🤭 Ald. Taylor helped Ben Javorsky go viral

JT's tough love message for Mayor Johnson. [READER]( The Daily Reader December 5, 2023 Got a text from a millennial early Saturday morning with big news. I was trending on X (you know—Twitter), just like Taylor Swift! Immediately, I hopped out of bed and burst into my favorite song from West Side Story. C’mon, everybody! “I feel pretty / Oh so pretty / I feel pretty and witty and bright . . .” Actually, I wasn’t really trending—at least not by Taylor Swift standards. It was more like people were sharing links to [an interview]( I conducted last week with Alderperson Jeanette Taylor. So I wasn’t even the star of the trend—just the vessel carrying JT’s tough love message for Mayor Johnson, which was...get your act together. Especially in matters related to sheltering migrants and building better relations between Blacks and Latinos. It’s a message many lefties have been privately sharing for a while, though not out loud. I mentioned this to a wise millennial and his response went something like this . . . “Ben, it’s one thing for your wife to tell you that you could lose a few pounds. It’s another thing for her to say that on a podcast.” Not that I need to lose a few pounds. It’s just a hypothetical, people! My interview with Alderperson Taylor has sort of gone viral in part thanks to an odd coalition of Paul Vallas flunkies, Lori Lightfoot lovers, and Craig Wall, a reporter for ABC 7 Chicago, who ran [a story about it](. Vallas flunkies spread the link because they hate Mayor Johnson almost as much as they love Donald Trump. Lori lovers spread it because anything that makes Johnson look bad somehow makes Mayor Lightfoot look better. As they see it. Craig Wall liked it because it was a juicy story on a slow news day. Thank you for doing that story, Craig, even though...my name was initially spelled wrong in it. As more than a few of my friends rather gleefully teased me about. And while we’re on this subject. I know quite a bit about misspelling names—from both sides of the equation. You’d think a guy whose name’s constantly been butchered would be really good at spelling other names. Alas. It’s the “easy” names I take for granted that trip me up. Like D Wade. He was near the end of his glorious basketball career before I realized it’s Dwyane and not Dwayne (as I had been spelling it because I just assumed it was spelled that way). Like I assumed Redd Foxx was Red, and Barbra Streisand was Barbara and—oh, you get the idea. With my name, I think most misspellings are based on a mispronunciation. I could write a book on mispronunciations, going back to the first day of first grade when an attendance-taking teacher making her way through the Js, said: “James, Jones, Jor...” And here she stopped. Apparently, her brain, seeing those final letters (avsky) started sending out May Day signals. Over the years, I’ve been called everything from Jaworski to Jarewski to Jeratowski. To this day, former Alderperson Sue Sadlowski Garza calls me Javorsky. I’m not complaining. My official position is that spelling or pronouncing my name is like playing horseshoes: close enough counts. Thanks again for the shout-out, Craig. And thanks for correcting the spelling. No harm, no foul—as Dwyane (not Dwayne) Wade might say. Finally, I urge everyone to listen to what Alderperson Taylor [has to say](. If you don’t like it, send your complaints to Ben Javorsky. Good luck tracking him down. 🎙Listen to [The Ben Joravsky Show]( 🎙 [What Ben's Reading] [Daddy Was a Number Runner]( by Louise Meriwether. A great coming-of-age novel about a 13-year-old girl in Harlem during the Depression. Funny, sad, and wise. [Kerry Reid]( on Almanya Narula and her one-woman show about the World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan. [Ben Joravsky]( (from 1988) on roots at the Newberry Library. [Best of the Ben J. Show]( Writer and Roosevelt University associate professor [David Faris]( on Kissinger and Santos. High school English teacher and sports coach [Mueze Bawany’s]( advice to the Bears and the Bulls. Political strategist [Joanna Klonsky’s]( tribute to activist and public relations executive Marilyn Katz. [Remembering Marc Silvia, Debra Rodkin, and Ernest Perry Jr.]( The three actors were all important and beloved players in Chicago theater. by [Kerry Reid]( | [Read here]( → [Paramount’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adds a touch of bitter to the sweet]( Pure imagination mixes with deception in a smart twist on Roald Dahl’s tale. by [Kerry Reid]( | [Read here]( → [Public and private politics in Vietnamese art]( “A Village Before Us” offers counternarratives on the Vietnam War. by [Wendy Wei]( | [Read here]( → [Balikbayan Worldwide takes Filipino dance music global]( David Beltran of Feeltrip launches a new label to help boost grassroots southeast Asian street culture onto the same stage as American and European exports. by [Micco Caporale]( | [Read here]( → Reader December Giveaway! Fill out the form for a chance to win a Reader Box Hoodie (Small) & a Free 12-Month Print Subscription! One winner will be chosen on January 3rd, 2024. Entries accepted until 11:59 PM December 31, 2023. 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