The 2023 Chicago Scots Scottish Festival & Highland Games is going to the dogs. It’s also moving out of Itasca after being held there a final time Friday, June 16 and Saturday, June 17. As for the canine part, the nonprofit Chicago Scots held a preview event Saturday, June 3 at Caledonia Senior Living… Continue Reading
I had not been to Navy Pier in a long time. So an invite from journalist/writer/documentary maker Dave Hoekstra to a reception for the popup version of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s “The State of Sound: A World of Music from Illinois” exhibit there was enough to get me out of the… Continue Reading
In early May, Best Fest Buddy Tom, his brother Mark and I hit the highway for a trip to Carbondale. We headed downstate to help one of Mark’s sons celebrate his 30th birthday. Our drive from the Chicago suburbs was not long after a terrible multi-vehicle accident along I-55 near Springfield caused by a dust… Continue Reading
The fireworks show out where I live that had been planned for the Saturday after St. Patrick’s Day never happened. Why they have fireworks then is a mystery to me. Perhaps St. Patrick shot them off to drive the snakes out of Ireland. Perhaps not. I do know that a well-off bar owner has been… Continue Reading
The final memory I now have of Judy Dees is of stopping by her home on the eve of New Year’s Eve to drop off some thank you gifts from her little buddies, my buddy Tom’s three grandkids. See, Mrs. Dees (as they and I called her), had given them envelopes for Christmas. Mind you,… Continue Reading
Until this Sunday’s 5th Annual Hibernian Hooligan Ball, the last time legendary Chicago comedian Bill Brady and Mike Houlihan shared a stage together was in the indie film, TAPIOCA. The movie starred Ben Vereen, Tim Kazurinsky and a legion of Second City all-stars. Brady played himself in the off-beat comedy. Brady threw Houlihan off the… Continue Reading
Over Thanksgiving weekend, Best Fest Buddy Tom and I wound up playing detective for a bit, going undercover to see if we could solve the mystery of a missing door panel. We even wore disguises. Tom dressed as an Anglo school boy, donning short pants, Vans and a sport coat with patches on the elbows.… Continue Reading
If Aaron Rodgers ever picked out the halftime entertainment for a Packers game and based it on his mind-altering experience with Peruvian ayahuasca it might look like a Drum Corps International (DCI) competition. What’s DCI, you say? Well, Louis Armstrong apparently said if you have to ask what jazz is, well, you’ll never know. Or… Continue Reading
Dear people who put on the Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana: Two of my buddies and I have a proposition for you. With Mr. Pierogi retiring after 25 years as the mascot and hopeful symbol of your tasty festival, Tom, Mark and I would like to put our names in the pot of slightly salted… Continue Reading
It’s already been a week since the Scottish Festival and Highland Games in Itasca – and a few days longer still since Bloomsday. You know Bloomsday. July 16, 1904, the day on which James Joyce sets “Ulysses”, which was published in 1922. You’re reading an Irish blog. You should know that! Right? Wasn’t Paul… Continue Reading