Rosetta Miller-Perry. She made a difference.
During this extended summer holiday week, consider the American spirit of Rosetta Miller-Perry. She was not about loud fireworks. She was about sincere faith. Miller-Perry was the founder of the Tennessee Tribune, an independent Black newspaper in Nashville.
She died on June 26 at the age of 91.
Miller-Perry served in the United States Navy and was one of the first African-American students to graduate from Memphis State University. She launched the Tribune in 1991 to focus on issues such as health, education, and voter registration.
Miller-Perry [...]
Charley Rosen, Touch of Grey
In a strange way, sitting down and talking to basketball coach-writer-music fan Charley Rosen led to my experimental experience of covering the 1990-91 Bulls for the Chicago Sun-Times.
I’ve always been appreciative of the shadows in minor league sports. Real life lives there. When the Rockford Lighting debuted in the 1986-87 season of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) I was at the MetroCentre in downtown Rockford.
The late Bulls great Norm Van Lier was the team’s head coach. Future Chicago radio guy Dan Bernstein was working the market. Chicago prep star Cazzie Russell [...]
Mark Ibach, a good guy.
A friend to his dog is a friend to all.
My friend Mark Ibach was all that and more. Since 1981, he rescued five basset hounds. There may even have been more that we don’t know about. Mark’s Christmas cards featured a photo of him with his hounds. He brought them to the annual Chicago White Sox Dog Day. He faithfully took them to the annual mid-September Basset Bash & Waddle parade in Dwight, IL. That’s the biggest gathering of basset hounds anywhere.
Mark was the most passionate music fan I knew. He attended nearly 1,000 concerts in his lifetime and often bought two [...]
“In Lieu of a Carrot” by the great Jonathan Winters
Comedian-actor-artist Jonathan Winters would have turned 99 years old today.
Over the last week, I returned to Winters’ books, artwork, and a conversation with him. I needed an elixir.
Winters was very kind, very funny, and a curious listener. Just before the election, I re-read his 1987 book “Winters’ Tales (Stories and Observations for the Unusual).” The book is a collection of 25 years of Winters’ essays and thoughts. I bought “Winters Tales” for my father who was a huge Winters fan. They are both gone now but their considerable [...]
