A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Mike Royko

Mike Royko wrote a column for the Chicago Daily News, the Sun-Times and, finally, the Trib. I can't classify this column. It was just, well, it was Royko. CNN came close in its obituary of Royko, when it said he was "known for his sarcastic wit and colorful stories of life in Chicago." And the New York Times' obit called him, accurately, the "Voice of the Working Class." Won the Pulitzer Prize, too. Oh, and he was a lifelong diehard Cub fan.

Here are some sample columns. The tribute to Jackie Robinson is widely considered a classic. And the column on the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza, the square next to City Hall, the Thompson state office building and the federal courthouse in the Loop, is pure Chicago. Another sampling of columns has observations on kissing the Blarney Stone and Mayor Daley's ass (the father of the current Mayor Daley) and a meditation on what does and doesn't belong on a Chicago hot dog. Finally, Royko's obituary piece on Mayor Daley captured both the man and the city.

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.