Ward on Words

Whoopsie! Lots of egg on lots of faces when the glowing tributes made by many Chicago journalists about the outgoing King  Mayor of Chicago ended up in a furniture ad. After the shit hit the fan , many of the journalists had themselves removed from the promotional video. And the furniture company ended up apologizing for not being more clear about the purpose of the video. (Journalists believed it to be a gift to Mayor Daley, not an ad to be broadcast on TV with the furniture company's name prominently displayed.) Hat tip to the very best tweeter of all time - Roger Ebert ... if he's not on your twitter feed, he should be!

I'm not sure when "pre-owned cars" replaced "used cars" as a commodity, but certainly, "pre-owned" was a fabulous way to rebrand something that had long been associated with getting ripped off. In Chicago, we have unleashed a new euphemism for getting fleeced - "replace the receipt." Here's the story from one of my Chicago spies who was in the city yesterday, trying to find some street parking at one of the highly controversial new parking meters.... The new meters not only have cost the city nearly a billion in future income (according to Chicago's Inspector General ), they don't work . My spy dutifully inserted his credit card into the new meter (they've recently installed credit-card loving meters - replacing the need to lug around a small bank filled with quarters - the private company was asking for 28 quarters for two hours of parking - it's a mess, I tell you, a mess!) The meter noted that payment had been r...

We live in a culture driven by the automobile (the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler, notwithstanding.) You'll find densely packed cities to be densely packed with cars, in addition to people. As a city dweller in Chicago, I'd perfected the art of parallel parking my tiny car into the tiniest spaces. Parking is a premium commodity in Chicago. And in the Loop, one has become accustomed to paying dearly for the privilege of parking. But in Chicago these days, finding a place to park your car has become embroiled in scandal. In his quest to fill up empty city coffers, Mayor Daley and his rubber-stamping city council have been trying to sell off city assets like there's no tomorrow; thus, with the gleam of gold in his eye, Daley leased the parking meter commodity for the next 75 years to a private firm (somehow, Morgan Stanley is involved in this deal, not sure how!) for the sum of $1.5 billion. The deal meant parking rates would go up dramatically, leaving Chicago wi...