The lead from my latest on Huffington Post:
I've
got this intern working for me, he's a nice smart kid. (That's how bad
things are for college grads these days. They intern for freelance
writers.)Anyway, the kid grew up in San Francisco. He moved here a few years
ago to go to college at DePaul. The other day I asked him, "What did
you think of Chicago after growing up in such a cosmopolitan city?"He said he was shocked by the racism here, which his San Francisco
upbringing had allowed him to assume was a relic of the urban past. And
he said he missed the hills. Otherwise, he liked Chicago fine."There certainly is a lot to do here," he said with a shrug.
A lot to do here?
I'm thinking to myself, What kind of jamoke am I dealing with here?
How'm I ever gonna explain to this kid what makes Chicago different
from San Francisco, different from anywhere else? How'm I gonna
introduce him to Chicago's heroes, living and dead? How'm I gonna show
him how to get a laugh in a Chicago tavern — or at least help him
understand what he's supposed to think is funny.