2-year-old Khaleesi loves to play fiercely with wand toys and cat nip toys. She needs interactive playtime!

She is VERY vocal and LOVES to be petted and just about anything that could pass for a toy. She is active and affectionate.

Loves to splash water from her bowl.

She definitely wants a lot of attention and stimulation, and does NOT like to be left alone. She’s 7 pounds of all talk.

Khaleesi let her fosterer clip her front claws with no fuss.

She’s not particularly a jumper, but she does like to get into whatever you’re doing.

Her litterbox habits appear impeccable.

She uses a carpet scratcher enthusiastically, and will

need a scratcher wherever she ends up. Toys that make noise are good.

She also needs a fountain or something instead of just a bowl of water.

SOOOOOOO affectionate and cuddly.

For more information, write to us at [email protected] !

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells, and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $125 for the adoption of one cat, or $250 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

In the news: Book recommendation of the week comes from AfriWare Books: Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal B. Johnson. Order the book here.

During the  month of June, Unabridged Books will donate 10% of its sales to the Equal Justice Initiative founded by Bryan Stephenson (Just Mercy). Plus, “Unabridged Bookstore commits to a yearlong effort of promoting and supporting the work of activists and organizations engaged in the fight against systemic racism, social injustice, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.”

American Writers Museum invites you to join a virtual tour of its Frederick Douglass exhibit here.

Women and Children First’s Pride Reading List is here.

Following are Chicago book events (and a few more) that you can enjoy at home. Most are free, but some may require registration or purchase.

MONDAY, JUNE 15

Unorthodox 10 a.m. Author Deborah Feldman will discuss the Netflix series based on her book with Shira Haas who plays the lead role. Moderated by Abigail Pogrebin. Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center.

The Glass Hotel 6:30 p.m. Author Emily St. John Mandel in conversation with Alice Moody. The Book Stall.

TUESDAY, JUNE 16

Antiracist Baby 6:00 p.m. Author Ibram X. Kendi and illustrator Ashley Lukashevsky discuss their new board book. Politics & Prose.

America’s Best Baseball Writing 6:30 p.m. A discussion with writers Joe Bonomo and Rick Telander for fans looking forward to the season whenever it begins.  American Writers Museum.

What We Inherit 6:30 p.m. A virtual reading with author Jessica Pearce Rotondi in conversation with Sarah Blakley-Cartwright. City Lit.

Big Ideas presents PRIDE 7:00 p.m. “Authors Alicia Garza (The Purpose of Power), John deBary (Drink What You Want), R. Eric Thomas (Here For It), Jesse Szewczyk (Tasty Pride), and Nico Tortorella (Space Between), and Arlan Hamilton (It’s About Damn Time) share stories and readings about what Pride means to them. Moderated by Will Lanier, executive director of the OUT Foundation.” Random House.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17

The Mothers 6:30 p.m. City Lit’s Online Book Club discusses this bestselling book by Brit Bennett.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

Pop Goddesses 6:30 p.m. A virtual reading with author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Britt Julious. City Lit.

Pain Studies 7:00 p.m. Author Lisa Olstein in conversation with Eula Biss. Pain Studies is inspired by Lisa Olstein’s lifelong battle with migraines. Women & Children First.

And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories and Other Revenges 7:00 p.m. Volumes Bookcafé online book club. Rebecca discusses this new collection by Amber Sparks.

FRIDAY, JUNE 19

Between Everything and Nothing: The Journey of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal 7:00 p.m. Chicago author Joe Meno will be joined by Seidu and Razak for a discussion about their courageous, harrowing quest for political asylum. Includes audience Q&A. The Book Cellar.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20

Friend 2:00 p.m. Translator Immanuel Kim and novelist Patricia Park discuss this novel by Paek Nam-nyong, one of North Korea’s best selling authors. Politics & Prose.

Most of what made my Release Radar this week were remixes and guest spots. I mentioned a few weeks back that I’m so tired of that trend. Maybe it’s no longer a trend, maybe it’s here to stay?

Twin Peaks is one of those collabos, but this one actually works well. The guys benefit from the swooning female voices and could use more charm, like their getting from V.V. Lightbody and Ohmme, in their repertoire. It’s a funky jam that sees the band staying true to the style.

Paul McCartney drops in with a beautiful little acoustic ballad. Some of the best work he’s done in years. It’s quick and to the point. A nice reprieve for your backyard playlist.

Here we go with another collaboration, this time featuring Elton John? Yep, Surfaces give us a sunny jam that has a guest spot by none other than Sir Elton. I’ll be honest, it’s cool, but it almost feels forced. This song would’ve been great without the star power, but I do like it.

Murs must be putting together a full-length album? He’s consistently released a new single almost every week for the last month or so. They’ve all been quality, and “Cocaine Rap” is no different. I’m not a fan of the genre, and it seems like Murs isn’t either. He states his case while guesting on this new Sir Veterano track. Yep, another collaboration.

I’ve talked about Gizmo Varillas a lot lately. “A Silver Lining” is another great track from an inspired voice and songwriter.

Colony House put something special out this week, “The Walls Come Crashing Down” and I wanted you to give it a listen. There’s a subtle beauty to it, that stays with you.

Finally, jazz, lest not we forget. “What Is Geography Without Borders” is the selection for the week, by Slow Is The New Fast. I know, a great name and an even better song title.

Go in peace, my friends.

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I have no interest in a “both sides” argument about clear-cut instances of police brutality, and “bad apples” arguments lose ground by the minute. (Also, I care way less about Congressman Bobby Rush’s popcorn than our mayor seems to.) The conversations around police reform, defunding, and abolition have made massive leaps forward over the past two weeks, and some teachers find themselves in a complicated spot. Rather than shame them for struggling with these questions, I’m choosing to find a lens that sees them and reaches out.

Right now, accusations of hatred and vilification fly in both directions: teachers are engaged more and more with calls to rethink and reshape policing as we know it, and police feel besieged by public opinion and massive protests. Both see an increasing distance between the two professions and their respective unions. And amid the growing national conversation around policing, these two occupations still live side by side in many Chicago neighborhoods, often under the same roof. There’s a lot of overlap in families and communities, since all city workers are required to live within the city limits and thus tend to pile up at the edges, where a house with a yard on a quiet side street is more affordable. 

The demand to remove police from our schools is growing fast. Many teachers see the impacts of police presence on Black and Brown students, on students with disabilities, on immigrant students — even when the school resource officer is kind and well-intentioned. (I love both of the resource officers at my school.) This isn’t about the officers; it’s about the students. In twenty-two years as a teacher, I have never encountered a situation at school that wouldn’t have been better handled by a social worker or other wellness professional, and that includes when I was physically assaulted. But alongside calls for wider defunding, police feel it as another slap at their profession. 

Many police resented our strike last fall; tensions have grown between our unions over the past several years as the Chicago Teachers Union has taken on larger social issues in Chicago inherent to improving our schools. At the same time, I wonder as a teacher why the police union doesn’t fight harder on these same issues for a better version of their city and profession, one that doesn’t pit police against their neighbors, friends, and family. I wonder, too, why the Fraternal Order of Police doesn’t prioritize everyday worker protections. (If they do, we don’t hear about it, and their recently elected President does not engender confidence.) Police hold fundraisers to buy vests like we hold bake sales to buy books. We need to realize that we are ALL being played. 

Teachers also see the impact of policing as it exists now on our students’ lives outside of school. We see the outsized portions of our city budget used to further militarize the police, settle misconduct lawsuits, and pay out the overtime used to keep their union happy(ish) and quiet(er), and teachers stop wondering why we can’t have librarians anymore. Again: this isn’t about police as human beings as much as it’s about what we see kids needing and experiencing.

But let’s talk about police as human beings. I count police officers among my loved ones. I married into a police family. I grew up in a police neighborhood and settled into another to raise my kids. There are plastic blue ribbons on half the trees in my neighborhood, and we call this supporting the police. 

But if we really think about what we see as friends and family of police officers, the calls for reform and defunding should be loudest among us. Instead of claiming outsized voices in discussions about protests and police brutality, those of us with first responders in our circles should take this moment to look with more honesty and discomfort at what we have seen — some of us for our entire lives. And if we’re really honest, uncomfortably honest, we’ll start to see that this profession as it currently exists is killing them, too.

I’ve watched marriages crumble, substance abuse take hold, callouses start to cover an otherwise kind soul. We buried a family member who was only 25, one of so many more police officers who die by suicide than in the line of duty. We are not supporting our police by tying blue ribbons on trees and calling them superheroes. We are setting them up. 

For those teachers and others who feel conflicted between the current call to rebuild policing and the loved ones they feel called to defend, I hear you. You’re not wrong when you think of the long hours and mentally devastating nature of police work; you know better than anyone what police work does to a human being. You probably know that the work our loved ones signed up to do didn’t turn out the way they expected. They didn’t join the profession to be reviled and distrusted. I genuinely believe most joined to serve their communities — just like teachers. And in many ways, they’re backed into a corner in our culture, reinforced by the rhetoric of their unions, isolated from the communities they serve and taught to trust only one another. With-us-or-against-us might be a comforting space for officers and loved ones, but it also intensifies the challenges police face and the devastating impacts on their lives and families.

The call to defund and change policing doesn’t center police officers; but it could be about supporting them, too.

I urge police family members and friends to read some of the explanations of defunding and abolition and imagine what it could mean for those who do police work. Because of the inclination to circle up and defend what feels like a very personal attack, it’s difficult to untangle. But especially as teachers, we are capable of processing that complexity and finding a space where multiple things can be true and in need of our care and attention.

We can support the police by defunding them.

I feel the urge today to write about an expression I keep hearing, “the ask.” It seems to me to be threatening the perfectly good word “question.” You ask a question, so I suppose I’m questioning the ask.

Everything from requirements for masks and social distancing to policing protesters is getting described as “a big ask,” and various groups’ instructions or demands are being summarized as “that’s the ask.”

No. If something’s uncertain, it is a question, or questionable. That means you get to ask about it. Strange things are questionable, not ask-able.

Are people really that forgetful about language? Am I alone here?

Please keep using the word “question” for when you ask a question. I have yet to hear or read anyone “asking an ask,” and I hope I won’t.

Save “question.” It’s not too much to ask.

For more fun with words, stop by the Margaret Serious page on Facebook.

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America adopted the Stars and Stripes as her flag on June 14, 1777.  In a cruel twist of irony, Donald Trump was born on the same date, 169 years later. 

The following was first posted on January 19, 2017:

The above pictured flag was first flown on July 4, 2016.  It was last flown on November 11, 2016.

A flag waved in front of my house for years, but a cut power line prevented me from flying it at night and I was too lazy to run it up and down the flag pole every day.

Maybe I’ll fix that power line one day.  Hopefully, in 4 years.

After that power line incident in 1997, I limited my flag raising to the usual times; Memorial Day, Labor Day, Presidents Day, etc.

I flew my flag on Saturday, January 20, 2001, for President G.W. Bush’s inauguration, although I wasn’t really a fan.  I still think he stole that election.

I flew that flag in 2005 for Bush’s second inauguration.  I never thought G.W. was up to the job of president and he spent eight years confirming that suspicions, but I never disliked him personally.

Like President Obama, President Bush was a great family man and a role model for America’s husbands and fathers.

I flew my flag with glee for both of President Obama’s inaugurations (2009 and 2013) and I would probably be flying it tomorrow if Jeb Bush, John Kasich or even Rick Perry were being sworn into office.

I just can’t bring myself to fly that flag on this particular Inauguration Day.

The man being sworn in tomorrow seems to represent the very worst in America.  Donald Trump traffics in the fear that divides America and will use that fear to leverage his power and destroy American democracy.

He has given voice to greed, religious fanaticism, bigotry, treachery and a Neanderthal mentality and millions of Americans seem to be OK with all of that.

In my November 9, 2016 post entitled, “Congratulations President-elect Trump, I Wish You a Successful Presidency” I expressed my wishes for President-elect Trump’s success over the next 4 years. I meant it then and I still do.

Any patriotic American should want the president to succeed.  The president’s success is the country’s success.

Trump’s agenda however, is not aligned with the best interests of America.  With each passing day, it becomes more clear that America’s interests will be taking a back seat to Trump’s self interest.

Donald Trump started his campaign for the presidency by saying that Mexicans are rapists and ended it by describing how he could sexually assault women with impunity because of his celebrity.

HE ACCUSED MEXICANS OF BEING RAPISTS AND THEN LITERALLY ADMITTED TO BEING ONE (a rapist, not a Mexican).

It’s not the worst thing Trump’s ever said, it’s just the worst thing he said to Billy Bush that day.

Trump also has some really creepy ideas about his daughter.  You can see that for yourself by clicking HERE.

Why Trumpsters don’t believe their own eyes and their own ears when they see and hear Trump saying these crazy things is a mystery.    The sad thing here is that calling the incoming president a jackass IS with all due respect.

My feelings about the Stars and Stripes are no secret and I don’t feel the need to defend myself to the pseudo-patriot crowd.  You can read a recent post of mine discussing the national anthem by clicking HERE.

These are, as they say, unprecedented times.  For the next 4 years (I hope), the flag in front of my house will be  “L’Unifolié” (French nickname for Canadian flag).

Between the things that Trump says, the things he tweets and cabinet picks that are uniquely unqualified for their respective posts, it’s far less embarrassing to pretend to be visiting foreigners.

As it turns out, deportation may not be the worst punishment.  Happy Flag Day.

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Whitney Young Principal Joyce Kenner shown in 2016, has faced calls to resign but said she’s dedicated to her school and “nobody is going to push me out.” (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Whitney Young Principal Joyce Kenner, a black woman who has been principal of the prestigious Chicago high school for years, is now be targeted and told that she must resign.

What was the huge offense that requires that she be fired or resign in disgrace?

Several students told the Tribune they were offended by statements Kenner made in a video address about unrest sparked by George Floyd’s killing, in which she asked that if students do protest, they not participate in violence or looting, and said the way to seek change is to get a degree and get a “seat at the table.”

There are a few more events on my weekday schedule from week to week. That’s partly because I’ve been including in-house concerts and food trucks, which I might not usually do when there are so many more taproom events and beer dinners.  But I’m now hopeful that we’ll get to those.

There are still a few establishments that are getting their construction and permits together to open to outdoor seating. And it is hoped that Chicago will soon allow taprooms without a food license to open soon. As these openings may occur last minute, I’ll post them as I find out about them.

Conrad Seipp Brewing returns

This craft beer thing has been pretty full tilt for a few decades now, and once in a while one of the historical brands is brought back to try out the market. The latest one is Conrad Seipp Brewing, named for a brewer who started making beer in Chicago in 1854. His brewery survived the Chicago Fire, perhaps being located in 27th Street by the Lake (this was before the Burnham Plan renumbered the South Side streets), and was Chicago’s largest brewery in the 1890s before being killed off in Prohibition. One of Seipp’s descendants has been working to bring the band back. They’re starting with a modern version their original Extra Pale Lager, being made at Metropolitan Brewing. They are planning to go on tap at Metro on July 2.

Monday, June 15

Tuesday, June 16

Wednesday, June 17

Thursday, June 18