After all these years on the fringes of the downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade–staying home, paying no attention to it whatsoever–it was time to get out there and see what all the fuss was about.
Warren marched in it so you didn’t have to.
We hooked up with the celebrants at the tail-end of the parade, wedging ourselves near the float of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Aurelia Pucinski, who is Polish and Republican, not a very good combo for a starting position in this event. Her float position was 152 out of a possible 168.
Even farther back was the float of the Cook County Republican Party, whose chairman, Manny Hoffman, is Jewish. Other Republican officeholders also were clustered back here.
By the time the GOP floats were moving, we spied a lot of the parade-watchers heading for the “L.” But as we walked and waved (a little maniacally), the remaining onlookers, who were still two, three, even four deep along the route, waved back with gusto.
Back on the Pucinski float, Ascension School 5th graders Tom Moore, 10, and Kevin Walsh, 11, were thrilled to be riding along and said they didn’t mind wearing funny orange leprechaun hats.
Their costumes were the product of a week of near-frenzied gluing in the home of key Pucinski staffer Kathy McDonnell, who enlisted daughter Jenny, 24. Both–can you guess?–are extremely Irish.
An unexpected treat at the back of the parade was running into Bulls great Bob “Butter Beans” Love, the Bulls’ director of community relations. He was marching with a crowd of top students from a Bulls adopt-a-school program.
“They’re freezing their little fannies off,” Love said. We all were.
Un-real
Anybody with cable and a remote knows about MTV’s “Real World,” in which diverse and vaguely troubled Gen X’ers are thrown together in an overly hip IKEA-style apartment, and the cameras roll as we see how long these people can live together harmoniously.
So far, Real World has been to: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Miami, Boston, Miami and Seattle. Now we hear they’re taping in Honolulu.
What’s missing here?
We’re feeling lonely, dissed, unhip. We have IKEA. We have coffee bars. We have multipierced young people. Chicago, it turns out, is too cool.
“We’d love to shoot Real World in Chicago,” an MTV spokeswoman told us. “But we shoot from January to May. And it’s just too cold then. We’re afraid the kids would just stay inside and be boring.”
We can understand that kind of thinking. Certainly the 7 million of us people in and around Chicago just sit at home, looking out the window five months a year, waiting for the thaw.
Brown nosing around for new challenges
Political newcomer Dorothy Brown promises, “I’ll be back!” She’s mailing and hand-delivering thank you notes to her supporters in last month’s city treasurer’s race. Her strong, though unsuccessful, showing against embattled, indicted incumbent Miriam Santos makes Brown a front-runner for appointment by Mayor Richard Daley to the treasurer job if Santos is convicted of the federal charges.
Inc.-lings
In our continuing effort to support unemployed musicians–is that a tautology?–we want to alert all trumpeters looking for a permanent gig to show up at 8:30 Tuesday morning at the Hotel Allegro Chicago, Randolph and LaSalle, for a group toot. It’s a publicity stunt for the hotel, which will be followed by legit auditions. The hotel is looking for someone to play the daily 9:01 a.m. trademark trumpet call. We also recognize that this is about 6 hours earlier than most musicians like to rise, but on Tuesday there’s the added incentive of a free breakfast . . . Goodman Theatre’s “Oo-Bla-Dee,” Regina Taylor’s story of a black all-female bebop band, world-premieres Monday and continues through April 17.
Air kisses
Monday birthdays: Fabio, 38; Harold Baines, 40; Ry Cooder, 52; Judd Hirsch, 64; Ben Hollis, 45; Mike Love, 58; Park Overall, 32; Dee Snider, 44; Sly Stone, 55.
The Inc. Spot
Warren talks to actor Martin Short.
Short, 48, is the headliner at the March 22 tribute to WGN legend Roy Leonard at the Oriental Theatre. Proceeds go to Gilda’s Club, the cancer-support center named for the late Second City alum Gilda Radner. Tickets through Ticketmaster.
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Q–Your friends call you Marty?
A–How’d you know?
Q–Women’s intuition, I guess. So, Marty . . . Is it hard to be funny all the time?
A–You treat it like a job.
Q–So, sometimes you sit around, sulky?
A–If you’re doing the “Tonight Show,” it’s not a time to be reflective. But you’re not always `on.’
If you’re watching your kids play baseball and a fan comes up and expects you to be wacky, they’re going to be disappointed.
Q–Isn’t living in L.A. corrupting your kids? (They’re 15, 12 and 9.) The land of lipo and Tae-Bo?
A–The cast of “Melrose Place” might do that. We don’t.
Q–You lead a pretty good life, eh?
A–Very lucky. I remember as a kid watching Debbie Reynolds on the “Tonight Show”–I’m about 15–and she’s telling how tough show business is. I’m like, oh please, how tough can it be?
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