Welcome back to another edition of the Sun-Times Chicago Baseball Quiz, I am your quizmaster, Bill Chuck. These quizzes are designed to be fun and can be played on your own or you can test your family, friends, neighbors or colleagues. The questions are easy if you know the answers. Other than stats, there will be no math. There will be a nice mix of Cubs and White Sox and a blend of history and current events. Baseball is filled with great facts and stories, so there is no need for the questions to be obscure (“What did William Sianis feed his billy goat?”).
Are you ready for the Chicago Nine?
Play ball!
1. When Anthony Rizzo made his major-league debut, which team’s uniform was he wearing?
a. Cubs
b. Red Sox
c. Padres
d. Nationals
2. Who holds the Sox record for saves in a season?
a. Keith Foulke
b. Addison Reed
c. Bobby Jenks
d. Bobby Thigpen
3. True or False – Since 2000, the season-high for any Cubs pitcher is three shutouts?
4. Who is the last White Sox player to have a 200-hit season?
a. Tim Anderson
b. Albert Belle
c. Frank Thomas
d. Nellie Fox
5. Three Cubs pitchers won five games (a team-high) in the first month of the season (March/April). Which one of these four didn’t?
a. Kerry Wood
b. Greg Maddux
c. Larry Cheney
d. Jake Arrieta
6. Who was the first player in White Sox history to homer in his first postseason at-bat?
a. Adam Eaton
b. Adam Engel
c. Alexei Ramirez
d. Aaron Rowand
7. Since 2000, who has stolen the most bases for the Cubs in a single season?
a. Ryan Theriot
b. Eric Young Sr.
c. Juan Pierre
d. Corey Patterson
8. Tony La Russa was born on October 4, 1944. On that day:
a. Joe DiMaggio had four hits in the World Series
b. The Cardinals and Browns met for the first (and only) all-St. Louis World Series
c. Phil Cavarretta of the Cubs won the NL batting title
d. The White Sox’ Eddie Lopat closed the season pitching a one-hitter
9. Entering the 2021 season, Jose Abreu had 233 career doubles. Is this more, less, or the same number as Mookie Betts, who entered the majors in 2014 like Abreu?
QUIZ ANSWERS
1. Rizzo debuted on June 9, 2011, playing for the Padres. 2. Bobby Thigpen saved 57 games in 1990. 3. True. Let’s give a shutout shoutout to Jake Arrieta who had three shutouts in 2015. 4. Albert Belle had exactly 200 hits in 1998. 5. Kerry Wood’s high was four wins in 2003. 6. Adam Engel homered in his first at-bat in Game 1 of the 2020 AL Wild-Card Series. 7. Juan Pierre stole 58 in 2006. 8. The Browns beat the Cardinals in Game 1 of the Series, 2-1. 9. Betts entered the season with 238 doubles, five more than Abreu.
Bulls forward Lauri Markkanen has four NBA seasons on his resume.
He has shown an ability to score from outside, attack the rim and even make midrange shots. Perhaps he hasn’t shown it as consistently as expected, but he has shown it. There’s no question he has weapons opposing teams have to game-plan for.
And no one in the league has defended Markkanen, who will be a restricted free agent this offseason, harder than Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas. He did so before the season started, after the trade deadline, then again after the regular season ended this week.
”I’ve got limited stuff that I can obviously be permitted to comment on regarding that, but I thought Lauri had a good year,” Karnisovas said. ”I thought he was more efficient. He’s a 40% three-point shooter. You know shooting comes at a premium in our league, and I think Lauri is an essential part of our team. We hope he is a part of what we’re building here, so I’m looking forward to free agency and talking to his representation.”
Karnisovas wasn’t lying, but he left out a few numbers. And important ones, at that.
Yes, Markkanen did shoot a career-best 40% from three-point range, but he also averaged a career-low 13.6 points, grabbed a career-low 5.3 rebounds, handed out a career-low 0.9 assists and, for the third time in his career, failed to play in more than 53 games.
So was Karnisovas, who has a growing reputation of displaying the ultimate poker face, saying what he’s supposed to say at this time of year regarding his players’ futures, or was he letting the rest of the league know he has a strong hand and intends to use it if called?
This summer will answer that, with the Bulls able to match any offer Markkanen receives.
The talent pool in the 2021 free-agent class was supposed to be historic. Organizations started lining up their salary caps to take advantage of it as early as two years ago. Then big names started re-signing with their teams.
There’s still money to be spent, however, and restricted free agents such as Markkanen and Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball are about to benefit from that.
Two weeks ago, Markkanen said he’s looking to sign with a team that values him as a starter. The Bulls no longer are that team. They have a pair of All-Stars in guard Zach LaVine and center Nikola Vucevic, and Markkanen (even with a small sample size in the case of Vucevic) hasn’t shown an ability to play effectively alongside either for extended minutes.
So where might Markkanen end up? The one place he privately wants to land is with the Mavericks, joining guard Luka Doncic and big man Kristaps Porzingis. The Mavericks will have serious cap room this offseason and were in the middle of the pack in three-point shooting, but Markkanen and Porzingis might be too similar in terms of their skills for that to happen.
So which other team might be interested in Markkanen? Keep an eye on the Knicks, who will have the most cap room of any team and can use more shooting.
Yes, Karnisovas will have the final say on Markkanen and his future. But, ”essential” or not, some pieces just don’t fit and are no longer worth the price.
There’s no doubt Justin Fields is the right quarterback for the Bears.
Poise from Day 1. Miles to his deep ball. And speed. That sweet, sweet speed the franchise has never had at the position. He has the potential to be everything his predecessors over the previous century weren’t.
But, as Bears great Jim McMahon so harshly — and precisely — put it recently, Chicago is “where quarterbacks go to die.” So the real question is whether the Bears are the right franchise for Fields.
More specifically, is Matt Nagy the right coach to develop him into the maximum version of himself?
When the Bears hired Nagy in 2018, they saw a quarterback whisperer who helped get Alex Smith on track, supervised the infancy of Patrick Mahomes’ career and was a protege of offensive mastermind Andy Reid.
What they got is a likable coach who is an exceptional leader, but that offensive boost never materialized.
The Bears were ninth in the NFL in scoring in 2018 (helped substantially by defensive scores and short fields on offense), 29th in 2019 and 22nd last season. Nagy’s quarterbacks combined for the 12th-worst passer rating in that span and the ninth-lowest yardage as Nagy shifted among Mitch Trubisky, Nick Foles and Chase Daniel.
The best quarterback success stories of his career have been helping Smith become serviceable and being part of the group that chose Mahomes in the 2017 draft. But it wasn’t as though the Chiefs at large were unconvinced by Mahomes and Nagy insisted they take him, and Smith has a vastly different skill set than Fields.
No matter how much Nagy might insist otherwise, coaching a quarterback like Fields is new ground for him.
“I’ve coached a lot of different quarterbacks,” Nagy rebutted. “I started as a young coach in Philadelphia with Donovan McNabb. . . . I’ve been with Kevin Kolb, I’ve been with a rookie in Nick Foles, I’ve been with Michael Vick, I’ve been with Alex Smith, I’ve been with Trent Edwards, Patrick Mahomes as a rookie. So many different scenarios.
“They’re all different, and what makes it so much fun is for me to say, ‘OK, here we are. How do we put a plan together?’ That, for me, is the fun part. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, as we do as coaches.”
Nagy preaches keeping it real, so let’s do that quickly: Most of the quarterbacks he listed were underwhelming. He was an intern when the Eagles had McNabb and was not yet a position coach when Vick played for them. Also, Mahomes played one game as a rookie when Nagy was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator.
That being said, general manager Ryan Pace’s belief is that whatever Nagy helped instill in Mahomes in 2017 was integral to his monumental success thereafter. That takes faith, but it’s plausible.
One element of Mahomes’ greatness is that the Chiefs did not insist on coaching out of him the very qualities that made him special.
“I’ve been blessed, even from high school, with [coaches] letting me be who I am and scramble around and throw the ball and do what I do,” Mahomes said the day after winning Super Bowl LIV. “[Coaches have been] trying to work on the fundamentals and everything like that but still letting me be who I am.
“And now with coach Reid, knowing the right time to rein me in, but at the same time letting me be who I am. Having all those coaches support me and let me be who I am helped me get where I am today.”
A lot of what Mahomes does is unconventional, but why change something that has gotten him this far?
That seems to be what Nagy and his staff did with Trubisky. The organization fell in love with his athleticism, then Nagy hammered, “You win from the pocket,” into his head every day. It’s possible no one could’ve fixed Trubisky anyway, so Nagy is not necessarily at fault for him fizzling, but he can’t take that approach with Fields.
Nagy’s motto, “Be You,” needs to mean exactly that for Fields, not “Be Who I Want You to Be.” The goal is not to turn Fields into a competent QB. He’s too good for the Bears to settle for that. Nagy loves to point to Smith, but don’t forget that it took Smith seven seasons just to be adequate, and even at his peak, the Chiefs were making plans to replace him.
There should be no thought of turning Fields into Smith. Or Foles. Or Andy Dalton. It’s fine for him to learn behind guys like that, and there are parts of how those quarterbacks see the game that will benefit him, but the last thing anyone should want is for Fields to morph into one of them.
Nagy’s challenge is to enhance what Fields already has rather than change him. Doing less is actually doing more in this case, and that’s how he can legitimize his reputation as an expert on quarterbacks.
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – MAY 23: #81 Dominik Kubalik of Czech Republic celebrates his goal with teammates during the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Slovakia quarter final game between Czech Republic and Germany at Ondrej Nepela Arena on May 23, 2019 in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo by RvS.Media/Robert Hradil/Getty Images)
The Chicago Blackhawks are always well represented on the World’s stage. The 2021 IIHF World Championships are going on which always provides fans with a little bit of extra hockey. There is always a lot to be excited about when it comes to this tournament but it is always just a little more fun when your favorite team is heavily involved.
There are a total of eight members of the Blackhawks organization that are playing in this thing. Six of them have already played in the NHL (some more than others) and two are still considered prospects. Oddly enough, none of these players will represent Team USA which is a rarity for the Hawks.
The Chicago Blackhawks have a lot of their players playing at the IIHF Worlds.
Canada
Nicolas Beaudin
Brandon Hagel
Brandon Pirri
None of these guys are going to be leaders on Team Canada or anything but being on a team with expectations like that is so nice. They aren’t as good as some other Canadian squads we have seen in this tournament before but they always have a chance. Of the three, Nicolas Beaudin is the one to be the most excited about in terms of the Chicago Blackhawks’ future. He should be a mainstay on the blue line within the next year or two.
Czech
Dominik Kubalik
Dominik Kubalik is one of the best players the Chicago Blackhawks have right now. He is so good at scoring goals in the NHL and he is already up to his old tricks in this tournament as he is on the board already in game number one. The Hawks believe he is going to be one of their better pure goal scorers for a long time.
Germany
Lukas Reichel
The Chicago Blackhawks selected Lukas Reichel with the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. They believe that he is going to be a good player for a long time once he is up in the NHL so this is another step towards him being a developed NHLer.
Russia
Nikita Zadorov
Maxim Shalunov
These two players are very different in terms of where they are in their NHL careers right now. However, right now they are teammates for Team Russia in this tournament. Nikita Zadorov is an okay defenseman that doesn’t really fit well on this team. He is currently an RFA so it will be interesting to see if they bring him back or trade him. Shalunov is an unsigned prospect.
Switzerland
Philipp Kurashev
The Swiss are slowly but surely becoming a great hockey country. They are starting to produce some of the game’s best players which is really exciting for them. Hopefully, Philipp Kurashev is able to help their national team along with the Blackhawks for years to come.
As you can see, the Hawks have talent spread all over the map. Normally, you might see guys like Patrick Kane or Alex DeBrincat playing for Team USA but they decided not to this year. Either way, it is nice to see these guys get the much-deserved chance to represent both their countries and club.
Roxanne Smith a leader with Communities United. | Tyler LaRiviere / Sun-Times
They continue to push for civilian oversight of the police department and non-police alternatives to respond to mental health crises and provide public safety in schools.
Roxanne Smith has been waiting for change.
Even before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis led to a summer of protests and a racial reckoning, Smith, a longtime leader of the group Communities United, was pushing for change.
She had urged the Chicago Police Department to abide by the consent decree that followed the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, requiring changes in many police policies.
For her, police reform is personal. Her son Seneca Smith has been in prison for years after being shot by the Chicago police and convicted of attempted murder. She doesn’t believe what the police said about how the shooting unfolded.
Then, a few years ago, when her other son, Roget Smith, was having an anxiety attack, she called 911 to get paramedics to help get him to a hospital. But officers also showed up, and she didn’t think they helped things with her son, who has a condition called Fragile X syndrome.
“Why would you come in acting like he’s a criminal, ready to handcuff him and throw him on the floor?” Smith said. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s just having an anxiety attack.”
Smith is among community leaders in Chicago who have long been calling for police reform. Now, a year after massive protests broke out after Floyd’s death, she and other activists in Chicago say they’re frustrated by what they see as slow progress by City Hall on reform.
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-TimesRoxanne Smith a longtime leader with Communities United, sits inside her home, holding up photos of her two sons Roget Smith, left, and Seneca Smith, both of whom were victims of police brutality, Friday, May 21, 2021.
Among their priorities, they continue to push for civilian oversight of the police department and non-police alternatives to respond to mental health crises and provide public safety inside schools.
Since Floyd’s death in May 2020, 21 people have been shot, seven of them fatally, by Chicago cops, according to the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Among those killed was a 13-year-old, Adam Toledo.
ACLU of IllinoisNusrat Choudhury, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois: “I think that the city has made statements about wanting to do more to reform policing than what the consent decree requires, but their actions speak louder than words.”
Nusrat Choudhury, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, said City Hall has resisted change and points to police department failures to meet deadlines set out in the consent decree, which calls for changes in how officers are disciplined, supervised, trained and recruited.
“I think that the city has made statements about wanting to do more to reform policing than what the consent decree requires, but their actions speak louder than words,” Choudhury said.
City officials seem to view the consent decree as “a ceiling,” Choudhury said, “but they should really be looking at it as a floor.”
City officials have acknowledged they haven’t met all of the deadlines but point to having improved compliance requirements for police training, community policing and officer wellness.
Andrea Ortíz, an organizer with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, said that, if the city had made reforms earlier, such as instituting a foot-pursuit policy, the fatal police shootings of Adam Toledo and Anthony Alvarez might have been avoided. The 13-year-old and Alvarez, 22, were fatally shot by officers in separate incidents earlier this year.
The council has pushed for a greater emphasis on “treatment, not trauma,” sending out counselors and therapists rather than the police in response to emergency calls that involve a mental health crisis, Ortíz said.
“There’s something about trauma-informed personnel — a counselor or social worker who understands what folks are going through and have years of experience of handling mental health crises and how to de-escalate and calm a person,” Ortíz said. “How to see them as a person and not a potential threat.”
Laqueanda Reneau, an organizer with Communities United, said Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration needs to invest more in communities across the city.
Lightfoot has pointed to changes in policies for handling search warrants and car pursuits as proof of progress on police reform.
“Do we need to do more?” Lightfoot said at a recent news conference. “Of course, we do. And that journey is going to continue for years to come because there has to be continual training and work.”
On a recent weekday in Austin, two people held up a sign on busy North Avenue that urged, “Honk For Police Accountability.” They were part of a group of community organizations protesting outside Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s 29th Ward office, pushing for the Chicago City Council to consider the proposed Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance. Taliaferro chairs the council’s Committee on Public Safety, and activists were critical of his delays in having the ordinance considered.
“For years, for decades, since before I was even organizing, we’ve seen what the harsh policing has done to our communities,” said Carlil Pittman, co-founder of the community group GoodKids MadCity. “We’ve seen our people suffer. We’ve seen our people be beaten, brutalized, murdered by police officers. And now we have an opportunity to bring real change into our city and be a model for other cities, to be a model for the country and what policing should look like.”
The proposal merges ideas from community groups that have called for civilian oversight of the police, said Kobi Guillory, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. It calls for a binding voter referendum to create a civilian oversight commission with authority to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate police contracts and set the department’s budget.
It has gotten support from the council’s Black, Hispanic and progressive caucuses and is expected to get a committee vote next month.
Lightfoot recently said she supports civilian oversight and is expected to introduce her own ordinance.
Guillory said, even after a summer of protests, the city hasn’t made real changes in policing.
“It was not really surprising but disappointing Chicago was the only city that hadn’t made any promises after the uprisings,” Guillory said.
Joel Rodriguez, a community organizer for the Southwest Organizing Project, said the empowering communities ordinance is the way to bring about transformative change.
“We need to have police accountability,” Rodriguez said.
Elvia Malagón / Sun-TimesCommunity groups protest outside Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s Austin office, pushing for a vote on the proposed Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance.
For Marques Watts, the fatal shooting of his friend Caleb Reed last summer was a reality check. He had watched how his friend was turning into a man, speaking out publicly about the need to work toward peace.
“My community is not safe no more,” said Watts, 18, a junior at Mather High School.
Reed, an outspoken activist, was killed weeks after Watts’ 16-year-old brother Derrion “Umba” Ortiz was fatally shot last July in Burnside.
Watts joined Communities United and Voices of Youth in Chicago Education to continue his friend’s work. Mather’s Local School Council was among those that voted to remove police officers from the school.
VOYCE is still pushing for officers to be permanently removed from other schools and urging schools to try alternatives to the police to keep incidents from escalating, said Maria Paula Degillo, the program’s coordinator.
Watts wants more social workers in schools.
Pat Nabong / Sun-Times fileThe family of Caleb Reed, an activist who was fatally shot in West Rogers Park last July, holds balloons and an illustration of Reed outside Mather High School on Aug. 4, 2020. The 17-year-old activist was an advocate for the removal of police in the Chicago Public Schools.
When remote schooling began last year, he said he initially struggled because he couldn’t stop thinking about his brother and Reed. One of his teachers helped him push past his grief.
“We already go through traumatic things outside of schools,” Watts said. “It should be a different way to approach us.”
Elvia Malagón’s reporting on social justice and income inequality is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.
Two men were fatally shot early Saturday morning in West Garfield Park.
The men were standing outside about 2 a.m. in the 4000 block of West Wilcox Street when someone approached them on foot and fired shots, Chicago police said.
One man, 24, suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest and leg, police said. He was transported to Loretto Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The second man, 28, was struck in the chest, torso and arm, according to police. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was also pronounced dead, police said.
No one is in custody, according to police.
About four hours earlier, a man and a woman were shot in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. A male was in an argument with a 23-year-old woman at a convenience store. in the 500 block of North Kedzie Avenue when he began shooting at her and an 18-year-old man she was with.
ST. LOUIS — The beginning of 2021 has been a learning experience for starter Kyle Hendricks, who has had to do some serious soul-searching after the worst month of his career in April.
While slowly putting starts together in an effort to return to the caliber of pitching the Cubs have expected from him, Hendricks discovered something during his previous start in Detroit. Even in a signature performance — eight innings of one-run ball — what he’s searching for is consistency.
“I want to be that guy that my team can rely on,” said Hendricks, who took the next step Friday night, allowing seven hits and one earned run, striking out four and walking one in 6 2/3 innings in the Cubs’ 12-3 win against the Cardinals. “They know what they’re going to get when I take the ball out there that day. . . . Today was another step in the right direction.”
Hendricks (4-4) was in a rhythm from the first pitch against the first-place Cardinals, throwing easy, 1-2-3 innings in the first and second. He allowed just three hits over his first five innings.
“I made a lot of good pitches tonight,” he said. “Really only three or four hard-hit hits, so it’s a good sign that my stuff is moving well, and I’m changing speeds well.”
In the sixth, things got dicey for him after three singles and an intentional walk loaded the bases and tied the game at 2. Hendricks was able to escape the jam without further damage, getting Yadier Molina to pop out and Harrison Bader to ground out to end the threat.
“That was big,” he said. “It was really cool being in that situation, honestly. That’s the loudest we’ve heard a stadium in a while. It was really cool feeling that energy — just telling myself to take a deep breath and ‘Just got to make a good pitch here.’ “
Said manager David Ross: “I thought he looked sharp all night long. It is nice to get some traffic out there and get out of it.
“I think we need Kyle to be who he’s been for us historically to win baseball games. We trust that sometimes guys that have the track record don’t get off to the best starts. We’ve started to see vintage Kyle the last few times out. . . . We’re gonna need him to be that version of him throughout the season for us to have success, for sure.”
Hendricks has now gone at least 6 2/3 innings in three of his four starts this month and has a 2.39 ERA in those starts.
The Cubs’ offense came through right away Friday. Joc Pederson continued his torrid month with a leadoff homer in the first and added a sacrifice fly for a run in the fifth.
The Cubs took a 3-2 lead in the sixth when Nico Hoerner scored on a wild pitch and an error by Molina. Kris Bryant’s RBI double later in the inning — his major-league-leading 16th double of the season — extended the lead before the Cubs piled on a staggering eight runs in the eighth to blow the game wide open.
Around a thousand people march on Wacker Drive in the Loop Friday during a pro-Palestinian protest. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Protesters gathered in Congress Plaza Garden, at Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue. Various activists, politicians and religious leaders spoke before the group marched north on Michigan Avenue to Wacker Drive.
A rally and march was held in downtown Chicago Friday mark what pro-Palestinian organizers said was the “victory” achieved by the ceasefire in Gaza after 11 days of fighting.
Then on May 10, Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. Continued rocket barrages brought life to a standstill in much of Israel but were seen by many Palestinians as a bold response to perceived Israeli abuses in Jerusalem, the emotional heart of the conflict.
In Chicago, hundreds of protesters gathered in Congress Plaza Garden, at Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue. Various activists, politicians and religious leaders spoke, including U.S. Rep. Marie Newman.
From there, they marched north n Michigan toward Wacker Drive.
So far, the conflict has left more than 250 dead — the vast majority Palestinians.
One thing about working from home is that I’ve found my beverage options can get old real fast. Since my day job is a “split shift” (Noon-8:30), my lunch half-hour is most people’s happy hour. And I’ve run out the string on pots of coffee or instant lattes.
I could hit something light and familiar like a Guinness, which still has fewer calories than a sugared up soda. Especially since I’ve managed to actually lose a few pounds over the past year. But “day-drinking” can be a slippery slope.
So I mean to give some more non-alcoholic beers a try. The fact that I do try and discuss NA brews on my YouTube channel means I’ve been offered samples from the makers of these barley pops.
[embedded content]
My latest One Take Beer Review
The latest to cross my palate is from Ceria Brewing Co., based in Arvada, CO. Ceria was co-founded by Dr. Keith Villa, with his wife Jodi as CEO. Villa was the brewmaster at the Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field when he developed Bellyslide Belgian White, a wit-style beer now known as Blue Moon. Ceria was started to research ways to create non-alcohol beers that preserved the health benefits of various compounds found in beer like polyphenols and the terpenes in hop oil. Like most NA beers, these are brewed to style, and then “dealcoholozed” using the brewer’s process. The beer is contract-brewed by O’Fallon Brewing in Maryland Heights, MO (suburban St. Louis).
First up is Indiewave, a pale ale style, with Cascade, Citra and Amarillo hops. The labels says it has 99 calories in a 12 oz. can. Various sources on its bitterness range between 40 and 45 IBUs.
First up is Indiewave, a pale ale style, with Cascade, Citra and Amarillo hops. The labels says it has 99 calories in a 12 oz. can. Various sources on its bitterness range between 40 and 45 IBUs.
The can pours a slightly hazy amber color under a thick head. In other words, it’s looks very much like a beer. The smell has a nice bite of West Coast IPA hops, but I do notice the slight metallic “tang” that sometimes comes with low- or no-alcohol brews.
The taste has some definite hoppiness to match the nose. There’s very little sweetness, which I’ll count as a positive, considering that some NA beers end up tasting like lipstick. But it can tend to be a bit too dry. There’s a citrus note that finally comes in at the end of the pour. It still won’t make you think it’s a beer, but it is a good rehydrator.
Ceria beers are currently not distributed in the Chicago market. But it can be found in some Wisconsin stores. And as a non-alcoholic beverage, it can be ordered through Amazon or other online sellers.
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Meet The Blogger
Mark McDermott
Writer, trivia maven, fan of many things. I thought to learn all there is to know about beer as a way to stay interested in learning. It is my pleasure to bring Chicago’s craft beer scene to you.
State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, left, earlier this month; State Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, right, in February. | Facebook; Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file
The Senate bill on sex education seeks to standardize the curriculum in Illinois schools, ensuring each grade “has the opportunity to be safe and … have access to age- and developmentally appropriate and medically accurate information,” according to the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago.
SPRINGFIELD — Two of the state Senate’s newest members — the chamber’s first LGTBQ senator and a Republican farmer from southern Illinois — clashed Thursday over legislation meant to standardize sex education curriculums in the state.
State Sen. Darren Bailey, a downstate Republican running for governor, accused the bill’s Democratic sponsors of “pushing perversion in our schools.”
North Side state Sen. Mike Simmons, who is gay, called Bailey’s remark “deeply offensive” and asked that it be stricken from the record.
In the House, members advanced legislation that would require menstrual hygiene products to be available in bathrooms in every school building, male and female — a bill that also prompted a heated verbal exchange.
The Senate bill on sex education seeks to standardize the curriculum in Illinois schools, ensuring each grade “has the opportunity to be safe and … have access to age- and developmentally appropriate and medically accurate information,” according to the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago.
Starting in second grade, students would learn to define consent, gender identity, and different types of families, including cohabitating and same-sex couples. Villivalam said those standards help students “understand a healthy relationship.”
Rich Hein/Sun-Times fileState Sen. Ram Villivalam in 2018.
But Bailey objected.
“Teachers who work hard to teach our kids about proper education have absolutely no reason in teaching this … absolute nonsense,” said the Republican from downstate Xenia, a former House member elected to the Senate in November.
In a statement following the vote Bailey denied his remark about “perversion” referred to teaching students about same-sex relationships.
“It’s a bill teaching children sexual acts and more that should not be taught in public schools,” he said. “[The Democrats] know it’s wrong and they don’t want parents to actively know what they’re trying to make our schools teach their kids.”
Other Republicans in the chamber said that the standards in the bill were being pushed by “dark money” abortion rights groups that support educators providing graphic images to minors.
Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP fileThen state Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, speaks at a protest against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order in Springfield last year.
“One of the organizations that’s advocating for this, a portion of their curriculum has photographs that 10-year-olds will be looking at with complete frontal nudity including pubic hair — both male and female – [and] one picture that has a male erection,” said state Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphsyboro.
In an interview with the Sun-Times the next day Simmons characterized Bailey’s remarks as an attack on the LGBTQ community.
“I took it as a dog whistle intended to dehumanize a whole spectrum of diverse families…that includes LGBTQ people,” Simmons said. “I felt like it also was intended to shame young people – shaming their bodies. The reason I rose to have that stricken from the record is I don’t want anybody reading that and internalizing even more, you know, this kind of self shame. It’s time for that type of stuff to end.”
Simmons said “it was difficult to take in good faith” that Bailey’s words weren’t targeted at LGBTQ people, saying that Bailey should “be more careful with his words.”
State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said that she had worked as a sexual health educator and that “misinformation and a lack of knowledge for our students” leads to serious consequences.
“I’m not going to allow it to happen when people decide that they want to call this bill ‘perversion.’ Because let’s be completely honest, when you use your Trumpian talking points about a bill teaching children about their body and [would] also educate them about the predators that actually exist in this world — you’re just using them to get a soundbite.”
The bill passed in a partisan 37 to 18 vote and advanced to the House.
That chamber saw its own verbal fireworks over a bill that would require menstrual hygiene products to be made available “in bathrooms of every school building that are open for student use in grades 4 through 12 during the regular school day,” according to a synopsis of the bill.
State Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, said the bill is important to young “menstruators who are not able to purchase products, and they need this as an emergency situation.”
Rich Hein/Sun-Times fileState Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, last year.
State Rep. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, asked Hernandez “why you feel it’s appropriate to put menstrual products in a male bathroom?”
“As a male who did go to a public high school, as a male who went to bathrooms from sixth grade to 12th grade, I can promise you, not one of my male friends ever needed these, and I would really appreciate if the sponsor would stay the hell out of my bathrooms, and I promise her I will stay out of hers,” Chesney said.
Despite the division, the bill passed 68 to 43 with seven members not voting.
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