Chicago Boyz

Lex and Mrs. Lex had a big date last Friday. We went to the Hideout, a cozy bar in an out-of-the-way nook in the industrial zone along Elston Avenue. The Hideout lived up to the favorable comments I had heard. I can say without reservation that it has my highest recommendation. I commend it to all ChicagoBoyz readers as an establishment which can be relied upon to meet the exacting standards of excellence known to be demanded by patrons of this blog.

The wife and I chatted agreeably with a very nice bartender, who plays in a country-western band called Kelly Kessler and the Wichita Shut-Ins. If this bartender’s personal musical taste is any reflection of how good they are, they must be very good indeed. He was playing a various tape he’d made of some very solid old C&W tunes. He made me two barely passable Manhattans, which I forgave. You take your chances ordering a real drink in a homey place like the Hideout. But that was what I wanted, and I was willing to throw the dice. However, this lapse in professional skills aside, our friendly bartender and I agreed that Ray Price is way underrated.

The Cubs were playing that night, so the place was pretty deserted. Apparently it is usually hoppin’.

The Hideout features live band karoake — which is pretty damn cool. You get on stage with a real band behind you and belt one out — you are Angus Young, or Johnny Rotten, or Paul Rodgers, or whoever, for three glorious minutes. When we were there the band was the Hootenanners. Lex was still wearing a jacket and tie from work. Hey, Frank Sinatra and Paul Weller both went on stage with a tie on — but probably never Iggy. I sang, Search and Destroy, which has the greatest opening line of any rock song:

Well I’m a streetwalkin’ cheetah with a heart full of napalm!

I then took down the intensity with White Rabbit, then finished up with Talk Dirty to Me. Mrs. Lex sang three songs, too. Oddly, there was a photographer from Chicago Magazine there. So, maybe Lex’s moment of rock madness will be widely disseminated throughout the Chicagoland Area as a result. Funny if it happens.

Our other friends, who wanted to get some dinner, almost had to chloroform us to get us out of there. We went to Paprikash, a pretty decent Hungarian place. One of the members of our little party spoke some Hungarian, which led to us getting an extra bottle of wine free. We closed the place. A pleasant time was had by all.

I laughed out loud on the train when I read this quote:

“If you want to live like a Republican, you’ve got to vote for the Democrats…”
-Dick Gephardt

Which tiny mind in his campaign came up with that one? Or was it the candidate himself? Who do you vote for if you want to live like a Democrat?

I didn’t know what to think about Israel’s recent threat to kill Arafat. I wish they had done it years ago, but I wasn’t sure it would do much good now. Nonetheless the Israeli government did make the threat. And I agree with David Warren that, having made the threat but not followed through with it after the most recent terror bombing, Israel now is in a worse position than if it had never raised the issue.

It’s easy to blame the U.S. for Israel’s failure. However, as Warren points out, Israel probably would have gotten away with getting rid of Arafat. (What would we have done?) If Israel had killed him a month or two ago the matter would likely be behind them by now, and Arafat’s replacement — whoever he might be — would probably be most careful not to do anything that might lead to his own arafatization. That would have been progress.

I blame Israel’s failure on the moral confusion of its leaders, and of the people who elected them, and on the corruption of its political system by billions of dollars of U.S. aid. The Israelis behave like Chicago residents in the days of Dan Rostenkowski: they vote for leaders who will bring home the subsidies. Now they are getting what they voted for. Their political class puts Israel’s relationship with the United States over its own country’s security. This situation will continue until Israelis decide that their national interest in self-preservation comes before the illusory security of being on the dole.