When the going gets tough, the faux tough heads to the basement.

Donald Trump likes to portray an image of toughness. Every thing he says and does is to avoid looking weak. From stating he would be the first person to go after a shooter in a school to not wearing a mask during a pandemic, Trump tries to maintain that image. He hates when anything threatens to destroy that image. So you can imagine how he felt when it was reported Donald Trump fled to the White House bunker at the first sign of trouble.

Friday night, protesters congregated in the park in front of the White House. They were less than two hundred yards away from its front door. Trump talked like a tough guy wannabe. He had Secret Service young men who were willing and able to go face to face with the protesters. He had the hugest and meanest dogs ready to attack. The public would soon see who was the baddest…the toughest. It wasn’t Donald Trump because he headed to the basement.

As the weekend continued, Donald Trump continued to lay low. We saw him for a few minutes in Florida, but he soon flew back to D.C. and immediately called a press lid on his public activities. As the protests and looting became more intense, Donald Trump was nowhere to be seen. Our country needed a strong voice and message from its leader. All they received were weak words read on Twitter. Donald Trump was still hiding in his basement.

When Don retreated to his basement, his political rival left his. For the last two months, Joe Biden has been keeping a low profile. He’s left the limelight during the pandemic to the president. His rare appearances have been online appearances from the basement in his home. Trump repeatedly has called him weak for this. A president needs to be available. He needs to be seen by the public. He needs to be ready to lead during an emergency. He has to be strong.

Last weekend the United States had an emergency. The United States needed someone to lead and show strength. Joe Biden left his basement. He went and talked to protesters. He listened to their concerns, issues and grief. He showed empathy for their pain. He acted like a leaded. He showed strength. Donald Trump went to his basement.

Yesterday, Trump had a video teleconference with the nation’s governors:

“You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest and try people. You don’t have to be too careful. It’s a movement, if you don’t put it down it will get worse and worse. The only time its successful is when you’re weak and most of you are weak.”

He won’t actually do anything to help them or its citizens. Trump wants them to be strong. He wants them to be tough. And then he headed for the basement.

Trump’s basement is actually the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. They call it the PEOC and it’s used for the president in case of an emergency. The last time it was used was by Dick Cheney after on 9/11 in 2001…a real emergency. Apparently Donald Trump was scared for his safety by a couple of hundred protesters more than two football fields away from him, while protected by fencing, Secret Service agents and vicious dogs. So strongman Donald Trump retreated to the basement.

Remember this date…May 29, 2020. That was the day Donald Trump showed who he really is. A seventy-three year old scared man tweeting and hiding from his basement. Not quite the image he likes, is it?

Related Post: It was a bad week in Twitter for Donald Trump

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Back in November I wrote about how the National Association of Realtors’ new Clear Cooperation Policy was going to finally crack down on the shady pocket listing practice and the super secret realtor networks that enabled them. As my use of adjectives and that previous post hints I’m clearly no fan of pocket listings. I see them as undermining the primary goal of most home sellers – i.e. get the highest sales price as fast as possible.

When I wrote that post linked to above I clearly expected that we would see the demise of those underground networks but that didn’t happen – at least not in the Chicago area. So I called our area MLS and asked them what was going on. Their position seemed credible at the time: the Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) prohibited public advertising of listings without also listing them on the MLS. However, our MLS did not consider those networks to constitute public advertising since they were only available to realtors. Therefore, they were fine with realtors listing properties on these private networks without listing them on the MLS.

So I accepted that answer until I found out about a lawsuit filed by the Top Agent Network (TAN) against the NAR which claims that the Clear Cooperation Policy is tantamount to stifling competition for listing services. In other words many of the MLS groups around the country have clearly interpreted the rules differently than the Chicago area MLS and it’s causing a problem for the TAN – which, BTW, is the top secret listing network.

Hmmm. So I just checked out the NAR’s CCP page and it clearly states in the FAQs:

“Private listing networks” that include more brokers or licensees than those affiliated with the listing brokerage constitute public advertising or display pursuant to Policy Statement 8.0. Listings shared in multi-brokerage networks by participants must be submitted to the MLS for cooperation.

Clearly the Chicago area MLS is not complying with this new policy by turning a blind eye to area realtors restricting certain listings to the private networks.

The lawsuit does bring up a valid point though. The new policy is in fact anti-competitive. With a rule like this in place nobody could ever challenge the dominance of the MLS. On the other hand I think you need a rule like this in order to prevent a lot of realtor mischief (which I’ve written about before) and home sellers getting screwed in the process. A clear compromise would be to allow property listings on other networks, provided that those networks were available to the public. That would not be as efficient as having all listings in a single database but it does enable competition. And, of course, the super secret networks wouldn’t be so secret any more.

I’m getting the popcorn ready for this one.

#PocketListings #ComingSoon #OffMarketListings #PrivateListings #RealEstateAgents

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.

They say you miss 100 percent of the shots you didn’t take. And that our biggest regrets in life aren’t over the mistakes we made but, instead, the moments when we were too timid. Didn’t take any risks. These chapters were never written because we met life with a fragile No instead of a trusting Yes.

And a lot of that is probably true. But for me, my biggest regrets (so far) aren’t really over my No’s. Instead, it’s the chapters that actually started out with a big bold yes; but the yes was mostly to myself.

The darkness of these chapters creeps up because it feels like you’re courageously heading into the light. “Betting on yourself.” “Chasing a dream.” “Making a leap of faith.” But, disguised behind all of these freedom mantras is actually not much freedom at all. There’s a course I’ve already charted out. A set finish line I have in mind. And an expectation for how things will ultimately play out–or at least how things should play out.

These chapters continue to deceive as you’re heading down the wrong path (which, of course, feels like the best and only path). Again, none of it feels like a bad thing. You’re working harder than ever. Waking up early. Staying up late. Going after a dream. And a lot of times you do end up getting what you’re going after; which only affirms that all of the sacrifices were totally worthwhile.

So what’s wrong with this road? Running back the list, the equation looks fine. Started with a leap of faith. Check. Worked incredibly hard. Check. Loved what I was doing. Check. And here are the accomplishments. Check. Am I missing something here? Why wouldn’t this process be a good thing?

For the last year and a half, I was deceived by one of these paths. And the feeling when you realize it isn’t so much one of regret or shame, it’s more of an embarrassment. Like falling for the classic hey-you-got-mustard-on-your-shirt-finger-to-the-nose trick. You get to the end of one of these chapters and wonder, “Wow, how am I still that gullible?”

Things that take a year and a half can’t really be explained in a sentence and a half. So I want to tell a story. It’s a story that will feel like it’s headed in a bunch of different directions and won’t really make sense until the end. It’s a wandering tale that involves: New York City, bagels, Kramer from Seinfeld, healthcare, Chicago, a dream, and a pink gorilla. Yep. A pink gorilla. It’s a story that unfolded quietly in the background of life, gently guiding me into the light. And as I look back on it, my only regret is not appreciating the little things more or seeing all of the little connections. But I can’t kick myself too much. As Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

So, let’s begin the story back in 2010. With a guy who’d never lived outside the state of Michigan.

Holland, Michigan

My dad went to the University of Kansas. So did both of his parents, his uncle, and all three of his siblings. My older brother too. But at 18-years-old, I wasn’t ready to move 12 hours away from Midland, Michigan to Lawrence, Kansas. It was too big of a leap.

So I held onto what I knew and made a much smaller leap of faith, going from the east side of the state to the west. Midland to Holland. And while it may have been a yes to something new, there wasn’t much of a leap. I was holding on tight and my feet were still planted on the ground.

The story I was planning to write was to keep playing basketball. And I’d study political science because, well, I was into student council in high school. That seemed like a logical path. The first semester came and went and I realized, “Crap, the big guys are bigger, the guards are faster” and the 2012 election–which seems tame by today’s standards–showed me I wasn’t really interested in politics.

My structured storyline was now over and I woke up in the darkness of a January winter wondering, “Where do I go from here?”

Seinfeld

There’s an episode of Seinfeld called The Strike. This is the one where George Costanza’s dad, played by Jerry Stiller, reveals his beloved self-created holiday “Festivus for the Rest of Us.”

The main storyline in the episode is how Cosmo Kramer has been on strike for 12 years from his job at H&H Bagels. He gets a phone call that the strike is over and heads back to work. But when Jerry Stiller tells him about Festivus, Kramer is immediately excited and asks for the day off. The owners deny his request and Kramer goes back on strike.

Taste of New York Bagels and Deli

Kramer is a fictional character, but H&H Bagels is a real place. The bagel deli was started in 1972 by Helmer Toro and his brother-in-law Hector Hernandez. The two bought out Midtown Bagels at Broadway and 80th Street for $5,000 cash and a $50,000 loan.

Even in the 70s, that amount of money didn’t get you much space in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which meant Helmer and Hector weren’t able to have a big commercial kitchen on-site to bake all of the bagels. To keep up with the demand, they turned to the Asous family who, under the radar, was proudly baking some of the best and well-known bagels in New York City. And unlike Kramer, they weren’t dropping bubble gum in the bagel dough.

Off to New York City

Things started to turn around at Hope College when I began saying small yeses without any idea where the road would go.

First small yes: I decided I wouldn’t visit Midland until spring break. Second: I went to a fraternity rush event, invited by someone I knew from the student council days back at Midland High. Third: I joined this fraternity that was basically the fraternity of guys who aren’t really “frat guys.” And it seemed like a puzzling move. Why would I do this when, less than a year ago, I chose not to go to Kansas and join my brother in his fraternity (the same one my dad and two uncles were part of back in the day)? How did this new chapter make any sort of sense?

But I kept walking forward. And I wasn’t in any sort of zen peaceful state when making these small yeses. I was still trying to regain control of a narrative. I put out a transfer application to Kansas. One to Central Michigan too. I was constantly trying to figure out what my major would be. Fighting to become the author again. In control of the story.

Ever so slowly, I was starting to let go. Met a girl named Ashley from our sister sorority. We knew each other a little bit our freshman and sophomore year, but what we didn’t know is both of us had said a bigger yes to a “study abroad” semester in New York City. We started dating our junior year and come January of 2011, I was finally ready to leave the state of Michigan with the woman I’d eventually marry who — at that point in time — was just Ashley from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Took me awhile, but I had finally said yes to living 12 hours away from home. I hopped on a plane without knowing what was ahead. I looked down at the clouds and, at least for that moment, I let go of being the author of my own story.

This post will end up being partially a profile of the New York Bagel & Deli restaurant in Chicago, part reflections and philosophy. If you enjoy this type of style, you might enjoy the four-part series I did featuring Tango Sur and some Kierkegaard.

• Chicago, Argentina (Part 1)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard intermission)
• Chicago, Argentina (Part 2: The Family Behind Tango Sur)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard Finale)

And, despite the name, Medium Rare isn’t normally a food blog. But for the next several weeks, every Tuesday, I’ll be featuring great local restaurants around the Lakeview neighborhood in hopes that readers support these spots with pickup & delivery orders now and go in-person later this year. Other posts in the seires include:

• Black & Caspian – Part 1
• Black & Caspian – Part 2

To subscribe to Medium Rare via email, just enter your email address in the box below. See you next week!

Reopening a business that has revolving door of opportunities will certainly operate at a different pace. Starting this week, we will allow one masked person to enter at a time. I’m proud to say that even though we operated without any direct physical contact since mid March, we took care of what was important; our patients. We talked to most of our database. We rescheduled appointments, helped patients curbside and referred out to a provider who was set with proper PPE. Were things perfect? Certainly not. You learn who your friends are. You lose a few patients. What’s important is that everyone got the help that they needed.

Working with a mask and face shield is awkward and engaging in tasks that are typically second nature will feel clumsy. Wearing gloves for everything we do may slow us down. But that’s okay because we will take our time to accomplish everything that is necessary when you visit us. After each appointment we will methodically sanitize the room and patiently wait for the space to be ready for use again.

Everything we do will take longer, but we’ll get used to our new pace. If we haven’t met you before, we will ask to schedule a telehealth appointment before you come in. That way you’ll see what we look like without our mask and face shield. And if you pass the COVID-19 screening and have no temperature, you’re all ours.

We are open with locked doors. Be patient with us as we awkwardly navigate with the new rules. It is important for all of us to stay healthy and keep you safe. You can expect the same high standard of care. And we can’t wait to see you!

Sometimes keeping old technology going has great advantages. When I wrote “Onward” in a message this morning, I remembered a song in a movie I saw as a child, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” It was the first story by Ian Fleming — yes, that Ian Fleming, Mr. Bond — I ever saw on the screen. It’s a fantasy about a flying car. The old technology, not Chitty’s (the car’s) new stuff, comes in because I got the soundtrack album as a present, and I still have it. It’s playing now.

The song that came to mind, the words I need to share, came in a scene when Chitty (the car) has been captured and bumbling scientists are trying to copy her for the villain. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman wrote the music and lyrics. With a spot of help from stlyrics.com (although I’ve known them most of my life), here are parts of the lyrics. Regardless of where we are, what we’re doing for healing (from the riots or the virus — remember that), finding peace and rebuilding a better city, onward and upward we must press!

…

So when it gets distressing it’s a blessing!

Onward and upward you must press!

Yes, Yes!

Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.

From the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success!

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.

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  Margaret H. Laing

  I moved to Chicago from the south suburbs in 1986. I have diverse interests, but I love writing about what I’m interested in. Whether it’s a personal interest or part of my career, the correct words to get the idea across are important to me. I love words and languages — French and Scottish words enrich my American English. My career has included years as a journalist and years working in museums, and the two phases were united by telling stories. I’m serious about words and stories. So here I am, ready to tell stories about words and their languages.

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