CHICAGO — Happy Friday, Chicago. Here are some stories we're reading before we hit the bars.
The Price of Being a Wedding Guest: Planning a wedding is expensive - but so is attending one. Marketwatch reports that the cost of attending a wedding is way up. The average guest now spends $673 per year on weddings. Members of a wedding party spend even more: an average of $701. Also, family members or close friends are sometimes willing to go into debt to get to your destination wedding. So maybe instead of hitting the Pinterest boards too hard, think of ways to make your wedding less painful for your loved ones.
You both look great but I'm poor now. Shutterstock
London Shows Up the CTA: One of reporter Patty Wetli's fondest transit hopes is a rail connector between the CTA's Brown and Blue Lines. If that seems like a pipe dream — it would cost too much, displace too many existing homes and businesses — consider the city of London, which is in the midst of constructing a $23 billion, 73-mile east-west underground commuter line. And they're digging through hundreds of years of history to do it. Thousands of bodies have turned up, as crews excavate graveyards that date back to the 1500s. At bedrock, the New Yorker reports, is evidence of an early Roman road. If the British can find a way, is the CTA Gray Line (pretty much the only color left) really so impossible?
High School Newspaper's Hef-ty benefactor: Reporter Ariel Cheung is all about the journalism, natch. Who doesn't love reminiscing on their storied times at the student paper? But with school districts endlessly trimming budget numbers, printing a student paper is becoming more rare among high schools and even universities. That's why Chicago Tribune's story about a celebrity benefactor of Steinmetz College Prep's student paper was a happy way to kick off the weekend.
Double Play: Fritz Peterson gained some attention as a high school pitcher in Arlington Heights, where he was all-conference as a senior, and as a star at NIU. But he made far bigger headlines later in the 1970s as a New York Yankee when he "swapped lives" (wives, kids and houses) with teammate Mike Kekich.
That "trade" is back in the news, says senior editor Andrew Herrmann. The New York Post reports that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are making a movie about the incident. Kekich, who didn't stay with Peterson's ex-wife, is said to be "freaked" about the flick. Meanwhile, Peterson — who is still with Kekich's ex-wife and, for a time, reportedly worked on a Chicago area casino boat — says he's a consultant on the film. Peterson told the Palm Beach Post, "It's a love story. It wasn't anything dirty."
Some Students Not Cool With Rauner: The Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, reports that some students and profs there are objecting to Gov. Bruce Rauner's scheduled appearance as a graduation speaker. Noting Rauner is proposing cuts to higher education, student Emily Neal tells the DE: "How can anyone be expected to celebrate progress when our keynote speaker is only someone who intends to set us back?" A university spokesperson said that bringing the governor to SIU might help show him "what goes on here" and build a "positive relationship."
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