Chicago Italians

Chicago Excitement to Arizona

2012-02-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Transplanted Chicagoans were downright giddy Tuesday at the news that Portillo’s Hot Dogs is looking to expand its restaurant chain to the Phoenix area.

Portillo’s is an icon in Chicagoland, loved and remembered by the tens of thousands of local residents who moved out of Illinois over the years to make Arizona their home.

You can include me in that bunch. I grew up eating the scrumptious Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches at the local Portillo’s just a few minutes away from where my parents still live in Naperville, Ill. And yes, I went to Portillo’s for lunch when I was back to visit for Christmas. That’s just what you do when you “go back.”

Portillo’s is looking to build new restaurants at Tempe Marketplace, Chandler Fashion Center and other locations in Phoenix or Scottsdale.

When word spread of the news yesterday, I received a handful of emails and Facebook messages about the news. Al Maag, chief communications officer at Phoenix-based Avnet Inc. , is a Chicago native. He said one of the reasons he loves the Phoenix area is because there are so many Chicagoans here.

“I feel it’s the western suburbs of Chicago without the snow and traffic congestion,” he said.
Maag said there are thousands of hot dog stands in Chicago, but Portillo’s stands out.

“When I travel back to Chicago my first stop is Portillo’s for a beef sandwich and hot dog,” he said. “Heck, my family and I have it shipped here four times a year for special parties. I remember when In-N-Out came here the lines were pretty long. When Portillo’s comes it will be a happening of a higher magnitude. My guess is the last car will be in Tucson.”

Stephanie Lough, an account coordinator at HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, didn’t grow up in the Chicago area, but she’s been bitten by the Portillo’s bug.

Almost Time For Mario's

2012-01-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood:
Little Italy/
University Village 1068 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL 60607

Mario's Italian lemonade has the consistency of a Slurpee and is like store-bought Italian ices, ''only better,'' promises Dorothy DiPaolo, the current owner's mother. Mario's ices consist of chilled slushlike lemonade, fruit and syrups in various flavors including fruit cocktail, pina colada, chocolate and banana. Lemon is the No. 1 flavor. DiPaolo opened the business in the '50s with her late husband, Mario. The wooden stand is Italian green, white and red, sprouting from the front of a brick rowhouse next door to Jamoch's Caffe. DiPaolo says that when she and her husband opened their stand, there were many stands and pushcarts in the neighborhood. Over the years, most have disappeared. She says customers from many years ago who went to nearby St. Ignatius come back and bring their children. Mario's also sells snacks including snowballs, seeds and nuts, lupini beans, dried chickpeas and candy.

Happy New Years

2011-12-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

New Year’s Reflections

Looking back on the months gone by,
As a new year starts and an old one ends,
We contemplate what brought us joy,And we think of our loved ones and our friends.

Recalling all the happy times,
Remembering how they enriched our lives,
We reflect upon who really counts,As the fresh and bright new year arrives.

And when I/we ponder those who do,I/we immediately think of you.

Thanks for being one of the reasons I'll/We'll have a Happy New Year!

2011-12-25T15:55:00.001-08:00

MISS Foundation Helps The Bereaved

2011-12-01T10:06:00.001-08:00

EXTRA EXTRA!
Coping with Grief During the Holidays
MISS Foundation Hosting National Children’s Memorial Day Service
The holidays are especially difficult for the bereaved. If you or someone you know is mourning the death of a child of any age, please consider attending the National Children’s Memorial Day Service at the Temple Chai at 4645 E. Marilyn Road, Phoenix, AZ 85032 on Sunday, December 11 at 6:30 pm. Free refreshments served following the memorial service. Temple Chai is west of Tatum Blvd, approximately ½ mile north of Thunderbird Road.
National Children’s Memorial Day began in 1997, and is held annually on the second Sunday in December. At 7:00 p.m. candles are lit around the world, creating a virtual wave of light in which countless families and friends commemorate and honor the memory of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries. Such candle lighting events are held both formally and informally, from hundreds of people gathered together, to small family gatherings.
The MISS Foundation hosts National Children’s Memorial Day in the form of a non-denominational memorial service. Everyone in attendance lights a candle in honor of the beloved child who has died. The MISS Foundation also invites families and loved ones to bring a photo and/or memento to display in the sanctuary during the service.

The MISS Foundation, a Phoenix based nonprofit organization, serves families after the death of a child at any age, from any cause. The support services that the MISS Foundation provides are multi-faceted and include crisis outreach, support groups, one on one counseling, online support forums, family grief conferences, research and advocacy. National Children’s Memorial Day is one of the MISS Foundation’s annual events in support of those families who have lost a child.

MISS Foundation founder, Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, speaks to the importance of the National Children’s Memorial Day Service, “Rituals are a crucial part of healthy bereavement. NCMD is a way for families to proactively remember and honor their child who died too soon, and reminds us all to cherish every moment we have with our children. It's a lesson from which every parent on Earth can benefit.”

MISS Foundation

2011-10-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

Some Info from Webmaster
Hello for those that know me,, you are aware of the MISS Foundation for those of you who do not.

The MISS Foundation is a 501 (c) 3, volunteer based organization committed to providing crisis support and long term aid to families after the death of a child from any cause. MISS also participates in legislative and advocacy issues, community engagement and volunteerism, and culturally competent, multidisciplinary, education opportunities
http://missfoundation.org/

Many of you know them by their Random Acts of Kindness Program

I have been working with the MISS Foundation for 8 years since the loss of my daughter Dawn Marie and am a Mentor for other families that have experienced this tragedy I also have just asked to become a Facilitator for their support program, This November 6th I will be attending Dawns 10 year Memorial service in Chicago, I am also the 2nd largest fundraiser in Phoenix for MISS Memorial Causes, So if you feel generous please donate to this wonderful organization

HOPE Mentor Profile,Michael Sansone, Phoenix, AZ

I am the Father of 5 children, Ages: (In Heaven Dawn 33), Kristen-30, Nicole-29, Michael Jr.-27, and Michelene- 19.

After the loss of my daughter Dawn in 2001 to a hit and run driver, I was fortunate to learn about the MISS Foundation which has helped reshape my life. I am hoping that this tragic event in my life and the things I have learned along the way have suited me to help other parents cope with this unthinkable loss we share.

CLICK FOR MY PROFILE ....http://missfoundation.org/bios/msansone.html

On November 6th 2001 My Daughter Dawn Marie was struck and

killed by a Hit & Run Driver here in Phoenix

She was 23 yrs old with a smile none can ever forget
Born 1/2/1978 Passed 11/6/2001

To donate please click link below

http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/390540?bws=fb_stream_wish

Thank You To Donors this week

Michael raised $20 from Anonymous Donor for MISS Foundation
about 1 hour ago
Michael raised $25 from Anonymous Donor for MISS Foundation
about 2 hours ago
Michael raised $25 from Remona Onesti for MISS Foundation
1 day ago
Michael raised 50 from Augie Sansonefor MISS Foundation
1 day ago
Michael raised $50 from Shawn Roberts Soumilas for MISS Foundation
3 days ago
Michael donated $25 to Michael's Wish
Michael raised $25 from Susan Pack 3days ago

Borsato Museum a national treasure in Northlake

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Very few people even know it exists. A national museum of timeless and exceedingly valuable treasures sits relatively unviewed and unappreciated in suburban Chicago. Over 100 pieces of incomparably vibrant and colorful porcelain statuary, created by one of Italy's and the world's most renowned sculptors, are housed in suburban Northlake, thousands of miles from bustling Milan, where they were painstakingly created by the hands of Antonio Borsato.

Located inside Casa San Carlo Retirement Community, 420 N. Wolf Road in Northlake, the National Borsato Museum is a familiar site for staff and the nearly 200 residents.

"We feel it is such a treasure that the public should know that it's here. Not only is it the only one in the area, but it is one of the largest collections by far," said Sr. Elizabeth Trem, CSFN, Executive Director of Casa San Carlo, who is always excited about welcoming the community to view the collection, which includes 107 of the best pieces ever sculpted by Antonio Borsato. When Casa San Carlo was owned by Catholic Charities, it received a gift of 104 Borsato pieces from the Museum's founder, Northlake-based attorney Favil David Berns and the Museum was officially opened in August 1990. At that time, Berns was quoted as saying, "The Borsatos are artistic works of love and needed a good home. What more suitable home is there for Italian sculpture?" The late Cardinal Bernardin blessed all of the artwork at the dedication, attended by more than 1,000 people.

"People are always welcome to come to see the Museum," added Sr. Elizabeth. "We are open seven days a week and someone is always here that can show them the Museum." While appointments are preferred, anytime is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the gift of Borsato's intricate and expressive work as well as the gift of Berns' great generosity. A wide selection of subject matter is represented, from street vendors to inspirational religious themes, including the Annunciation, the Stations of the Cross, the Piety and Moses (displayed on the first floor of the Casa). Several of the original tools used by Antonio Borsato are also on display within the Museum.

Borsato, born in 1911, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and began developing his own techniques while working mainly on religious themes, such as the Madonna and Child and Nativity sets. At his studio in Milan, he began to create his statuary from a combination of soft porcelain and stoneware known as gres. Through this process, Borsato was able to accentuate great detail in the faces, hair and fingers of his subjects. When these new creations were displayed at the Milan Trade Fair in 1949, the public was not impressed -- perhaps because they were unfamiliar with such intricacy. But the export market put Borsato's inimitable talent on the map and his work became sought after in the United States.

Focused on mastering his techniques, he continued creating in porcelain and perfecting the porcelain process. By 1980, Borsato's name had become well-known by admirers of Hummel, Dresden, Meissen. With the rise of his popularity came the construction of a new factory in Milan, outgrowing his small studio and requiring the help of his wife and daughter. Tragically, as Borsato reached this high point in his career, he died in an auto accident in 1982, leaving 700 models of porcelain pieces and approximately 200 models of his older gres figures. His wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandchild continued his work to honor his legacy.

"The National Borsato Museum is a best-kept secret but we're intent on sharing it. It's just one more thing to love about the Casa," added Sr. Elizabeth, who jumped at the opportunity to serve as Executive Director. "When I received the invitation to accept this assignment, I took it readily because the Casa is such a beautiful place in so many ways. From the grounds, to art pieces throughout the building, to the Museum, to the lovely residents," everyone is amazed by Casa San Carlo.

Anyone who is interested can arrange a tour of the museum by calling 708-562-4300.

Columbus Day Parade

2011-09-30T10:38:00.001-07:00

Unity will reign at 2011 Parade!

"Hi, grandpa, can I help you?" an energetic young boy calls out. "Can I help grandpa?" Another anxious young voice asks. The pleas are from the two young children of the fourth generation of the Marco DeStefano family. They're hoping that their grandpa, Louis Rago, the Columbus Day Parade Marshal, will let them be a part of putting the Columbus Day Parade on paper.

Since 1952 this has been a family tradition. Marco and his son-in-law Louis, who joined in 1967, was followed by Louis' sons, Joseph and Anthony, who have become an active part in the parade preparation. Now, Gabriella, Mia Louis and Michael are awaiting their turn to put their mark on the map. This is far more exciting than Christmas, the grandchildren will tell you. For the entire community it is an exhilarating day where we display our passion for our heritage.

Well before 7 a.m. on that day, carloads of participants will pull into the Casa Italia parking lot, making sure they are ready for the 7:30 a.m. departure for the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii. Busload after busload will arrive in time for a cup of coffee prior to the 9:00 a.m. Mass. Father Fragomeni and his staff will welcome all at the magnificent bronze doors of this historic church of our childhood. There is nothing more awe inspiring than the coming together at Pompeii for this special day.

Married to a Chicago Girl ???

2011-08-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Three friends married women from different parts of the country.....

The first man married a woman from Utah . He told her that she was to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days, but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a woman from California . He gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a girl from Chicago . He ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has some difficulty when he pees.

National Italian Hall Of Fame

2011-08-04T20:32:00.001-07:00

1431 West Taylor Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60607
312-226-5566 (Phone)
312-226-5678 (Fax)

Museum Hours of Operation:

Monday-Friday: 9AM - 5PM
Saturday-Sunday: 11AM - 4PM

The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame is handicap accessible

In 1977, George Randazzo founded the Italian American Boxing Hall of Fame as a way to raise money for a struggling local Catholic youth program. Randazzo collected boxing photos and memorabilia, a hobby that inspired him to organize a fundraising dinner that brought together a list of boxing greats and celebrities. The dinner honored twenty-three former Italian American boxing world champions, including Rocky Graziano, Jake LaMotta, Sammy Angott, Willie Pep, and posthumously Rocky Marciano, Primo Carnera and Tony Canzoneri.

The results were so overwhelming that a friend and local businessman, Don Ponte, encouraged Randazzo to start a Hall of Fame to honor all Italian American athletes. One year later, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame was founded as a non-profit, educational institution. The first induction ceremony and banquet was a star-studded event, as the Hall of Fame honored Lou Ambers, Eddie Arcaro, Charlie Trippi, Gino Marchetti, Dom DiMaggio and "The Yankee Clipper," Joe DiMaggio. Mrs. Vince Lombardi also accepted the posthumous induction of her late husband, Coach Vince Lombardi.

In the years that followed, celebrities from all walks of life have come to the annual induction ceremonies to pay tribute to outstanding Italian American sports champions and heroes. A special and uninvited guest took part in the 1980 induction ceremony, as Prisident Jimmy Carter offered his congratulations and addressed the crowd. In 1988 the Hall of Fame moved from its original headquarters in Elmwood Park to Arlington Heights.

The NIASHF enjoyed a new beginning in 1998 with the help of Phoenix Suns Chairman/CEO Jerry Colangelo. A 1994 Inductee and Chicago Heights native, Colangelo was asked by Randazzo to serve as Chairman of an ambitious new Hall of Fame building project in the heart of Chicago's Little Italy. Colangelo accepted, and has succeeded in bringing together civic-minded men and women from across the country in support of the project. In 2000 the new facility was dedicated as "The Jerry Colangelo Center," a tribute to his efforts and leadership.

There are now over 200 inductees enshrined in the Hall of Fame. To date, the organization has raised over 6 million for scholarships and charitable causes. In 27 years, the collection of sports memorabilia the Hall has amassed is second to none. The priceless artifacts include Mario Andretti's Indy 500 racecar, Rocky Marciano's first heavyweight championship belt, Vince Lombardi's last coat worn as coach of the Green Bay Packers, and swimmer Matt Biondi's Olympic Gold Medals.

Today is Kindness Day

2011-07-27T09:35:00.001-07:00

The Kindness Project

Sharing and Support

The MISS Foundation's Dr. Cacciatore started the Kindness Project in 1996 as a way for families to cope with the tragedy of a child's death. Since then, more than 1,000,000 kindnesses have been committed around the globe in memory of children, gone too soon.

Anyone can participate in memory of anyone!

Here's what you do:

Visit the MISS Foundation's International Kindness Project Day website:

www.KindnessProjectDay.org

between the dates of July 20-27, 2011. Please sign up for our eNews list by clicking here and we'll send you a reminder on July 20th when template are released for you to print Kindness Cards DIY at home yourself. Or as an alternative, send a SASE to The MISS Foundation, PO Box 5333, Peoria, AZ 85385, and we'll send you several cards!

Start thinking about acts of kindness - especially anonymous ones as those are the most powerful - you can commit in your neighborhood and community!

After you get your free templates (available between July 20th and 27th), print your Kindness Project cards in English or Spanish.

Share this event with others! IDEAS FOR THIS: Send email invitation to the Facebook event; print out our Kindness Project Brochure and share them around your town; do your own Kindness Project and send press releases to your local tv, radio, newspapers to spread the word.

Then- drum roll please- on July 27, 2011, go out into this world and help to created more Kindness in memory of your beloved!

Help spread the word by sharing our International Kindness
Project Day press release with your local media!

We hope everyone will join us in this amazing experience! Don't worry- you can commit a Kindness Project act that costs nothing (mow someone's yard, offer a homemade gift, bring cookies to a nursing home), only your time and devotion to another!

Or, you can have fun buying Starbucks for the person in line behind you... or you can leave flowers on a strangers' door... or you can buy someone's meal at a restaurant anonymously, or you can leave a $10 bill on the ground where someone can find it wrapped around a Kindness Project card... the list is endless! See our Kindess Project Ideas page for even more!

Imagine this:
All around the world,
on this one day of the year,
mourners will be transforming their grief into a
powerful message of love, hope, peace, and kindness!

Thank You

2011-07-18T15:58:00.001-07:00

2011-07-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Kiddieland Closing

After visiting Chicago Last Week and actually seeing Kiddieland was gone pushed me to repost these great memories

Sadly, Kiddieland closed for good on September 27, 2009. Kiddieland leases the land that it sits on and the lease has finally come to an end. There will be no renewal of the lease. Addtional information will be posted on the website at a later date. All of us who grew up in Chicago in the 50's 60's and 70's all remember Kiddieland...Ahhhh the good ole days !!

MISS Foundation.................Your Help Appreciated

2011-06-30T10:36:00.001-07:00

The MISS Foundation is a volunteer based organization committed to providing crisis support and long term aid to families after the death of a Child, Of which I am a Member and Mentor to other Parents, After the loss of our Dawn Marie ,They supported me !! and countless other families.. Please help me support them and Thank You

*Don’t Tell Me*
Please don't tell me you know how I feel, Unless you have lost your child too,
Please don't tell me my broken heart will heal, Because that is just not true,
Please don't tell me my daughter is in a better place,
Though it is true, I want her here with me,
Don't tell me someday I'll hear her voice, see her face,
Beyond today I cannot see, Don’t tell me it is time to move on,
Because I cannot, Don’t tell me to face the fact she is gone,
Because denial is something I can't stop,
Don't tell me to be thankful for the time I had, Because I wanted more,
Don't tell me when I am my old self you will be glad,
I'll never be as I was before, What you can tell me is you will be here for me,
That you will listen when I talk of my child,
You can share with me my precious memories,
You can even cry with me for a while,
And please don't hesitate to say her name,
Because it is something I long to hear every day,
Friend please realize that I can never be the same,
But if you stand by me, you may like the new person I become someday.

To Donate Click This Link http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/316477?bws=fb_stream_wish

Anthony Accardo History

2011-05-07T01:21:00.000-07:00

Birth:	Apr. 28, 1906
Death:	May 22, 1992
Organized Crime Figure. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1906, he joined the city's organized crime family, the "Outfit," during the late 1920s. He served under three bosses (Alphonse Capone, Frank Nitti, and Paul Ricca), before becoming the boss himself. He expanded the Outfit's influence to most of the western states, eventually succeeding in allowing the Outfit total independence from the eastern mobs which had their own ruling commission and territories. Anthony Accardo, who was also known as the "Big Tuna," ruled the family from approximately 1943 until 1957, when he abdicated leadership to his underboss, Sam (Momo) Giancana. When Giancana went to prison in 1965, he returned to full control untiL the early 1970s, when his new underboss Joseph Aiuppa took the reigns - always with his supervision. His years on the Chicago throne were remarkable by their brutality and bloodshed, particularly on violators of the drug ban enforced in the city. He, unlike other mob bosses throughout history, was serious about this rule. When the Chicago leadership was decimated by Las Vegas casino skimming convictions in the mid-1980s, he returned to the fold and reinstated a new administration, remaining in the background to survey their management. When he passed away in 1992, the family he had turned into a vast army of money-making killers was a shell of its former self.

Crime of Cowards

2011-04-09T09:37:00.001-07:00

After losing my Daughter to a hit and run driver in 2001, , I feel the strong need to have a place for others who have lost someone to this conscienceless crime, As I watch the nightly news here in Arizona, there is not a night that goes by that there isn't a story about another hit and run, And as I watch this I relive our loss...Hoping to build support here to help increase penalty for this horrible crime!

This New Website will feature Hit and Run drivers for all to see \

http://crimeofcowards.com/

Joe Mantegna

2011-02-27T15:13:00.001-08:00

Another Chicago Class Act
Date of Birth: November 13, 1947

"I never lose sight of the fact that I'm in a line of work that is, essentially, other people's fantasies."

Born Joseph Anthony Mantegna Jr., Joe and his big brother Ronald were brought up in Chicago, Illinois. When he was eight, he contracted rheumatic fever, and was sent to a charity sanatorium for five months to recover. He attended Morton East High School in Cicero when he met his future wife, actress Arlene Vrhel.

After high school, Joe went to Morton Junior College and in two years, he won a scholarship to the Goodman Theater School in DePaul University. In 1969 he met up with Vrhel again. The two began dating when both were cast in a production of Hair, and married six years later in 1975. They presently have two daughters, Mia Marie, born 1987 and Gina born 1991.

Mantegna received a number of awards for his work on stage and in television and film. He won an award for his role in Bleacher Bums from the New York Dramatics Guild in 1979.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until 1984 that audiences began to notice him. He made his breakthrough with his stage role as Ricky Roma in Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won a Tony for Best Featured Actor and the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Supporting Actor, and shared the 1984 award for Outstanding Ensemble from the Special Drama Desk Awards.

From his success in theater, he transferred his energy to film. Although he began with smaller roles, his patience would pay off when in 1988, he won Best Actor from the Venice Film Festival for his portrayal of a two-bit gangster in Things Change (1988).

Since then, he has been getting roles in largely mediocre films, but at times can also be found in big hits including Godfather III (1990), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) and Thinner (1996). He has starred in television series such as Joan of Arcadia from 2003 to 2005, and on Criminal Minds. He also works on the big screen in films such as Witless Protection (2008).

Chicago Style Italian Beef Sandwich

2011-02-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

The Italian beef sandwich is serious business in Chicago. We're not fooling around here. Everyone has their favorite place. Once people make up there mind that's it. There's no changing it.

Let's separate the favorites by territory. Taylor Street has Al's No. 1 Italian Beef, Elmwood Park has Johnnie's Beef, River North has Mr. Beef, Buona Beef in Berwyne and Max's Famous Italian Beef on North Western Ave., just to name a few.Where I come from many of us grew up with Al's. After trying all the rest Al's still remains my favorite.
Now that I touched on the legendary Chicago Italian beef sandwich lets get to my not so famous recipe. You can try it at home. It's good and you'll enjoy it but don't even tell me the ones I mentioned are better, I'm sure they are. They've been making them a lot longer than I have.
Still I guarantee this Italian beef sandwich will be one of the best home recipes you'll make.

INGREDIENTS

5 pound rump roast

6 cloves of garlic chopped fine

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp of dried basil

1 tsp of dried thyme

1 onion slice

2 cups of beef broth

1/2 cup of red wine

1/2 cup of water

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

3 red and green bell peppers

Italian Rolls

PREPARATION

Mix garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, salt and pepper.

Rub mixture into beef. Massage it thoroughly. Like you're on a date.

Place the beef in a large plastic bag and add 1 cup of broth, wine and onion.

Let marinate in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Place roast in a roasting pan and pour the marinade over the roast.

Add the remaining broth and water.

Roast with no lid for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours turning once within that time.

Remove roast and let stand till cool. Reserve juice.

Slice beef thin on a meat slicer. If you don't have a slicer, get one. You'll use it for a lot more things than roast beef.

Place beef in juice.

Cut peppers into slices and saute in oil until done.Slice your rolls and pile on that juicy beef. Add sweet peppers or giardinera and eat. Don't forget those napkins. In the summer, try this recipe on a grill. Oh my goodness!

Spread the Stupidity

2011-01-23T10:06:00.001-08:00

Spread the Stupidity

Only in America ...do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America ...do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a Diet Coke.

Only in America ...do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America ...do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America ...do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America ...do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

EVER WONDER...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

I like this one!!!
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity

National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame

2011-01-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

2010-12-26T21:39:00.001-08:00

May The Year 2011 Bring for You Happiness,Success and filled with Peace,Hope & Togetherness of your Family & Friends....Wishing You a...*HAPPY NEW YEAR*

Happy Holiday's

2010-11-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

We're thinking of you this time of year,
Wishing you happiness, joy, and cheer.
May all your days be warm and bright,
And your nights enhanced by holiday light.

Enjoy your delectable holiday foods,
As parties and gifts create holiday moods.
Favorite people play a meaningful part,
While treasured rituals warm your heart.

You are special to us in many ways,
So we wish you Happy Holidays!

Dawn Sansone...We Miss You

2010-11-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Nine years ago today we lost our angel, Please visit here with your thoughts AND PRAYERS

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Dawn Sansone who was born in Illinois on January 02, 1978 and passed away on November 06, 2001 at the age of 23. We will remember her forever.
Those of you who knew Dawn, Knew she was full of life, A sweet and feisty little firecracker who's smile could warm an eskimo. She was taken away from us without warning and has left large holes in the hearts of all who had the chance to see the smile that came from her always. Life will never again be complete without her being a physical part, Her heart will beat among us who loved her forever and ever

Please visit her site and leave your thoughts and wishes....Thank you
http://dawnsansone.memory-of.com/

Tony Accardo Legacy

2010-10-23T16:39:00.001-07:00

Summing up the late Tony Accardo's leadership abilities, a veteran Chicago mob figure once confided to Chicago American columnist George Murray that "...Accardo has more brains before breakfast than Al Capone ever had all day." Possessing a nimble mind and a canny instinct for survival, Accardo boasted of having never spent a night in jail. though he was picked up in Miami Beach in 1929 on vagrancy charges while playing golf with Al Capone and Jack McGurn. But he was released on his own recognizance. Accardo's closest brush with the slammer came on Feb. 24, 1945, when he was forced to suffer the indignity of appearing in a police lineup at the Chicago Detective Bureau during a murder investigation. But that too, was only a mere formality.

Even during his last years when he was consumed with cancer and his body a thin. frail shell, this elder statesman of the rackets was accorded a respect that was never shown other mob cures of his generation who reaped a r more bitter harvest. In death, Tony Accardo still looms as the most powerful mob figure of this era; the boss of bosses who helped shape policy on a national level.

Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, a product of the Prohibition era, ruled the rackets in this town for nearly forty years before succumbing to the ravages of old age and cancer on May 17, 1992. He was an early product of the "Circus Gang," a collection of Northwest Side toughs who congregated at John "Screwy" Moore's (a.k.a. Claude Maddox) Circus Cafe on North Avenue. Moore was nominally connected to the Torrio-Capone outfit, and he willingly obliged Scarface with a percentage of his gang's liquor revenue, and the necessary armaments through their gun dealer Peter Von Frantzius.

Accardo, a strapping, flve-nine, 200 pound lad who was the son of an immigrant shoemaker, joined the Circus Gang while he was still in his teens. He was introduced to the mob boys by "Tough" Tony Capezio, a gambling boss and syndicate man, who pulled him off the streets of the Grand and Milwaukee neighborhood, and gave him something more "useful" to do. By the end of the 1920s, Accardo was performing various tasks for the Capone mob while running with another gangster of future importance, his closest friend and confidant, Felice De Lucia, better known as Paul "the Waiter" Ricca.

Mob media writers have always suspected the youthful Accardo of complicity in Chicago's most sensational gangland killing, the 1929 St. Valentine's's Day Massacre. In all probability Accardo acted as one of Capone's lookouts on Clark Street and may have had a small role in the planning the hit, but it is farfetched speculation to place him in the garage at the time of the actual shootings.

It was after the Massacre, however, when Accardo first began to make a name for himself as Al Capone's bodyguard and special enforcer. His fearsome reputation for violence and cunning was no doubt nurtured by one of his immediate superiors: "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn. Accardo's stock and trade was vengeance and he was particularly adept with a baseball bat. In May 1929, Al Capone discovered that he was the target of a murder plot, hatched by Alberto Anselmi and John Scalise, two Sicilian contract killers who had been on the big guy's permanent retainer for five years. At a lavish dinner party given in their honor someone, maybe it was Accardo, maybe it was Capone no one knows for sure--took a baseball bat to their traitorous heads, and afterward dumped the bodies in a ditch in the south suburbs. Accardo's respectful mob associates would later pin a nickname on him that he would carry to his grave: "Joe Batters," or "Joe B." Go figure.

The "Big Tuna" moniker was strictly a press invention. There are those who believe it was given to him in 1949 by the late Ray Brennan of the Chicago Sun Times who marvelled at the 400-pound tunafish Accardo pulled out of the waters of Wedgeport, Nova Scotia. Others will tell you that Accardo actually landed the "big one" at Bimini during a deep-sea fishing expedition in 1955, and he continued to use the nickname as an alias while serving as a 'phantom" salesman for the Premium Beer Sales Company between 1956-58. Accardo pulled down a hefty salary of $179.000, even though he was rarely seen around the offices.. When he would telephone company president Dominick Volpe, Accardo would identify himself as the Big Tuna placing a call to the "little Tuna." Volpe had accompanied Accardo on the Bimini trip, and the fish he landed was a small fry by comparison. Fish stories aside, Tony Accardo had been pegged as one of Chicago's important gangland figures early on in his career.

In 1931, the Chicago Crime Commission named Accardo to its first published list of "Public Enemies," at a time when the power structure of the Chicago outfit was being revamped due to Al Capone's imprisonment for tax evasion in violation of the Federal income tax laws, Accardo expanded Capone's gambling operations across the city and suburbs siphoning portions of this illegal revenue into various legitimate enterprises including trucking firms, lumber and coal companies, labor unions, and restaurants and hotels.

As the "old guard" slowly faded away Ricca and Accardo broadened their responsibilities. When Frank Nitti committed suicide in 1943, Paul "the Waiter Ricca assumed control of the Outfit, even though he was incarcerated in a federal prison at the time. Accardo functioned as his second in command and always managed to defer final action to Ricca during the entire three-year period the "Waiter" spent in confinement at the Leavenworth Penitentiary. Upon his release, Accardo was handed a rich plum for his abiding loyalty: he was put in complete control of wire operations and betting parlors from northwest Indiana to the northern suburbs of Chicago. Evidence of Accardo's propensity for violence, and willingness to employ whatever means necessary to effect an outcome was clearly demonstrated on June 24, 1946, when James M. Ragen was cut down in a fusillade of bullets as he drove south on State Street near Pershing Boulevard. Ragen controlled the Nationwide News Service (the name was later changed to Continental Press), a telephone wire that dispensed race track results to participating poolrooms across the U.S. The stormy history of this operation extends back to the horse and buggy era when gambling czar Mont Tennes seized control of the wire from John Payne. After Tennes was "squeezed. by Capone In the 1920s, he sold his interests to publishing mogul Moses Annenberg.

When Annenberg was forced to divest his gambling interests in 1939, because of tax troubles with the government, James Ragen stepped in and took control. But Ragen was intractable with the syndicate, and refused to share his spoils with Accardo, who allegedly ordered his removal. When the bullets failed to kill the aging Ragen, a mob operative slipped into his hospital room in August. In the autopsy that followed, traces of mercury were found in Ragen's blood system.

Under Accardo's direction, Continental became the outfit's cash cow - so much so that Estes Kefauver's Senate investigating committee called it "the life blood. of the outfit. That same year -1950 - Accardo, acting under Ricca's orders, shoved aside "Big" Jim Martin who controlled an enormous policy racket in the Twenty-eighth ward. Political protection was provided by Alderman George Kells, and with so much revenue and "clout" at stake, Martin and his silent partner in City Hall were understandably perturbed at Ricca for demanding that they relinquish control. On November 15, Martin suffered serious gun shot wounds. The shooter missed the mark, but Accardo achieved his original purpose. Martin fled to Los Angeles, and Kells drove to Florida never to return. The alderman told reporters at the time that he was doing it because his wife was in "poor health."

Accardo now personally controlled more than 10,000 gambling dens in Chicago ranging from corner cigar stands, right up to the lavish Loop pool rooms. He also played a role in establishing Havana, Cuba as a new base of operations for organized crime figures following the repeal of Prohibition. The revenue from these operations netted the Outfit millions, but narcotics trafficking was one area Accardo refused to involve himself with. Aunt on the advice of Jake Guzik and men to deal in drugs. Only in recent years has this dictate been challenged by the "Young Turk" faction, and usually with a corresponding loss of life within the ranks of the interlopers.

Accardo, like others before him, had a penchant for the good life. As his wealth, esteem, and political influence escalated in the early 1950s, he purchased a lavish mansion at 915 Franklin Street in River Forest for the sum of $150,000, this time ignoring the advice and counsel of Humphreys who told him that "the smart money don't go to the suburbs."

"You and your family will stick out like a sore thumb and the Feds will always know exactly where you are." Nevertheless, Accardo stocked his mansion with the most expensive furniture, and a black onyx bathtub that served as his unofficial command post. Later, Accardo added a twenty-room mansion in Miami to his holdings.

Accardo's opulent lifestyle, and a celebrated European vacation he took with his wife Clarice, and a well-known Chicago police lieutenant in 1959, attracted national media attention which compelled the government to sit up and take notice. A year later he was indicted, convicted, and sentenced to six years on charges of income tax evasion. However, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned U.S. Attorney Richard B. Ogilvie's successful prosecution of Accardo due to what they called "prejudicial newspaper coverage." In a second trial convened in 1962, the Chicago mob boss was acquitted.

Tony Accardo bragged that he never spent a night in jail, even though he was indicted no less than four times between 1948 and 1982. Each time the government failed in its mission to put him behind bars. In the celebrated 1982 labor-racketeering trial in Miami, Fla., Accardo and fourteen co-defendants were charged with conspiring to share in $2 million in kickbacks involving the placement of insurance business from the mob-controlled 550,000 member Laborer's International Union into the hands of a convicted swindler named Joseph Hauser of Beverly Hills, Cal. In stirring courtroom testimony, Hauser labeled Accardo as "the number one" power behind the union. He detailed the methods used by the Chicago mob leader to force the removal of secretary treasurer Terrance O'Sullivan in favor of his own man
Angelo Fosco, who ultimately succeeded his father Peter Fosco as union president.

But Accardo's two crack defense attorneys, Carl M. Walsh and Eddie Kay, poked holes through Hauser's testimony and revealed that the government had paid him $105,000 as a protected witness. The Miami jury freed Accardo but sent six of his associates to jail including Al Pilotto, president of Local 5, and James Caporale, an official in the Chicago-based council. While all this was going on, Accardo quietly orchestrated the appointment of his son-in-law Ernest Kumerow as president of the County and Municipal Union Local 1001. Kumerow, a former star baseball player at the University of Illinois took charge took of a Local that represented some 3,000 city street and sanitation workers. The old man's clout in organized labor was extensive and far reaching.

The unfavorable publicity surrounding Accardo, coupled with his continuing l.R.S. woes, compelled the nervous Ricca to make a change in the upper echelon of the outfit. In 1957 or so, Paul Ricca decided that Accardo should shun the limelight for a while, in favor of Sam "Momo" Giancana, an ambitious, but maniacal killer whose modest bungalow in Oak Park was a far cry from the palatial estate the Big Tuna resided in. Giancana was at first considered to be a "low- profile" type, but Ricca had erred badly in this regard. Giancana took up with Phyllis McGuire of the singing McGuire Sisters act, and soon found himself more enchanted with Frank Sinatra and his Hollywood pals than attending to his business in the manner Ricca would have preferred.
Paul Ricca succeeded in diverting the attention away from Accardo, but the publicity surrounding Giancana's own ostentatious life style forced another change in 1966, the year after Momo went into a self-imposed exile following a year-long stretch in prison after he refused to testify before a federal grand jury. Accardo resumed control, with Joey Aiuppa serving as his second in command. This time, Accardo seemed more than willing to avoid the mistakes of the past. He sold his home in River Forest in 1963, in favor of a more "modest" 18 room ranch house at 1407 N. Ashland Avenue. It was there in January 1977, when a gang of burglars foolishly broke into the home in search of cash and jewels. They were stalked, hounded, and ultimately tracked down by syndicate hit men who slashed the throats of the six burglars. One was castrated, and another disemboweled.

Bernard Ryan, the first of the burglary suspects was found shot to death on Jan. 20, 1978 in Stone Park. Steven Garcia, 29, was pulled out of the trunk of a car parked in the garage at O'Hare Airport on February 2. Vincent Moretti and Donald Swanson, two veteran second story men, were stabbed to death on February 4 in an abandoned car in Stickney Township. John Mandell, who was considered somewhat of an electronics expert suffered a similar fate. Police located his remains in an auto trunk on the South Side on February 20.

The sixth man suspected of complicity in the burglary, 43-year-old John McDonald, was shot to death in a North Side alley in April 1978. In the weeks that followed, a number of burglars and sneak thieves prudently decided to skip town though they were not involved in the River Forest heist. No-one was taking any chances with the old man on this one, especially after Accardo's 75-year-old houseman Michael Volpe disappeared. just five days after testifying before a grand fury. Accardo had sent an important message to all those who would question his leadership abilities or willingness to dispense justice as he had years earlier. Since 1979 and up to the time of his death, Tony Accardo alternated his residence between his Indian Wells condominium located twenty miles outside of Palm Springs. Cal., and his other home in Barrington Hills. From his location in the warm California desert, Accardo served as the outfit's "chairman emeritus" while younger men carried out his directives back in Chicago.

In the last years of his life, Accardo was beset with various legal and personal problems. In February 1983 his 40-year-old nephew John Simonelli was indicted by a DuPage County grand jury on auto theft charges.

A few months later, the Big Tuna was dragged before a Senate Subcommittee investigating labor racketeering within the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU), led by Richie Daley's pal Edward Hanley. Accardo was an uncooperative witness even though he was under an immunity grant from the government. His refusal to answer sensitive questions or provide clarification to the committee members resulted in a contempt of Congress citation which was handed down in February 1984. Ill health prevented him from further testimony, as the committee concluded its hearings with this finding "the committee finds that the mobster dominated locals of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union in the Chicago Area served only the purpose of giving a cloak of legitimacy to what was nothing more than a pure extortion racket." Accardo emerged from his Senate ordeal unscathed. as you might expect. But before another year had passed, Tony's niece Sheila Simonelli was busted for allegedly trying to sell $23.5 million in stolen securities. The woman's mother Marie Simonelli, is Accardo's sister.
Then in August 1991, a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled that Accardo could not deduct $60.000 in back taxes and penalties, stemming from his courtroom victory in Miami nine years earlier. While the sum of money was trifling compared to the vast fortune Accardo had amassed over the years, it was indicative of the heat the government had been putting on the ailing gang leader. Accardo's death closes out a significant chapter in Chicago organized crime history. For all practical purposes he was the last link to Al Capone and the fabled Prohibition era which has faded into the abyss of history. Tony was without question the most powerful mob figure of his time, and his passing raises new concerns about the renewal of a gang war in Chicago, as other less circumspect figures seek to reap the harvest of what Anthony Accardo had sewn years ago.
...................And then the wolf blew in the house, Next Fairy tale

Mario's Italian Lemonade.........Mmmm Mmmm

2010-09-12T09:59:00.001-07:00

If you marry a girl from Chicago...

2010-08-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

The third man married a girl from Chicago . He ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has some difficulty when he pees.

The Obediant Italian Wife !

2010-08-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

There was an Italian immigrant man who had worked all his life, had saved all of his money, and was a real "miser" when it came to his money.

Just before he died, he said to his Italian wife..."When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the after life with me."

And so he got his wife to promise him, with all of her heart, that when he died, she would put all of the money into the casket with him.

Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there - dressed in black, (what else), and her best friend was sitting next to her.

When they finished the ceremony, and just before the undertaker got ready to close the casket, the wife said, "Wait just a moment!"
She had a small metal box with her; she came overwith the box and put it in the casket.

Then the undertaker locked the casket down and they rolled it away. So her friend said, "Girl, I know you were not fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband."
The loyal wife replied, "Listen, I'm an Italian Catholic & I cannot go back on my word. I promised him that I was going to put that money in the casket with him.."

You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him??"

"I sure did," said the wife. "I got it all together, put it into my account, I wrote him a check.... If he can cash it, then he can spend it." AMEN!

CIAO TUTTI

Over 30 Crowd !! Remember??

2010-08-03T20:26:00.001-07:00

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is
hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up;
what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....
Uphill...
Barefoot...
BOTH
ways. yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we
wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and
look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter -with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a
matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission
to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!
There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car..
We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished,
and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause,
hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the
phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!
There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house,
you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you
had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!
And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change thechannel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on
Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!
And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.
Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckly, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah Hello Faddah (1963)

2010-07-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Check This Out

2010-07-12T17:28:00.001-07:00

How six recent Columbia College grads got Hollywood muscle to help them make their mob movie

Chris Charles says he warned his star up front: "But I don't think it really registered till his first day of shooting in downtown Chicago."

Charles had cast Frank Vincent as the lead in Chicago Overcoat, an independent drama that will receive its world premiere Saturday, October 10, at the Chicago International Film Festival. Known almost exclusively for playing gangsters—including New York crime boss Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos and Billy Batts, who ends up in a trunk in Goodfellas—Vincent, 70, got to the set in October 2007 and realized that most of the crew were in their early 20s. "He's looking around like, 'Where'd all these kids come from?'" says Charles, who's now 25.

Chicago Overcoat was the first full-length feature produced by Beverly Ridge Pictures, a company formed in 2005 by six Columbia College film students, including Charles. Writer-director Brian Caunter, now 26, and writer-producer John Bosher, now 25, developed a sideline producing promotional and music videos while roommates at Columbia. Their "booty video," as Caunter calls it, for Joe Glass & IROC's "Two" got heavy rotation on BET Uncut in 2004. The next year, Caunter and Bosher joined forces with Charles, Philip Plowden, Kevin Moss, and William Maursky to form Beverly Ridge, named after Moss's far-south-side neighborhood. "The name sounds Hollywood, but it's also kind of Chicago," Caunter explains. They used Givens Castle, a Beverly landmark, as their logo. Charles directed Beverly Ridge's first production, a short adaptation of the Ray Bradbury short story "The Small Assassin."

In 2006 the six friends worked on a low-budget thriller called The Devil's Dominoes, directed by Scott Prestin, owner of the now-defunct Wicker Park bar Ginbucks. "We realized from that experience that we were more prepared than we thought to make a feature," Charles says. They were all fans of gangster films and figured they could make one without incurring a lot of extra production costs by taking advantage of Chicago locations.

"For months all we had was a title," says Caunter. His grandmother in Ohio had suggested "Chicago Overcoat," Prohibition-era slang for a coffin. The Family Secrets mob trials were in the headlines at the time and wound up providing inspiration for the screenplay.

Vincent plays Lou Marazano, an old hit man for the Chicago Outfit, who accepts his first contract in years—going after witnesses in a union pension-fund embezzlement case—to finance his Vegas retirement. Another Goodfellas vet, Mike Starr, is the underboss who exploits Marazano's money troubles. Another Sopranos alum, Kathrine Narducci, plays Marazano's old flame and alibi. Armand Assante plays the jailed boss facing trial. Chicago-based actor Danny Goldring is the alcoholic detective who's been chasing Marazano since the 1980s. And Stacy Keach does a cameo as a retired investigator pulled off the case when he got too close to city corruption.

"We were huge fans of The Sopranos," Caunter says. "We decided to write the script with Frank Vincent in mind so when he read it he'd feel like the main character is Frank Vincent. His book A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man was our character outline." The partners figured that "if we could create roles from scratch for celebrities, knowing they'd want to play something different, something challenging, we'd have an easier time recruiting them," Charles says. "We usually see Frank as a high-rolling mobster, higher on the food chain. In this film he's very humbled, very flawed, taking orders from guys younger than him."

Charles got the script to Vincent's people, and Vincent responded even though it came from unknowns in flyover country. "What appealed to me was the sensitivity of playing the softer side of a mob guy," Vincent says, "a guy who's not in control, who's looking to get the control." Vincent says he met a lot of mafiosi while touring as a drummer for Del Shannon and Paul Anka in the 1960s, helping him perfect a persona he's portrayed in Scorsese masterpieces and B movies alike. "They all have a way of looking at you, of intimidating you," Vincent says. "They're all evil. I can give a look or a stare that people read as evil."

Caunter and Charles signed Vincent at a place called Goodfellas Ristorante near his New Jersey home. "Frank walked in in a jumpsuit with a gold chain, looking like he walked off the set of The Sopranos," Charles says.

Once Vincent signed on, the other leads followed. Joe Mantegna was cast as the detective but dropped out weeks before shooting to take a role on CBS's Criminal Minds. "That was tough," Charles says. "I'd worked very hard to cast Joe." Goldring, who played the last clown killed in the opening bank heist sequence of The Dark Knight, stepped in. "They're so young, but they really got the writing for old-timers down," Goldring says.

The mother of cinematographer Kevin Moss, JoAnne Moss, who runs a real estate title insurance firm, personally invested "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and helped raise the rest of the $2 million budget, according to a report in Crain's Chicago Business. "Originally it was a smaller film. But as we found some success attaching talent, the budget increased," Charles says. "The project just kept getting bigger."

The filmmakers' youth "concerned me, absolutely," Vincent says. "They were younger than my kids. I've never experienced that before in all the films I've done, such a young team. . . . I figured if they were going to screw up, they'd screw up right away. As we progressed into the shoot, it became clear that they really knew what they wanted, and that was enough to make me confident."

Caunter, who turned 24 during the shoot, says he felt like "a chicken with its head cut off. Most of the time you have no idea what's going on. You feel like the world is going to end. You shoot for 12 hours, you come home and feel like you failed. The next day you feel like you want to redeem yourself. I think that's what makes a good movie—the struggle. If everything went your way it might feel kind of washy. I never had that experience, so I don't know."

The biggest adjustment for Caunter was learning to adapt to each actor's approach. "Frank is quite easygoing," he says. "Armand is the polar opposite. Armand would scream obscenities at the top of his lungs before the take. That alone would scare half the set, and then we'd roll the camera."

"They turned me loose," says Goldring. "That can be a dangerous thing for any actor, but they also had the good sense to rein me in. I'm a passion merchant. Doing Chicago Overcoat allowed me to let my passions out. The [character] is . . . ornery. He likes to tip back a few. Even though I don't do that anymore, I can play one on TV."

Accusations of ethnic stereotyping have dogged many of Vincent's projects. Last spring, MillerCoors pulled a series of ads featuring Vincent and Starr as mobsters after complaints from the Order Sons of Italy in America. Chicago Overcoat is no exception. After principal photography wrapped in November 2007, Bosher got an e-mail from Bill Dal Cerro of the advocacy group Italic Institute of America. Dal Cerro wrote, "It saddens—and yes, sickens me—that you are reverting to the oldest game in the book in your quest for Hollywood fame: namely, stoking prejudice against Americans of Italian descent by producing yet another pointless Italian 'mob' movie."

"I told him they can't force us to stop making movies that people want to see," Bosher says. "They have to change people's minds." Let them protest, adds Vincent, who sells "mobbleheads" of his Goodfellas character on his Web site. "It'll do the movie good."

It's going to be tough to recover the $2 million budget in today's independent film market, which is arguably in a deeper slump than the rest of the economy. Todd Slater of LA-based Huntsman Entertainment is shopping the film to distributors. "We've had a lot of offers from smaller companies," Charles says. "We've been waiting patiently for the right buyer. We want an offer we can't refuse

Courtesy of Chicago Reader.com

James Belushi

2010-06-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

James Belushi was born June 15, 1954 in Chicago but grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the third of four children of Adam Belushi, and Agnes, who was born in the U.S. of

A high school teacher, impressed by Jim's improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced Jim to to be in a school play. After that he joined the school's drama club. Today if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir....more girls!".

He attended the College of Dupage and graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts. From 1976-80 he became a resident member of Chicago's famed Second City. In 1979, write-producer Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for 2nd City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV Pilot "Who's Watching the Kids" for Paramount, and then for a role in the television show "Working Stiffs" (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for 2 years.

Jim came to national attention through his role in Edward Zwick's film "About Last Night" with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago".

He has come a long way from 2nd City, SNL, and his early role in the TV series "Working Stiffs". His feature credits since then show an extraordinary range: He was James Woods' spacey DJ buddy, Dr. Rock, in Oliver Stone's "Salvador"; the mentally handicapped dishwasher befriended by Whoopi Goldberg in the Andrei Konchalovsky film, "Homer and Eddie"; and the defiant high school principal standing up to drug dealers in "The Principal." In 2000 Belushi co-starred in MGM's "Return to Me," directed by Bonnie Hunt and starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, and he received rave reviews for his work with Gregory Hines in Showtime's "Who Killed Atlanta's Children? As his popularity grew over the years, so did his roles in film, theater, and television.

Belushi has performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's acclaimed "Conversations with My Father" at the Royal Theatre, off-Broadway in "True West," at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of John Guare's "Moon Over Miami," and for Joseph Papp as the Pirate King in "Pirates of Penzance." In addition he does numerous voiceovers for film, television and for commercials.

He not only keeps busy acting in films but also performs with his band, the Sacred Hearts. Jim has little time outside career and family, but has made a major commitment as founder and member of the board of the John Belushi Scholarship Fund, which supports college and college-prep students pursuing performance and visual arts education. Most recently Belushi has added authorship to his repertoire, with his first book entitled "Real Men Don't Apologize." He explains how to do just about everything, from picking up women and choosing your friends to sticking up for yourself and how not to apologize.

A dedicated husband and father he resides in Los Angeles with his wife - Jennifer; 2 sons - Robert ( '81) and Jared ('02) and a daughter - Jamison ('99). Jim is currently starring in his own sitcom, titled According to Jim, which can be seen at it's regular time slot on the ABC network and 5 days a week in syndication.

JOE MANTEGNA

2010-06-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Chicago Pizza History

2010-06-01T20:29:00.001-07:00

The Chicago-style "deep-dish" pizza that many people love was invented at Pizzeria Uno, in Chicago, in 1943, reportedly by Uno's founder Ike Sewell, a former University of Texas football star. However, a 1956 article from the Chicago Daily News asserts that Uno's original pizza chef Rudy Malnati developed the famous recipe.

The pizza's foundation is simple. It uses a thick layer of dough (made with olive oil and cornmeal) that is formed to a deep round pan and pulled up the sides. The pizza crust is then parbaked before the toppings are added to give it greater spring.

Parbaking is a cooking technique in which a bread or dough product is partially baked and then rapidly frozen or cooled. The raw dough is baked as if normal, but halted at about 80% of the normal cooking time, when it is rapidly cooled and frozen. The partial cooking kills the yeast in the bread mixture, and sets the internal structure of the proteins and starches (the spongy texture of the bread), so that it is now essentially cooked inside, but not so far as to have generated "crust" or other externally desirable qualities that are difficult to preserve once fully cooked.

The crust is then covered with cheese (generally sliced mozzarella) and covered with meats and/or vegetables such as Italian sausage, onions, and bell peppers. A sauce consisting of crushed or pureed tomatoes is then added. Usually this is topped with a grated cheese blend to add additional flavor. On the usual pizza, about a pound of cheese is added. Because of the amount of ingredients in this style of pizza, it is usually eaten with a knife and fork. It's quite messy to eat with your fingers.

In addition to Uno, additional famous deep-dish restaurants include Uno's companion restaurant Due, which was opened just down the block by Sewell in 1955. However, a year before, in 1954, The Original Gino's Pizza, located on Rush Street, opened its doors, and 12 years later in 1966, Gino's East opened. Other deep dish restaurants include Edwardo's, Connie's, Giordano's, Carmen's, Pizano's (which is owned by Rudy Malnati's son, Rudy Jr.), and Lou Malnati's (which was begun by another of Rudy Malnati's sons and is now run by his grandsons and has 26 Chicago area locations).

Chicago deep-dish pizza is famous throughout the world. Accordingly, many Chicago deep-dish pizza restaurants will ship their pizzas, partially baked, within the continental U.S.

In the mid-1970s, two Chicago chains, Nancy's, founded by Rocco Palese, and Giordano's began experimenting with deep dish pizza and created the stuffed pizza. Palese based his creation on his mother's recipe for scarciedda, an Italian Easter pie from his hometown of Potenza. A Chicago Magazine article featuring Giordano's stuffed pizza popularized the dish. Other pizzerias that make stuffed pizzas include Bacino's, Edwardo's and Carmen's. Most also make thin crust pizzas.

Stuffed pizzas are often even taller than deep-dish pizzas, but otherwise, it can be hard to see the difference until you cut into it. A stuffed pizza generally has much higher topping density than any other type of pizza. As with deep-dish pizza, a thin layer of dough forms a bowl in a high-sided pan and the toppings and cheese are added. Then, an additional layer of dough goes on top and is pressed to the sides of the bottom crust.

At this stage of the process, the thin dough top has a rounded, domed appearance. Pizza makers often puncture a small hole in the top of the "pizza lid" to allow air and steam to escape while cooking. This allows the pizza sauce to permeate through the pie. Pizza sauce is added to the top crust layer and the pizza is then baked.

Chicago pan pizza in Chicago is similar to the traditional deep-dish style pizza served in other areas of the country, and baked in a similar deep-sided pan, but its crust is quite thick -- a cross between the buttery crisp crust and focaccia. Toppings and cheese frequently go on the top of a pan pizza, rather than under the sauce as is traditionally the case with deep-dish and stuffed pizza. The placement of the cheese and toppings on top make the pan pizza variety similar to a thin-crust pizza with a thicker and larger crust.

In addition to Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, there is also a thin-crust pizza unique to Chicago, sometimes referred to as "flat pizza". The crust is thin and firm, usually with a crunchy texture, unlike a New York-style pizza, yet thick enough to be soft and doughy on the top.

The crust is topped with a liberal quantity of Italian style tomato sauce. This type of sauce is usually seasoned with herbs or and highly spiced. Typically there are no visible chunks of tomato in the crust. A layer of toppings is added, and finally a layer of mozzarella cheese.

Chicago style pizza has a rich and famous heritage and admirers from all over the world. If you're a pizza lover and you've never tried this type of pizza, be sure to give it a try, I'm absolutely convinced that you will love it!

Go Blackhawks

2010-05-23T19:48:00.001-07:00

I would like to take the time to congratulate the Chicago Blackhawks on making it to the Stanley Cup Finals after they swept the San Jose Sharks with a 4-2 win at the United Center earlier this afternoon. Just four more wins and they will become Champions for the first time since 1961 and for the fourth time in their history. They are a young team that plays like a veteran squad, and whether they meet up with the Montreal Canadiens or the Philadelphia Flyers from the East, they are my pick to win Lord Stanley's mug. To me, they just do not seem like they can be stopped.

John Carpino / L.A. Angels

2010-05-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Another Class Act from Chicago

John Carpino begins his seventh season with the Angels, with 2010 marking his first year as club President, following his promotion in November of 2009. As President, Carpino will focus on the areas of Business, Sales, Marketing and Communications. His promotion follows six seasons as the Angels' Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing during which he oversaw all aspects of marketing, promotions and ticket sales for the Angels organization. Under Carpino's direction, the Angels' organization has enjoyed unprecedented financial growth in the sponsorship, marketing and ticketing divisions. Under his leadership, Angels' attendance has exceeded 3.2 million for six consecutive seasons (2004-2009).
Carpino began his professional career in 1982 in the billboard industry, including stints in Tucson, Ariz., Chicago, Ill., Phoenix, Ariz., and Los Angeles, Calif. In 1985, he joined Arte Moreno at Outdoor Systems, a billboard company (which later became Viacom Outdoor in 2000 and CBS Outdoor in 2005) and spent 18 years in the Phoenix, Ariz. (1985-95) and Los Angeles (1995-2003) markets. Carpino oversaw $200 million in sales for the Western Region.
Carpino, 51, was born in Chicago, Ill., and is a 1982 graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Business Administration. He serves on the Executive Board for the Orange County United Way. John and his wife Elizabeth have three children and reside in Laguna Beach.

Portillos Hot Dogs

2010-04-16T17:36:00.001-07:00

Portillo's Hot Dogs

The best food and the best service!

Welcome to Portillo's Hot Dogs, Inc., started in 1963 by Dick Portillo in a small trailer and soon will be operating in 31 locations. His dedication to serving "the best food" and "the best service" available will make it worth your visit. Requests for his "type" of food and "service" are received daily at the corporate office from many of the 50 states (including Alaska) and many foreign countries. Calls from Taiwan, the Phillipines, Singapore, China, Europe, and Korea are just a few. Customers in the Chicagoland area also call frequently requesting a store just "a little closer to our house."

So, come enjoy what we hope you will find to be the best Hot Dog, Italian Beef, Maxwell Street Polish, Tasty Burgers, Fresh Salads and more at any of our locations. Bring the kids and ENJOY!

Portillo's won so many Silver Platter awards (the "Oscars" of the food industry) that the company retired from competition for 5 years to give others a chance. Come try our award-winning food and see if you agree.

Dennis Farina....Chicago Favorite

2010-04-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Name : Dennis Farina

Date of birth : 29 February 1944

Birthplace : Chicago, Illinois, USA

Height : 6' 1½

Profession : Actor

Dennis Farina Detailed Biography

Lovable tough guy character actor Dennis Farina was already well into his first career as a Chicago cop before he was able to turn his occasional acting gigs into a prodigious new line of work.

Raised in Chicago by Italian immigrant parents, Farina joined his hometown's police force in the mid-'60s, settling into a life of law enforcement. When he was hired to be a local consultant on Michael Mann's film Thief (1981), however, Farina wound up with a bit part as the villain's heavy. Farina continued to moonlight as an actor for several years, appearing in local theater and occasional movies, including Final Jeopardy (1985) and the Chuck Norris vehicle Code of Silence (1985). Though Dennis Farina never took an acting class, Farina was a natural; after Michael Mann offered him the lead in the series Crime Story in 1986, Farina left the police force to play a TV cop. During his 1986-1988 stint on the series, Farina also played FBI agent Jack Crawford (Scott Glen's part in Silence of the Lambs [1991]) in Mann's stylish thriller Manhunter (1986), was the Birdman of Alcatraz in the TV movie Six Against the Rock (1987), and a cop in TV movie mystery Through Naked Eyes (1987).

Drawing on his no-nonsense charm as well as his eclectic life experience, Farina continued to shine in roles on both sides of the law, such as serial killer Angelo Buono in The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989) and the lead prosecutor in the TV docudrama Blind Faith (1990). As nimble with comedy, Farina went up against Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin as a mobster in the popular buddy yarn Midnight Run (1988). Dennis Farina's versatility firmly established by the 1990s, Farina's early '90s work ranged from playing a billionaire in People Like Us (1990), to Banquo in a New York gangland version of Macbeth, Men of Honor (1991), as well as supporting roles in the comedy Another Stakeout (1993), Bruce Willis actioner Striking Distance (1993), John Turturro's Italian-American family drama Mac (1993), and vicious neo-noir Romeo Is Bleeding (1994).

Farina's appearance as John Travolta's nemesis, hilariously bumbling tough guy Ray "Bones" Barboni, in Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty (1995), led to his most notable hit since Midnight Run. His career hitting a new high, Farina co-starred with Bette Midler as reunited exes in Carl Reiner's That Old Feeling (1997), and starred as a Sicilian bigwig in the high-profile TV miniseries Bella Mafia (1997). Though his Marshall Sisco made only a brief appearance in Steven Soderbergh's esteemed Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight (1998), Farina was pitch-perfect as Jennifer Lopez's protective dad. After joining the superb corps in Steven Spielberg's award-winning Saving Private Ryan (1998), Farina returned to series TV, playing smooth detective Buddy Faro (1998); the series, however, lasted only one season.

Returning to films, Farina followed his role as the police captain who recruits The Mod Squad (1999) with another comic turn as a New York gangster who sets the diamond larceny plot in motion in Snatch (2000), adding a dash of Hollywood celebrity (along with Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro) to British lad director Guy Ritchie's sophomore effort. The releases of two of Farina's next films, Barry Sonnenfeld's caper Big Trouble (2001) and Edward Burns' romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York (2001), were delayed after the terrorist attack on New York on September 11, 2001. Sidewalks of New York surfaced later in 2001, but the romantic comedy failed to charm a large audience. Big Trouble finally made it into theaters in the first half of 2002, but despite the big name cast, Sonnenfeld's farce joined such high profile fare as Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage (2002) and the espionage actioner Bad Company (2002) on the list of 9/11-delayed flops. Farina's next film, the broad, witless comedy Stealing Harvard (2002), also failed at the box office. Farina returned to television during the fall 2002 season with a lead role as a comically monstrous Meet the Parents-esque father-in-law on the sitcom The In-Laws (2002). Despite initially withering reviews, The In-Laws managed to show signs of ratings life.

Fra Noi

2010-04-09T22:49:00.001-07:00

Fra Noi has been the newspaper of record for the Chicago area Italian-American community for more than four decades. Each month, we provide our readers with all the information they need to keep in touch with each other, their community and their heritage. Fra Noi fosters a sense of awareness, identity, unity and pride among Italian Americans, spotlighting their accomplishments and defending their reputation against defamation and sterotyping. My family has been recieving this paper for as long as I can remeber and I just turned 50, And have seen it at all friends house, Life in the Chicago Italian Community is well versed by the integrity of such a fine newspaper.

Chicago Mob 1960's-80's

2010-04-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Feds and the 1960s

The next decade was not kind to the Outfit. "Free love" cut into the action at their strip joints. Although it took the FBI several years to get up to speed, they quickly came to grips with the Chicago Mob. Bugs were planted in various places the Outfit used for meetings. Major Outfit guys were tailed, including the 24 hour surveillance of Giancana in 1963. Federal agents made Giancana lose his cool several times, including around his love interest, popular singer and entertainer Phyllis McGuire. They finally granted him immunity, forcing him to testify before a grand jury or be hit with contempt charges. Giancana refused to cooperate and was jailed for a year. Meanwhile, the Justice Department, under Robert Kennedy, made the first moves against corrupt labor unions, investigating the Mob dominated Teamsters Union and its national leader, Jimmy Hoffa, who was convicted of manipulating the pension fund in 1964.

Locally, Richard Ogilvie was elected Cook County Sheriff in 1962 and appointed incorruptible Chicago police officer Art Bilek as Chief of the Sheriff’s Police. For the first time in memory, the Sheriff’s Police conducted major raids on gambling games run by the Outfit, closing casinos, such as the Owl Club, all over the county. Even the Floating Crap game was hit by the Sheriffs’ Police, at a location in Cicero. At the same time, reformer O. W. Wilson was superintendent of the Chicago Police and no longer tolerated visible gambling and vice in the city. Importantly, Wilson decoupled the police department from politics, changing districts to no longer correspond with ward boundaries and centrally appointing district commanders rather than allowing the ward politicians to name them.

The pressure got to Giancana. His erratic behavior and his front page life style in return gave Ricca and Accardo fits. Thoroughly disgusted with Giancana, they deposed him in 1966 and elevated Sam "Teets" Battaglia, leader of the Battaglia-Carr gang in the early 1930s before joining the Outfit. Sam Giancana wisely left the country for Mexico and points beyond.

Battaglia was not at the helm long, however. The federal government practice of targeting the top man in the Outfit, which began with Giancana, turned the job of Boss into a revolving door. With prison on the other side of the door. Battaglia was jailed for racketeering in 1967 and replaced by Phil Alderisio, who was himself convicted in 1969. Long-time Accardo lieutenant Jackie Cerone succeeded Alderisio. In the years that followed, virtually every top mobster in Chicago, including everyone who sat in the boss’s chair, was convicted and jailed, with the exception of Tony Accardo.

A new activity for organized crime during the late 1960s was the "chop shop." The Outfit found a percentage in the wholesale theft of automobiles, by chopping them up and selling the untraceable parts rather than trying to move the entire car. This racket, centered in the South suburbs, was first subject to the street tax, with the mob later taking direct control of it.

Evolution in the 1970s and 1980s

Cerone was in turn convicted on gambling charges in May of 1970. In response to the dwindling supply of senior hoods, Accardo formed a threesome, including himself, Gus Alex and Joey Aiuppa, to run the Outfit, at least until Aiuppa was seasoned enough to be sole Boss. Within a few years Aiuppa held the reigns on his own.

The 1970s were tough on the Outfit from a business perspective. Off-track betting cut into their bookmaking operations. The state lottery cut into whatever action there was in numbers. And pressure on corrupt unions intensified.

Ethnic and political change also limited their opportunities in the city of Chicago. During most of the 1960s the Outfit was active, with the necessary political cover, in every part of the city. A side effect of the Civil Rights movement, however, was that minority groups elected new people to office who danced to a different tune. As neighborhoods changed, so did the Outfit’s ability to function in those areas. By the 1970s the Outfit’s activities were more focused on specific neighborhoods and suburbs where they had influence.

Another factor that hit organized crime was the changing nature of politics. During the 1960s, the old style, early 1900s, spittoon kicking, "I’m the boss and what I say goes" type of ward politician – who cooperated with the hoods because that was where the money was – was largely gone from the political landscape. The new, television covered, "servant of the people" type of politician was much less friendly to organized crime. Perhaps because the public was better informed about Mob activities and less tolerant of them.

Furthermore, the move into Las Vegas by legitimate operators, including large corporations, that started with Howard Hughes in the 1960s, resulted in the sale of many mob owned casinos. Law abiding individuals and corporations, because they had lower costs (relative to the hoods) due to operating efficiencies, found they could run the large Vegas casinos more profitably than the gangsters, even though they paid taxes on all their winnings. While they were able to cash out during this period rather than being forced out, this still changed the nature of the Outfit’s activities.

But the 1970s were not all bad. With increased interest in professional athletics, much of Mob bookmaking revolved around betting on pro sports, such as football and basketball. The clientele was mostly white and fairly white collar, as opposed to the traditional customers for the numbers or horse racing.

The 1970s also saw the demise of two major Chicago gangsters. Paul Ricca, who the government endlessly tried to deport (but no other country would take), died of natural causes in October of 1972. Sam Giancana, after returning to the U. S. in 1974, died of unnatural causes in the basement of his Oak Park home on June 19, 1975, after visiting with Dominic "Butch" Blasi.

During the 1980s, the Outfit’s business activities continued to evolve, while decreasing in size overall. Legal casino gaming cut into mob gambling of all types and by this decade the numbers, horse racing, slot machines and other traditional forms of illegal betting were largely a thing of the past. The Outfit was not completely but at least largely out of Las Vegas by the end of the decade, the process being hastened by federal indictments for skimming in Nevada. Video poker machines in bars, with the bartender paying winners in cash, and professional sports betting, which the Outfit quickly monopolized in the Chicago area, were the two main gambling activities. Juice loans and the related extortion were an ongoing activity, although labor racketeering was declining.

In 1983, for example, the Outfit was believed to be organized into five basic street crews (capos in parentheses) covering the North Side (Vince Solano), the South Suburbs (Albert Tocco), Chinatown (Angelo LaPietra), the West Side (Joey Lombardo) and the Western Suburbs (Joe Ferriola). A separate group, led by Tony Spilotro, oversaw their interests in Las Vegas. By 1990, the Outfit had six, much smaller crews: North Side, Chinatown, West Side, Western Suburbs, Grand Avenue and Lake County. Chris Petti was their man in Vegas, after Tony Spilotro and his brother Michael were found buried in 1986 in an Indiana corn field.

The decrease in the number of made members in Chicago was not necessarily a bad thing, although it did reflect a decrease in the scope and nature of their activities. It was also most likely a response to federal inroads and the power of the RICO statute. Less made guys, more associates, meant less guys who could cause real damage if they turned on the Outfit. In fact, to date only two higher level Chicago mobsters, and neither were major figures, have been publicly identified as federal informants: Ken Eto in the 1983 and Lenny Patrick in 1991.

Aiuppa remained at the top until he was convicted in a Vegas skimming case in 1986. Joe Ferriola replaced him and at Ferriola’s death in 1989, Sam Carlisi took over the position of Boss. In each case Accardo served as the Chairman of the Board.

Maxwell Street Market

2010-03-28T22:27:00.001-07:00

Desplaines Street and Roosevelt Road
640 W. Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL 60607 312-922-3100
After 120 years of operation, Maxwell Street Market was closed down in the mid-90s in a controversial decision from the city. It was soon relocated to become the New Maxwell Street Market along Canal Street about a half-mile from its original site. After a 14 year stint on Canal Street, the market moved to Desplaines Street Sept. 14, 2008.

Continuing its long tradition of offering Chicago immigrants and locals a space to sell odds and ends, the colorful flea market hosts 518 vendors each Sunday, year-round. In addition to household goods, clothing, CDs, jewelry, power tools and produce, there are several Mexican food stands offering authentic fare like enchiladas, tacos, tamales, plantains and horchata. Live blues is played at the market weekly (weather permitting).

Getting There
Cross Streets: On Desplaines St. between Harrison St. and Roosevelt Rd. Parking: Paid Lot and Street Parking Difficult. Several pay lots in the area, including Taylor St. At Canal St. and 14th Pl. At Canal St. Public Transportation: CTA Bus: 12 Roosevelt
Blue Line train: Clinton stop Wheelchair Access: Yes
The Basics
Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday Smoking: No Audience: Families
Features
ATM: Yes. Several on Roosevelt Rd. Food: Primarily Mexican food stands offering tacos, tamales, beans and rice, along with fresh lemonade, horchata and tamarindo drinks. Classic Polish sausages as well. Features: Free Admission and On-site Merchandise. Power tools, clothing, produce, household items. Facilities: No pets. No dogs are allowed in the market. Specialties: Flea market finds sold by 518 vendors Payment Methods: Cash
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» What's nearby?
Restaurants Bars & Clubs Movie Theaters Shopping Theaters
1. Binny's Beverage Depot
2. Barbara's Bookstore
3. The Gourmet Clothing Co.
4. Lissa on Maxwell
5. Lush Wine and Spirits

Learn Italian at Italian Cultural Institute

2010-03-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

Why study Italian at the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago?

The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago offers classes on Italian langauge and culture at Italidea, a not for profit organization founded in 1995 with the goal to promote and spread the knowledge of Italian language and culture in the Chicago metropolitan area. Students choose Italidea because:

• Studying Italian at Italidea means you can choose from a wide range of courses from elementary to advanced;

• Courses are divided based on the six levels of competance as laid out by the General European Board Framework;

• Italidea offers subject specific courses (Literature, Art, Music, Cinema, Writing, Tourism, Business) and conversation;

• The secretary at Italidea can issue a certificate of attendence;

• Lessons are taught by professional and qualified native speakers;

• Students are immersed in a dynamic and culturally stimulating environment;

• Participation in cultural events are organized and sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute;

• There is free access to the library and media center at the Institute;

• The exam for the the diploma from the Università di Siena (CILS), attesting to your knowledge of Italian as a foreign langauge can be taken;

• Students benefit from the many grants to study Italian in Italy.

Consult the Calendar for courses organized by Italidea at the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.

Whens the last time you heard a Polack Joke ?/

2010-03-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

I know all this political correct crap...anyhow here ya go

The Polish Divorce

A Polish man moved to the USA and married an American girl.
Although his English was far from perfect, they got along very well.
One day he rushed into a lawyer's office
and asked him if he could arrange a divorce for him.
The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the circumstances,
and asked him the following questions:

Have you any grounds?
Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.

No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?
It made of concrete.

I don't think you understand.
Does either of you have a real grudge?
No, we have carport, and not need one.

I mean what are your relations like?
All my relations still in Poland .

Is there any infidelity in your marriage?
We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.

Does your wife beat you up?
No, I always up before her.

Is your wife a nagger?
No, she white.

Why do you want this divorce?
She going to kill me.

What makes you think that?
I got proof.

What kind of proof?
She going to poison me.
She buy a bottle at drugstore and put on shelf in bathroom. I can read, and it say: ~~~Polish Remover~~~

The Italian Bank Robber

2010-02-28T16:40:00.001-08:00

A hooded armed robber bursts into the Bank of Italy and

forces the tellers to load a sack full of cash.

On his way out the door with the loot, one brave Italian customer grabs the

hood and pulls it off revealing the robber's face.

The robber shoots the guy in the head without hesitation!

He then looks around the bank to see if anyone else has seen him.

One of the tellers is looking straight at him. The robber walks over

and calmly shoots him in the head.

Everyone by now is very scared and looking down at the floor.

"Dida anyone elsa see a my face?" calls the robber.

There follows a tense silence. Then an elderly Italian gent, looking

down, tentatively raises his hand and says:

"I tinka my wifa may have caughta glimpse"

Italian Wedding Story

2010-02-18T09:14:00.001-08:00

I was a very happy man. My wonderful girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year, and so we
Decided to get married. There was only one little thing bothering me...It was her beautiful younger sister.

My prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very
tight mini skirts, and generally was bra-less. She would regularly bend down when she was near
me, and I always got more than a nice view. It had to be deliberate. Because she never did it when she was near anyone else.

One day her 'little' sister called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was
alone when I arrived, and she whispered to me that she
had feelings and desires for me that she couldn't overcome. She told me that she wanted me just once
before I got married and committed my life to her sister.

Well, I was in total shock, and couldn't say a word.

She said, 'I'm going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me.'

I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. I stood there for a moment, then turned and made a beeline straight to the front door. I opened the door, and headed straight towards my car.

Lord... And behold, my entire future family was standing outside, all clapping!

With tears in his eyes, my father-in-law hugged me and said, 'We are very happy that you have passed our
little test. We couldn't ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.'

And the moral of this story is:

Always keep your condoms in your car

Mario's Italian lemonade

2010-02-06T08:03:00.001-08:00

Little Italy

2010-01-10T16:09:00.003-08:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Exterior view (in 1909) of the storefront office of P. Schiavone & Son, bankers and steamship agents, located at 925 South Halsted Street.Little Italy is located in the Near West Side community area of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It encompasses a 12 block stretch of Taylor Street east of Ashland Avenue and the streets to the north and south for several blocks in each direction. The neighborhood lies between the Illinois Medical District to the west and the University of Illinois at Chicago to the east. It is a neighborhood of strongly Italian influence.

Little Italy never had a concentration of Italian-Americans that constituted a majority.[1] Other ethnicities have always been present in the area known as "Little Italy."[2] Nonetheless, the neighborhood was given its name due to the strong influence of Italians and Italian culture on the neighborhood throughout the 19th and 20th century.

Though the Italian population declined throughout the late 20th century, many Italian restaurants and groceries remain in the formerly prominent Taylor Street corridor.[3] The neighborhood also hosts the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame as well as the historic Roman Catholic churches Our Lady of Pompeii, Notre Dame de Chicago, and Holy Family 1940s to present Italians began arriving in Chicago in the 1850s in small numbers. By 1880, there were 1,357 Italians in the city.[4] By the 1920s, Italian cookery became one of the most popular ethnic cuisines in America, spawning many successful bakeries and restaurants—some of which prospered for generations and continue to influence the Chicago dining scene today.[3] By 1927, Italians owned 500 grocery stores, 257 restaurants, 240 pastry shops, and numerous other food related businesses that were concentrated in the Italian neighborhoods.[3] One success story is that of the Gonnella Baking Company, Chicago’s largest producer of Italian bread and rolls.[5]

The immigration of Italians accelerated throughout the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. Chicago's foreign-born Italian population was 16,008 in 1900 and peaked at 73,960 in 1930.[4] The largest area of settlement was the Taylor Street area, but there were also 20 other significant Italian enclaves throughout the city and suburbs.

1940s to present
Following World War II, several developments hindered the cohesion of the community. The construction of the Eisenhower Expressway and the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical district forced many to move. The establishment of the Circle Campus of UIC in the 1960s by Mayor Richard J. Daley further dispersed the community. During the construction of the 100-acre UIC campus, 200 businesses and 800 homes were bulldozed in Little Italy, with 5,000 residents displaced.[6]

By the end of the 20th century, Little Italy was one of many formerly high-profile elements of the city’s geography that had become a mere shadow of itself.[7] Few long-time residents are left in the community. Census data for the Taylor Street Little Italy tract showed only 1,280 people reporting Italian as their primary ancestry in 1990. In 2000, the number was 1,018.[8] However, Chicago’s foodways continue to rely on their roots in the intimate neighborhood cuisines, including cuisine from the surviving Italian restaurants in the formerly prominent Taylor Street corridor.[3]

Recent gentrification
Rents in the area have risen in the past few decades due to an influx of condominiums, townhouses, and the proximity of Little Italy to UIC and the Loop. An example of this gentrification: in the 1990 census, no homes in the Little Italy sample area were reported to be worth more than $400,000. By contrast, according to the 2000 census, 62 homes were reportedly worth more than $500,000, and 13 of those were worth at least $1 million.[8].

Landmarks
Two of the more significant landmarks of Little Italy were the Catholic churches of Our Lady of Pompeii and Holy Guardian Angel founded by Mother Cabrini.[9] Holy Guardian Angel was the first Italian congregation in Chicago. The parish was established in 1898, and the church was built on Arthington Street in 1899. Due to the burgeoning population, a second major Italian church, Our Lady of Pompeii, was founded in 1911.[10] The Holy Guardian Angel Church was razed for the construction of the expressway system.[11] The Our Lady of Pompeii Church is now a the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii.

Hull House, Jane Addams' settlement house known for its social and educational programs was also located within the Little Italy area.

In recent years, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (founded in 1977 in Elmwood Park, Illinois) was relocated to a new building in Little Italy.

Other "Little Italies" in Chicago

A three story apartment house and a one story dwelling in Little Hell in September 1902.Several other areas in Chicago had significant Italian populations aside from Taylor Street, which has popularly been known as Chicago's "Little Italy."

Little Sicily or "Little Hell"
In the 22nd Ward on the city's Near North Side, a Sicilian enclave known alternately as "Little Sicily" and "Little Hell" was established in an area formerly populated by Scandinavians.[12] It was considered the most colorful Italian neighborhood,[9] and was home to 20,000 Italians by 1920.[9] However, the neighborhood no longer exists today due to the construction of the Cabrini-Green public housing projects on the site during and after WWII. By the mid 1960s, the rising violent crime rate and other social problems that came as a result of the housing projects caused an exodus of many of the original inhabitants of the area.[12]

"Heart of Italy"
On the city's South Side, a community centered on 24th and Oakley called "Heart of Italy" or "Little Tuscany" is composed mostly of Northern Italian immigrants. This neighborhood is home to the yearly Festa Pasta Vino, an Italian food and wine festival that claims to be "Chicago’s largest celebration of Italian culture".[13]

References
^ a b Grinnell, Max. "Encyclopedia of Chicago "Little Italy"". Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
^ Binford, Henry C., "Multicentered Chicago", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, p. 548-9, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ a b c d Poe, Tracy N., "Foodways", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, p. 308-9, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ a b Vecoli, Rodolph J., "Italians", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ Kraig, Bruce, "Food Processing", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, p. 304, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ Leroux, Charles, "Cold Shoulder: UIC and its neighborhood are thriving but the two have yet to embrace", Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1991.
^ Binford, Henry C., "Multicentered Chicago", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, p. 552, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ a b Paolini, Matthew and Craig Tiede, "Economic upswing in Little Italy comes with a price" Medill News Service. December 1, 2005.
^ a b c Candeloro, Dominic (2006). "[http://www.virtualitalia.com/ch/chicago_italians1.shtml chicago's italians immigrants, ethnics, achievers, 1850-1985 - part 1]". virtualitalia.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-19.
^ Candeloro, Dominic Lawrence Chicago's Italians: Immigrants, Ethnics, Americans p. 24
^ Candeloro, Dominic (2006). "[http://www.virtualitalia.com/ch/chicago_italians2.shtml chicago's italians immigrants, ethnics, achievers, 1850-1985 - part 2]". virtualitalia.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-19.
^ a b Seligman, Amanda, "Cabrini-Green", The Encyclopedia of Chicago, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ "Chicago's Festa Pasta Vino". Retrieved on 2007-02-08.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Happy New Year

2009-12-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

My wishes for you in year 2010

Great start for Jan,

Love for Feb,

Peace for march,

No worries for April

Fun for May,

Joy for June to Nov,

Happiness for Dec,

Have a lucky and wonderful 2010.

Buon Natale!

2009-12-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time for love and fun,

A time to reshape souls and roots and skies,

A time to give your heart to everyone

Freely, like a rich and lavish sun,

Like a burning star to those whose lonely sighs

Show need of such a time for love and fun.

For children first, whose pain is never done,

Whose bright white fire of anguish never dies,

It's time to give your heart to every one,

That not one angel fall, to hatred won

For lack of ears to listen to her cries,

Or arms to carry him towards love and fun,

Or friends to care what happens on the run

To adult life, where joy or sadness lies.

It's time to give your heart to everyone,

For God loves all, and turns His back on none,

Good or twisted, ignorant or wise.

Christmas is a time for love and fun,

A time to give your heart to everyone

Merry Chrixst

Next Governor of Arizona ?? Sheriff Joe ?

2009-11-29T17:15:00.000-08:00

GOT MY VOTE
With many a Chicagoan having part time residences in Arizona thought this might be a great piece of info

You probably know him as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a name given to him years ago by the media. It’s a name he certainly has earned as head of the nation’s third largest Sheriff’s Office which employs over 3000 people. But even before he became Sheriff in 1993, Joe Arpaio was one tough lawman. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1953, and as a Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, NV, police officer for almost five years, Arpaio went on to build a federal law enforcement career and a reputation for fighting crime and drug trafficking around the world.

He began his career as a federal narcotics agent, establishing a stellar record in infiltrating drug organizations from Turkey to the Middle East to Mexico, Central, and South America to cities around the U.S. His expertise and success led him to top management positions around the world with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He concluded his remarkable 32-year federal career as head of the DEA for Arizona.

In 1992 Arpaio successfully campaigned to become the Sheriff of Maricopa County. Since then he has been reelected to an unprecedented five 4-year terms. During his tenure as Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arpaio has consistently earned extraordinarily high public approval ratings.

With over four decades experience in law enforcement, Arpaio knows what the public wants, “The public is my boss,” he says, “so I serve the public.” He has served them well by establishing several unique programs.

Arpaio has over 10,000 inmates in his jail system. In August, 1993, he started the nation’s largest Tent City for convicted inmates. Two thousand convicted men and women serve their sentences in a canvas incarceration compound. It is a remarkable success story that has attracted the attention of government officials, presidential candidates, and media worldwide.

Of equal success and notoriety are his chain gangs, which contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to the community. The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.

Also impressive are the Sheriff’s get tough policies. For example, he banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines, and unrestricted TV in all jails. He has the cheapest meals in the U.S. too. The average meal costs about 15 cents, and inmates are fed only twice daily, to cut the labor costs of meal delivery. He even stopped serving them salt and pepper to save tax payers $20,000 a year.

Another program Arpaio is very wellknown for is the pink under shorts he makes all inmates wear. Years ago, when the Sheriff learned that inmates were stealing jailhouse white boxers, Arpaio had all inmate underwear dyed pink for better inventory control. The same is true for the Sheriff’s handcuffs. When they started disappearing, he ordered pink handcuffs as a replacement. And later, when the Sheriff learned the calming, psychological effects of the color pink—sheets, towels, socks— everything inmates wear, except for the old-fashioned black and white striped uniform, were dyed pink.

Arpaio has started another controversial program, the website WWW.MCSO.org, so that all those arrested (about 300 per day) are recorded on the Sheriff’s website as they are booked and processed into jail. Just under a million hits daily come into the website, making it one of the most visible law enforcement sites on the World Wide Web.

In addition to these tough measures, the Sheriff has launched rehabilitative programs like “Hard Knocks High,” the only accredited high school under a Sheriff in an American jail, and ALPHA, an anti-substance-abuse program that has greatly reduced recidivism.

As chief law enforcement officer for the county, Arpaio continues to reduce crime with hard-hitting enforcement methods. His deputies and detectives have solved several high-profile murder cases, including nine child murders. The posse, whose ranks have increased to 3,000 members under Arpaio, is the nation’s largest volunteer posse. Posse men and women help in search and rescue and other traditional police work as well as in special operations like rounding up deadbeat parents, fighting prostitution, patrolling malls during holidays, and investigating animal cruelty complaints. The posse’s contributions are invaluable and essentially free to taxpayers.

No wonder Sheriff Arpaio has been profiled in over 2,000 U.S. and foreign newspapers, magazines, and TV news programs. His leadership and the excellent work of his staff have catapulted the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office into the ranks of elite law enforcement agencies.

On a personal note, Sheriff Arpaio and his wife Ava have been married for over 51 years and have two children, both residing in the Phoenix area. The Arpaios have four grandchildren.

Jersey Boys Chicago Crew

2009-11-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

I owe My Mother (Italian Style)

2009-11-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

I Owe My Mother

1.. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .

"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.

"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL..

"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.

"Because I said so, that's why." ;

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .

"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.

"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.

"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS .

"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISTS.

"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA .

"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.

"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.

"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.

"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION .

"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.

"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16.. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.

"Just wait until we get home.."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING .

"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE...

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.

"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.

"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .

"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.

"You're just like your father.."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.

"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.

"When you get to be my age, you'll understand.."

And my favorite:

25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE ...

"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!!

Dennis Farina....Chicago's Own !

2009-10-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Story of Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

2009-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

More Chicago Italian Tid Bits

2009-10-12T01:01:00.000-07:00

Despite its interior location, in 1920 Chicago was the third-ranking city in the United States, after New York and Philadelphia, in the size of its Italian population. In 1970, Italian immigrants and their children in metropolitan Chicago totaled 202,373, accounting for some 3 percent of the area's inhabitants. In 2000 more than a half million residents of the region identified themselves as of Italian ancestry.

Italians began trickling into Chicago in small numbers in the 1850s, working largely as merchants, vendors, barbers, and other artisans. By 1880, there were 1,357 Italians in the city. Successful as saloonkeepers and restaurateurs, some invested in real estate and became wealthy. These early arrivals were predominantly from Liguria, with a sprinkling from other regions; among them were veterans of the Risorgimento, the movement for national unification of Italy. Imbued with patriotism for the newly unified Italy, they sponsored nationalist observances, including Chicago's first Columbus Day parade in 1868. In 1866, they organized a mutual benefit society, Società di Unione e Fratellanza, and published a newspaper, L'Unione Italiana (1867–69).

In the late nineteenth century, mass migration from Italy accelerated. Chicago's foreign-born Italian population, 16,008 in 1900, peaked at 73,960 in 1930. These newcomers were predominantly peasants (contadini) from the southern regions, particularly Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. Drawn to Chicago's market for railroad workers, these laborers were enrolled in work gangs by padrones (labor contractors), who shipped them to construction sites throughout the country. As they gained stable employment in the city's public works and industries, women were sent for and families established. Many women worked in the sweatshops and factories of the garment industry.

Strongly attached to their places of origin (campanilismo), paesani (townsmen) clustered in tenements, formed mutual aid societies named after patron saints, and maintained exclusive networks. Although the largest concentration of Italians by far was on the Near West Side, there were some 20 settlements scattered about the city and its suburbs. The older immigrant Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians resisted these intrusions, but gradually gave way. For many years Italians encountered deep prejudice and discrimination in housing and employment. The Chicago press stereotyped them as violent criminals, paupers, and wage-cutters.

A growing middle class, composed of merchants, padrones, and professionals, sought to uplift their countrymen with patriotic exhortations and nationalistic celebrations. Italian newspapers proliferated that reflected the interests of the so-called prominenti (big shots), but only L'Italia, established in 1886, survived far into the twentieth century. Unity, however, evaded the Italians, who were divided by personal jealousies and regional antagonisms. By 1912, there were some four hundred competing societies, usually composed of paesani. Meanwhile, anarchists and Socialists sought—with sporadic success—to organize the immigrants along class lines. The Italian Socialist Federation with its organ, La Parola dei Socialisti (established 1908), was based in Chicago, but its adherents were a minority.

Although nominally Roman Catholic, Italian immigrants generally were not devoted to the institutional church. The first Italian parish, the Church of the Assumption on the Near North Side, was established in 1881. By 1920, there were 18 Italian national parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Priests, however, often encountered indifference and anticlericalism among the immigrants. Papal opposition to Italian unification engendered strong anti-Vatican sentiments among nationalists, while radicals rejected all religious ideas. Protestant denominations proselytized among Italians, but most contadini remained attached to the religious traditions of their paesi, above all to the patron saints whom they celebrated in elaborate feste. Italian women were especially devoted to maintaining traditional forms of piety. With time and understanding pastors, the parishes became important centers for community activities.

World War I marked a turning point in the history of Chicago Italians. The war, followed by restrictive legislation, cut off further immigration, thus stabilizing the foreign-born population. Because of labor shortages, Italians gained entry into factory jobs and other occupations. Paradoxically, wartime emotions inspired an increased sense of both Italian nationalism and American patriotism. Intensified anti-Italian prejudice and discrimination also caused a heightened ethnic consciousness. Fraternal orders such as the Sons of Italy in America now organized immigrants and their children on the basis of nationality. This growing ethnic identification coincided with the rise of Fascism in Italy in the 1920s, inclining most Chicago Italians—with the exception of a small but vigorous anti-Fascist element—to support Mussolini. The arrival of a squadron of Italian seaplanes led by the Fascist Italo Balbo in 1933 marked a high point of that enthusiasm.

Italian Americans remained largely blue-collar workers until well after World War II. But wages rose in the 1920s for factory workers, construction tradesmen, and truck drivers. Families were able to purchase houses, furnishings, and even automobiles. Chicago's Italians gradually began to move westward toward the suburbs. With the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, many Italians, along with others, lost homes and businesses and suffered long periods of unemployment.

Italian women and men constituted a substantial segment of the labor force in the clothing and garment industry and helped found the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The International Hod Carriers and Building Laborers' Union of America, controlled by labor racketeers for much of its history, also had a large Italian membership in Chicago. Across a variety of industries in the 1930s, Italians engaged in labor struggles as members of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Reflecting their modest political clout, no Italian has won election as mayor of Chicago. Introduced to Chicago-style machine politics by Irish bosses such as Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward, Italians initially traded their votes for jobs and other patronage. In the 1930s, the “Italian vote,” which had fluctuated between the two parties, became solidly Democratic in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Since the 1950s, with rising economic levels, Italian Americans have increasingly abandoned their dedication to labor and the Democratic Party.

Although only a minority of Italians graduated from high school and very few from college until well after World War II, many rose to the middle class through business ventures in construction and commerce, particularly food and liquor merchandising. Prohibition in the twenties proved to be a bonanza for Italians who engaged in bootlegging. While Al Capone (born in Brooklyn) epitomized Chicago's big-time gangster, many families invested profits from the trade in booze to launch legitimate enterprises.

Capone became an albatross around the necks of Chicago Italians seeking respectability. The stereotype of the criminal and violent Italian was well established by the late nineteenth century. Numerous crimes attributed to the Mafia and Mano Nera (Black Hand) further reinforced the stereotype. However, it was the racketeering and mob wars of the twenties, perpetuated by innumerable movie and television versions, which made Chicago, crime, and Italians synonymous in the minds of many.

If Italian Americans sympathized with the Mussolini regime, events following Pearl Harbor demonstrated that their first loyalty was to the United States. Tens of thousands of men and women left to serve in the armed forces or work in defense industries. After the war, the educational and home mortgage benefits of the GI Bill facilitated their occupational and spatial mobility. Movement to the western suburbs was accelerated by urban renewal projects that demolished Italian neighborhoods to make way for public housing, highways, and the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. While vestiges of old neighborhoods remained, by 1970 the majority of Chicago's Italians lived in suburbs such as Cicero, Berwyn, and Oak Park.

A few Italian inner-city parishes remain, but most were either dissolved or turned over to incoming groups. Religious and ethnic institutions administered by the Scalabrini Fathers, a missionary order for the Italian immigrants, became centered in the western suburbs: the Sacred Heart Seminary, the Villa Scalabrini Home for the Aged, and the Italian Cultural Center. Rather than the face-to-face contacts of old neighborhoods, Italian radio and television programs and a newspaper, Fra Noi, published since 1960, enable communication among far-flung audiences.

Although unity remained elusive, the Italian Welfare Council (established in 1945) addressed the educational, recreational, and social needs of Chicago's Italians. In 1952, the Council was succeeded by the Italian American Civic Committee, which as an umbrella organization sought to advance the interests of the ethnic group. Since 1952, it has sponsored the annual Columbus Day parade, combated defamation, and promoted Italians in business and public life. The persistence of associational activities is indicated by the estimated 150 Italian organizations with diverse professional, cultural, and political agendas. That the roots of Italian ethnicity in Chicago remain deeply buried in the soil of the paesi is demonstrated by the survival and revival of the religious festivals, which take place throughout the summer months.

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2009-10-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

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Chicago Italians at Work........The Book !!

2009-09-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

The Book chronicles the lives of working Chicago Italians for 80 years through photography and text

For more than a century, Italian immigrants and their descendants contributed their labor and talent to building the city. Chicago Italians at Work focuses on a period from 1890 to 1970 when industry was king in this midwestern metropolis. Generations of Italians found work in companies such as U.S. Steel, Western Electric, Pullman, Crane, McCormick/Harvester, Hart Schaffner and Marx, and other large industrial corporations. Other Italians were self-employed as barbers, shoe workers, tailors, musicians, construction workers, and more. In many of these trades, Italians were predominant. A complex network of family enterprises also operated in the Chicago Italian community. Small shopkeepers generated work in food services and retail employment; some of these ma-and-pa operations grew into large, prosperous enterprises that survive today. Finally, Italians helped develop trade unions, which created long-term economic gains for all ethnic groups in Chicago. This book chronicles the labor and contributions of an urban ethnic community through historic photographs and text.

Author Peter Nicholas Pero is a teacher and writer. He has taught courses in labor studies for Roosevelt University and Prairie State College. Pero has published articles on workplace economics through travel in China, Japan, Costa Rica, and Brazil. He lives in Chicago's Little Italy and is a member of the city's Italian-American Labor Council.

To buy the book, visit www.arcadiapublishing.com

Frannies Beef...Schiller Park Illinois

2009-08-21T16:44:00.001-07:00

BEST BEEF SANDWICH IN CHICAGO !!!

Well every once in a while we have the rare opportunity to find a place that not only has Killer Chicago Hot Dogs, But Beef sandwiches to die for. Now being a long time patron of almost all Hot dog and Beef Joints, I have grown up on Johnnies Beef and later on Portillo's, Als Etc.Yea I know they have killer beefs BUT by far there is no better Italian Beef than FRANNIES BEEF anywhere. PERIOD... Now that I live in Arizona every chance I get to go home to Chicago for a visit, 1st stop Frannies !! Takes away all the craving for those fixes I miss Instantly, This great place Also has Chicago Hot Dogs 2nd to none.Now do we start with the MeatBall sandwiches or Sausage that any of us Italians know is the real deal, When I see some of these Morons talk about meatball from Subway I wanna crack em..These meatball or Sausage are what we grew up on Ya know like Grandma used to make, After the decision on what to eat the rest is easy.!! Finnish off this delight of a meal with there Fresh Homemade "Every Day" Italian Lemonade!! If only they had a room to rent, I would move in tomorrow,Sooo if you haven't been here its TIME because the best has obviously been saved to last for you.....On a scale of 1-10 I say 11.... Enjoy this is a place you will return often if not Daily.
Now if Catering is on your mind what haven't you payed attention to in this article. Lol They have you covered. And Im Talkin To You.........

Frannies Beef and Catering
4304 River Road
Schiller Park, IL
847-678-7771

Johnnies Beef.......Chicago Favorite

2009-08-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Miamians get bored with the Cuban sandwich or Philadelphians forego the Philly cheesesteak for long periods of time. I know, with so many new restaurants opening each day and so many tasty leads to follow, sometimes I take the local food icons here in Chicago for granted. I even forsake them occasionally. But, with so many fanny pack clad tourists descending on our city in search of salad dogs, deep dish pizza, and the Italian beef, I don’t really think they need me.

Fast forward to last Thursday when I just happened to be driving through Elmwood Park, a suburb adjacent to the Northwest side of Chicago city proper, and I spotted one of my favorite Italian beef stands: Johnnie’s. You know the soup nazi? Well, Johnnie’s proprietors are the beef Nazis. They make you wait in a single file line and if you’re the next person in line in front of the entrance door and you thing about holding it open to suck up some warm beefy air on a cold or rainy day, don’t do it. If you let so much as a minor draft sneak in to the store, you’ll get glares from the employees and customers alike. You also better have your order together when you hit the cash register and it better not include cheese on your beef (which is pretty much an equivalent crime in these parts to putting ketchup on your hot dog), unless, of course, you want to get laughed at.

The Italian beef usually consists of a thick Italian style roll filled with roasted thinly sliced beef that’s been marinated in a bevy of spices like garlic and oregano. Then you get choices: you can get it “dipped”, which means the whole sandwich gets dunked in the roasting gravy or jus before getting wrapped up, or you can get it “dry”, aka no dip. Likewise, you can get it “sweet” or “hot,” which indicates whether you get sweet green peppers or a spicy giardinara—usually consisting of celery, onion, and various peppers—on top. I prefer mine sweet, hot, and dipped.

Johnnie’s is my favorite combo, which means in addition to the beef, they add a fat link of Italian sausage. Johnnie’s link has a nice red pepper spice and a healthy bit of fennel, and, as far as I’m concerned, when joined with Johnnie’s lean, reasonably well spiced beef, makes the best combo around.

Sitting in my car and unwrapping the butcher paper was torture, but that first bite was a reminder that no matter how much Johnnie’s doesn’t need me, I’d forgotten how much I needed Johnnie's.

More Famous Chicago Italians

2009-07-12T21:13:00.001-07:00

Lida Allegrini
Mother of Robert Allegrini, Regional Director of Communications for Hilton Hotels, Allegrini came to Chicago at 7-years old and settled among Toscani at 24th & Oakley. She discusses Balbo’s flight in 1933 during the Century of Progress, her journey to Chicago via Ellis Island, and reuniting with her father after three years of separation.

Leonard Amari, Esq.
Founder of the Italian American Political Coalition, Amari shares his thoughts on the Italian American political landscape, the controversy over redistricting, the new generation of Italian American politicians, and celebrated Chicago leaders like Frank Annunzio, Alderman Vito Marzullo and Illinois congressman Victor Arrigo.

Rosemarie Andolino
Executive Director of the O’Hare Modernization Program, and a second-generation Italian-American of Sicilian descent, Andolino discusses growing up in a bilingual household, how her ethnic identity informed her personal and professional life, and memories of her family’s traditions

Paul Basile
Currently Editor of Fra Noi, Chicagoland’s monthly Italian American newspaper, Basile discusses the paper’s history and its charismatic founder Father Pierini, Villa Scalabrini, Casa Italia, Senator Ron Turano, the media image of Italian Americans, Italian Americans in politics, and the Italian American community’s shift away from the city to the suburbs.

Mike Bacarella
An actor, author, and founder of the Italian American Actors Guild in Chicago, Bacarella discusses Italian Americans in the Civil War who settled in Chicago, and the plight of Italian American actors in TV and film.

Ed Bernardi
The son of immigrant parents, Bernardi grew up in Highwood among a large Northern Italian community. He reminisces about working at the exclusive North Shore Club as a caddy, and moving up the corporate ladder to found a successful financial management company and become president of the Union League Club.

Emilio Bertolini
Born in a mountain village near Lucca, Bertolini recounts his experiences as a young boy during WWII, how his father aided the Allies during the final months of the war, how his father was nearly killed by Nazi soldiers, and coming to America and the challenges of learning English.

Tom Brindisi
The Senior Associate Executive Director of the Chicago Area Project and son of Dan “Moose” Brindisi, one of the founders of the Project created to assist inner-city youth. Brindisi grew up in multi-ethnic neighborhood near Grand/Ogden and discusses his mixed heritage, and the positive influence that his father had on Italian American youth and young immigrants.

Dominic Candeloro, Ph.D.
An historian and author, Dr. Candeloro’s topics addresses early immigration and patterns of settlement, the formation of Little Italys and their demise, Chicago Heights History, labor history, the role of the Church, and Italian American politics.

Kathy Catrambone
An award-winning journalist and second-generation Italian American, traces her roots to the West Side and Taylor Street starting in the early 1900s, where she continues to live. She recently co-authored with Ellen Shubart Taylor Street: Chicago's Little Italy.

Sam Ciambrone
The former mayor of Chicago Heights, Ciambrone talks about life growing up in Chicago Heights, the fight to save San Rocco church; the Anthony Scariano’s long legacy, an Appellate Court justice and an Illinois legislator, and the predominance of Italian/Americans in municipal politics.

Father Gino Dalpiaz
C.S. Fathers of St. Charles, Chicago and former director of the Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park, Father Dalpiaz, a second-generation Northern Italian, discusses the mission of the Scalabrian Fathers, the establishment of parishes, Mother Francis Cabrini, Taylor Street, the construction of the U of I, Chicago campus the Sacred Heart Seminary and Villa Scalabrini and memories of growing up in Melrose Park.

Donna DeRosa
Granddaughter of controversial labor leader James Petrillo, President of the American Musicians Union, DeRosa discusses her grandfather and the fight to retain his name on Grant Park bandshell bearing his name

Dennis Farina
A popular film and television actor; Farina grew up in Little Sicily/Little Hell and shares his memories of growing up in hard-working family, his college-educated father, World War Two, the Great Depression, street processions, his thoughts on playing stereotypical roles and on the challenges that Italian Americans face in the industry.

Don Fiore
A musician of traditional Italian music and an historian of Italo Balbo, Fiore discusses Balbo’s flight, the Italian neighborhoods of Chicago, prejudice, personal experiences growing up; and the role of popular music in the community.

Fred Gardaphé, Ph.D.
Currently Director of Italian American Studies at SUNY Stony Brook; Dr. Gardaphe skillfully dissects the topic of media images of Italian Americans; growing up in Melrose Park, race relations, and a number of authors who have written about Chicago’s Italian American experience.

Theodore Grippo, Esq.
Chairman of the American Italian Defense Association, Grippo discusses AIDA’s lawsuit against Time-Warner, which distributes HBO’s long-running series “The Sopranos,” the Sacco and Vanzetti case and its impact on the local Italian-American community, the media image Italian Americans, and his own experiences with prejudice.

Bill Jaconetti
Melrose Park Police Chief Jaconetti, one of the most highly decorated law enforcement officers in the nation, talks about the legacy of Anthony Buongiorno and his fight against crime, the Italian work ethic, World War Two, Italian Americans in law enforcement, and public image.

Luciana Mordini
A first-generation Italian-American, Mordini gives a moving eyewitness account of the Our Lady of Angels fire and the subsequent demise of her predominantly Italian neighborhood, and talks about adjusting to Chicago life as a newly arrived immigrant.

Gloria Nardini, Ph.D.
An author, teacher and cultural commentator, Dr. Nardini discusses the role of women in the Italian American community, the challenges and benefits of living bi-culturally, Chicago’s Lucchese community, the role of social clubs, and the concept of bella figura.

Dominic Pacyga, Ph.D.
A Professor of History and the Acting Dean of Liberal Arts at Columbia College, Dr. Pacyga is a national authority on Chicago history. Dr. Pacyga comments on ethnic communities in Chicago; labor; living conditions; and social relations among immigrant communities. Dr. Pacyga was also featured in the three-part American Experience Series "Chicago: City of the Century."

Ceasar Pasquesi
WWII veteran from the Highland Park/Highwood Italian community, where many immigrants from the area around Modena had settled, Pasquesi shares his memories of WWII, including how his brother liberated their parents’ hometown, and the remarkable correspondence between his Italian-born father and sons throughout the war.

James Purgatorio
A second-generation Southern Italian, Purgatorio grew up in housing projects on Taylor Street. He gives commentary on neighborhood life, the eventual demise of his neighborhood, and Florence Scala’s fight to save it.

Senator Renato Turano
President of Turano Bakery and currently the first Italian-American to represent Italians abroad, Italian-born Senator Turano discusses how his family turned a small business into a multi-million dollar company, his memories of coming to America from Calabria at 15, family traditions, and his identity

Josephine Raciti Forsberg
Founder of the Second City Workshops, Forsberg is the daughter of a Tuscan father and mother of Sicilian descent. Forsberg addresses growing up in Oak Park, the discrimination she experienced during WWII and highlights from her career.

Judith Santacaterina
Granddaughter of Amabile Santacaterina, one of the most popular Italian-language broadccasters in Chicagoland, Santacaterina highlights moments from her grandmother’s career, including her contributions to the war effort.

Joseph Stella
A third-generation Italian-American and former president of FIERI-Chicago, Stella discusses his family’s connection to the Taylor Street neighborhood, his budding awareness of his ethnic identity, perceptions of Italian Americans in the media, and his vision for younger Italians Americans in the future.

Michael Serritella
Serritella discusses growing up in a well-to-do family in Oak Park, his family’s relationship with the Cuneo family, the role of religion among Chicago’s wealthy Italian Catholics, and his grandfather’s role as founder of the White Hand Society, an organization composed of businessmen and community leaders to fight Black Hand extortion.

Violet Valiani Chisholm
Valiani Chisholm discusses the 24th & Oakley community where she grew up, her parents’ involvement in labor strikes in the garment factories, attending university and marrying a non-Italian.

Rudolph Vecoli, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, and former Director of the Immigrant Research Center, Dr. Vecoli is a nationally renowned expert on Italian immigration, and discusses patterns of migration, the formation of Italian colonies in Chicago, labor, and the padrone system.

Frances Varner (Amella) & Joseph Amella
Siblings Varner and Amella recall touching memories of growing up in Bridgeport, one of Chicago’s “hidden” Little Italys on the South Side, that contained a tightly-knit community of Southern Italian and Sicilians, relations between Italians and other ethnic groups in the neighborhood, religious processions and the closeness between childhood friends that still endures.

Mario's Italian Lemonade

2009-06-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Dennis Farina....One of Chi-Towns Best

2009-06-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

Name : Dennis Farina

Date of birth : 29 February 1944

Birthplace : Chicago, Illinois, USA

Height : 6' 1½

Profession : Actor
Dennis Farina Detailed Biography

Lovable tough guy character actor Dennis Farina was already well into his first career as a Chicago cop before he was able to turn his occasional acting gigs into a prodigious new line of work.

Raised in Chicago by Italian immigrant parents, Farina joined his hometown's police force in the mid-'60s, settling into a life of law enforcement. When he was hired to be a local consultant on Michael Mann's film Thief (1981), however, Farina wound up with a bit part as the villain's heavy. Farina continued to moonlight as an actor for several years, appearing in local theater and occasional movies, including Final Jeopardy (1985) and the Chuck Norris vehicle Code of Silence (1985). Though Dennis Farina never took an acting class, Farina was a natural; after Michael Mann offered him the lead in the series Crime Story in 1986, Farina left the police force to play a TV cop. During his 1986-1988 stint on the series, Farina also played FBI agent Jack Crawford (Scott Glen's part in Silence of the Lambs [1991]) in Mann's stylish thriller Manhunter (1986), was the Birdman of Alcatraz in the TV movie Six Against the Rock (1987), and a cop in TV movie mystery Through Naked Eyes (1987).

Drawing on his no-nonsense charm as well as his eclectic life experience, Farina continued to shine in roles on both sides of the law, such as serial killer Angelo Buono in The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989) and the lead prosecutor in the TV docudrama Blind Faith (1990). As nimble with comedy, Farina went up against Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin as a mobster in the popular buddy yarn Midnight Run (1988). Dennis Farina's versatility firmly established by the 1990s, Farina's early '90s work ranged from playing a billionaire in People Like Us (1990), to Banquo in a New York gangland version of Macbeth, Men of Honor (1991), as well as supporting roles in the comedy Another Stakeout (1993), Bruce Willis actioner Striking Distance (1993), John Turturro's Italian-American family drama Mac (1993), and vicious neo-noir Romeo Is Bleeding (1994).

Farina's appearance as John Travolta's nemesis, hilariously bumbling tough guy Ray "Bones" Barboni, in Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty (1995), led to his most notable hit since Midnight Run. His career hitting a new high, Farina co-starred with Bette Midler as reunited exes in Carl Reiner's That Old Feeling (1997), and starred as a Sicilian bigwig in the high-profile TV miniseries Bella Mafia (1997). Though his Marshall Sisco made only a brief appearance in Steven Soderbergh's esteemed Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight (1998), Farina was pitch-perfect as Jennifer Lopez's protective dad. After joining the superb corps in Steven Spielberg's award-winning Saving Private Ryan (1998), Farina returned to series TV, playing smooth detective Buddy Faro (1998); the series, however, lasted only one season.

Returning to films, Farina followed his role as the police captain who recruits The Mod Squad (1999) with another comic turn as a New York gangster who sets the diamond larceny plot in motion in Snatch (2000), adding a dash of Hollywood celebrity (along with Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro) to British lad director Guy Ritchie's sophomore effort. The releases of two of Farina's next films, Barry Sonnenfeld's caper Big Trouble (2001) and Edward Burns' romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York (2001), were delayed after the terrorist attack on New York on September 11, 2001. Sidewalks of New York surfaced later in 2001, but the romantic comedy failed to charm a large audience. Big Trouble finally made it into theaters in the first half of 2002, but despite the big name cast, Sonnenfeld's farce joined such high profile fare as Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage (2002) and the espionage actioner Bad Company (2002) on the list of 9/11-delayed flops. Farina's next film, the broad, witless comedy Stealing Harvard (2002), also failed at the box office. Farina returned to television during the fall 2002 season with a lead role as a comically monstrous Meet the Parents-esque father-in-law on the sitcom The In-Laws (2002). Despite initially withering reviews, The In-Laws managed to show signs of ratings life.

Chicago's Little Italy

2009-05-22T23:03:00.001-07:00

Chicago's 1st Italian Church

2009-05-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Italian’s first came to Chicago in the late eighteen hundreds, first a slow trickle, then eventually a steady stream. When they arrived, those aliens from Italia settled into neighborhoods occupied by their fellow Europeans primarily on the Near North and Near West sides of the city.

Predominantly Roman Catholic, their primary goal was to connect with a church of their denomination. But where were the Italian Catholic churches? None were to be found. These early Italian settlers did not find compatibility with churches whose composition was Irish, Polish, German, Lithuanian, French, or Czech. They desired their own church. Finally, by the late 1870's, after expressing their desire to the Chicago hierarchy, an Italian Servite priest by the name of Sosteneus Moretti offered his time and energy to locating a site for a future church to serve the growing population of Chicago Italians. Eventually, in 1880, a parcel of land at 323 W. Illinois Street near Market Street North of the Chicago River was purchased. The following year, the basement foundation was completed. In 1883, the church services commenced there. Later it would serve as the church hall.

During the next several years, the Italians donated their nickels and dimes so the main church structure could rise above the existing foundation. In 1883, a rectory was added to the project and finally in 1886, the church rose above the foundation. On the feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1886, the Corinthian style architectural structure was dedicated appropriately as the Assumption Church, Chicago’s first Italian Catholic Church. The Italians called it “Assunta” and left no doubt in everyone’s mind this was “their church”. The first pastor was the same Fr. Moretti O.S.M. who spearheaded the effort six years earlier.

The church’s main exterior feature is the stately 78 foot high bell tower. Extensive use of stained glass windows are featured throughout the church. Above the main altar, a window portrays the Assumption of Our Lady with twenty three angels. Paintings, mosaics and murals also are very prominent including on the church ceiling. The altar rail contained five different types of Italian marble. Statues adorned the church on three sides and numbered a dozen.

Since Assumption was not only Chicago’s first Italian Catholic Church, and the only Italian church, it attracted Italians from not only the adjacent Near North neighborhood, but also from the other scattered “Little Italy’s” in Chicago. It soon became the center for a variety of Italian activities. The neighborhood surrounding the church was comprised mainly of Northern Italians, the first group to arrive in Chicago. They were immigrants from Genoa and Tuscany.

A parish school was founded in 1899 by the Italian Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

The Mother General of this order was no less than Francis Xavier Cabrini. Since land was not available adjacent to the church or rectory, space was purchased a short distance away, at 317 W. Erie Street. The school was overcrowded when it opened with 900 children. Mother Carbini also taught catechism every Sunday to 600 children who attended public schools.

The parish had a population of 20,000 Italian emigrants and their families. Seven Servite priests staffed Assumption to meet the spiritual needs of so many. At times, as many as 32 babies were baptized on a Sunday afternoon. The number of weddings and funerals grew to an astounding number. But as time passed, circumstances began to change at Assumption. The neighborhood began to become industrial and with it, a loss of parishioners. By 1945 the school, once bursting at the seams, closed it’s doors forever. But not once during the 46 years did it charge even one student tuition.

Today, 115 years later, the Assumption Church still stands as a pillar of spirituality for the Near North Side community, now called River North, though it no longer is an Italian church. Many decades ago, the original settlers died off and their descendants moved away. Now, the parish consists of a melting pot of generic nationalities, many of which are referred to as yuppies. Rather than a beacon of visibility in a poor neighborhood of homes and businesses, the church today is almost invisible in a canyon of glass, steel and concrete high rises virtually unnoticed in the shadow the grandiose Merchandise Mart. Despite it’s lack of prominence and the loss of it’s Italian identity, the spirit of Assumption remains in the minds, hearts and souls of countless Italian Americans.

By the way, those dedicated priests of the Servants of Mary.....they’re still there.

Happy Mothers Day

2009-05-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

Some Mothers day poems to share..

We only have One Mom, One Mommy,
One Mother in this World, One life.
Don't wait for the Tomorrow's
to tell Mom, you love her"
~Author Unknown~
"To the world you might just be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world."
~Author Unknown~

WONDERFUL MOTHER

God made a wonderful mother,
A mother who never grows old;
He made her smile of the sunshine,
And He moulded her heart of pure gold;
In her eyes He placed bright shining stars,
In her cheeks fair roses you see;
God made a wonderful mother,
And He gave that dear mother to me.

~By Pat O'Reilly~

AND GRANDMA'S TOO...

"While we honor all our mothers
with words of love and praise.
While we tell about their goodness
and their kind and loving ways.
We should also think of Grandma,
she's a mother too, you see....
For she mothered my dear mother
as my mother mothers me."

~Author Unknown~

MOTHER'S LOVE

Her love is like
an island in life's ocean,
vast and wide

A peaceful, quiet shelter
From the wind, the rain, the tide.
'Tis bound on the north by Hope,
By Patience on the West,
By tender Counsel on the South
And on the East by Rest.

Above it like a beacon light
Shine Faith, and Truth, and Prayer;
And thro' the changing scenes of life
I find a haven there.

~Author Unknown~

MORE THAN A MOTHER

When God set the world in place,
when He hung the stars up in space,
when He made the land and the sea,
then He made you and me.

He sat back and saw all that was good,
He saw things to be as they should.
Just one more blessing He had in store;
He created a mother, but whatever for?

He knew a mother would have a special place
to shine His reflection on her child's face.
A mother will walk the extra mile
just to see her children smile.
She'll work her fingers to the bone
to make a house into a home.

A mother is there to teach and guide,
a mother will stay right by your side.
She'll be there through your pain and strife,
she'll stay constant in your life.

A mother will lend a helping hand
until you have the strength to stand.
She'll pick you up when you are down,
when you need a friend she'll stick around.

A mother is one who listens well,
will keep her word; will never tell.

A mother never pokes or pries
but stands quietly by your side,
giving you the strength you need,
encouraging you to succeed.

A mother is one who can be strong
when you need someone to lean on.

You're more than a mother to me;
a reflection of Him in your face I see,
a love that knows no boundaries.

I'm glad that you chose to be
all this and more to me.
You share a love that knows no end,
you're more than my mother,
you are my friend.

~By Kari Keshmiry~

A POEM FOR MY MOTHER

I miss you so much,
your laugh, your smile, your touch.
You always brightened my days
with all the smiles you sent my way.
I need you as my angel
to always be at my side.
I need you as my angel
to give me peace of mind.
I like to think your near to me
to know that you are there.
Even though I can not see you,
I feel that you are near.
Please do not forget me mom,
for you are always in my heart,
my thoughts and prayers.
I love you.

~By Shari M. Blom~

M-O-T-H-E-R

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,

Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"

A word that means the world to me.

~By Howard Johnson~

Louie Prima ...A Chicago Favorite

2009-04-22T11:07:00.001-07:00

He has crooned many a Mobster

A tireless showman and an underrated musical talent, Louis Prima swung his way to icon status thanks to an irresistible, infectious sound whose appeal translated across generations. Nominally a swing artist, Prima's distinctive sound also encompassed New Orleans-style jazz, boogie-woogie, jump blues, R&B, early rock & roll, and even the occasional Italian tarantella. Regardless of what form his music took, it swung hard and fast, with a rolling, up-tempo shuffle beat that helped some of his earlier material cross over to R&B audiences (his songs were also covered by jump blues artists from time to time). His greatest period of popularity coincided with his marriage to singer Keely Smith, whose coolly sophisticated vocals and detached stage manner made a perfect counterpoint to Prima's boisterous presence: mugging, clowning, and cavorting around the stage with the boundless enthusiasm of a hyperactive boy. Prima's band during this time was anchored by tenor saxophonist Sam Butera, whose grounding in jump blues and New Orleans R&B was a perfect match. Perhaps because Prima refused to take his music too seriously, sober-minded jazz critics often dismissed him as a mere entertainer, overlooking his very real talent as a jazzman. He was a capable, gravelly-voiced singer modeled on Louis Armstrong, boasting a surprising range, and was also a fine trumpet player, again in the irrepressible mold of Armstrong; what was more, he wrote Benny Goodman's perennial swing smash "Sing, Sing, Sing." Prima's impact on popular culture was also significant; his pronounced ethnicity made it safe for other Italian-American singers to acknowledge their roots, and he was the first high-profile musical act to take up regular residence in the lounges and casinos of Las Vegas, helping to start the city's transformation into a broader-based entertainment capital. His musical legacy proved long-lasting, as covers of his classics became modern-day hits for David Lee Roth and Brian Setzer; additionally, the '90s swing revival, which sought to re-emphasize the danceability and sense of fun that had largely disappeared from jazz, brought Prima's music back into the limelight (as well as the good graces of critics).

Louis Prima was born December 7, 1911 in New Orleans, LA, to an Italian family who'd emigrated to the U.S. by way of Argentina. He took violin lessons as a youth, but switched to trumpet at age 15 when his older brother went out on tour with a band and left a spare instrument behind. By 17, Prima was playing professionally at a New Orleans theater, influenced chiefly by Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. This was a problem, since the theater was not a jazz venue, and Prima was fired. In the early '30s, he caught on with cornetist Red Nichols for a time, and moved to New York in 1934 at the urging of star bandleader Guy Lombardo, who had been impressed with Prima's trumpet playing. Initially struggling to find work, Prima formed a Dixieland-style backing group called the New Orleans Gang and landed a regular gig at a 52nd Street club known as the Famous Door. The band was a hit, adopting "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" as their signature song, and recorded numerous sides for a succession of labels up through 1939; some of the better-known members included -- at various points -- clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, pianist Claude Thornhill, guitarist George Van Eps, reedman Eddie Miller, and trombonist George Brunies. Prima also traveled to Los Angeles periodically, and made cameo appearances in several Hollywood musicals, starting with the Bing Crosby Western Rhythm on the Range in 1936.

Meanwhile, Prima was composing original material, and in 1937 he completed a song called "Sing, Sing, Sing." Benny Goodman recorded an instrumental version and had a huge smash with it the following year, spotlighting it in his legendary Carnegie Hall appearance; to this day it remains one of the most readily identifiable melodies of the swing era. Prima broke up the New Orleans Gang in 1939 to form his own big band, which he dubbed the Gleeby Rhythm Orchestra. Following World War II, the band started to take off, landing hits with novelty numbers that often drew upon Prima's Italian background and accent. The first was 1944's "Angelina," a major success that paved the way for titles like "Felicia No Capicia," "Bacciagaloop (Makes Love on the Stoop)," "Please No Squeeza Da Banana," and "Josephina, Please No Leana on the Bell." Prima also made the Hit Parade Top Ten with songs like "Robin Hood" (1944; covered the next year by Les Brown for a bigger hit), "Bell Bottom Trousers" (sung by Lily Ann Carol in 1945), and "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)" (1947). He also wrote Jo Stafford's 1947 hit "A Sunday Kind of Love."}

In 1948, Prima hired a new female vocalist for his band, a 16-year-old Norfolk, Virginia native named Dorothy Keely, who was renamed Keely Smith. Prima parlayed her initial shyness into a stage routine where he attempted to break down her icily reserved façade. The contrast in their styles made for immediate chemistry, and Smith's boyish haircut only added to the duo's distinctive stage presence. Prima broke up the big band in 1949, and continued to work with Smith as a more streamlined nightclub act. They scored a hit in 1950 with their co-composition "Oh Babe!" and toured the country over the next few years. In the summer of 1953, Smith became Prima's fourth wife.

By late 1954, Prima was finding bookings harder and harder to come by. He talked a friend into booking him for an extended stay at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, and while passing through New Orleans, he recruited locally popular tenor saxophonist Sam Butera as a possible collaborator if things went well. They did, and Prima called Butera out to Vegas, asking him to bring a few more musicians; the new group debuted at the Sahara on the day after Christmas, and Butera dubbed them the Witnesses during Prima's first on-stage introduction. Their act quickly became a sensation around Las Vegas, and their engagement turned into a residency, billed as "The Wildest Show in Vegas," which ran up to five times a night. Prima and Smith's comic banter was riddled with sexual innuendo, and they sometimes rewrote the lyrics to popular standards in the same spirit; meanwhile, Butera's jump blues/R&B background kept the music equally lively. Even if the music was aimed at older listeners, it shared a great deal of the spirit of early rock & roll.

In 1956, Prima inked a new deal with Capitol, which marked the beginning of the most celebrated and influential period of his recording career. His first album for the label was 1956's The Wildest!, which successfully translated the high energy of his live act into a studio recording; it featured many of his best-known latter-day songs, including the "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" medley, "Jump, Jive an' Wail," "Buona Sera," "Oh Marie," and the jive-talking duet "The Lip." Over the next few years, Capitol issued six more Prima albums, highlighted by 1957's The Call of the Wildest and 1958's concert set The Wildest Show in Tahoe. He appeared frequently on The Ed Sullivan Show and other variety programs, and in 1958 he and Smith won a Grammy for their hit version of "That Old Black Magic." In 1959, they appeared in the film Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, which featured their renditions of the title song, "Lazy River," and "Banana Split for My Baby," among others.

While Prima and Smith boasted terrific chemistry on stage, their infidelity-riddled marriage was floundering by the close of the '50s. In 1961, Prima switched from Capitol to Dot Records, and from the Sahara Hotel to the Desert Inn; with his popularity still running high, both deals netted huge sums of money. However, Smith divorced him later that year, scuttling the act and largely negating the deals. Prima returned to Capitol for one final album, 1962's The Wildest Comes Home, and hired a new female vocalist, Gia Maione, who became his fifth wife in 1963. Without Smith, he was never again as popular or prolific on record, but he continued to perform in Las Vegas with Butera and the Witnesses, and toured successfully as well. In 1967, Disney tapped Prima to voice the character of King Louie, ruler of the orangutans, in its animated adaptation of The Jungle Book; his featured number, the swinging "I Wanna Be Like You," ranks among the best-loved Disney songs of its era.

Prima spent much of the late '60s and early '70s playing Vegas casinos and lounges, most notably at the Sands Hotel. With more and more musical acts taking up residence in the city, Prima no longer had the drawing power of old, and in the early '70s he and Butera returned home to New Orleans, where they made a steadier living playing in the French Quarter for the tourist crowd. In late 1975, Prima underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor, and fell into a coma; although he survived for nearly three more years, he never regained consciousness, and died on August 24, 1978. Prima's music began to reappear in subsequent years; ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth scored the best-remembered hit of his solo career with a carbon-copy version of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" in 1985, and onetime Stray Cat Brian Setzer scored a Grammy-winning hit with his cover of "Jump, Jive an' Wail." Prima's original version was featured in a Gap commercial around the same time, and the swing-dancing fad of the time helped bring the rest of his music back into the public eye. Meanwhile, Sam Butera continued to perform Prima hits from the golden years on the casino circuits in Las Vegas and Atlantic City

Styx...........Another Chicago Italian Gone Big

2009-04-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

A Brief Musical History

1969: After forming a band which would be known a “TW4” a few years prior, neighbors Dennis DeYoung and brothers Chuck and John Panozzo enroll at Chicago State University. Although the band had already performed in, and around, the Chicago area, C.S.U. would become the group’s base. The trio hooks up with another student, John Curulewski, who takes over the helm on guitar.
1970: Guitarists James “JY” Young- who was performing with a rival band in Chicago-joins the quartet. The new line-up begins taking a different direction with more musical experiments, with classical/rock fusions and electronic trickeries.
1971: The band’s demo is heard by the Wooden Nickel label, who would subsequently offer the band a recording contract the following year.
1972: The band is renamed STYX after a mythological river if the dead-a decision made by the band members. STYX I is released. The single, “Best Thing” (written by DeYoung and “JY”), reaches the Top 100 on the charts by the end of the year.
1973: STYX II is released, and although it doesn’t chart immediately, the Dennis DeYoung penned ballad, “Lady”, gets considerable airplay on Chicago radio. The band concentrates on their touring efforts in support of the single’s success, and creates a vast following of fans. The band will release The Serpent Is Rising toward the end of the year.
1974: The Serpent is Rising cracks the Top 200 Albums Chart in February, followed up by Man of Miracles, which reaches even higher position in November. “Lady” would be re-released as a single with national promotion, and the song would be propelled to #6 on the U.S. charts.
1975: STYX II rockets up the charts as a result of the success of “Lady.” It would reach #20, and sell over 500,000 units. In September, after searching for a larger and more supportive label, STYX would sign with powerhouse A&M Records. Two months later, Equinox, featuring the single “Lorelei”-would be the first A&M release, immediately reaching gold status (and eventually going platinum). At the end of the year, guitarist John Curulewski would leave the band. The band’s road manager recommends 23-year-old Tommy Shaw-then guitarist for Chicago based band “MS Funk”-as a replacement. A week after auditioning, Tommy Shaw joined the band.

1977: On July 7th (7/7/77), the band released The Grand Illusion.
1978: In January, A&M Records releases the single “Come Sail Away,” which would enter the Top 10. The parent album, The Grand Illusion, hits #6 as a result of the single’s success, and eventually becomes the first album from STYX to go platinum. The singles, “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” and “Miss America” contribute to the success of the album. Later in the year, the band would follow up with another platinum-selling album (reaching #6) titled, Pieces of Eight, featuring the hit singles, “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” “Renegade,” and “Sing for the Day.”
1979: A national Gallup poll would reveal that STYX is the most popular rock band with teenagers (13-19 year olds). By December, the band’s newest album release, Cornerstone, would hit #2 on the U.S. charts, earning the band it’s third consecutive platinum album. The singles, “Babe” (reaching #1 on the charts and becoming their highest-selling single of their career), “Why Me,” and “Borrowed Time” generate mass sales.
1981: Beginning early in the year, STYX would embark on an ambitious 110 date, six-month North American tour. In April, the album Paradise Theatre would be released, soon reaching platinum success (STYX would now have four consecutive platinum albums under their belt), and remaining at #1 on the U.S. charts for three weeks. Two hit singles-“The Best of Times” and “Too Much Time on My Hands”-reach #3 and #9, respectively, on the U.S. charts. The band would become the first in the history of rock ‘n’ roll to have four consecutive triple-platinum albums.
1983: STYX releases concept album, Kilroy Was Here, and will tour in support of it most of the year. A stage act is built around the album, in which costumed band members have roles and dialogue in addition to performing songs. It would become one of the most ambitious rock ‘n’ roll tours ever. The single “Mr. Roboto,” reaches #3, and becomes the second million-selling single in the band’s history (“Babe” being the first). Another single, “Don’t Let It End,” also goes Top 10.
1984: The band releases a double live album titled, Caught in the Act. Although the album is well received by the record buying public, both Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw decide to pursue solo projects (also on A&M records). Subsequently, the band is put on hold. Dennis DeYoung’s Desert Moon and Tommy Shaw’s Girls With Guns both enter top 50.
1985: In December, Tommy Shaw releases What If, which enters the Top 100, and spawns a single, “Ever Since the World Began.”
1986: Dennis DeYoung releases second solo album, Back to the World, and will also contribute a single (not from album), “This Is the Time,” to the movie, “The Karate Kid Part II.” James Young released his first solo effort, City Slicker, a collaboration with Jan Hammer.
1988: Dennis DeYoung releases another solo album, entitled Bloomchild (on MCA)
1990: Tommy Shaw forms a new band, Damn Yankees, with former Night Ranger vocalist/bassist Jack Blades, guitar virtuoso Ted Nugent, and drummer Michael Cartellone. The self-titled debut album will produce two hit singles, “High Enough” and “Coming of Age,” and will eventually sell over 2 million copies on Warner Bros. Records. The band tours extensively with Bad Company, and the album reaches #26. Toward the end of the year, STYX will reunite without Shaw (replaced by Glen Burtnik), and will release the album, Edge of the Century, which begins to garner acclaim.
1991: A single from Edge of the Century titled, “Show Me the Way,” begins chart ascension into the Top 10 during the Gulf War. With the success of the single, STYX joins an elite group of acts who have had Top 10 hits under each of the last four United States Presidents (and Top 10 hits in three different decades).
1992: Damn Yankees release their second effort, Don’t Tread, on Warner Bros. Records. The album, which features the singles “ Don’t Tread” and “Where Are You Goin’ Now?, would eventually reach platinum status. The video for the title track would be aired throughout the 1992 Olympics.
1994: In addition to playing the roll of Pontius Pilate in the national company of Jesus Christ Superstar (to rave reviews), Dennis DeYoung cuts an album of show tunes for Atlantic Records entitled 10 on Broadway.
1995: STYX release Greatest Hits: Volume 1, featuring a re-recorded version of “Lady” with Tommy Shaw (who had not yet joined the band when it was originally recorded). Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades release an album, Hallucination, as Shaw*Blades (Warner Bros. Records). The album would be co-produced by Don Gehman of REM/John Mellencamp fame. James Young forms the James Young Group, with other Chicago musicians and tours in support of their album, Raised by Wolves (Absolute/Whitehouse).
1996: In May, the classic (and most successful) line-up returns with “The Return to the Paradise Theatre” tour, which was seen in over 50 cities. Greatest Hits: Volume II was released in the summer featuring a few new songs. For the first time in thirteen years, Dennis DeYoung, James Young, Tommy Shaw, and Chuck Panozzo were “Rockin’ The Paradise.” Again…
1997: In May, CMC International Records, a division of BMG Entertainment, releases a double album of new studio tracks plus live recording of Greatest Hits from the ’96 tour, appropriately titled, Return to Paradise. Due to popular demand, STYX embarks on a 50-city North American tour in support of the release.
1998: Tommy Shaw releases a solo album in CMC, 7 Deadly Zens and hits the road opening shows for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Dennis DeYoung returns to his theatrical calling as his “Hunchback of Notre Dame” enjoys a successful run in Nashville. The band starts making plans for a new studio album-the classic line-up’s first in 16 years.
1999: The band goes in to the studio in Chicago and Los Angeles to record Brave New World which is released on June 29th. A tour begins in July, which will run through the end of the year.
2000: The band embarks on a 40 city co-headline tour with REO Speedwagon. The tour is so successful that the two bands record and release a double live album and DVD, “Arch Allies – Live at Riverport”. They then extend the tour (to date, Styx and REO have played over 90 shows together, consistently generating hugely successful box office numbers.)
2001: Styxworld Live 2001 is released, containing tracks recorded in Canada, Japan and Germany. The band continues its heavy touring schedule, playing 121 shows, including a 40 city tour with Bad Company that donates over $100,000 to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Education Fund, marking the first time in history that the Rock Hall attaches its name to a tour.
2002: Styx plays over 90 shows and records a new studio album, set for release in the winter of 2003.
2003: Styx releases Cyclorama on February 18, 2003. The band tours extensively throughout the year in support of the record.

New Opening.....Luca Lanzetta

2009-03-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

This spring, Luca Lanzetta, owner of the modern Italian kitchen showroom Ernestomeda at LuxeHome, is opening Antonio Lupi, a freestanding Italian bath showroom in River North devoted to Lupi’s sleek lines (516 N. Wells St., 312-479-5632). Mariposa Design Studio, owned by interior designer Kathleen Hanzel, offering many to-the-trade fabrics and trims at discounted prices, along with custom bedding and various upholstery services, and some antiques and accessories, at 115 E. Cedar Ave., in Century Corners, St. Charles, 847-417-0137. An expanded Chelsea Passage will open on the 6th floor of the new Barneys New York at 15 E. Oak St., 312-587-1700.

Happy St. Josephs Day

2009-03-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

According to the Christian Bible, St. Joseph the carpenter was the husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus. Tradition says that March 19th is the birthday of St. Joseph.

The feast that is celebrated on St. Joseph's Day honors all fathers.

In the Catholic tradition, St. Joseph's Day traditionally falls during the fasting season of Lent that precedes Easter. That means the feasting for St. Joseph's Day is done without meat. Italian recipes include pastas, fish, sweets, breads and fava beans. Many other countries join the festivities on March 19th and, since Joseph is one of the most common names in these countries, most families have at least one Giuseppe, Jozefa, José, Pepe, Joe or Josephine to celebrate with.

TRADITIONS
• Italian Catholics and many descendants of Italian immigrants prepare St. Joseph Tables, tavole di San Giuseppe, set to honor St. Joseph. They are filled with beautiful and often elaborate foods, including meatless dishes such as stuffed artichokes, pasta and fish, as well as breads, cookies, pastries, cakes and other delicacies.

• St. Joseph Tables are placed in both churches and homes. Each table is blessed by a priest and presided over by a statue of St. Joseph. A stalk of lily blossoms, votive candles and a lace tablecloth are typically used to decorate the feast table.

• Notices are posted in newspapers and in other media inviting the public to view and partake of the traditional meal of pasta Milanese. Participants often leave donations at the table.

• Special groups such as orphans, the elderly or the homeless are invited to share in the feast. At the end of St. Joseph's Day, leftover food is sold or given away, and any money earned is donated to the poor.

• In the United States, red is worn on St. Joseph's Day. There doesn't seem to be any religious significance to this color. It seems to have begun as a tradition to complement the tradition of wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, which falls only two days before.

• St. Joseph is the patron of workers and those in need of work. Prayers for the unemployed are often included in the traditions of March 19th celebrations.

• Burying a statue of St. Joseph in your yard on March 19th is said to help in selling your home and finding a new one. There are even special kits that are marketed for this, although most would say that a prayer would do just as well!

WHEN
The feast day of St. Joseph is celebrated on March 19 every year. In 2007, St. Joseph's Day is on Monday.

PURPOSE
St. Joseph's Day is a Roman Catholic feast day commemorating the life of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

CELEBRATION
Those with strong religious associations, most often those of European descent, typically celebrate St. Joseph's Day.

Greeting cards with a spiritual focus and a light blessing are used to commemorate St. Joseph's Day. In the United States, Hallmark offers four St. Joseph's Day cards.

In many countries St. Joseph's Day is a national holiday.

Those who visit a St. Joseph's table, often receive gifts of fava beans and breads. Fava beans play an integral part of the celebration because this was the food that saved the Sicilians from starvation. The bean is said to bring good luck, and it is believed that if the St. Joseph's bread is kept in the home, the family will never starve.

HISTORY
Many Italian St. Joseph's Day traditions stem from the middle ages. During a famine in Sicily, when food was scarce and many people were starving, the poor people had only their faith to rely on. St. Joseph was known as the protector of the Holy Family; thus, Italians with strong family relationships prayed for St. Joseph to intercede for them, in an effort to ensure successful crops. Their prayers were answered, and the famine came to an end. In gratitude, people promised to make annual offerings of their most precious possession – food – in St. Joseph's honor.

Little is said in the gospel about Joseph, except that he was a descendant of David and a carpenter by trade. Legends provide additional details about Joseph's life. He supposedly was a widower of advanced age when he was chosen by God to wed Mary.

According to one legend, Mary's many suitors left their staffs in the temple one night so that God could indicate who she should marry. The next morning, Joseph's staff blossomed with white flowers and leaves and sent forth a white dove, indicating that he was the chosen one. This explains why statues of St. Joseph typically show him holding the Christ Child and a stalk of white lilies and why this day is a common celebration of fathers throughout the Christian world.

March 19 is said to be St. Joseph's birthday and is celebrated as St. Joseph's Day.

The feast of St. Joseph also marks the beginning of spring in many countries. One Czech proverb, Pekne-li na Svatého Josefa, bývá dobrý rok...

Or, If it is nice on St. Joseph's Day, it will usually be a good year

Amazing Grace at the Coliseum in Rome

2009-03-08T19:05:00.001-07:00

Wow ...
> If you haven't heard Il Divo sing before, you are in for an extra treat.
> This is an operatic quartet consisting of a Swiss, a Spaniard, a Frenchman
> and
> an American.

I Owe My Mom...Italian Style

2009-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

I Owe My Mother

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS .
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA .
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION .
"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING .
"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOUR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM..
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

And my favorite: 25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE .

"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you

Little Italy Chicago

2009-02-15T13:12:00.001-08:00

Chicago Restaurant Week 2009!

2009-02-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

Embrace Your Inner Foodie

During Chicago Restaurant Week 2009!

Tables are set at over 130 tantalizing eateries throughout the city for the 2nd Annual Chicago Restaurant Week. From February 20-27, food lovers will enjoy amazing opportunities to revisit their favorite spots – or sample some they've always wanted to try – for just $22 for 3-course prix-fixe lunches and $32 for 3-course prix-fixe dinners (excluding beverages, tax and gratuity).

Restaurants may offer lunch or dinner, or both, as a participant in Chicago Restaurant Week. American Express® Cardmembers may make early reservations through January 25, 2009.

Whatever your taste – spicy sizzle, scrumptious seafood, or 5-star sophistication - you're sure to find plenty to savor during Chicago Restaurant Week. Just visit our list of participating restaurants to make your choices by restaurant name, neighborhood, or type of cuisine. Then get ready to eat it up, Chicago!

Search for a participating restaurant:

Ai Japanese Restaurant & Lounge
358 W. Ontario Japanese
Aigre Doux
230 W. Kinzie St. American
Ajasteak
660 North State Japanese
Alhambra Palace
1240 W. Randolph Mediterranean
Andiamo
10000 Bessie Coleman Drive Inside the Hilton Italian
aria
200 N. Columbus Drive American
Atwater's
15 South River Lane Geneva IL, 60134 American
Atwood Cafe
One West Washington Street American
Ballo, A Rosebud Restaurant
445 North Dearborn Italian
Ben Pao
52 W. Illinois Chinese
Benihana - Schaumburg
1200 E. Higgins Road Schaumburg IL, 60173 Japanese
Berghoff Restaurant
17 W. Adams St. American
Bistro 110
110 East Pearson Street French
bluprint restaurant & lounge
222 Merchandise Mart Plz # 135 American
Brasserie Jo
59 W. Hubbard French
Brazzaz The Brazilian Steakhouse
539 North Dearborn Brazilian
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
700 E. Grand Ave American
Cafe Ba Ba Reeba
2024 N. Halsted Spanish
Cafe des Architectes
20 East Chestnut Street French
Cafe Spiaggia
980 North Michigan Ave. Italian
Caliterra Restaurant
633 N. St. Clair Italian
Cape Cod Room
140 E. Walton Pl. Seafood
Carmine's
1043 N. Rush St. Italian
Carnivale
702 W Fulton St Latin
Carson's BBQ Ribs, Steaks & Chops
612 N. Wells American
Chez Colette
5550 North River Road Rosemont IL, 60018 French
Chicago Firehouse Restaurant, The
1401 S. Michigan Ave. American
China Grill
230 North Michigan Ave Fusion
C-House
166 E. Superior Street American
Coco Pazzo
300 W. Hubbard Italian
Coco Pazzo Cafe
636 N. St. Clair Italian
Crofton on Wells
535 N. Wells St. American
David Burke's Primehouse
616 N. Rush Street Steak & Beef
Devon Seafood Grill
39 E. Seafood
Dine Restaurant
733 W. Madison Ave. American
Drawing Room at Le Passage
937 North Rush St American
Ed Debevic's
640 N. Wells St. American
English
444 N. LaSalle St. Gastro Tavern
Farmerie 58
58 E. Ontario American
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
25 E. Ohio Street Steak & Beef
Fox & Obel Market, Cafe & Catering
401 East Illinois American
Frontera Grill and Topolobampo
445 North Clark Street Mexican
Fulton's on the River
315 N. LaSalle Street American
The Gage Chicago
24 S. Michigan Ave. Gastro Tavern
Geja's Cafe
340 W. Armitage Ave. Continental
Grace O'Malley's Restaurant
1416 S. Michigan Ave. Irish
Grill on the Alley
909 North Michigan Ave American
Hard Rock Cafe
63 W. Ontario American
Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse
33 West Kinzie Street Steak & Beef
Harvest Grill
540 N. Michigan Ave. American
House of Blues Back Porch Restaurant
329 North Dearborn Cajun
Hugo's Frog Bar
1024 N. Rush St. Seafood
Indian Garden Restaurant
247 E. Ontario Street #2 Indian
Jack Binion's Steakhouse
777 Casino Center Drive Hammond IN, 46320 Steak & Beef
Japonais
600 W. Chicacgo Ave. Japanese
Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab
60 E. Grand Seafood
Kamehachi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar
240 East Ontario Japanese
Kamehachi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar (Wells)
1400 North Wells Japanese
Keefer's Restaurant
20 W. Kinzie Seafood
Klay Oven
414 N. Orleans Indian
La Cantina Grill
1911 S. Michigan Avenue Mexican
La Cantina Italian Chophouse
71 W. Monroe Italian
La Madia
59 W. Grand Ave. Italian
La Sardine
111 N. Carpenter French
La Trattoria Del Merlo
1967 N. Halsted St. Italian
Lawry's The Prime Rib
100 East Ontario Steak & Beef
LB Bistro & Patisserie
301 E. North Water St., Lvl. 2 French
Le Colonial Restaurant
937 N. Rush Street Vietnamese
The Lobby at The Peninsula Chicago
108 E. Superior Breakfast / Brunch
Lockwood Restaurant & Bar
17 E. Monroe Street American
Luxbar
18 E. Bellevue Pl. American
M Avenue Restaurant
701 N. Michigan Ave. American
Maggiano's Little Italy
516 N. Clark Street Italian
Martini Park
640 N. LaSalle Drive American
McCormick and Schmick's Fresh Seafood Restaurant
1 E. Wacker Dr. Seafood
McCormick and Schmick's Fresh Seafood Restaurant - Chestnut
41 E. Chestnut St. Seafood
Melting Pot
609 N. Dearborn American
Merlo on Maple
16 W. Maple Italian
Merlo Ristorante
2638 N. Lincoln Avenue Italian
Metropolitan Club, The
Sears Tower - 67th Floor - 233 S. Wacker Dr American
Mexx Kitchen at the Whiskey
1015 North Rush Street Mexican
Morton's The Steakhouse
65 East Wacker Place Steak & Beef
N9NE Steakhouse
440 W. Randolph Steak & Beef
Naha
500 North Clark Street American
Nick's Fishmarket
51 S. Clark St. Seafood
NoMI
800 N. Michigan Ave., 7th Fl. Eclectic
one sixtyblue
1400 West Randolph American
Original Gino's East, The
633 N. Wells St. Pizza
Osteria Via Stato
620 N. State Street Italian
Palm, The
323 E. Wacker Drive Steak & Beef
Pane Caldo
72 E Walton St Italian
Park 52 Restaurant
5201 S. Harper Ave. American
Park Grill
11 N. Michigan Ave. American
Parrot Cage Restaurant
7059 S. South Shore Drive American
Petterino's
150 N. Dearborn American
Phil Stefani's 437 Rush
437 N Rush St Italian
Piccolo Sogno Restaurant
464 N. Halsted St. Italian
Prosecco
710 N. Wells Italian
Pump Room
1301 N. State Parkway Euro
Quartino Ristorante
626 N. State St. Italian
Restaurant at Conrad, The
521 N. Rush @ Michigan Avenue American
Rhapsody
65 E. Adams American
Ristorante We
172 W. Adams Italian
Riva
700 East Grand Avenue Seafood
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
One West Grand American
Rockit Bar & Grill
22 W. Hubbard Street American
Rosebud on Rush
720 N. Rush Italian
Rosebud Prime
One S. Dearborn Steak & Beef
Rosebud Steakhouse
192 E. Walton Steak & Beef
Rosebud Theater District
70 W. Madison Italian
Rosebud, The
1500 W. Taylor Italian
Roy's Chicago
720 N. State Street Fusion
Ruth's Chris Steak House
431 North Dearborn Steak & Beef
Saloon Steakhouse, The
200 E. Chestnut Street Steak & Beef
Seasons Restaurant
120 E. Delaware Place American
Shor
2233 S Martin Luther King Dr American
Shula's Steak House
301 East N. Water Street Steak & Beef
Smith & Wollensky
318 North State Street Steak & Beef
South Water Kitchen
225 N. Wabash Avenue American
Sullivan's Steakhouse
415 North Dearborn Steak & Beef
Sushi Samba Rio
504 N. Wells Japanese
Tavern at the Park
130 East Randolph St American
Texas De Brazil - Downtown Chicago
51 East Ohio Brazilian
Tizi Melloul
531 N. Wells Mediterranean
Topolobampo
445 N. Clark St. Mexican
Triad Sushi Lounge
1933 S. Indiana Ave. Japanese
Tuscany on Taylor
1014 W. Taylor Street Italian
Viand Bar & Kitchen
155 East Ontario American
Walnut Room, The
111 N. State St., 7th Fl. American
Wave
644 N. Lake Shore Drive Mediterranean
Wildfire Chicago
159 W. Erie American
Zapatista
1307 S. Wabash Ave. Mexican
Zest Restaurant
505 North Michigan Avenue American

The St. Valentines Day Massacre.

2009-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

The St. Valentines Day Massacre.

Probably the most publicized and talked about Mob event ever is the St. Valentines Day Massacre. Several movies have been made about it and numerous books have been published.

The North Side gang, led at the time by George 'Bugs' Moran, were being a major thorn in Al Capone's side. Capone finally decided he had had enough and, with the help of 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn and others, hatched the plot that was to make murder history.
Capone had a gangster from Detroit set up a deal with Moran for a quantity of liquor that had been recently hijacked. Moran accepted the deal and arranged to take possession at a garage at 2122 North Clark Street on February 14th, 1929. Capone's friends from Detroit informed him of the arrangements and phase two of the plan went into effect. Capone's team acquired a police paddy wagon, either by theft or bribery, and police uniforms and proceeded to the garage on the morning of the 14th. Two of the hit team dressed in the police uniforms, the others wore long coats and presumably looked like the detectives of the group. They pulled up to the front of the garage and all charged out and in to the building just as the police would have in a routine raid. Inside the garage were six members of Moran's gang (the old O'Banion gang) - Adam Meyer, John May, James Clark, Al Weinshank, the Gusenburg brothers, Frank and Pete and an optometrist Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer who picked a bad day to visit. The hit team had all seven men stand up and face the wall. The seven complied, expecting a pat down search for weapons and identification. Then two of Capone's men opened up with Thompson submachine guns, peppering each victim with numerous rounds from the .45 caliber weapon. The hoods disguised as cops then took the guns and marched the plain clothed gun men out of the garage with their hands raised as if they were under arrest. They all got into the police wagon and drove off.

The hit was only a partial success, however. The main target, Bugs Moran, was late getting up that morning and he and two others, Willy Marks and Ted Newbury, were just rounding the corner when the police wagon rolled up. Figuring the police were there for just a routine bust, Moran and Co. stayed just out of sight waiting for the police to leave. When the machine guns opened up, Bugs and his friends took off. He was later picked up by the police department for questioning about the incident. Bugs was quoted as saying "Only Capone kills like that."

Al Capone, of course, denied all knowledge of the hit. He was actually in Florida at his beach front condo soaking up the sun and sipping martinis. The members of the hit team never were identified. In fact, the news papers the next day carried the story that it actually was the police that had performed the murders as a reprisal for the theft of the booze from crooked cops some weeks earlier. No one in Chicago at that time found such a claim unusual since the corruption in the police force was so absolute. A forensic scientist from New York , Calvin Goddard, was actually called in to test all the machine guns in the police forces possession to rule out such a scenario. Goddard could not match up any weapon in the police arsenal to the bullets found at the scene.

About a year after the murders, the police raided the home of Fred Burke, a professional killer who sometimes had been hired by Capone. In his possession the came across the tommy guns used in the St. Valentines Day Massacre. Burke was never brought to Illinois to be tried for the massacre though. He was, instead, convicted for the killing of a police man in Michigan and sentenced to life. The rumors surrounding the find were that Burke was never brought to Chicago since his testimony would implicate the police in the planting of the weapons and cause police suspicion all over again.

It is not known who actually participated in the killings at 2122 North Clark but some of the more likely suspects were : Machine Gun McGurn, Tony 'Joe Batters' Accardo, George 'Shotgun' Ziegler, Claude Maddox, Gus Winkler and 'Crane Neck' Nugent, the last four being members of the elite hit squad Murder Inc. from Brooklyn.

IF BOTH of your parents are/were ITALIAN

2009-01-13T17:08:00.001-08:00

IF BOTH of your parents are/were ITALIAN this is a nice reflection back to the way things used to be...

Per tutta la Mia famiglia e gli amici it amo oggi, domani e sempre

To all my family and friends I love you today, tomorrow and always

42 Things In The Life Of An Italian American Child

01. You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every day for an entire year after a funeral.

02. You spent your entire childhood thinking what you ate for lunch was pronounced 'sangwich.'

03. Your family dog understood Italian.

04. Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting your grandparents and extended family.

05. You've experienced the phenomena of 150 people fitting into 50 square feet of yard during a family cookout

06. You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat three meals a day, not seven.

07. You thought killing the pig each year and having salami, capacollo, pancetta and prosciutto hanging out to dry from your shed ceiling was absolutely normal. (Wow, that's really Italian!)

08. You ate pasta for dinner at least three times a week, and every Sunday, and laughed at the commercial for Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti day.

09. You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed price and that the price of everything was negotiable through haggling.

10. You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.

11. You thought everyone's last name ended in a vowel.

12. You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled to the ankles.

13. Your mom's main hobby is cleaning.

14. You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.

15. You thought that everyone made their own tomato sauce.

16. You never ate meat on Christmas Eve or any Friday for that matter.

17. You ate your salad after the main course.

18. You thought Catholic was the only religion in the world.

19. You were beaten at least once with a wooden spoon or broom.

20. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread in your hand

21. You can understand Italian but you can't speak it.
22. You have at least one relative who came over on the boat.

23. All of your uncles fought in a World War.

24. You have at least six male relatives named
Tony, Frank, Joe or Louie.

25. You have relatives who aren't really your relatives.

26. You have relatives you don't speak to. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

27. You drank wine before you were a teenager.

28. You relate on some level, admit it, to the Godfather and the Sopranos. I maka a meata ball you can't refuse!.
Forrgetttabbboutit! Badda bing!

29. You grew up in a house with a yard that didn't have one patch of dirt that didn't have a flower or a vegetable growing out of it.

30. Your grandparent's furniture was as comfortable as sitting on plastic. Wait!!!! You were sitting on plastic.

31. You thought that talking loud was normal.

32. You thought sugared almonds and the Tarantella were common at all weddings.

33. You thought everyone got pinched on the cheeks and money stuffed in their pockets by their relatives.

34. Your mother is overly protective of the males in the family no matter what their age.

35. There was a crucifix in every room of the house.

36. Wakes would be held in someone's living room.

37. You couldn't date a boy without getting approval from your father. (Oh, and he had to be Italian)

38. You called pasta 'macaroni'.

39. You dreaded taking out your lunch at school
40. Going out for a cup of coffee usually meant going out for a cup of coffee over Zia's house.

41 Every condition, ailment, misfortune, memory loss and accident was attributed to the fact that you didn't eat something.

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2009-01-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

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Happy New Year

2009-01-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

How they celebrate New Years in Italy

Rome
Rome's traditional New Year's Eve celebrations are centered in Piazza del Popolo. Huge crowds celebrate with rock and classical music and dancing and of course, fireworks. The celebrations last well into the night. On New Year's day (while the adults are sleeping), children will be entertained in the square by performers and acrobats.
Next to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, you can still see the exhibit of traditional nativity scenes (through January 8) from 100 regions of Italy and other countries of the world.

Rome has a classical music concert outdoors on the square in front of the Quirinale, off Via Nazionale, around 11:00 followed by fireworks at midnight.

Rimini
Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, is one of Italy's most popular nightlife spots. Besides celebrations in numerous nightclubs and bars, Rimini holds a huge New Year's Eve festival in Piazzale Fellini starting at 9:00. There's music, dancing, and entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display. The Rimini New Year's Eve festival will be televised in Italy.
Naples and Capri
Naples is known as having one of the best New Year's Eve fireworks displays. They also have huge outdoor music events and in some parts of Naples, people still throw their old things out of their windows.

A tradition called Lo Sciuscio originated in Naples. Although it has pretty much died out there, it still exists in some smaller towns nearby. Groups of amateur musicians (now mainly children) go from house to house playing and singing on New Year's Eve. A small gift of money or sweets is given to them to bring good luck in the new year and turning them away may bring bad luck.

Near Naples, local folkloric groups perform in the Piazzetta in Capri and Piazza Diaz in Anacapri on January 1.

Bologna
Bologna traditionally celebrates New Year's Eve with the Fiera del Bue Grasso (fat ox fair). The ox is decorated from horns to tail with flowers and ribbons. The church bells are rung, spectators light candles and of course, fireworks are set off. At the end, a special lottery is held with the winner getting to keep the ox. The procession ends just before midnight in Piazza San Petronio.
Venice
Many restaurants in Venice go all out with huge feasts on New Year's Eve, starting around 9:00 and lasting until midnight. Although expensive, they tend to be very good with many courses and lots of wine. Be sure to make a reservation ahead of time. Many restaurants will be closed on New Year's day, however. You can usually expect pizza places, hotel restaurants, and Chinese restaurants to be open.
St Mark's Square has a huge celebration with music, a giant fireworks display, bellini brindisi (toast), and a huge group kiss at midnight. The group kiss will also be held in Piazza Ferretto in Mestre Venice New Year program.

On New Year's Day, many bathers take a chilling dip in the waters of Venice's Lido Beach. That's one way to get over your hangover!

Florence
Many restaurants in Florence will have extravagent meals, too. Be sure to reserve early. Fireworks will be set off at midnight and a good place to see them would be on one of the bridges on the Arno. There will be many private fireworks celebrations all over town, too.
One of the most popular clubs in Florence, Tenax, holds a New Year's Eve party. Here are more nightclubs and places to party

Merry Christmas To All

2008-12-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to reshape souls and roots and skies,
A time to give your heart to everyone
Freely, like a rich and lavish sun,
Like a burning star to those whose lonely sighs
Show need of such a time for love and fun.

For children first, whose pain is never done,
Whose bright white fire of anguish never dies,
It's time to give your heart to every one,

That not one angel fall, to hatred won
For lack of ears to listen to her cries,
Or arms to carry him towards love and fun,

Or friends to care what happens on the run
To adult life, where joy or sadness lies.
It's time to give your heart to everyone,

For God loves all, and turns His back on none,
Good or twisted, ignorant or wise.
Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to give your heart to everyone
Merry Chrixst

Chicago Hot Dogs & Chicago Italians

2008-12-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

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