Eric Zorn

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…

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…

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…