Musings, observations, and written works from the publisher of Eckhartz Press, the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, co-host of Minutia Men, Minutia Men Celebrity Interview and Free Kicks, and the author of "The Loop Files", "Back in the D.D.R", "EveryCubEver", "The Living Wills", "$everance," "Father Knows Nothing," "The Radio Producer's Handbook," "Records Truly Is My Middle Name", and "Gruen Weiss Vor".
Showing posts with label The Unplanned Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Unplanned Life. Show all posts
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Happy Birthday!
One of the key members of the team that brought you Chili Dog MVP is editor George Castle. George is ironically best known as the author of several excellent Cubs books, but he is also the man who introduced Chili Dog MVPauthors David Fletcher and John Owens to Eckhartz Press. That book is an ode to White Sox great Dick Allen. It's George's birthday this week (May 27). Happy birthday George!
=This week in 2020, Keith Conrad's novel Righteous Might was released. The science fiction thriller about time travel and the attack on Pearl Harbor is still available at Eckhartz Press. In fact, exactly one year later the audio book of Righteous Might was released as well.
=Steve Nicks celebrates a birthday this week (May 26), and she is featured in two Eckhartz Press books. John Landecker hung out with her one night at the Playboy Mansion on State Parkway in Chicago (photo below), and Bill Paige interviewed her for Illinois Entertainer, which is featured in his book of interviews, Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars.
=When Joel Daly passed away in 2020, WGN Radio posted a few of the interviews he did on their airwaves over the years. One of them was with Steve & Johnnie from this week in 2005 (May 26). You can still listen to it here.
=A few key Cubsessions birthdays this week. Cubs announcer Pat Hughes (May 27) rates an entire chapter in the book with his account of what it was like to announce the World Series winning moment. In addition, two Cubs greats made appearances at Cubsessions book signings, Carlos Zambrano (June 1) and Randy Hundley (June 1). Both are shown in photos with Cubsessions co-author Randy Richardson below.
=It's a big week for rock star birthdays for some reason, which means it's a big week for Bobby Skafish's book We Have Company. Three rock stars celebrating birthdays this week get the full chapter treatment in Bobby's book. Crowded House's Neil Finn (May 27), guitarist Gary Brooker (May 29), and Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood (June 1). That's Ronnie on the left, and Skafish in the middle of the photo. Bernard Fowler is on the right.
=Chet Coppock attended every Chicago Bears opening day game for 68 years in a row. Naturally he became acquainted with the great Bears running back Gale Sayers. He writes a whole chapter about him in his book Your Dime My Dance Floor. Gale was born this week in 1943.
RIP. I can’t believe I’m actually writing this on social media. I’ve known Bill for years and he was so kind and gracious to me. He invited me over to his house in the San Diego area , we talked for hours . He loved talking about John Wooden and his days at UCLA. I am so sad pic.twitter.com/2ACf8m5wkK
=Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan obviously deals with Chicago Bulls radio play-by-play man Chuck Swirsky on a regular basis. It wasn't a big surprise that Billy also appeared in Chuck's book Always a Pleasure. It's Billy's birthday this week (May 30)
=This week in 2018 (May 31), the Chicago Writers Association came to us and asked us to publish their literary journal. Little did we know this would just be the beginning. Since then they have asked us to publish three more! Volume 4 just came out recently.
=One of the pioneers in the world of Signature Shoes was New York Jets star quarterback Joe Namath, who is celebrating a birthday this week (May 31). He is featured prominently in Ryan Trembath's book about the celebrity shoe craze.
=Dobie Maxwell's incredible book about a real-life bank robbery has gotten praise from across the spectrum. One of the biggest fans is Toronto radio personality Jerry Agar (May 31 birthday boy). Here's what he said about the book...
“It is a sad fact of the human condition that we are entertained by the misfortune of others. That is why Dobie Maxwell calls himself “Mr. Lucky.” He takes the body blows that life has dealt him and makes them into stories for your amusement. None is better than the story told here of two life-long friends – guys who counted on one another – gone wrong with bank robberies, the FBI, police lineups and all the intrigue of crime story fiction which became all too real for Maxwell. If your best friend’s actions had you in the crosshairs of the FBI, what would you do? Read the story, for Dobie’s answer.”
Jerry Agar/Talk show host/News Talk 1010—CFRB Toronto
=This week in 2021, Rick Kaempfer appeared on John Landecker's show on WGN Radio talking about the update of his book EveryCubEver. He even recites a poem he wrote for the book. Worth a listen. Of course, Rick and John go waaaay back. Here's a photo of the two them doing a live radio show together on WJMK more than thirty years ago.
We now have such a big stable of authors at Eckhartz Press that I'm going to re-introduce you to the talented folks who have written books for us throughout this year. Today, meet the author of the book The Unplanned Life, Roger Badesch...
Roger Badesch
Born in Chicago, Roger Badesch was raised in nearby Evanston, IL by working parents and an extended family that included old-school Chicago precinct workers.
With a degree in broadcasting along with minor studies in government, Badesch added to his training later in life with education courses as he embarked on a 20 year career as a high school teacher.
In between, his unplanned path took him into the inner offices of Chicago city hall, behind the beginning push of the gourmet coffee craze and into the homes of thousands of people as a news anchor at WGN Radio in Chicago.
A cancer survivor, Badesch’s life stories as told on the radio and on his Facebook page, continue to inform and inspire.
On February 1, 2011, Chicago was hit with a horrible snowstorm. Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch was caught in the storm in a way that would forever make him famous. It inspired the cover of his book The Unplanned Life. With another snowstorm of this magnitude on it's way to Chicago tomorrow, we present that portion of his book as a free excerpt.
The great blizzard of 2011 along Chicago’s lakefront was the event that legends are made of. A moment that many WGN Radio listeners can remember where they were when they heard of my exploits trapped in my car on Lake Shore Drive.
This is the true story:
For a couple of days before the event, I knew of the coming storm. There was hope among the staff at the school that school would be let out early. On the day of the blizzard less than 50% of students showed up and nearly all were gone by noon.
CPS did not release the staff early, though some teachers bolted by 1:00 p.m. either knowing their students were all gone or had worked out a deal with other adults in the building to cover their classes and punch out for them.
Being the conscientious teacher that I was, I stayed through the end of school at 2:45 p.m. along with the handful of my students who stayed because 1) they live close to the school and weren’t worried about the storm, or 2) they were too scared of my grading system to not show up and lose their class points for the day.
I kept checking the websites to see where the storm front was and how traffic was moving. When I left my classroom at 2:45 p.m. I had calculated that if all went well I could get home before the bulk of the storm made a mess of things.
Yes, I had heard all of the warnings about staying off the drive. Yes, I knew I was taking a chance. My thinking was that it was my shortest distance to get home as opposed to heading over to the Dan Ryan and trying to make it up to Touhy Avenue on the Edens—a longer drive and more cars to deal with. I also knew that the focus, should things become unmanageable for the city, would be on the main roads including Lake Shore Drive and, should I become stuck there, rescue would be forthcoming.
As it turned out, it didn’t matter if I had gone to the Dan Ryan, stayed on Lake Shore Drive, or taken Western Avenue or some other main north-south route. Traffic was screwed up all over.
As I was walking towards the main office to clock out, Jerral Stringer, one of my colleagues, was leaving his classroom and asked if I could give him a ride home. I’d often given him a lift as he lives on my way.
I headed out to Jeffrey Avenue and drove north to where it merges into Lake Shore Drive. The flow of traffic wasn’t bad and the roads were still easily passable. We quickly made our way up to Roosevelt Road and got stopped by the traffic light.
By now, traffic on the Drive had increased as more and more people had gotten out of work early and were trying to get home. While the city had issued warnings during the day, there was no city presence on the Drive—no plows, no police, no tow trucks, no nothing.
At Roosevelt, I contemplated for a minute pulling onto Roosevelt and trying to head west to the Dan Ryan, hearing on the radio that there was less precipitation there than there was along the lakefront. But then I heard that traffic on the Ryan and Edens was just as crowded as it was on the Drive, so I stayed on the Drive when the light turned green.
I moved smoothly between lanes and cars, trying to anticipate drivers who would cause traffic to stop and get stuck. I made it past the stalled CTA bus near Fullerton, weaving through the lanes, picking my spots, and my speed was at least 30 miles an hour.
I’d heard that traffic was starting to build because of a jackknifed CTA articulated bus on the exit ramp at Belmont and kept my eyes open hoping we could get through. As we passed Fullerton and continued toward Belmont, the intensity of the storm increased at least 20-fold. It was no longer just heavy snow, it was now windblown snow and ice off the lake, which was a mere 200 or so feet along my right side as I continued northbound.
I could barely see ahead but was anticipating that traffic would be stalled along the right lane of the Drive waiting to get off at Belmont. And I was right. I kept moving to the left inner lane, still moving along at a decent 15 miles an hour or so.
I was right about the traffic in the right lane. What I didn’t anticipate were drivers who had waited until the last second to move left to get around the stalls and then getting stuck themselves behind the car on their right who was stalled. This effect turned into what I’ve described in the past as a ‘snake’ winding its way from the right lane to the inner left lane.
As I approached, I saw what I thought was a space wide enough to get through along the inner left lane, using the extra couple of feet between the lane marker and the island divider as my last resort. But I had to slow to a crawl to make sure I didn’t clip the car that had stalled to my right.
I truly believed then and still do today that had I not been forced to slow down like that, I could have made it through the space on the left, moved over to the right, and made it through that Belmont curve of the drive and gotten past the worst of the storm.
It was right there at the curve that the winds were the strongest coming from the north-northeast off the lake—50-mile-per-hour winds pulling moisture from the lake and slamming ice bullets into the cars, combining with the snow falling at a record rate.
But it wasn’t to be. Jerral and I sat there in the car, heater warming us, phone charging on the cable plugged into the cigarette lighter outlet. Not moving. We could hear the wind. We could hear the crackling of the ice bullets hitting the car.
I was quietly angry at myself for having gotten that far in a tremendous feat of driving and getting stuck at the last second. At first, we were content with just sitting there and waiting things out. I had at least a half tank of gas and knew that the mayor would not let a repeat of the blizzard of 1979 happened again.
I was wrong. The clearing of Lake Shore Drive after the sun went down was a disaster by the city. I remember looking at the nearly clear southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive as a phalanx of city snow plows came roaring past us headed the wrong way.
Sometime later, Chicago police officers on snowmobiles rode through asking if everyone was alright and to just hang in there. A short time after that, a CTA bus came in the southbound lanes and picked up people who didn’t want to stay in their cars. At this time I thought we were still okay and would eventually be plowed out and make our way home.
As the evening went on and I was listening to WGN Radio, I was also checking my emails on my phone and noticed one from a producer at WGN TV asking if anyone knew anyone who was stuck on the drive. For some reason, after getting stuck, I had not thought of filing any stories—only of trying to get home.
I decided to respond and the producer asked me to call in, which I did. I then decided, like a true journalist (or a completely brain-dead driver), to do a “scene setter” report for WGN Radio.
I stepped out of the car (now knee-deep in snow, with my too-thin winter jacket on and no boots on my shoes), and called the newsroom and filed a report. My jacket was coated in ice. My feet starting to freeze up. It wouldn’t be the last time I stepped out of the safety of the car to file reports for the station that night before my phone battery died.
Sometime after that, we noticed a handful of people walk past us towards Belmont—either bus passengers or car drivers or both. And not long after they passed us, we saw them walking back—the snow too deep to get through.
We also saw a group of men who either came from the Belmont area or from other cars who walked up to the line of cars in front of ours and started to help push those cars out of the drifts and helping them get back on the road north.
I could see enough ahead of us to see the outline of an articulated earth-mover for a few minutes and then watching it disappear, not to be seen again for at least 20 minutes. It appeared and disappeared in this pattern most of the night, working its way ever-so-slowly towards my car.
But the group of men made it to my car before the plow did. And they did their best to help me out. Most of the cars in front of us in the inner lane had now moved out. The cars to our right snaking across the drive had not. And the cars and buses had continued to pile up behind us.
The men tried to clear out around my car and then tried to push me back and forth, as I shifted between drive and reverse. The problem was that my left rear tire kept sliding back against the wall and I wasn’t getting enough traction to move forward. If one of them could have gotten back there to help the rear of the car from moving further into the packed snow I could have gotten out of there.
The constant shifting of gears put an undue strain on the car, and it just burned out. And the guys trying to help moved on to other cars.
I’ve always been asked why we didn’t get out of the car and walk over to Sheridan and Belmont. Good question. Neither I nor Jerral were dressed for the weather outside. Though we could see Sheridan Road far to our left, there was a huge park between us and Sheridan piled high with more than three feet of snow in some spots.
During this entire time I filed reports with TV and radio. I was on live with Steve and Johnnie on WGN Radio overnight trying to keep people up to date on what was happening, though nothing was happening. And then, unintentionally, I threw a scare into everyone.
When the car died, I couldn’t keep my phone charged. It was an old phone anyway and the battery didn’t hold power for long. I can’t remember if I had reported that the phone was dying out, but I heard later from many at the station and on Facebook that they thought I’d perished since they hadn’t heard from me for hours.
There was a knocking on the passenger side window not long after the car died. Jerral opened it up and a guy said something to the effect of “You’re Roger on WGN. If you want to get warm, come on back to our car.”
We decided to take him up on his offer. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask which car was his before he left us and went back to his car. We got out of our car and trudged a few feet before realizing we didn’t know which car the guy was in. We headed back to my frozen car, got inside, now wet and sweating and frozen and shaking.
We’d been sitting, wet, inside the frozen car for way too long, out of food and warmth. It was just after 4:00 a.m. Suddenly, along the southbound lanes, a CTA bus shows up. A police officer gets out and walks through the road divider towards our car and the others behind us. He tells us we need to abandon the car and get on the bus and we will be taken to a hospital.
Jerral gets out of his side and quickly moves to the waiting bus while I grab my computer/school bag from the rear seat, though the officer tells me to leave everything in the car. I’m glad I didn’t listen to him.
We struggled through the snow and over the road divider and made our way into the bus. It was as cold inside the bus as it was outside. There was no heat. We continued to pick up people. Many had no coats, gloves, or boots. The bus gets filled up and starts heading towards Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital on Wellington.
I’m at the back of the bus, standing so others can sit, and two things happen—one very embarrassing. Mother Nature called again while I was on the bus—big time. I tried desperately to wait until I got to the hospital, but the pain was too much to bear.
I took out the empty drink container from my lunch bag and unscrewed the top. Under the cover of my winter jacket I aligned myself and met the call, so to speak. I covered the container and put it back in the lunch bag shortly before we arrived at the hospital.
Since the bus wasn’t heated, my wet feet inside my wet socks inside my wet shoes started to get colder and colder from standing on the cold floor of the cold bus. As we walked from the bus to the hospital, I found a bathroom in the hallway – as did many others. I poured out the contents of the container into a urinal and threw out the container.
We walked past tables in the cafeteria where they were taking our information and asking if we needed any medical assistance. The hospital had opened and stocked the cafeteria with lots of hot food, all free. There were ample amounts of coffee, hot chocolate, water, and other drinks. There were extra phones installed so people could call families and friends. There were extra computer stations installed. The hospital really went all out to take care of us, as several busloads had made their way there.
At the registration table, the second thing happened. I walked up to one of the hospital aides standing near the table and asked, “What does frostbite feel like? I don’t think I can feel my feet.”
The aide immediately got me in a wheelchair and rushed me to the emergency room. I remember wondering where Jerral was and concerned that I didn’t have time to let him know I was not going to be in the lunchroom with him.
In the emergency room, a nurse prepared a tray of lukewarm water, and I soaked my feet in it. While talking to the nurse, I found out her mother taught English and journalism at CVCA. Of course I knew her mother, and the nurse and I started talking up a storm. While we were talking, in walks Jerral.
After a while my feet started to gain some feeling. I don’t remember the exact time, but it was about 5:00 a.m. when I asked if I could use a phone to call the radio station. As I was being interviewed, I remember noticing some of the faces of the staff who suddenly realized I worked for a radio station.
While Jerral had bid goodbye and made his way home on the now-running CTA Red Line, I was scared. I didn’t want to get caught out in the cold again. I noticed a taxi or two leaving the hospital so I called for a cab—and waited for more than four hours before realizing one wasn’t coming.
It was now almost 11:00 a.m. I hadn’t been home for about 28 hours. The free food in the cafeteria was gone. The computers were shut down. I screwed up my courage and stopped feeling sorry for myself and headed across the street to the red line station. The sun was out now and I stood on the station platform facing west, the sun flooding over my face as I closed my eyes.
My clothes had dried out while at the hospital so I wasn’t worried about freezing again, though my toes were still tingling. Finally, a train came by and I got on board and headed to the Western Avenue stop on the Ravenswood. I got onto a Western Avenue bus headed north. Western had been plowed and traffic was moving, though light in volume.
The bus got to my stop about 1:30 p.m. and I was faced with dozens of my neighbors shoveling out the street and their cars covered in at least two feet of snow. I walked the block from the bus stop to where we lived and greeted Bridget and our dog, Rufus, with big hugs. A refreshing double espresso and something to eat preceded a long nap.
There was no school for a couple days as people tried to dig out from the storm and find their lost cars. Cars left on the Drive and other roadways during the storm had been cataloged and towed to several lakefront parking lots.
Our son came over and we used Bridget’s car to drive to the lots looking for my car. Not only did we check with the lot attendant and their computerized list, but we walked around the lots and checked on the city’s website for my car. There was no listing. It had disappeared.
I called into the station for a couple more interviews that day and night mentioning that the car was lost. The next morning I got a mysterious phone call—“Your car is at the corner of Halsted and Wolfram” CLICK!
I remember Steve and Johnnie telling me that someone from Streets and Sanitation department had contacted them the night I was stuck on the Drive asking where I was located. So maybe that’s who called me. Our then-son-in-law and I drove to the location and there was my car. The car had no snow on it, leading me to think that it got towed to an inside facility as opposed to one of the outside lots..
I got in the car, put the key in the ignition, turned it, and after a couple of seconds, it started up!! Amazing!! But my smile turned to a frown about three minutes later when the engine slowly sputtered and stopped. It wouldn’t start up again. And as we opened the hood, we saw why. The entire engine was frozen in a block of ice from top to bottom, left to right, front to back.
We called a service station near where we lived, Bee Zee, and they sent out a tow truck to pick us up. Our then-son-in-law drove back home while I rode with the truck driver back to the auto shop. The workers were amazed at what happened and took pictures of the frozen engine. Then they put the car on a rack and raised it as high as it could go to face a large heating unit hanging from the ceiling.
That’s where the car stayed while the ice melted away from the engine. I got a ride home, and the next day, the repair shop called to say the car was ready and in good working condition. They had to replace some parts but it was none the worse for the wear.
Three days after frostbite, a missing car, and a frozen engine, I was back on the road and working my regular shift at the radio station. What an experience.
*On this day in 2013, the Eckhartz Press book Records Truly Is My Middle Name was named a finalist fo Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year. It was the first finalist for us (Eckhartz Press) and me (I co-authored the book with John). The photo above was taken at one of live remotes in the 90s.
*On this day in 2017, the rave reviews were coming in for Mitch Michaels' book Doin the Cruise. Here's an example...
Sep 20, 2017 Bob rated it it was amazing A must-read for fans of radio and rock & roll music. Radio legend Mitch Michaels takes you behind the scenes of some of Chicago's most popular radio stations that were part of his remarkable career. An honest, in-depth, revealing look at the radio stations, DJ's, management, and rock stars that created the soundtrack to our lives. The memoir is very enlightening, and at times extremely funny, but also with moments that are heartbreaking. Mitch Michaels along with Ken Churilla have perhaps written the best book to date that captures the life of one of Chicago's most beloved radio personalities. A great read from start to finish.
*On this day in 2017, Tom Weinberg also held his book launch party for the book Chasing the Lost City. Here's a photo from that party at the Billy Goat on lower Michigan.
*On this day in 1994, the show Austin City Limits debuted in Austin, Texas. It is now a nationally syndicated program. The man behind that program just happens to be a big fan of Roger Badesch's Eckhartz Press book The Unplanned Life. Here's what he said about it...
“Roger and I go back over 50 years to when he was a high school student and I was the TV Director for Evanston Township High School. Then again when I was TV Producer-Director for Southern Illinois University and Roger was an enthusiastic RTV Major. He worked on several of my shows including one with Billy Joel and one with the rock band Brownsville Station. I went on to co-create and direct PBS’ Austin City Limits, and Roger went on to become an anchor for WGN Radio News. His story is bound to be a good one!”
*Happy birthday to Eckhartz Press author Ryan Trembath. His book Signature Shoes is still available at Eckhartz Press.
*On this day in 1979, Pope John Paul II came to Chicago for the first and only time in his Papacy. The city with the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw came out in force. Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch was there reporting on the visit, and tells what that was like in his book The Unplanned Life.
*On this day in 2014 we released I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie by Lori Oster (photo). The book is used as a textbook at Oakton College.
*Dick Biondi is 90 years old today. The Wild Itralian is featured in the pages of Bob Shannon's book Turn it Up.
*Today is also Chicago Tribune columnist/WGN Radio host Rick Kogan's birthday. Rick has been kind enough to blurb a few of our books. Here are a few of his obversations...
Rollicking and real on so many levels, The Living Wills is a captivating collaboration by two immensely talented writers. I hope this team keeps at it for keeps.
You may think you know Roger Badesch if you have listened over the years to his exact and artful news reports on radio, but between the covers of this book (The Unplanned Life) you will find so much more–a man of great depth, many passions and skills. His is a wonderful life that you can now share.
A fascinating book…a fascinating read. Mob Adjacent will open your eyes. The stories are true and genuine and heartfelt, and there’s a real honesty in this book.
*Born on this day in 1919, future Alabama Governor George Wallace. Joel Daly interviewed him back in the day, and wrote about him in his Eckhartz Press book The Daly News.
*On this day in 2019, I appeared on Rick Kogan's show on WGN Radio, along with future Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch. We talked about my book EveryCubEver and Roger's upcoming book The Unplanned Life.
*The most famous radio stunt in Chicago history happened on this day in 1979--Disco Demolition. Eckhartz Press author Mitch Michaels was there and tells the whole story in his book Doin' the Cruise.
*On this day in 2001, Eckhartz Press author Joel Daly (The Daly News) appeared on WGN Radio with Steve & Johnnie. You can listen to that interview here.
*Today is Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch's birthday. Of course Roger wrote the memorable memoir The Unplanned Life for us. It's still available at Eckhartz Press.
*On this day in 2021, Eckhartz Press author Paul Banks appeared on WGN Radio to discuss his book Transatlantic Passage with fellow Eckhartz Press author John Records Landecker.
*On this day in 2019, I appeared on Garry Meier's show on WLS Radio to talk about my book EveryCubEver. It was my first time ever on a radio show with Garry since we worked together on the Steve & Garry show in the late 80s/early 90s.
Former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne was born on this day in 1933. Jane was a larger than life figure in Chicago and is featured in two Eckhartz Press books.
*Roger Badesch actually worked for her press office, and talked about his experiences with her in his book The Unplanned Life.
*John Landecker wrote two songs about her in his career. The story of one of those songs is an incredible tale involving the Jefferson Starship. That story is here, complete with the song itself.
*Today is Stevie Wonder's birthday. Stevie is prominently featured in John Landecker's book Records Truly Is My Middle Name. John was with Stevie (at WILV-Lansing) the moment they heard about Martin Luther King's assassination. (Photo: John in the WILV studio/1968)
*On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot. Roger Badesch was on the radio at the time, and shares that story in the pages of his book The Unplanned Life.
*May 13 is also Cubs catcher Willson Contreras' birthday. Cubsessions author Randy Richardson and I were lucky enough to meet Willson and give him a copy of Randy's book..
*Today is legendary radio personality Charlie Tuna's birthday. He is featured in the Eckhartz Press book Turn it Up by Bob Shannon.
*On this day in 2019, we lost Eckhartz Press author and Chicago broadcasting legend Chet Coppock. I made the rounds discussing Chet and his impact on this town, including this interview on WGN Radio with Bill and Wendy.
*On this day in 2013, Eckhartz Press author Brendan Sullivan (The Living Wills) appeared at Marist High School, which had just introduced the book into their literature curriculum. See more about that here.
*Today would have been Chicago mayor Harold Washington's birthday. Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch worked with the Mayor and wrote about those experiences in his book The Unplanned Life.
*On this day in 2016, three Eckhartz Press authors appeared on stage at the Chicago Cultural Center in a SAG/AFTRA performance. They performed an old-time radio program...The Lone Ranger! John Landecker (as the narrator), WGN's Roger Badesch (as Tonto), and Joel Daly (as the yodeling cowboy).
*Today is CBS Sports icon James Brown's birthday. He is a big fan of the Eckhartz Press book Behind the Glass by Randy Merkin. Here's what he said about the book...
“While we cherish champions in the world of sports, we cheer louder for champions in the game of life. Character, integrity and honesty matter. That sums up Randy Merkin.”
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