He made his name as the brains behind @MayorEmanuel, a wildly profane Twitter parody (and later book) poking fun at Rahm Emanuel’s first mayoral campaign.
Now creative tech guy Dan Sinker has a new project that is likely to delight and appall in equal measure: a Kickstarter campaign to produce “Pee Tape and Robert Mueller III prayer candles.”
Sinker, by his own description, “had a really terrible 2017, as a lot of people did.” His father died, and his wife, Janice Dillard, was diagnosed with cancer. Added to that was the unhappiness of living under a Donald Trump administration he virulently opposed.
So on his first trip to the supermarket in 2018, the Evanstonian bought “some beer, some scratch-off tickets and a prayer candle,” he told Chicago Inc.
“I thought ‘This year’s gotta be better than 2017,’ so I lit the candle and immediately won $10 on the scratch card. I thought, ‘Hey, maybe there’s something to this!’
“I wished there were prayer candles that captured life struggling under the Trump administration.”
Sinker quickly designed a pair of prayer candles — one with an image of a VHS tape with Russian script on it and the words “Pee Tape,” and another with special prosecutor Robert Mueller depicted in a heavenly glow. Liberals and other opponents of Trump can pray to the candles to protect Mueller. And in the hope that the alleged “pee tape” of Trump watching prostitutes urinating on a Moscow hotel room bed previously occupied by President Barack Obama is, in fact, real. Those allegations, which have never been proved, were raised in former British spy Christopher Steele’s notorious dossier, and denied by Trump. It was first reported by BuzzFeed.
As of Thursday afternoon, Sinker had secured more than $14,000 from around 380 backers toward the $24,000 he says he needs to manufacture and ship the candles, which he said will be mercifully unscented.
Trump, at least, would approve of Sinker’s chosen manufacturer: a California company Sinker preferred to the complexities of dealing with a Mexican candle factory.
Sinker said he intends no offense to religion, though he is not himself religious.
“But I’m more than willing to give it a try!” he said.
kjanssen@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @kimjnews
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