Constable: Devastation caused by tornados, but also by hedge fund

The exodus of columnists from the Chicago Tribune brings to mind the legendary Jack Mabley, who wrote for the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago American, the Chicago Today and the Chicago Tribune before finding his final newspaper home at the Daily Herald. Always one to focus more on the content than the writing, Jack occasionally wrote what he called a “junk column,” where he made his point quickly and moved on to another topic like this:

• Sirens alerting us to the tornado that swept through the suburbs on Sunday night into Monday morning, ravaging parts of DuPage County and injuring people in Naperville and Woodridge, remind me of my youth on our family farm in Indiana, where approaching tornadoes would sometimes force us into the dusky basement that featured a storm cellar door just like the one in “The Wizard of Oz.” Fortunately, the worst damage we suffered was when the winds toppled a couple of trees, blew a huge wooden barn door to the ground, and ripped off shingles from our slate roof that my siblings and I could use as chalkboards.

But, in those days before cable TV and nature shows, we often set up lawn chairs in the lane and watched twisters moving across the open landscape miles away, touching down occasionally in the middle of cornfields. One Sunday after church while eating at the Nu-Joy, we were startled and thrilled to see TV weather forecaster Harry Volkman dart into the restaurant to use the pay phone. He told us the tornado in the nearby skies was the first he'd seen in person.

• Traveling for the first time since the pandemic, my wife and I flew to Boston for a long weekend to see our son Ben, who moved to that city last summer to work as a teacher. The airports and planes required everyone to wear masks, and only a handful of passengers had to be reminded. Most businesses and restaurants had signs noting the fully vaccinated didn't have to wear masks. Having gotten our second shots in April, my wife and I kept our masks on at first, but slowly warmed up to the idea of going mask-less. We're still finding our comfort zone.

• Boston has a wonderful Bluebikes bicycle-sharing program similar to Chicago's Divvy program. Plentiful bike lanes, many separated from traffic by barriers, made the experience fun and stress-free. The only drawback is biking doesn't rack up the steps the way walking does, and my new Fitbit (an early Father's Day present), has given me the common affliction of being consumed with hitting my steps milestones.

• Driving on Boston's narrow streets has become second nature to our son, but traffic is always heavy and finding a parking space is as challenging as getting into M.I.T. But Boston drivers tend to be so polite that they not only let in merging traffic, they sometimes allow a single left-turner to go first once the light turns green.

• Kayaking on the Charles River was serene, beautiful and good exercise, thanks to our guide, Karen. She made me wish Karen could return to being a common name instead of biting meme.

• Our vegan son, Will, has pushed his mom and me in that direction with his overwhelming evidence that meat production isn't healthy for the planet, or our bodies, or animals. While lobster and seafood remain the popular choices in Boston, every restaurant noted its vegan options. And a cellphone search for “Best ice cream near me” took us to a shop that served nothing but vegan ice cream.

• As Robert Feder has noted in his Daily Herald columns, the loss of talent from the Chicago Tribune, due to the buyouts from the Alden Global Capital hedge fund that acquired Tribune Publishing, has been devastating. I was always happy when some story allowed me to hang out in the rarefied air of Tribune columnists Eric Zorn and Mary Schmich, two thoughtful and truly gifted writers, who also happen to be friendly, fun, humble and kind. I also loved reading columns from Heidi Stevens and Dahleen Glanton.

One of the reasons Mabley, who died in 2006 at the age of 90, came to the Daily Herald in 1988, was because of how impressed he was with the Paddock family, who owned the paper. The Paddocks had many chances to cash out by selling to some hedge fund, newspaper conglomerate or maybe even the Tribune. Instead, the family cared more about their newspaper than profits, and converted the Daily Herald in 2018 to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. I wish all those talented journalists at the Tribune had such an arrangement.