WGN Morning News Blog

One day I was sitting near Dr. J at a basketball game. He had just retired. When the game was over I took his empty Coke can. That was about 1987. I still have it, collecting mold in a box of stuff. It's worthless but people seem to get a kick out of it…except for my wife who thinks I'm an idiot.

Paul Lisnek understands. When he invited me to see his collection, I expected a case of Looney Tunes Pez Dispensers or autographed photos from the cast of Barney Miller. But when I walked into the Lakeview jury consultant's townhouse, I could not believe my eyes: As I walk into the living room, I see a ram standing on top of an eight foot armoire on my right; on my left is a glass box with a mannequin hand, featuring a glove of Judy Garland, which is holding a partially smoked cigarette from the actress who played Barney Fife's girlfriend, Thelma Lou. This introduction gives you a range of the 200 pieces in his eclectic collection.

The walls are covered in framed montages of valuable memorabilia, like Tom Cruise's gloves from Minority report; and a stained-glass tribute to "My Three Sons" which was designed by one of the characters, "Chip." On the kitchen counter, sits a real pod with dinosaur eggs.

He started collecting show biz memorabilia like the bricks that the Three Stooges used to throw at each other. He has one of Gilligan's sailor hats, Barney Fife's keys to the Mayberry Jail, and even one of Donny Osmond's shirts.

"Probably because I'm weird and childish," Lisnek said. "But also, as you get older, part of it is recognizing that your tastes change and you can't live in a place of a 12 year old."

Through the years his collection evolved to include more historical items like a tile from the Titanic, and a voting booth from 2000, with a ballot signed by Gore.

"He sort've grimaced and signed it."

The most haunting piece was the lock of hair from President Abe Lincoln's death bed.

Some if it he purchases from collectors, but sometimes he just grabs something that grabs his attention.

"I was drunk in South Carolina and two weeks later, this (giant Buffalo head) showed up."

You could say his "museum" is unofficial, so I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate strangers stopping by the house but you can still experience the nostalgic thrill of historic memorabilia. Chris Epting has written a book "The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain -- The Locations of America's Pop Culture Artifacts."

Did you know James Dean's car door from his infamous accident is at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo Illinois? The book is a guide to historic items that you didn't know even existed anymore, like Paul Revere's Lantern or John Wilkes Booth's gun. Isaac Newton's Apple Tree is at Babson College in Boston.

"I think the attraction for one is that things like this provide glimpses of what got us where we are today -- the inspirations, tragedies, triumphs -- they all matter, Epting said. "Then there's the nostalgia factor -- we love to relive our youth and the touchstones that shaped how we view life."

So regardless of its value, it's not just junk. Epting says memorabilia makes you feel closer because in some cases, they are all that's left of an event; like another piece in my collection -- a piece of tile from Al Capone's bathroom at the Lexington Hotel….although I prefer not to think about getting closer to Scarface at the urinal.

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Sunday marks the 135th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, and it was on a Sunday in 1871 that flames scorched miles of Chicago. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow took the blame; no suprise -- as cows have never quite gotten a fair shake in our society -- bad enough they can't run, swim or fly, but rather face a dull life at Old MacDonald's farm, only to end up at old McDonald's slaughterhouse. If someone walked in to a smokey barn and saw you there….wouldn't you point the other way and say "The cow did it." You might think blaming a cow, would be the safest scapegoat. But, to Anthony DeBartolo, a reporter for Hyde Park Media, these details matter.

DeBartolo found a piece of evidence while doing research for another project about ten years ago. Experts have scoffed at the theory, saying they had read everything there was to read about the Great Chicago Fire. However, they probably missed this -- a short paragraph, in what DeBartolo calls a well-respected book about the history of gambling.

In the 1964 book "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Gambling," Alan Wykes writes about a will from 1942 for Louis M. Cohn, who passed away at the age of 89. Cohn's estate was handed over to Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The press release was obtained by DeBartolo for an article in The Chicago Tribune several years ago. It included one paragraph about Cohn's "interesting connection" with the origin of the Great Chicago Fire.

"He asserted that he and Mrs. O'Leary's son, in the company of several other boys, were shooting dice in the hayloft…by the light of a lantern, when one of the boys accidently overturned the lantern, thus setting the barn afire. Mr. Cohn never denied that when the other boys fled, he stopped long enough to scoop up the money."

Sykes added a comment about Cohn's will.

"Cohn added a postscript to his story in the form of a deadpan comment that could have been made only by a man with the unswerving single-mindedness of the dedicated gambler: 'When I knocked over the lantern, I was winning.'"

An expert in Chicago Jewish history and geneaology later contacted the Chicago Tribune, and supplied the name of Cohn's father, Marcus, who according to the 1870 directory, lived less than a mile from the O'Leary house, near what is now Dearborn Street and Jackson.

"Cohn is the only guy in history ever to say in effect 'I did it,'" Debartolo said.

"Many other people have come forward to say other individuals were involved but no one other than Cohn ever came forward to say that they were in the barn at the time the fire broke out. I think that's significant. So, the question becomes, why would Cohn lie?"

DeBartolo suspects the story of Cohns involvement was suppressed because Cohn was Jewish. The Cohn confession never makes it to the final recorded will, which was never signed by Cohn. DeBartolo suggests that in the 1940's, Cohn's Jewish friends (who were also his executors) may have thought it best to keep Cohn's "confession" private at a time of great Jewish persecution.

Historians say it's just another wild tale.

"It's unprovable and irrefutable," said Prof. Carl Smith, of Northwestern University It is based on one guy's claim that might have happened but we have no verification. My gut reaction is it's one guy bragging."

De Bartolo tracked down one of the executor's sons -- Stanley Feinberg, who was living in LaJolla California. Feinberg confirmed that Cohn had told the story about the infamous craps game.

"He wasn't being boastful, or proud or remorseful," Feinberg told DeBartolo in a 1998 interview for the Tribune. "He was just setting the record straight. 'Here are the facts,' he'd say."

"The only time I thought Feinberg wasn't telling me the truth was when I asked him about [Cohn's] will - he stopped looking me in the eye." DeBartolo said. "It's understandable why they wouldn't want a fellow Jew to stand up and basically say, "I started the Chicago fire."

The Tribune later heard from 74 year old Roy Grayson, who said his grandfather, Abraham Goldstein, often told stories of boys playing cards and drinking in O'Leary's Barn….and "on the night of the fire, one of them kicked over a lantern."

"The evidence was destroyed, we can't reconstruct it. We will never know," said Libby Mahoney, of the Chicago History Museum. "Barns are stuffed with hay and they didn't have electricity or flash lights; there were kerosene lanterns. It seemed inevitable in some way. The conditions were right, something was bound to happen."

Mysteries are what keep people fascinated with history. Every town has its legends, and regardless of how this one began, it ends with Chicagoans building a city of glass and steel, built from the ashes of an old barn. In the end, that is the story that matters most.

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Forty-five-year-old Jim Rzonca of Lemont drywalls all day, so his hockey days are over.

But that doesn't stop him from reliving his childhood through table hockey tournaments. "For most all of us table hockey players and hobbyists, it's something we discovered under our Christmas trees," Rzonca said.

If you were a guy who grew up in the '70s you might've had the giant steel board with the long spokes that guided players down the ice. (My Toronto Maple Leafs looked like Vidal Sassoon models; the Montreal Canadiens looked like ax-murderers.)

"It's the best sports game ever made." Rzonca said. "We do it for the camaraderie -- it's the same as guys going on a golf outing."

Rzonca might be classified as a "rejuvenile." It's a term and the name of a book by Christopher Noxon, who observed adults regressing to their childhood. It looks something like a midlife crisis -- only it may come at 35. In a sense, it is a pacifier for people dealing with the stresses of adult life: everything from paying the bills, to September 11th.

Are you a rejuvenile? Take this quiz:

Are you 24 and live with your parents?

Do you have a Bugs Bunny DVD?

Do you actually know where your matchbox cars are?

Have you recently sipped a juice box?

Do you have a poster of Cheryl Ladd (or Leif Garrett) on your wall?

If you said yes to any two, you're a rejuvenile. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The fact is people are staying single longer; waiting longer to have babies. Noxon says 38 percent of single adults aged 20 to 34 live with their parents.

Why the stranglehold on youth? Media plays a big part. I have seen TV and movie producers play to a target audience that gets younger and younger. In fact, most advertisers care little about people over 49 who typically have already developed loyalties to certain brands. So, perhaps we're hearing the message that middle-aged people are irrelevant.

"A lifelong barrage of media attention aimed at youth has created a cultural tractor beam, drawing older consumers back into the target market," Noxon writes.

But "there's a big difference between child like and childish. Five hours in front of an Xbox or unlimited cupcakes and Cap N' Crunch… you revert to childishness." To strike a balance, you take the spirit of childlike imagination into adulthood.

At 39, I'm not panicked about being irrelevant just yet, but I must admit I am drawn to elements of my childhood more and more.

When my 10-year-old nephew comes to town, I jump at the chance to play my Cadaco All-Star Baseball game. It's from the mid-70s and features a pop-up ivy wall and Wrigley Field scoreboard. The wall has since collapsed, but the spinning needle still works on the statistically accurate 'player discs' for greats like Willie McCovey, Bill Madlock and Carl Yastrzemski.

Is it wrong to be a rejuvenile? Hey we spend 75 percent of our life (if we're lucky) living in adulthood. Who wouldn't want to relive the years when our biggest problem was whether to get a snow-cone or a circus pop.

"I want to be able to play these games, watch cartoons and still watch 'Frontline' and read The New York Times," Noxon said. "You don't have to give it up."

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Whether you are a CEO or a garbage man, chances are you fall into the same routine each day.

You take the same way to work; talk to the same people; eat the same food. Reporters might be the exception: I have flown a fighter jet; been in a crack house; visited Death Row; and interviewed a CEO on his corporate jet, as well as a little old lady at her kitchen table in Cabrini Green. But how do you add the spice to life if you don't have that kind of opportunity?

Debbie Mudd has an idea. She is a writer for the marketing company ARC Worldwide in Chicago who felt bored in her daily routine. She is on a quest to do 30 things in 30 days that she's never done before.

"I felt like I was treading water in every aspect of my life. It felt like I was standing still," Mudd said.

So she kicked off her adventure on Labor Day with a trip to the nude beach in Mazomanie, Wis. "I wondered why. Do they just want an overall tan? I'm still unsure. Is it liberty?" Mudd asked. "It was cold that day so people started putting on shirts, but no pants."

Her missions come in all shapes and sizes:

Daring: A friend drove her through Bucktown and Wicker Park where she mooned people. "Having eye contact first can send a malicious message [with your moon]," she learned.

Dangerous: She toured on a Segway and nearly ran over a group of Swedish tourists.

Gross: She ate an Irish breakfast of black pudding (made with pigs blood) and white pudding (other pig parts) at the Grafton. "It's not on the Weight Watchers menu for a reason."

Weird: She wore Chinese bamboo vinegar detox patches strapped onto her feet. "It helps you remove toxins and combat fatigue," she said. "It worked but looked disgusting [from all the stuff it sucked up from my feet]."

Friendly: She took a "Hi" Holiday where she said hi to everyone she saw. Only one-third said "hi" back.

Still in the planning stages: She plans to work at a soup kitchen and possibly sing at the "L." Her project will conclude Oct. 2, possibly at Yom Kippur services (she's Catholic.)

"I've always been a person who worries what others think. I'm the overthinker," she explained. "But doing this, I'm understanding that it's no big deal. No one cares."

Mudd hopes her 30-day project will be a breakthrough in helping her achieve new goals in life. She plans to write a book about her experiences.

I plan to help her cause by bringing her on "WGN Morning News" to give me a neck massage while I read international headlines ... or perhaps Paul Konrad could use her as a stepping stool so he can reach Michigan's Upper Peninsula on his weather map.

I am full of ideas:
-pogo sticking through the first floor of City Hall, dressed as Jesse Jackson
-perform redneck haiku at the town board meeting in Whiting Indiana
-jump a kiddie pool filled with jello on an old Huffy thunderroad.

Mudd's strategy is extreme, but insightful. Trying new things can provide a new-found confidence. I don't recommend mooning your boss or eating pig blood sausage, but at least taking a journey outside your comfort zone presents new adventures and new opportunities to learn

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The first music videos were the ones created by life, riding in my parents car, listening to the AM radio to maybe something like Gerry Raferty's Baker Street or "The Things We Do for Love" by 10cc. I'd watch the people walk to the beat of the music, sometimes even correlating with the lyrics. I never thought much about it. But it certainly made the music more powerful, and made me look at life a little differently. It made ordinary people seem like they had a sexier step in their walk, or make watering the lawn seem edgy.

So when the moody 70's music about love and war passed, and the glittering disco lights dimmed, music videos were just what we needed to sell 80's pop. MTV is celebrating its 25th anniversary and I am one of those people who had a friend with cable in 1981, and would sit mesmerized to images of white horses, fog, and shattering glass. None of it made sense, but the experimentation was wild and fun. When all you had to reference was a one-camera shoot of four Beatles standing shoulder to shoulder, bobbing, smiling, and singin' "yeah yeah yeah," the doors were open to anything.

OK, so this is where I officially transform into the cranky old man who lives across the street. The few videos out there today are nothing more than scantily clad women dancing and gold-grill pimps with fancy chrome wheels. Yawn. While MTV likes to view itself as cool, rebellious, and artful, it has become more about commerce.

I want "my" MTV!! (of 1981.)

Lately much respect is being paid to all that is retro. We're experiencing a resurgence of the '80s sound from bands like The Killers and The Bravery.

"Eugene," a character in "The Spazmatics," an '80s cover band of nerds, says Gen-Xers at their concerts know all the lyrics and that new, young fans are loving the '80s too.

"Music is a very cyclical thing. It goes in 20-year patterns. Now that we're in the 2000s, music from the '80s is becoming popular again," Eugene said.

He thinks what MTV lacks today is the variety you used to get by watching just that one channel.

"In the '80s, you would see anything from a rock video to a Missing Person's video. Nowadays they have specific shows for specific music." And the old-school videos are relegated to the "classic" MTV channels.

But you can tap in to these cool, old MTV videos -- on demand -- at a Web site I found called www.1500videos.com.

You'll see '80s staples like:

>> The cheap white backdrops of "My Sharona" or "Mickey."

>>Androgynous performers like Boy George and Annie Lennox.

>>Special effects that would make any Cable Access director proud.

And then, there's the randomness.

The Blow Monkeys' "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" features a game show host, a football player, the paparazzi and a refrigerator--all for no apparent reason.

Scritti Politti, Sly Fox and other one-hit wonders are all there on the site. Their careers built, perhaps, more on chiseled looks, fast edits and odd camera angles, than on musical talent. In that way, '80s-era MTV videos have influenced everything from commercials to newscasts to movies and even the artists themselves. You can thank MTV for the fact that with few exceptions, you have to look sexy on video to become a successful musical artist. You don't see all that many Tom Pettys these days -- artists with compelling song-writing skills and faces made for radio.

But with all of the good-looking, highly polished pretty people, MTV is missing the serendipity of low-budget images that seem like a bizarre dream. I can't explain why ABC's "Look of Love" features an Austrian hornblower, a flying nun and a sad clown -- all I know is I couldn't stop watching.

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