The November Issue Of Chicago Magazine

I perused the November issue of Chicago Magazine yesterday afternoon as the snow fell here in Denver, and although I was disappointed that this month's issue did not contain a nostalgia piece about a neighborhood or subject that I was familiar with back when I lived in Chicago, I did learn a few things from this issue. One is that there is a television program called The Bear, and Mr. Beef, located in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, is the restaurant on which the one in the series is based. Evidently, this series has made Chicago's Italian Beef sandwich a very popular item nationwide and is the cover story for this month's issue. Italian Beef a magazine cover story. That's a new one. Go figure. I also learned that one of the things the Illinois legislature is going to discuss when they meet November 12th is Chicago's $1 billion budget deficit, which I assume is the reason for Chicago's sky-high property taxes these days. As Illinois senator Everett Dirksen once said, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money. Finally, I learned that Chicago Public Media bought the Chicago Sun-Times back in 2022 and merged it with National Public Radio affiliate WBEZ. The Chicago Sun-Times is now a non-profit operation. This is the newspaper where legendary columnist Mike Royko worked until it was sold by Marshall Field to Rupert Murdoch. Royko and five-dozen editorial employees left the paper, refusing to work for the Antichrist, as he was known in Chicago back then.  Amazing how many things you don't know about Chicago when you no longer live there. Perhaps I should look into buying a pied-a-terre at the 101-story Residences at the St. Regis Chicago, located on the Chicago River. But those damn property taxes. Perhaps not.