Most, BUT NOT ALL upcoming con certs have been postponed or cancelled. Here’s what we have, though it is certainly not complete.

Today, Saturday, March 14.

Garnet Rogers at Acoustic Renaissance is still on.

Mark Dvorak at St. Tim’s is still on.

Ides of March at Club 21 has been postponed.

Chris Vallillo at Acorn Coffeehouse has been cancelled.

Ian Maksin at Ethuical Humanist Society is cancelled.

I have no information regarding Moonshine Band at Christ Community Mennonite Church, Mulligan Stew at Andy’s Jazz Club, or Trillium at Southbark Original BBQ.

Sunday, March 15.

The Ides of March proved unlucky for Jan and Jim at Lake County Folk Club – cancelled.

I have no news regarding Mulligan Stew at Fox’s Pub, or Trillium at Warrenville Public Library.

For the upcoming week, I will mention those events that were scheduled and postponed or cancelled, and, of course, those for which I have no cancellation information. That doesn’t guarantee the event will still take place. It is best to check with the venue or performer before heading out. Or take your chances – your call.

Tuesday, March 17.

“Greenin’ the Folk” on Folk Festival with Lilli Kuzma. It was to be a wdcb fundraiser, but that has been postponed (scratching my head on that one). 8 PM. 90.9 FM, or www.wdcb.org.

Mulligan Stew at Harp and Fiddle, somewhere in Park Ridge, probably some time in the evening. Hey, I can only tell you what I am given.

Trillium at O’Hare’s Pub, 207 S. Main St, Bartlett. 5:30 PM.

Thursday, March 19.

Spring begins. As far as I know, that is still on.

Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives, scheduled for Thursday and Friday at Old Town School, has been postponed to July 12.

Friday, March 20.

Eric Lugosch at Two Way Street Coffee House, 1047 Curtiss St, Downers Grove. 8:15 PM $10. As we go to press, the venue web page states that  no final decision has been made regarding this event.

Larry O. Dean’s Folk You, with Larry, Dan Cooney, and Jamie Wagner, at Silvie’s Lounge, 1902 W. Irving Park Rd, Chicago. 7:30 PM.

  Dean Milano will be doing sets, not reps, at Fitness Formula Club, 140 N. Addison, Elmhurst. 6 PM.

Saturday, March 21.

The Rich Kreuger Band at The Gallery Cabaret, 2020 N. Oakley, Chicago. 9:30 PM.

Sunday, March 22.

Kypin Martin performs a house concert in Oak Park. 3 PM. [email protected] for details.

The Rachel Drew Band at Montrose Saloon, 2933 W. Montrose, Chicago. 8 PM.

If any performer or venue (or groupie) has more information about cancellations, please use the comments section, either here or on Facebook. The “share” function has not been cancelled or postponed, so feel free to share as usual.

Hello all you lovely people in pseudo quarantine! I’m here to express my continuing frustration in having to read some of you complain on social media about your finances, day-in-day-out, with phrases like, “We can’t afford that” and “We’re broke”.

Now the great majority of you saying these things aren’t actually hurting for money at all. Your income comes from a white collar job with a good company. You have employee sponsored health and life insurance. You have 401Ks and 529 plans for the kids. You probably even have a well padded savings account (you might call it your “vacation fund”).

Guess what! You’re not broke!

You might be saying these things because you have a budget. Maybe this budget is constrained because there are student loans to pay back, your mortgage payment is high, or you have credit card debt.

You’re still not broke. What you should be saying is, “We have a tight budget”.

When you complain about being broke or not being able to afford something, it is hurtful to those that have far less than you. You are belittling a very serious situation.  There are so many people in this country right now living paycheck to paycheck. One stroke of misfortune or bad timing, and they are likely to spiral into poverty. There are those in this country who have never known anything but poverty. And then there are those struggling with homelessness. You don’t meet any of these qualifications.

So now, the next time you’re tempted to say you’re “too broke” to go out for dinner or “can’t afford” a nonfat latte, please show a little respect and rephrase: “It’s not in our budget” would suffice.

When my fellow blogger Marianne Goss published this post on her fine blog, Retired in Chicago, the phrase “editing reference books” caught my eye much better than the word “outdated.” Her edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is two editions younger than my previous 1956 edition, which I inherited from a friend of a friend, so — surprise! — I got in touch with Marianne and her edition is now mine.

(Other books came home with me, too, and at least one — “On Language” by William Safire — will be the subject of several other posts.)

The other night, I decided to move the forest of bookmarks in the old Bartlett’s into the new one. Most of them have been there long enough that I can find things by the picture on the bookmark in my mind. However, some adjustments were needed.

The Anglican Communion’s Book of Common Prayer didn’t show up on first browsing, so I took the bookmark with a painting of an angel out of the old edition’s Book of Common Prayer section and moved it to the section for the Holy Bible in the new (to me) edition.

Some things are marked with sticky notes in the 1956 edition. I decided to leave them on those pages. In some cases, I wrote notes to signal the same author or quotation in the new book.

But I’m keeping the old one around… my handwritten circles and arrows should come in handy for some of the older quotations.

I just have my new(er) edition on the shelf and my old(er) edition on the lowest shelf, a.k.a. a pile on the floor.

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.

Burna is our newest admit, sprung today from a local shelter. Here she is on her way toward freedom and loving foster home; within a few hours, she was napping with her foster mom. This sweet girl is about three years old. If you’d like to meet her, email [email protected] for an application.

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $95 for the adoption of one cat or $190 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.

by Edward Shanahan.

Private to Psychic House Party Readings and Spirit Communications with Chicago Psychic Medium Edward Shanahan, the receiver of Best Chicago Psychic award.

Hello Readers, yes, it is that time of year again. To host a design your own Psychic House Party with a Spirit Communication Session that includes a version of my Circle of Energy.

I am independent. I do not work for any organization or team of Psychic Readers.

The Private Psychic Readings I do are held at a Historic Home in the South Suburbs, a beautiful place to visit.

What I do for you is your choice in a private reading or your psychic home gathering of people. That is why my fee is on time spent, not per person or on what I offer.

You can even host your own ‘Designs Your Own Psychic House Party’ that can include my Circle of Energy with Spirit Communications at the end, and all participate in it.

When I do the Spirit Communications with my Circle of Energy to attempt to bring your loved ones through, I do not sit at the table and say, “The Spirit of So and So is here.”

What I have done all these years is attempt to raise the spirits of your loved ones so you and your guests have the experience of the loved ones

Be it through the Spirit Communication or a psychical experience of temperature change, feeling the loved one’s energy next to you, and I even sometimes have those who are old souls with me guiding them, attempt to bring the loved ones through. Remember the experiences are for you, not me.

Be it Psychic Readings with Spirit Communications or, at times, Healing Prayers for individuals, I do it for you and guided by the Spiritual World. That is the reason why I offer all I do, during a session, I may be guided even to do Spirit Writing when the words are better to be written than spoken.

I have been told recently that I will be included in another published book and describes my Circle of Energy that was held at a location well known and documented for it’s paranormal activity. That will make six different authors that have included me in their books.

All details for Private Readings with Spirit Communications are at: Private Readings.
All details for Hosting and designing your own Psychic House Party at: Psychic House Party.

Blessings to All,
Edward Shanahan

Visit Edward Shanahan’s  Psychic Medium website and awarded Best Chicago Psychic at: Edward Shanahan’s website.
Private Readings, House Party/Gatherings, Spirit Communications information at the website.

The Unexplained World podcast – The Unexplained World Internet Broadcast Website,
On Twitter – includes a daily Spiritual / Paranormal Newspaper.
Edward Shanahan on Facebook – Facebook Page .
The two books by Edward Shanahan. The Kindle Version

(c) 2020 Edward Shanahan

As you can see, I have left a lit of the events on the list, changed to indicate that they have been postponed. I am trying to keep with postponements and cancellations, and if they are events on this calendar, they will be updated. General closures are being tracked on my Facebook fan page. It’s somewhat fortunate that many places are “on a break” from events following what was left of the St. Patrick’s Day events.

But it’s a good idea to call ahead and confirm whether any place you want to visit will be open.

Here at the ‘Naut house, the rest of the family has had all their schedules cancelled, by my day job is still meeting. So it’ll be my fault if we get sick.

Friday, March 20

Saturday, March 21

Sunday, March 22

I’m going to cut to the chase, my apartment was broken into. I was burglarized. My privacy was violated. My security has been ransacked. Words are muddling into one, but the synonyms seem to all make sense. Tomorrow will make two weeks since this happened. This is how my March began and yes, now the month will probably hold some ominous tinge for the next couple of years. But in the last two weeks, I’ve realized some interesting things:

1. People are more resilient than they think.

2. You can go through a series of emotions in an astonishingly short amount of time.

3. The knowledge that “it can always be worse,” really does help put things in perspective.

4. We need to accept the healing process.

5. True friends rise to the occasion when you are at your lowest.

6. Stuff is replaceable, people and pets are not.

It is really easy to feel defeated when something like a break in happens to you because your home is supposed to be the place that is safe. It’s supposed to be the place that is yours. It symbolizes something private so yeah, it sucks when some unauthorized douche-bag goes in there and dismantles everything you worked for. It’s not completely about what you lost that’s tangible. What matters is the stuff that’s unseen.

The sentimental value of the graduation gift your mom gave you.

The emotional value of a gift given to you by your brother-in-law on the day he married your sister.

The memory of having something that used to be your late grandma’s.

I may as well have just laid down on the floor curled up into a tight ball that first week. But then I thought about how experiences like this can obliterate people. You could just lay the fuck down and give up on the world because it’s full of crappy ass people. But within a couple of days I decided that I wasn’t going to lay down. So I got the fuck up a day later and went to work. I made kids at my school smile to heal my hurt. I became active in my push to get an ET to my apartment to look for fingerprints and succeeded. I started my own search for my stuff. I was proactive and filed a claim. I yelled at the management company of my building when they fucked up.

I stopped being the sad, apologetic woman waiting for shit to get done.

Yes, I’m hurt. Yes, I’m slightly paranoid. Yes, sometimes I’m scared. But do you want to know what else I am?

I am thankful to have the support of the people who really care about me.

I am aware that things could have been worse.

I am more vigilant of my surroundings.

I am resilient.

If you like my posts, type your e-mail address in the “Subscribe by Email” box to the upper right, which you can opt out of at any time.

Today I only left the house to take a short drive…to nowhere.  It is cold today with snow flurries, so I couldn’t hike outside.  Make that, wouldn’t hike outside on this gray cloudy day.

The traffic was heavy.  People were out running normal errands and probably also stocking up on food and supplies.  The last roll of toilet paper in the city has been found and fought over and purchased by the lucky champion.

As I drove I listened on the radio to J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, voicing his disappointment that so many were out and about, especially younger people at the bars celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  I take this to be a hint that, like Italy and now France and Spain, that in a very short time, all shops and restaurants and services will be closed by order of law and we will be under lockdown due to Covid-19.  This will probably be followed by orders to not leave your house unless it’s for food or emergencies or for necessary work.

I didn’t leave my car as I drove a route around my area, so no need to worry about decontamination, even though I did wash my hands when I got home.  I thought in the days ahead– if it is warm enough–where should I hike to avoid other people?  Usually, I can find some deserted spot in the Cook County Forest Preserves, but I have to conserve on gas as I expect to be out of work very soon.  I passed Holy Seplucure Cemetery and I had my answer. I would walk in the cemetery.  It is deserted.  For now.

Cemeteries are not my favorite places to hike or even visit, but for now, it seems like a good idea to get some fresh air and avoid crowds.  Fitting, too.  For the last two months, we have been whistling past the graveyard of the Novel Coronavirus and the ghoul is soon to be upon us.

Science-based channels focusing on Covid-19:

Dr. John Campbell

MedCram

Bonded pair Lil Princess and Lil Prince are very sweet 2-year-old kitties.

Lil Princess is the leader – very playful & affectionate (loves to give kisses). She is a nibbler – she will nibble on her carer’s fingers then lick them.

Lil Prince, the shyer of the two, loves belly rubs and chin scratches.

Hyde Park Cats is a local, all-volunteer group dedicated to helping stray and homeless cats in and around Chicago’s Hyde Park. We received our 501(c)(3) status in 2014 and have had over 1,200 adoptions since our founding in 2008. See all our adoptable kitties on our webpage: http://hydeparkcats.org/adopt/

All of our cats are in loving foster homes, which means the cat you adopt will be familiar with the sounds, smells and movements of life in a home and accustomed to living with humans. He or she has been interacting on a daily basis with people who know this particular cat intimately, and the foster mom or dad can tell you all about the cat’s individual personality, habits, preferences. You can’t judge a cat by its cover! And while we can’t predict the future or know everything about a cat, we can help you choose the cat who is right for you. We have an adoption application and an adoption fee, $95 for the adoption of one cat or $190 for a pair. This fee goes towards covering their vet costs. All cats adopted out by us are neutered/spayed, micro-chipped, tested for FIV/FeLV, and treated with Revolution.