The heat is on in the July edition of The Month in Review
July 2023 has been the hottest month in the Earth’s history. Phoenix spent almost the entire month with the high temperature one hundred-ten degrees or higher. They got a break on the final day of July when it dropped to a cool one hundred and eight. While the weather has been steamy, so has the news. Let’s get to it:
We begin with the 4th of July. On that day, NASCAR brought street racing to downtown Chicago. Sure, it was a mess with all the street closure, but the race itself was spectacular. The views were great and what could be better than watching fast cars trying to maneuver in the rain. It was as if the drivers were playing a video game. Plus, downtown hotels saw a nice bump in room rentals. I think it was a big win for the city, although I’m sure people living or working in the area disagree.
The holiday also brought the one-year anniversary of the tragic mass shootings in suburban Highland Park. There was no parade this year. Those killed and injured were honored by a moment of silence at the exact time the shooting began, plus a memorial walk through the parade route. It was a nice touch for a city that is still reeling. I wish some of the other neighboring towns had joined them in solidarity.
In Hollywood, the actors union has joined the writers by also going on strike. The people hurt the most by this are those behind the scenes. Not everyone in the movie and television world is making the big bucks. Most aren’t and are living paycheck to paycheck like the rest of the world. With no work for the foreseeable future, many folks in the industry will have trouble paying rent and feeding their families. Talking about big bucks, I first noticed the strike when I started to watch “Press Your Luck” and saw it was a rerun from last summer. Hmmm…even game shows need writers, right! Whammies go out to all the greedy studio executives with their multi-million dollar salaries.
There was plenty of music news in July:
The Eagles announced that they will be starting their farewell tour. Another one? C’mon!! I admit that I’m a big fan of the band and may even spring for tickets when they announce their Chicago shows, but just stop with this farewell bullshit, already!
We lost Tony Bennett at the age of ninety-six. Nobody sings the Great American Songbook tunes better than Tony. There’s talk that Rod Stewart is going to tour and will have a Las Vegas residency based on these songs. Hey, Rod, listen to a couple of Tony’s albums and then make a better decision about this. You’re no Tony and never will be. You have your niche. Stick to “Maggie May.”
My favorite Bennett moment was watching the documentary “Amy”, about the late singer Amy Winehouse. While trying to work on their duet, Winehouse was nervous about singing with one of her musical idols. Tony was calm and helped her get over her fears and they completed the beautiful song, “Body and Soul.” It was too bad that her family couldn’t do the same thing when she needed their help. Hopefully, if you believe in this, Tony and Amy are now singing together for eternity.
There was big media news in July.
Two of the largest newspapers made changes to their sports sections. The New York Times reassigned their sports writers to other sections and sports will be covered by The Athletic, which is now owned by the Times. That's an enormous change by a paper who's motto is “all the news that’s fit to print.”
The Los Angeles Times will no longer provide game stories. Sure, you can get those in many places on the internet, but don’t you want coverage of your local team done by a dedicated beat writer?
In both cases, apparently money talks while journalism walks.
In other media news, Nexstar and DiRECTV are having a dispute over money. Nexstar, which owns almost two hundred stations nationwide, has pulled them all from the DIRECTV lineup. This isn't unusual. You'll see something like this a few times each year. What is unusual is the dispute lasted the entire month and now continues into August. In Chicago, WGN is one of the stations we can't watch. That means we're missing out on six hours of morning news every weekday, and reruns of Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing.” We also can't watch NewsNation so that means no “Cuomo”, “Banfield” and on the weekend, no all-day marathons of Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing.” Hmmm…maybe we're better off without Nexstar programming?
In sports news, we have three stories that can be classified as the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good: Los Angeles Angels player Shohei Ohtani continues to do remarkable things. In a doubleheader, he pitched a game one shutout. In the second game, he hit two home runs. Baseball has never seen anything like this dude. Hopefully, the Angels can make the playoffs so we can see what he does on the biggest stage.
The bad: Minnesota Vikings rookie Jordan Addison was caught driving his Lamborghini one hundred-forty miles per hour. That’s right…140 MPH! His excuse was that there was an emergency with his dog. Where do you find a stretch of road that allows you to get the car up to that speed? Dude, maybe you should get to your first pre-season practice before you screw up?!
The ugly: A hazing scandal at Northwestern University cost Pat Fitzgerald his head coaching job. Fitzgerald claimed he didn’t know anything about this but the head coaches job is to know everything about his program. Many season ticket holders have cancelled their tickets for a couple of reasons. Many are disgusted by the allegations and can't support the program any more. Others left because they're outraged that Fitzgerald was fired. And it's not only football; we're hearing about abuses in other sports programs. College sports in Evanston is a huge mess and it's going to take a long time to make it right.
Finally, new charges were added in Florida to the case against former President Donald Trump. Another month, another indictment.
That's it for July. Try to keep cooler than the news. See you at the end of August.