CHICAGO — One week before our big runoff election, all eyes are on Chicago's mayoral race. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are either buckling down for the fight, or opting out — and planning to skip town with the holiday weekend and Spring Break on the horizon.
Whether your week will be spent perusing the polls or packing for warmer weather, DNAinfo Chicago's staff can relate. Here are some interesting reads that caught our attention Monday.
All Eyes on Chicago: With Election Day one week from tomorrow, two national publications published in-depth looks at the mayoral election. National Journal paints Chicago as a "Broken City" struggling under the weight of billions of pension debt and divided in two by income inequality. The New York Times takes a look at the role Mayor Rahm Emanuel's personality has played in the campaign and his tenure at City Hall.
Emanuel is "trying to smooth his more serrated edges," the article finds. Reporter Heather Cherone's favorite quote from the Times piece comes from Bill Daley, the brother and son of former mayors who replaced Emanuel as President Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff. When asked why Emanuel couldn't avoid a runoff against Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Daley said: “I think it’s a lot his personality. It is an acquired taste.”
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The Eyes Have It: If you're one of the gazillion people flying this week for Easter/Spring Break, you might want to take some cough drops to the airport (and keep your eyes to yourself). Senior Editor Andrew Herrmann notes this Christian Science Monitor story about a 92-point checklist the TSA allegedly uses to spot people who may cause trouble.
The list includes excessive throat clearing and "widely open staring eyes" as well as body odor, exaggerated yawning, excessive grooming and gestures, a pale face that might indicate a recent beard shaving, rubbing or wringing of hands, and "an obvious Adam’s Apple jump when asked to go through screening procedures.” University of Chicago behavior scientist Nicholas Epley is skeptical.
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George Washington Would Have Banned Twitter: Public shaming was outlawed in America in the 18th century as too cruel — no more airborn rotten vegetables arcing towards the victim locked in the stocks. Author Jon Ronson's new book, "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," explains how the democratic dialogue of the Internet has opened up conversations to all, but also ushered in a new age of mob rule where people can be destroyed by a crushing wave of public shaming for an inadvertently inappropriate comment. Reporter Sam Cholke is reading the Esquire review of Ronson's book and thinking about the message about how to survive on social media by striving for blandness.
How to Drink Like Draper, Or Zaphod Beeblebrox: Cocktail parties are a lost art. While this Huffington Post article makes a fine argument for their revival — cheaper than bars, lets you show off your fancy glassware — it's missing one crucial bit of info. Cocktail recipes.
Fear not, mixology-challenged. Reporter Patty Wetli also happened across this nifty graphic, courtesy of Pop Chart Lab, which offers up instructions on how to blend the drinks favored by characters from television, film and literature. Don Draper's Old Fashioned and Carrie Bradshaw's Cosmopolitan are listed alongside the more obscure Smoking Bishop quaffed by Ebenezer Scrooge and the truly out-of-this-world Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster referenced in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Pop Chart Lab
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