Imagine the Joy on V-C Day

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Declare victory, announce a day of celebration, a declaration of gratitude for the heroic efforts of our front-line workers and an acknowledgement of the scientific triumph identifying and developing a vaccine in such a short time. Evanston RoundTable, Sept. 16, 2020 With the recent 75th anniversary of V-J Day, Victory over Japan, which brought World War II to an end, it’s not hard to imagine V-C Day, Victory over COVID-19. That will be the day we celebrate the end of the damnpendic’s restrictive grip on our lives, when we finally ditch our masks, return safely to our schools and workplaces, and take our children, grandchildren and dearest friends in hand and grace them with warm hugs and kisses. What a day it will be—when we can go back to museums and movie theaters, flock to ballparks and concert halls, go shopping, eat out, travel freely, attend religious services and head to the beaches, parks and playgrounds to congregate without fear of infection. Life that once seemed so mundane will sparkle with joy. Maybe it will resemble the scenes of joy that erupted across the nation on V-J Day. America celebrated V-E Day in May 1945 after Germany surrendered, but Americans … Continue reading →

The Summer of Peaches

Lester Jacobson Posted on by

Evanston RoundTable, Sept. 2, 2020 Amidst the spate of continuing bad news (COVID spiking! Russia hacking! Arctic melting!) and the continuing absence of any civility or sentience in our nation’s capital, we should treasure the few bright spots in our national and local climates. Start with the weather. True, 2020 was Chicago’s hottest summer on record, according to just-released data from the National Weather Service. But it sure didn’t feel that way. In fact, most days felt balmy and mild (mid-70s was the average temperature), and the lack of rain made for clear skies and lots of opportunities for outdoor activities. Then there are the peaches. Last year, not so good. This year, OMG—splendid—bag after bag, all summer long, juicy and sweet! There are other pluses too. The sweatshirt and casual wear business is booming, and with good reason. Why invest in costly business clothes when most of us are lounging around the house in jeans and T-shirts or going shopping or for long neighborhood walks in shorts? Let us hope COVID can eliminate the neck tie like JFK ended top hats, when he failed to wear one at his 1961 inauguration. There Is no more execrable piece of fashion … Continue reading →

The Great Reset

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Are we in for a renaissance of art and commerce, a Great Reset in the 2020s? Maybe. Let’s hope so. Evanston RoundTable, Aug. 19, 2020 The bad news just keeps rolling in. Now it’s the post office in trouble. Mail is piling up in warehouses, households are going weeks without postal service, employee hours are being cut, there’s talk of privatization. What’s next: sell off the national parks? Ben Franklin, call your office! A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in June said one-quarter to one-half of small businesses might have to close in the face of a continued retail slump. You can see it in the increasing number of “For Rent” signs posted on vacant shop windows. Many industries, such as airlines, hotels and restaurants, could take years to recover, according to the Sun-Times of Aug. 14. With ridership down and funding uncertain, public transit systems “teeter on a precipice,” said a scary headline in last Sunday’s New York Times. Kids and even college students are being deprived of needed social interaction with their peers. No one, not even the experts, seems confident of the best course for schools. Worse, the Centers for Disease Control reported that … Continue reading →

Obsessing About Obsessions

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Evanston RoundTable, Aug. 5, 2020 Almost anything people do can become the object of obsessive devotion and fanatic attention to detail, especially hobbies. Wikipedia lists hundreds, from drink mixing to lock picking (indoors) and trainspotting to topiary (outdoors). The best known include wine (acquiring and consuming), coins and stamps (collecting and displaying), sports (playing and watching) and music (collecting and performing). I can speak to the last as I play viola, one of the most challenging instruments. The viola has a beautiful, rich tone but is famously difficult because (among other problems) there’s no standard size, as there is for most other instruments. It is played five notes, a fifth, below the violin, so ideally it should be a fifth larger, which would put it at some 17 inches in body length. But that would be difficult to play: few people have the arm length to hold up an instrument that size for long. So modern makers compromise by designing violas that measure anywhere from 14½ to 16½ inches. Usually there’s a tradeoff—the bigger the instrument the bigger the sound, but also the greater the discomfort playing it. As I got older and less agile I had to sell my … Continue reading →

Look Around

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Evanston RoundTable, March 18, 2020 Hey Bunkie. Are you stuck in existential despair? Terrified the end times are at hand? Certain the latest outrage from Washington, Springfield, City Hall or your next-door neighbor will push you over the edge? Well, listen up, Bunkie, because I have a word of advice. Actually two: Look around! Yes, you can work your way out of many a slough of despond merely by picking your head up and taking note of the big, big world around you. Here’s how: Step 1: Turn off your device. Step 2: Go outside. Step 3: Look around. So simple. Yet many folks are incapable. You see them peeled to their phone, prisoners of their TV, half dead from inactivity and insipidity. Or they’re outside moping along, staring at their shoes, mired in pity, barely coping, riven with self-doubt and despair. Given the state of the world, it’s understandable. But hey—the world has always been in a state! Take the last thousand years: we’ve had war (some 2,300, according to the Wikipedia site “List of Wars”), famine, plague, massive death. Just in the last five generations we’ve endured two world wars, the Great Depression, the Korean War, Vietnam War … Continue reading →

Hard Times

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Evanston RoundTable, July 29, 2020 Such a shock to turn on the radio and hear: “I’m so afraid of goin’ out, and I’m so tired of stayin’ in…” So modern, so contemporary, so pandemic-afraid and quarantine-fatigued. Yet it was on the ’40s station, a song called “When They Ask About You,” written in 1943 by Sammy Stept and performed by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with vocalist Kitty Kallen. The stanza goes: I’m so afraid of goin’ out And I’m so tired of stayin’ in; My future doesn’t look serene, ’Cause every time that I go out I wish that I’d stayed in! It’s always the same routine. Turns out the singer is simply tired of being asked about her former lover. She goes on to sing: “What’s the good if I say That you and I are through? I tell them you’re away, When they ask about you.” In other words, not contemporary at all, just the romantic misfortunes of a bygone lass in a long-ago era. Things seem far worse today, with the threat of steep recession and the global pandemic. And don’t forget runaway climate change and a runaway national debt. Yet as bad as we have it … Continue reading →

Tour de Evanston

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Evanston RoundTable, July 16, 2020 With its excellent bike lanes and trails, Evanston is an eminently bikeable city, through which I have been riding some 10 miles almost every morning in a kind of loop around town that takes in some of our most beautiful and historic sites. The ride starts at the Ecology Center (built in 1974 to provide environmental education to Evanston schoolchildren and families), and heads east on the Ladd Arboretum trail that parallels the North Shore Channel. At Green Bay Road, near the giant “Silver Wings” sculpture by Ferdinand Rebechini, I swing over the Channel and loop west to Twiggs Park (with Harbert Park, Traffic Guy’s favorite), named after­ William H. Twiggs. According to the Shorefront Legacy Center, Mr. Twiggs came to Evanston in 1884 from Iowa, attended Garrett Seminary and for many years operated his own printing press in downtown Evanston. He also was a City clerk and held important roles at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church. The park, which has its own bike repair station consisting of tire pump and various sized wrenches, ends at one of the community gardens located on either side of McCormick Boulevard and Bridge Street. Across the street is the Dar-us-Sunnah … Continue reading →

Giving Thanks

Lester Jacobson Posted on by

Evanston RoundTable, July 1, 2020 Even in these terrible times of global pandemic, persistent and virulent racial inequities and a spiraling economy, it is good to realize and acknowledge our blessings, even to make a list. Here’s mine: – Good physical and emotional health: always # 1! – Basics: a comfortable home, with all the necessary amenities. – Blessing: a loving partner to share the confinement (and life) with. – Blessings: loving children and grandchild, all in good health. – Caring neighbors: to help us out and with whom to enjoy our community. – Science: for rushing to provide a vaccine in record time to get us out from under this dark cloud. – Modern medicine: for advanced health care. Imagine living in the Middle Ages, when bleeding was the standard treatment for disease and one “cure” for the plague included rubbing onions and chopped-up snakes on boils and it took centuries to figure out the cause and cure. – Modern technology: for a good network connection! – The RoundTable: to keep us current about all things important to (and fun in) Evanston. – The news media in general: to inform, educate and entertain. – Friends: to keep us honest … Continue reading →

When Lilacs Last

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Evanston RoundTable, June 17, 2020 Now we come to the best part of the year, when the nights are crisp and cool and the days sparkle with the tender green promise of renewal and growth. It is the final breath of spring – lilac season. The flowers burst forth from their annual hibernation and glow pale lavender and lift their glorious perfumed incense through the sweet air. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” remembered a spring before the unimaginable death of Lincoln. We remember a spring just a year ago, when our troubles seemed huge but now seem almost pale – the color of lilacs gone dead – in comparison. And yet … has any time been trouble-free? It seemed so to me, in the spring of 1967. I was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois’ “Circle” campus in Chicago, blissfully carefree and purposefully apolitical, intent mostly on meeting girls, going to parties and, given my rotten grades, avoiding the draft. One afternoon I wandered idly into a campus “teach-in.” Activist and author Sidney Lens was speaking out against the war in Vietnam. I walked out two hours later, radicalized by the toll of bombs and body bags. … Continue reading →

Arts Groups Transition to Online Learning

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Evanston RoundTable, June 13, 2020 With remarkable speed and a mostly seamless transition, Evanston arts groups have moved from in-studio to online lessons and classes. Most went dark the second or third week of March but by mid-April were back up and running with Zoom or Instagram connections between teachers and students. Dance Center Evanston shut down classes at its studio at 1934  Dempster St. in mid-March and went online several weeks later. The 26-year-old organization is now offering 64 live online classes as well as 80 pre-recorded classes – from “Tippy Toes” for very young students to Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap and Hip-Hop. About 75% of its 700 regular students joined online classes, said DCE founder and Director Béa Rashid. While it is wonderful that people can resume their dance classes, Ms. Rashid said, it can be a challenge to direct them in their sometimes-confined home spaces, such as a living room or bedroom. Nevertheless, she added, “It’s so gratifying to see their faces and engage with them live. The students are so positive to be able to continue.” Ms. Rashid said DCE is exploring a number of possibilities for the summer, including limited enrollment at the studio. “We … Continue reading →