Think sensitivities have gotten a bit out of hand during this mayoral campaign? WFMT-FM`s Studs Terkel has commemorated Abe Lincoln`s birthday on his radio show for 30 years now by reminiscing about the tall guy with the beard and reading from his major speeches. After Thursday`s show, a caller telephoned Studs to tell him he thought emancipator Lincoln was ”much too controversial” a subject to discuss in these ”volatile, racial times.”
THE BUSH PUSH . . .
The 1988 presidential campaign heats up on Monday–Presidents Day–as George Bush Jr. makes a swing into Des Moines to open up his dad`s Iowa campaign headquarters. His dad, the vice president, visits the Hawkeye State March 5 and 6. Unlike other presidential hopefuls who don cowboy boots and hats from farm implement companies, Bush will retain his preppy image even in the cornfields. His Iowa campaign chairman, George Wittgraf, told INC: ”He`s still the vice president and he will remain vice presidential in appearance and demeanor.” Just not that far back in the background, right?
ALDERMANIA . . .
— How far do Mayor Harold Washington`s foes take the thought ”Anyone but Harold?” At Monday`s Logan Square Community Association candidates forum, Ald. Richard Mell (33d) made a big pitch–so he thought–for his favored mayoral candidate. ”I ask you to vote for Jane Byrne. Is she the best possible candidate? Of course not. We know that she`s not.” But, he went on, Byrne`s ”much better” than Washington. So INC. phoned Mell to ask who could qualify as ”the best possible candidate,” and he said: ”Well, Richard J. Daley.” Maybe they`ll call the movie ”Dead Men Don`t Wear Campaign Buttons.”
— Nose for trash: Rumors have been flying that 43d Ward aldermanic candidate Bob Perkins doesn`t really live in the ward, and Perkins` Lincoln Park neighbor recently found someone trying to take a photo of the interior of Perkins` apartment through a mail slot. It was ”Inside Lincoln Park” editor Kelley Graettinger (whose newspaper just apologized for publishing a trashy cartoon depicting Mayor Washington speaking in sexual innuendos to a gay audience). He assured her that Perkins did reside next door, but Graettinger said she found that hard to believe–she`d checked, and Perkins` had hardly any garbage out back.
STAR TRACKS . . .
At a picnic thrown last weekend for the cast and crew of ”Over the Top,” Sylvester Stallone apologized to Menachem Golan for being such a pain during filming on the movie. Golan, who got credit as director on the movie, reportedly was forced to take his direction from Stallone. But an industry insider says Stallone`s be-a-jerk-now-and-apologize-later routine is getting old. . . . Sean Penn and Madonna showed up–together–last week at 72 Market Street, the Venice, Calif., restaurant owned by Tony Bill and Dudley Moore, and behaved pretty much like regular people. . . . Pat Morita was his name when he played Arnold in ”Happy Days,” then he used Noriyuki Morita for his credit in the ”Karate Kid” flicks, and now he gets his screenwriting credit for ”Fate of a Hunter” as Patrick N. Morita.
NO BIZ LIKE SHOW BIZ . . .
— Randy Gardner, one of the principals of ”Festival On Ice” at the Chicago Theatre, is continuing with the show`s tour even though he`s suffering from second- and third-degree burns he received two weeks ago when a fog machine in the show`s ”2087” number malfunctioned and burned right through his clothes.
— Gandhi, a Siberian tiger, was making Morris the Cat very nervous at a Thursday ”Common Ground” taping about animals in the media, so the tiger was put behind a partition so that Morris couldn`t see him. Enter unsuspecting Ted Faraone, Channel 2`s press guy, who began chatting with Gandhi`s trainer. In front of the partition. Maybe it was Faraone`s cologne, or maybe Gandhi just liked the sound of his voice, but before anybody realized what happened, the tiger leaped out from behind the partition and glommed onto a startled, no make that terrified, Faraone. The trainer got him off and Faraone`s okay, but he`s probably not going to be interested in seeing ”Cats” any time soon.
CITY DITTIES . . .
Tribune columnist Mike Royko was selected by his peers the nation`s best newspaper columnist in the Washington Journalism Review`s third annual reader poll. Trib editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly tied for first place. . . . Will somebody please do something about the embarrassing collection of litter decorating the Kennedy Expressway? You`d think tourism officials would throw a fit, considering the Kennedy is the route most visitors take from the airport into the city.
INC.LINGS . . .
Friday birthdays: Kim Novak, 54; Carol Lynley, 45; George Segal, 53;
Michael Bilandic, 64. . . . Saturday birthdays: Florence Henderson, 53; Hugh Downs, 66. . . . Michael Taylor, acting director of the Illinois Department of Public Aid, has taken himself out of the running for the permanent welfare chief`s job. . . . Francis Parker School`s evening courses for the spring semester include ”You are What You Absorb After You Eat,” ”Good Golly, Let`s Volley” and ”Could You Dye?”
