CHICAGO — Happy Monday! Here's what we're reading to mentally prepare ourselves for the week ahead.
These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For: Reporter Patty Wetli wonders whether George Lucas worked some sort of Jedi mind trick on J.J. Abrams. That's gotta be the only explanation for this head-scratcher of a quote from "The Force Awakens" director in Vanity Fair's cover story on the "Star Wars" reboot: "I know that there are many people who love and in some cases even prefer the prequels." No, J.J., there aren't, unless by "many" you mean Jar Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen's accountant.
Breadsticks on Breadsticks on Breadsticks: While munching on unlimited salad and breadsticks at your neighborhood Olive Garden, you can also order a BREADSTICK SANDWICH. The Orlando Sentinel reported Monday that the chain will now offer meatball and chicken parm sandwiches made on a wider version of their beloved, buttery breadsticks. We're into it. Don't judge us! You know you'd be all up in this:
Do People Really Call Chicago "Little Michigan"?: Reporter and Michigan native Tanveer Ali moved to Chicago in 2009 and hasn't looked back. And it looks like thousands of others from The Mitten haven't either. A Monday Detroit Free Press story explores how Michiganders have made neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wrigleyville and Lincoln Square home. Written as a sort of travel piece about Chicago, the story's list of things to do in Chicago is pretty basic. But it does hit a few things about Chicago on the head: the numerous Michigan and Michigan State bars between Lakeview and Downtown are pretty noticeable.
Wait! Wait! Don't ... Leave! No surprise here for senior editor Andrew Herrmann: Those pledge breaks on National Public Radio do more than just annoy listeners — they "drive away something like a third of the audience," the general manager of an NPR station in Washington tells CBS Moneywatch. One solution, says Ira Glass, host of the Chicago-based "This American Life," is to "embrace capitalism." That means increasing corporate underwriting, sometimes in the form of ads, particularly for podcasts. "My hope is that the more money we raise this way, the less we have to beg our own listeners for donations," says Glass. But even with listener growth in podcasts and online, public radio stations find getting corporate underwriting to be tough because advertisers "have less freedom in what they say on public radio than on commercial media," says J.J. Yore of Washington public radio station WAMU.
Ira Glass of This American Life. [NPR]
