WGN Morning News Blog

The end of the year gives us a chance to reflect on our accomplishments, as well as the goals we failed to achieve. This is especially true in the news business. We watch history unfold each and every day---triumphs and tragedies from around the world. Only a few of these stories will leave a lasting impression on history---they are typically not the stories covered in this column. However, I like to bring you the quirky people, that make life a little more interesting, and teach us something about our neighbors and ourselves.

You can find the transcripts by clicking on Larry’s World about halfway down the page at http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/morningnews/

This year, I introduced you to 4’4” Joey Fatale, the leader of MiniKiss, a Kiss tribute band consisting of “little people.”

Lesson: Little people are capable of being more than the elf in the Christmas commercial.

I also introduced you to Chicagoan Jim McBride is Mr. Skin, the self-professed leading authority on celebrity nudity in movies.

Lesson: Adolescent obsession can be a passion that benefits society---he employs 40 Skinterns for his website.

And my exclusive with Jesus. Neil Saavedra is a former punk-rocker and martial-artist who became Jesus, as host of "The Jesus Christ Show" on KFI AM640, in Los Angels. , which you can hear online at www.kfiam640.com .

Lesson: "If I could find a way to focus myself the way I do for three hours on radio I'd be a lot better off. Everyone should play Jesus for a living,” Saavedra said.

With the exception of Larry Farwick, who has collected every Red Eye column since it began in May of 2003, here is a follow up of 2006 for the rest of you, and some feedback from some of the stories that got the most reaction.

I got an angry email from Enisa Hamzic about my column on the news. I wrote that I am tired of people complaining about the news being biased or negative…and explained that it is better to hear "bad" news than to live in a country (Russia, China, etc) where you are not permitted to hear it.

I was upset that (you) are just "following the herd of sheep" if you will, and writing something that required absolutely no critical thought and research. Anyone with a decent education should have learned that EVERYTHING that we see on television is questionable! I recommend checking out these DVD's..."The Myth of the Liberal Media" and "Control Room".

I will watch those documentaries and report back to you my findings, but in my 17 years in broadcast journalism, no one has ever asked me to slant a story. Typically, it’s a case of “biased media consumer” who doesn’t like to hear things they disagree with.

One documentary I’ll be skipping, is the one shot in June. I told you about a documentary being done on the “haunted” Hooters at 660 N. Wells. Roy Baggio, 40, of Chicago Heights, and his team from Chicagoland Paranormal Researchers conducted a pre-investigation using electronic devices and their “gifts” for sensing paranormal.

Baggio emailed after the shoot, to tell me he detected several EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon.)

I ran this by an audio engineer David Federline, who says this is most likely “white noise” caused from the electronic equipment, or just sounds of the city.

Noises in a basement in 660 N Wells you say? Shocking. If I recall correctly, isn't there an underground tunnel system for cabling/phone/infrastructure that caused the flooding of downtown when a barge knocked a hole in it in the river back in the 80's? Sound travels nicely through pipes and tunnels,” Federline said. “If this is publicity, the fundamentalists will have a field day exclaiming that Hooters is in league with Satan and it is proven by a haunting. Nothing generates more free publicity like a controversy or some spirits.

I also noted in a column this year that despite the ongoing obsession with Jen and Vince, Brittney’s underpants, or Mel Gibson’s drunk tirade, celebrities don’t care about you.

I got this email from Veronica Seizys:

I was a fan of Mel Gibson's, until I actually met him!
I was sitting at the bar watching the band and the dancers on the dance floor when, all of a sudden, this man literally PUSHED his way between me and the woman sitting on the stool next to me to get to the bar. I had to lean so far back to get out of his way I almost fell off my stool. I turned to look at the intruder and I saw the great man himself, Mel Gibson. He never said, "Excuse me," "Pardon me," or even "Sorry." He even had the nerve to make that "shooing" sign with his hand to us, as if he were shooing away a fly!

I suggest to students, who always ask me what celebrities I’ve met, that

Celebrities don’t care about you. Your parents and teachers do---invest more time worshipping them.

Parenting tips are included in one of my annual columns to mark my daughter’s birthday. She turned two in July. I always thought of the Red Eye audience as 25-year-old, beer-drinking sex-machines. But apparently, there are many young couples who read this paper too. And to you singles having fun in the bars, just remember this will be you someday.

Here is one tip I offered:

Don't fuss about their food: As adults, we are particular about pairing white wine with fish and balancing green veggies with starch. My daughter enjoys soy dogs with a mixture of Cheerios and pickles. Wash it all down with a nice glass of milk. Mmm, that's good eatin'.

I got this feedback from Ben Pomeranz, who has a one year old daughter Eva and five year old son Julian. He offered a few tips for raising boys.

For scratches, scrapes, cuts and bruises, Daddy doesn't always have to
say, "Walk it off."

Your son thinks you are the greatest! You can do no wrong. Don't let
him down.

In May I encouraged you to climb your family tree to find compelling stories from your own ancestry….or if the record is sparse, start your own story for your descendants. I attended a family reunion for my Uncle Herbie’s 80th birthday. He keeps the details on our family tree. At 80, he’s had much to add to the story.

Being 80 suddenly makes me realize that I am now the oldest! I especially miss people who are not here now but were an important part of my life, the humor of my sister, my brother and parents…but I don't feel old, Herbie said. “My wonderful family keeps me young!

I noted a stranger who looked like one of us so I asked how he was related, only to find out he was my Uncle Herbie’s neighbor. However, with such a striking similarity in appearance, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that somewhere up the family tree, there is a connection to this “stranger.” It just goes to show you that our neighbors aren’t so foreign after all. Anthropologists say if you climb high enough, the human family starts with a small group of people in Africa. Somehow I doubt they were as colorful (or kooky) as we are.