HEY CHICAGO PEOPLE ... DID YOU SEE THAT vicious TV video of that Fenger student being pummeled to death last Thursday? Well, this columnist didn't . . . you know why? I couldn't handle looking at this young man getting his life taken away.
PRESIDENT OBAMA's appearance on the David Letterman show Monday night was a real coup for the funnyman, and as much as I respect and appreciate our president, I think he needs to slow it down and rest. Obama was on five Sunday morning news/talk shows. That's unheard of for a president to be spread that thin. Obama seems to have a need to please and be everywhere, which is admirable, but will age him rapidly. He smiles a lot, but his stress level has to be off the chain along with the obvious gray hair.
IAM A FAN of the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." I find the ladies -- Nene Leakes, Kim Zolciak, Sheree Whitfield, Lisa Yu-Hartwell and Kandi Burruss -- very entertaining, which is why it is a hit show.
MY Tuesday column dealing with the Kanye West/Taylor Swift/MTV Video Music Awards brought about a slew of e-mails as well as calls. I can say that 99 percent were impressed with my Kanye Awards suggestion, and said what a clever writer I am. Ha! I also feel that Kanye is a very emotionally troubled, but brilliant young man, and I hope he takes time out of the spotlight to deal with his issues, especially the death of his beloved mom, Donda West.
SO, ONCE AGAIN, God's only hip-hop creation, Chicago's Kanye West, has let the world know that he is the only person capable of determining who should or should not receive a music award.
FUNNYMEN JERRY SEINFELD, Chris Rock and "Cosby Show" co-stars Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Phylicia Rashad will be among the celebs taping a TV special next month in honor of comic genius Bill Cosby, 72, who will receive the prestigious Mark Twain award in Washington, D.C. The event will air Nov. 4 on PBS stations. The award is one of the highest honors in comedy.
JACKSON'S FUNERAL: Chicago's Marshall Thompson, one of the founders of the legendary Chi-Lites singing group, was one of the few speakers at the private Michael Jackson funeral held last Thursday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif., where Jackson was entombed in the Grand Mausoleum.
IS IT JUST ME? I happened to be listening to a local Fox news show Wednesday morning and the reporter asked a local congressman about health care legislation and if he had read it. The congressman mentioned that they (congressmen) really don't read those bills; they have aides to read them and report back.
JUST IN: WELCOME TO U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in Chicago on Wednesday to address the Union League Club's luncheon. At that time, James Gatziolis, vice president of the club, will present her with a copy of a 1933 speech to the Union League that was given by her predecessor Frances Perkins, who was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
