Those of you who don’t live in Chicago miss out on many local treasures. Chicago-style hot dogs, with the salad right on top. Italian beef sandwiches. Sailing on Lake Michigan, watching the most beautiful skyline in North America. And local journalists like Rick Kogan. Rick has been writing for the Chicago Tribune for years, following in the footsteps of his father Herman, and is perhaps a living embodiment of the old-school type of Chicago humanist and reporter. He BREATHES this city. Heck, he was named after Riccardo’s, a former hangout for journalists near Michigan Avenue.
I’m glad to call Rick my friend, because he has an eye and an impatience for frauds and bozos. So I was as pleased as a sport pepper to go on his WGN radio show yesterday morning and talk over Honk Honk, My Darling, as well as Bardball and the state of American culture in general. Rick is the only person I know on commercial radio who not only acknowledges that books are an important part to life, but actually gives over the majority of his show to talking with authors, some well-known, some a little less so. And talking to him is like getting a quick intravenous shot of every nightclub and newsmaker in the Second City. Thanks for a great time, Rick.
If you’d like to hear the interview (trust me, the banjo-and-fiddle music in the beginning fades quickly), click here.