Meyerson

'What's half of infinity?'

2011-10-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

I forgot that I ever had a letter printed in "Superman." For a 15-year-old, I was a pesty little correspondent. A look back at another time when DC Comics tried to "reboot" the character.

'Scapegoat in Four Colors': Series on censorship and comics resurrected

2011-08-25T19:49:00.003-05:00

Happy to see my old work for First Comics in the '80s resurrected on the Web. Thanks, Tom Mason and FLD.

Mad Magazine founder William M. Gaines interviewed

2011-07-31T14:35:00.001-05:00

Interview with Mad Magazine founder William M. Gaines, conducted July 15, 1978, at Chicago ComiCon. The great Dean Richards sits in at the end, just before battery goes dead and recording speed goes haywire. Presented here strictly for historical value; not an example of great interview technique. (What did I know in 1978, hah?)

Mad Magazine founder William M. Gaines interview by Meyerson

Marvel Comics guru Stan Lee speaks

2011-07-29T18:54:00.001-05:00

'Tis the season of comics conventions, so it seems appropriate to resurrect this Chicago interview from 1998 with the great Stan Lee. Enjoy.

Stan Lee interview by Meyerson

Chicago's next mayor? / iPhone battery help / Wine:brandy::beer:whiskey

2011-07-10T13:30:00.000-05:00

3 things more, because I can't stop now:

1. CHICAGO'S NEXT MAYOR? John Kass knows a guy who thinks it might be Rich Daley's daughter, Nora.

2. iPHONE BATTERY HELP. Four simple steps to extend a charge.

3. WINE:BRANDY::BEER:WHISKEY. And other fascinating facts about spirits, learned in this account of the mystery of a Detroit-area fungus.

How I Spent (this part of) My Summer Vacation

2011-07-07T16:10:00.000-05:00

Ken Davis is joined by Charlie Meyerson, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Art Golab and executive director of We The People Media Ethan Michaeli. They discuss Taste of Chicago, police presence in the public schools, the Chicago Housing Authority's leadership turnover, and Police Supt. McCarthy's statements linking racism to gun control laws. Produced by Chicago Access Network TV.

Biden Twitter questions / Chicago: Ready for reform? / Job posted

2011-07-05T10:37:00.005-05:00

3 things for Tuesday, Chicago

1. BIDEN TWITTER QUESTIONS. Wired "Epicenter" blog asks: "Why go there at all when there isn’t even a Twitter account for the Office of the President?"

2. CHICAGO: READY FOR REFORM? Mayor Emanuel proposes a new round of ethics measures. City to lobbyists: We don't need your stinkin' $50.01 gifts.

3. JOB POSTED. WGN Radio News Director. Compare and contrast, then (2009) and now.

Note: Probably the last "3 things" for a while. New things about to happen.

3 things for Thursday, Chicago: Colbert's Super PAC / NEA doubts / Taste the green

2011-06-30T11:23:00.001-05:00

1. COLBERT'S BREAKTHROUGH. The Federal Election Commission says Stephen Colbert can form a Super PAC, with power to spend unlimited money in the 2012 elections. The PAC's motto: "Making a better tomorrow ... tomorrow." (The Web site uses a comma, but the ellipsis is clearly funnier.)

2. 'MAYBE THE NEA HAS OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS.' Beachwood Reporter proprietor Steve Rhodes says a big chunk of $2.2 million in federal National Endowment for the Arts grants to Illinois benefits "elite institutions patronized mostly by elites." (Fourth item.)

3. BUT WOULDN'T CHICAGO BE A BETTER PLACE IF WE DID? Even though grease from Taste of Chicago will be recycled into fuel for park district vehicles, a spokeswoman says, "You probably won’t be smelling crab Rangoon or French fries out of a park district vehicle."

3 things for Wednesday, Chicago

2011-06-29T09:43:00.002-05:00

1. WAY MADE FOR DUCKLINGS. One failed to make it safely across Lake Shore Drive, despite Good Samaritans' heroic efforts.

2. AT GOOGLE, APPLETHINK. Steven Levy's behind-the-scenes story of the new social-networking product, Google+ -- designed by one of the founding Apple software artists, Andy Herzfeld. (Thanks, John Gruber.)

3. GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC. Who's in?

3 things for Tuesday, Chicago

2011-06-28T08:29:00.001-05:00

1. 'MORAL IDIOCY.' Michael Phillips calls "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" a work of "ineffable soullessness." But it's effably cool to see Chicago destroyed in the climax. (Note to New York Daily News headline writers: Could a movie be "mindless" and NOT have a "pointless plot"?

2. PERFECT NETFLIX COMPANION. What's old is new again: Ch. 11 and public TV stations nationwide will rebroadcast '70s and '80s episodes of Siskel and Ebert's "Sneak Previews."

3. MANY iPHONES? Apple may splinter the iPhone product line, just as it has with the iPod.

3 things for Monday, Chicago

2011-06-27T08:42:00.001-05:00

1. SHARING: GOOD. A new book documents "The Power of Open" -- success stories from people and groups making their work freely available through Creative Commons licenses. Predictably, the book's available as a free download. (Thanks, David Kindler.)

2. DODGERS STRIKE OUT. The Los Angeles baseball team has filed for bankruptcy, blaming MLB and Fox.

3. BEYOND THE FLUX CAPACITOR. Renowned science fiction authors to deliver online Webinar on time travel. See also Chicago's Wormhole coffeehouse:

3 things for Sunday, Chicago

2011-06-26T11:08:00.002-05:00

1. TORNADO TERROR. Neil Steinberg's gripping (OK, would you believe smart and funny?) account,

complete with son asking "whether we have ... insurance and is he the beneficiary."

2. WHY COLLEGE? Once again, Doonesbury foretells the future.

3. 'SCIENTIST MAKES POOP BURGER.' Onionlike Headlines in Real Life. (Thanks, Eric Zorn.)

3 things for Saturday, Chicago

2011-06-25T09:49:00.007-05:00

1. TV JOURNALISM, ECONOMIZED. Chicago gets singled out in a report condemning "quietly merged newsrooms." P.S. Radio's part of the mix, too. P.P.S. Here's one case where sharing goes very, very wrong.

2. DROPOUTS, MTV WANTS YOU. Casting call held Friday in Lake County, Ill.

3. ARTIST DEFINED A GENERATION OF SUPER-HEROES. Gene Colan is dead. His art lives on.

3 things for Friday, Chicago

2011-06-24T08:58:00.001-05:00

1. SMALLER TASTE = BETTER TASTE? How budget cuts might make this year's Taste of Chicago one of the best in years.

2. ALL SEATS ABOVE AVERAGE. Saturday afternoon, "A Prairie Home Companion" broadcasts live from Ravinia.

3. CITY COUNCIL FALLS TO NO. 2. A Near West Side space is now home to the Midwest's biggest circus training studio.

3 things for Thursday, Chicago

2011-06-23T10:39:00.003-05:00

1. This (Dirty) American Life. Ira Glass goes medieval on those who would deny The Onion a Pulitzer. It deserved a Commentary prize for work like this after Sept. 11, 2001.

2. 2012, schmenty-12. No need to wait until next year for a bunch of worldly leaders to arrive in Chicago. A bunch of 'em will be here next week.

3. 'Harry Potter' mystery solved. Finally, the books go digital.

3 things for Tuesday, Chicago

2011-06-21T06:38:00.000-05:00

1. Biden goofwatch -- Chicago edition -- begins this afternoon.

2. Roger Ebert tweets himself into controversy. (Thanks, Morning Memo.)

3. Which mobile-phone app do you use most? Please share below.

3 things for Monday, Chicago

2011-06-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

1. THE LAST THING YOU READ BEFORE YOU'RE DOORED. A new specialty license plate reminding drivers to share the road with bicycles is in the works for Illinois.

2. WHAT'S NEXT? 'UNDER CLEANLINESS'? NBC's in hot water for omitting "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance during U.S. Open coverage. P.S. It's not NBC's first time.

3. CHICAGO TRANSFORMED. This captures the route and the feeling of the walk home from work Friday.

Boy ...

2011-06-17T17:28:00.000-05:00

Those Facebook employment status changes really get a rise out of people.

Charlie Meyerson

2011-06-17T15:06:00.003-05:00

... is available for lunch.

Will Penney's Genius Bar then help me figure out how to execute a factory reset on these jeans?

2011-06-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

J.C. Penney picks Apple's retail chief to be its next CEO.

3 things, Chicago

2011-06-13T20:03:00.001-05:00

'Real Housewives' cast sued by Chicago cop

'Flying fortress' plane crash in Chicago suburbs

What you need to know about the next iPhone/iPod/iPad operating system

Tribune-Stroger cagematch: Great radio

2010-01-30T19:37:00.000-06:00

The showdown between Todd Stroger and Tribune editorial board member John McCormick is great radio (and here, video). Little-known fact: The sales tax clock was suggested by a chicagotribune.com staffer who'd later become WGN Radio news director.

WGN Radio News news

2010-01-30T10:56:00.000-06:00

Can't say much yet, but something exciting is going to happen for WGN Radio News in March. It begins with "new studios." But, wait -- because you have to -- there's more ...

So long, and thanks for all the fish

2009-08-06T09:00:00.015-05:00

Dear readers,

I joined the Chicago Tribune in 1998 with the hope of bringing some of the immediacy, personality and utility of radio news to the Web. Thanks to many talented journalists, we did just that with Daywatch, which launched in March 1999 as a continually updated Web page -- a blog before that word existed, and in many ways a precursor of today's Chicago Breaking News Center.

As the rest of chicagotribune.com itself began to take on more of those characteristics, Daywatch was reborn nine years ago this week as a daily, e-mailed news briefing.

Since then, tens of thousands of you have made Daywatch and chicagotribune.com part of your daily routine. You have told us so with your clicks, and I can't overstate how rewarding that has been.

For a journalist in the Internet age, your attention has been a priceless gift -- one I will cherish as I leave Daywatch to become news and public affairs director at the Tribune's sibling radio station, WGN Radio 720.

I leave Daywatch in the hands of my great chicagotribune.com colleagues. I will continue to read it faithfully, and I hope you will, too.

But this is not goodbye. I'll be working closely with the Tribune staff as we move to reinvent radio news for the 21st Century. Please tune in often. If you do, I think you'll hear much of what you've come to like about Daywatch.

Again, thank you all.

Charlie

P.S. In this era of iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and other increasingly smart and entertaining devices, radio faces many of the same challenges that have rocked the rest of the media world. We know you have many options for getting information, and only two ears and 24 hours in a day. So I ask your help again: Please use this form to tell us what it would take to get you to go out of your way to tune in to an AM (or Internet) radio newscast. And what now makes you tune out from radio news?

P.P.S. Follow WGN Radio News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WGNRadioNews

P.P.P.S. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Meyerson

P.P.P.P.S. My e-mail remains the same: cmeyerson@tribune.com

Daddy and the Santa Claus dilemma

2008-12-14T20:58:00.009-06:00

(Originally published in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest, Dec. 22, 1992.)

By Charles Meyerson

I'd run the scenario through my mind hundreds of times. I was certain I'd be ready when the moment came.

But when the fateful question emerged, I panicked.

"Daddy, is Santa Claus real?"

I'd heard similar questions before and parried them with ease:

"Do you believe in Santa, Daddy?" he'd asked.

"Do you?" I'd replied. He'd say yes, and that had been that.

But where the Socratic method was enough to sidetrack him a few weeks ago, it didn't seem to work with a question fired point-blank.

"Is Santa Claus real?" The only retort that bubbled to the surface of my feverish brain was the totally inadequate "Are you?"

I mumbled something like "I've seen a lot of people I thought were Santa Claus." But that was a dead-end, so I excused myself and scurried downstairs to consult the family's real expert on Santa: Mommy.

"Ask him if he believes," she said.

"Too late in the conversation for that," I said.

"Tell him you've never seen Santa personally," she recommended.

"No good," I said. "That'll leave him wondering who he's been visiting all these years." Besides: his younger brother was in the room with him.

"Then lie," she said.

But I'm a terrible liar. And I wasn't ready to sign off on the end of innocence for our first-born.

So I returned to the bedroom with a book from my childhood.

"Almost a hundred years ago," I explained, "a little girl asked the same question in a letter to the editor of a New York newspaper. Brush your teeth and get into your jammies, and I'll read you her letter and one of the best answers ever written to the question you asked me."

The brushing and dressing went remarkably quickly, and soon we were all jammed into bed.

And I read the words eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun in 1897:

Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus.... Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

And I read the inspired answer from the paper's editor, Charles Dana:

"Your little friends...have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.

"The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see....

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist....

"He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

Dana may have been right. Maybe he was wrong.

But the important thing is that, by the time I was done reading his answer, the kids had forgotten the question.

So Santa makes glad the heart of childhood in this home...for at least one Christmas more.

--30--

E-mail Charlie Meyerson