Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

The Chicago races’ mayor

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Today is election day in Chicago.

Yesterday Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg considered how far Chicagoans have or have not come since the atavistic ol' days when the town voted long strictly racial lines.

I was reminded of a phone interview I had a few years ago with the veteran Chicago-area Congressman Danny Davis, who cut his political teeth in the racially savage 1980s here.

(Davis was one of the early African-American prospects for mayor this year. He dropped out in deference to the black "consensus" candidate, former Illinois Senator Carol Mosely Braun, who immediately reminded Chicagoans of every every color what a mean, dishonest and stupid woman she is.)

Anyway, I was asking the gravel-voiced, grizzled Davis about a black Chicago alderman who had publicly supported a white candidate over a black one. Davis implied he disapproved of this. Davis

"Are you seriously saying, Mr. Davis," I seriously said, "that in this enlightened day and age, you still expect black Chicago politicians to back black candidates regardlness of merit?"

There was a pause, during which I began to shrivel into a little pink, naive, honky-colored ball.

"Heh … heh," he chuckled, saying nothing for the record and everything I needed to know.

The Quotable Murr

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I'm tired of Fran Lebowitz having all the good quotes.

"Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying."

"My favorite animal is steak."

"Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep."

I could have said that stuff.

"Everybody wants to be famous. Haven't they noticed? Not even famous people are famous. I read the New York Times obits to meet new people." —David Murray

"If we aren't magnanimous in our judgement of our young selves, how can we expect our young selves to be magnanimous with us?" —David Murray

"Our essential responsibility as personal and organizational communicators is not to spoon out information slowly to babies with weak digestion systems. Rather, it’s to try desperately to keep up, verbally, with the massive flow of unvarnished truth that our behavior is sending, and that our family, friends and colleagues are receiving every day." —David Murray

"Share your emotions only with those with whom you'd willingly share your money—and then, only in the same amounts." —David Murray

I'm so humble that those four are all I can think of! Can you believe that? Come on. Who else can remember some great quotes of mine?

Or, if you absolutely cannot think of any Quotable Me, how about Quotable You?

Friday Happy Hour Video: “What Is the Internet, Anyway?”

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In 1994, the Today show crew expressed bemused wonder at this Internet thing. What inevitable, profound developments are the TV news nitwits looking upon with smug bewilderment now?*

* I'd must preempt my oldest friends and point out myself that I spent a lot of time in the mid-1990s noisily doubting the importance of the Internet. But I was 25 years old, an impossibly young curmudgeon in desperate need of something new and mainstream to dismiss. And then the Internet came along, with its breathless "advocates," who actually sat around bars and argued about whether the thing was as important as the invention of fire, or was it merely the Gutenberg printing press? They were assholes too.