This is the personal page of former Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. I am now writing a weekly Substack newsletter titled The Picayune Sentinel. Please click here and sign up for delivery every Thursday morning. This page will include some occasional bonus content. And it is currently being rebuilt after losing some materials in a switchover. My public…
BY ERIC ZORN ON MAY 20, 2022 Every week in The Picayune Sentinel I offer up song or tune that is somehow relevant to me at the time — maybe it’s just been on my mind. Here is a list of those tunes with links to the YouTube version and to the associated little item I wrote…
By Eric Zorn on November 23, 2021 I invited dissenting opinions on my November, 2021, speech to the Ethical Humanist Society and here are some excerpts: Ira P. — The views you’ve articulated in your writing about Adam Toledo are reasonable to me and others in our position (as well as many others who experience gun violence and crime…
Last updated 1/26/23 Tuesday night open jam at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music archived tune list. If you have links to better or other good versions of these tunes, or corrections to my Strum Machine chords, I’d like to know them! A TUNES All Young (not yet played) https://youtu.be/8gQhbi3Z6VM Appleknocker — https://youtu.be/moQZNK9Gdn8 Arkansas Pullet — https://youtu.be/jDIDd2MrxSU https://youtu.be/vfRmJTjqUkE Strum Machine: https://strummachine.com/app/songs/iZEQsZpMhEM3eKFRS Benton’s Dream — https://youtu.be/ZWHtfv_3uRw Bill…
By Eric Zorn on June 8, 2022 “In the Greek-speaking world, there is another obscene gesture — the moutza — which takes on the the role of the taboo obscenity. The moutza is performed by pushing an open palm, with fingers stiffly spread, toward the face of the victim. To a non-Greek, it looks similar to an ordinary ‘hand-repel’ gesture saying…
Chicago journalist and historian Cate Plys, 61, pictured above with her husband Ron Garzotto, is one of the newer regular members of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast team. This autobiographical sketch is based on an edited excerpt of an interview I conducted with her in April 2024: I became obsessed with being a reporter in the…
Marj Halperin is the newest regular member of the rotating Mincing Rascals podcast panel. This autobiographical essay is based on an interview I conducted with her in June 2024. My first real media job was at WKAR, Michigan State University’s public radio station. I started as weekend news anchor, expanding to host public affairs and…
Click the box next to each tweet that amuses you — no limit to the number of choices. I’ll note the winner in a follow-up edition of The Picayune Sentinel. Some tweets are lightly edited to improve punctuation, diction or clarity. If you see a plagiarized tweet, let me know via email — ericzorn@gmail.com — and…
Meet the Rascals: Brandon Pope By Eric Zorn on April 13, 2022 TV and print journalist Brandon Pope, 30, is the host of “On The Block,” a local newsmagazine premiering Thursday at 7 p.m. on WCIU-Ch. 26. He entered “The Mincing Rascals” rotation in the spring of 2021. This narrative is an edited version of his…
Jon Hansen, 37, has been in “The Mincing Rascals” podcast rotation since April 2021. He’s the host of “Your Money Matters” on WGN-AM 720 Monday through Thursday, 6-7 p.m., and “Let’s Get Legal” on Saturday afternoons. He is also the host of “It’s All Good,” a Block Club Chicago podcast, the in-arena host for the Chicago…
By Eric Zorn on November 8, 2021 Prepared text of a speech delivered Nov. 7 to the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago I’m going to frame my talk today around a personal story that will sound very familiar to those who have been following the decaying of our society’s capacity for rational discourse. On September…
February 14, 2019 Sure, it’s easy now, with snow on the ground, the ivy in hibernation and opening day nearly six weeks off, to forswear the Cubs. There are no stats and standings to avoid, no game updates to ignore on my phone, no tempting ticket offers from friends to decline. The winter of my…
By Eric Zorn on August 9, 2022 In this post I will summarize the controversy that former Tribune columnist John Kass returns to over and over in an effort to discredit not just the members of the Tribune’s newsroom union but the newspaper itself. I do so because I find it infamous how he is…
Transcript portion posted with permission. Co-hosts Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal are both journalists. Herzog is a lesbian, which may contextualize a few of her asides here. I have made some corrections in the auto-generated transcript posted at the Blocked and Reported site and apologize for any mistransciptions. HERZOG: So our story today is about…
Eric Zorn is a 1980 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he was an arts editor at the Michigan Daily and a creative-writing/English Literature major. He began at the Chicago Tribune as a reporting intern in the summer of 1980. After five years as a feature writer and radio columnist in the Tempo section he moved…
Click the box next to each tweet that amuses you — no limit to the number of choices. I’ll note the winner in a follow-up edition of The Picayune Sentinel. Some tweets are lightly edited to improve punctuation, diction or clarity. If you see a plagiarized tweet, let me know via email — ericzorn@gmail.com — and…
The involved backstory as to the reason “Why Don’t You Introduce Me as Your Darling?” is Today’s Tune begins in the fall of 1974, when Loyal Jones, founding director of the Berea (Ky,) College Appalachian Center spearheaded the school’s first weekend-long Celebration of Traditional Music. My father was then teaching a freshman seminar class at the…
By Eric Zorn on April 25, 2023 From my blog, November 2003: I raised a question after a recentTribune editorial griped about “the wussy nature” of a filibuster then taking place in the U.S. Senate. I quoted the 1982 movie, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in which a character explains that the insult means, “part…
By Eric Zorn on April 26, 2023 full interview I recently again filled in for afternoon host Joan Esposito on WCPT-AM 820 and again invited on as a guest my good friend and neighbor Douglas Fraser. He’s the executive director of Chicago Help Initiative, a not-for-profit that addresses the needs and concerns of those without…
April 24, 2023 From “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens FROM CHAPTER 23I CORROBORATE MR.DICK AND CHOOSE A PROFESSION About mid-day, we set out for the office of Messrs Spenlow and Jorkins, in Doctors’ Commons. My aunt, who had this other general opinion in reference to London, that every man she saw was a pickpocket, gave me her purse…
By Eric Zorn on May 11, 2023 During a recent guest-hosting stint on WCPT-AM 820, I interviewed Mark Guarino, a Chicago-based producer for ABC’s “Good Morning America” and other shows. He also writes for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, Crain’s, the Tribune and other publications. But the focus of the interview…
First Published Jan 3, 2008 I’m turning 50 next week. So I thought I’d take the opportunity here to list 50 things I’ve learned in 50 years — truths gleaned from experience and the words of others that guide, inspire and sometimes haunt me: 1. It’s better to sing off key than not to sing…
I fairly often get these basic questions from subscribers. If you have others, either let me know or consult Substack’s pretty good help pages Q . How do I change my email address for delivery of the Picayune Sentinel? A . Head to your account Settings page: https://substack.com/settings Click on “Edit” in the Email section. Enter your new…
BY ERIC ZORN ON JUNE 28, 2022 John Williams, 62, hosts a daily talk show on WGN-AM 720 and has presided over “The Mincing Rascals” weekly podcast since 2014. This autobiographical sketch is based on edited excerpts of interviews with him in June, 2022. My father was an Air Force intelligence officer so we lived…
Austin Berg, 29, is a regular panelist with me on the Mincing Rascals podcast at WGN-plus. He is the Vice President of Marketing for the Illinois Policy Institute and a contributor to the Economist, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, ABC 7 Chicago and WTTW-Ch. 11. He is also the co-author of “The New Chicago…