” she said. “The murder doesn’t take place on the page. The body is discovered. You don’t want it too grisly. There certainly are mysteries that tap into that. But people read cozies because they want something lighter. They don’t want to get into the mechanics of killing someone.”
I sure don’t. The action is set in motion with the arrival of Norwegian knitting pattern celebrity Perle Lonager. At the risk of applying thought to something that is meant to be accepted as a given (“These spells Hermione keeps casting, what is the physics behind them….?”) I had ask: are there really rock star pattern designers?
“Well, I suppose ‘rock star’ is probably overstating it. There are designers who have a really passionate following.”
I couldn’t help trying to fact-check that, and was surprised what I found.
“We’ve done a few of those events at Three Bags Full,” said employee Adrienne Levin. “We had a woman who owns a yarn company in Denmark. We did a luncheon, where she did a fashion show and a meet-and-great and she signed some books.”
But nobody murdered?
“None were murdered, at least at our store,” said Levin. “None that I know of.”
I suppose I should squint hard and be critical, so readers know what they’re getting into. Allie Pleiter isn’t Scott Turrow. “On Skein of Death” isn’t “Presumed Innocent.” But I didn’t have to force myself to finish it and, being an author myself who breathlessly pores over reviews searching for the money shot, I have no trouble providing one. Ready?
“On Skein of Death” is a contemporary, well-written, fast-paced mystery set among the knitting needles, one that held my interest better than knitting itself did. Knitters will want to keep Allie Pleiter’s new book in their project bags for emotional succor when their fingers tire and the supply of butterscotch blondies runs low. The second Riverbank Knitting Mystery, “Knit or Dye Trying” is out in February, and I suppose I’ll have to read it. It’s easier than trying to finish that green scarf in the bottom of my closet.
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