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It’s time once again to dive into another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:
Crime, what crime?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently appeared on a national television program to ridicule the idea that Chicago has a crime problem.
Wearing a bullet-proof vest in the skit, Pritzker said he intended to “mock” President Trump’s criticisms about unlawful behavior in the Windy City.
Considering crime rates in Chicago, that’s touchy territory on which to tread.
So it’s no surprise that Republican gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski chastised Pritzker for provoking laughs about something that’s not all that funny.
Dabrowski put out an ad that interspersed Pritzker’s jokes about the city’s non-crime problem with videos from ugly crime scenes.
The ad said that, “as (Pritzker) jokes about crime and violence, Chicagoans are being killed, violated and traumatized. Check out the contrast between his (Jimmy) Kimmel skit and the reality for Chicagoans on the ground. 2026 is a change election. Vote @tedforillinois.”
Reporting the controversy on his CapitolFax website, political analyst Rich Miller chided Pritzker’s comedic stance.
“I’ve always said that politicians should leave the comedy to comedians. This advice comes from watching decades of ‘jokes’ backfire badly on some of them. I’ve also made it clear that I really don’t like this whole idea of responding to criticism of Chicago crime by going downtown and posting pretty pictures and videos. Yes, it’s a gorgeous city. A great city. But Chicago has problems that can’t be whitewashed with how spectacular downtown is,” Miller wrote.
Bird is not the word
Here’s a story that will provoke spasms of uncontrollable anger:
Oxford University Press has chosen “rage bait” — defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive” — as its 2025 Word of the Year.
The New York Times reports that “rage bait” triumphed over “biohack” and “aura farming.” Once used “to describe a particular kind of driver reaction to being flashed by another driver seeking to pass,” it’s now a “common slang term for an attention-seeking form of online behavior.”
Oxford’s annual word of the year is a product of careful research that seeks to “identify new or emerging words and cultural significance, backed by data.”
Sounds complicated, but it boils down to this — trendy lingo.
Past words of the year include “selfie,” “post-truth” and “toxic.”
“Rizz” is, reportedly, a “zingy” version of charisma. But all this inanity could give readers “brain rot,” the 2024 new word.
The Times reports that, “according to Oxford’s data,” the choice was based on “frequency of use spiked by a factor of three” that “lands with blunt force.”
All of this raises the question — what’s readers’ “rage bait”? Which statements do they see online that drive them wild with stroke-inducing dyspepsia?
Here are few to consider:
“The new 1,000-page Mark Twain biography by Ron Chernow is too short.”
“University of Michigan football fans are NOT moral reprobates.”
“Cats are better pets than dogs.”
Dupes of DuPage County
The DuPage County Board Democrats continued to escalate their political war against Democratic county clerk Jean Kaczmarek by passing a resolution of censure against her.
This was the latest assault on Kaczmarek by board members who’ve refused to pay her office’s bills, engaged with her in litigation over the county’s spending policies and encouraged the state’s attorney to launch a criminal investigation of her.
As has been her habit, Kaczmarek dismissed the board’s action as a “meaningless political stunt” that serves as a “distraction from the county board’s shameless under-funding of elections.”
Board Democrats are doing more than censuring and suing Kaczmarek, they’re trying to beat her with another candidate in the March Democratic primary election. Lord knows what they will do next if Kaczmarek prevails in the primary.
Board Democrats have charged that Kaczmarek won’t meet with them to discuss issues involving budgets, bills and contracts. But Kaczmarek’s chief aide said board members are not “looking to have a discussion” with her but instead “to dictate” to an independent elected official.
The claws are definitely out. Board Chairwoman Deb Conroy said that even though she had the “luxury” of not voting on the censure motion, “I want it to be known that if I did, my vote would be yes.”
The censure motion has no effect other than to express its dismay with its target. Think of it as the political version of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s famed expressionist work “The Scream.”
Careful reader
Kudos to careful reader Trent Shepard of Urbana for his devotion to Illinois history.
Your now-even-more-humble scribe recently wrote a column about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s effort to win a third term as governor, which would equal a previous third-term record set by the late Gov. James Thompson.
Should have said three “consecutive” terms.
Shepard said he checked out that claim “when I read your article about Pritzker running for third term.”
He said he had a friend “with the middle name of Oglesby who was descended from post-Civil War Gov. Richard Oglesby, so I was aware of him.”
“I read his biography. He was elected to three terms as Illinois governor. And his terms were non-consecutive, which is also a bit different. Big Jim Thompson was not the only one elected three times,” Shepard said.
To fill out the record, history notes that “Richard James Oglesby was a statesman and three-time governor of Illinois who also served as a Union General during the Civil War. He is best known for his successful branding of candidate Abraham Lincoln as the ‘rail-splitter’ in the pivotal presidential campaign of 1860.”
Oglesby was elected governor in 1864, returned to his law practice in 1869, but was once again elected governor in 1872. Shortly after taking office in 1873, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, in which he served until 1879. He served a then-unprecedented third term as governor from 1885 to 1889. The city of Oglesby is named for him.
Decatur, where Oglesby lived for a time, maintains an Oglesby Mansion for public viewing at 421 W. William St. The University of Illinois’ Oglesby Hall is named after him.
Recruiting fever, don’t catch it
Football fans who know too little got too excited over last week’s recruiting rankings for major college football teams.
Local fans were aglow over ESPN casting Fighting Illini recruits as the nation’s 23rd best class.
Hallelujah, and sing to Jesus! An undefeated, national championship season must be dead ahead. Well, maybe. But 247 Sports ranked the Illini class No. 45.
So how good are the incoming Illini? Here’s an answer everyone will hate — fans won’t know for a couple of years.
Still, it’s fun to fantasize about the latest saviors and contemplate how they will boost fans’ self-worth when they demolish the opposition on the gridiron.
Here are the top 10 classes as reported by ESPN:
No. 1, USC. No. 2, Georgia. No. 3, Texas. No. 4, Notre Dame. No. 5, Oregon. No. 6, Texas A&M. No. 7, Ohio State. No. 8, Alabama. No. 9, Miami. No. 10, Michigan.
They represent traditional college football royalty, and four of them (USC, Oregon, Ohio State and Michigan) are UI rivals in the Big 18. … er, Big 10.
Boundless glory
That’s what fans, coaches and players contemplate as fruits of their gridiron labor. And some dreams really do come true.
Take Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti, the icon who resurrected a dormant Hoosiers program.
He’s awash in plaudits, praise and cash. But all that is minor compared to his latest honor.
The Curt Cignetti bobblehead was the best-selling subject this year produced by the Milwaukee-based National Bobblehead Hall of Fame Museum.
He’s even more popular than the Pope Leo XIV bobblehead, and appropriately so. Leo may lead the Catholic Church, but Cignetti is head coach of a once-losing college football program that has risen, indeed, under his deific leadership.
There are two Cignetti bobbleheads, one speaking and the other featuring him in what was described as a “sullen sideline pose” complete with headset.
The talking Cignetti bobblehead features a terrific coach quote.
“It’s pretty simple. I win, Google me.”
Cignetti is donating the proceeds from bobblehead sales to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
Bobblehead museum CEO Phil Sklar said he expected the Cignetti bobbleheads to be “extremely popular” but was “blown away by the level of excitement from fans.”
