The Southside Irish Parade: A Celebratory Salute

From Sharon Shea Bossard, author of Finding Your Chicago Irish:

I offer a toast to the South Side Irish, for they have had a great run of it. For thirty years the Beverly/Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods of Chicago have hosted one of the finest Irish parades/celebrations unrivaled by any city in America. But now it seems to have grown too big, gotten rowdier, and created a nightmare for the good folks who began this annual tradition in 1979 with a family march down Western Avenue. It appears the time has come to call it day, hang up your party hats, turn the key, and walk away.

Now we hear the parade might move down the street to Evergreen Park. Let’s hope the fine folks of EP see this annual event as an opportunity to bring tons of business to their area, driving up cash receipts of local pubs, restaurants, and shops, as well as give all the Irish-American families of Chicago and suburbs the opportunity to not only continue the celebration of their national saint, but to honor their history and heritage. And with the recent emergence of “Halfway to St. Paddy’s Day” events that run in September, Evergreen Park can only benefit from the added exposure. On the cautionary side, binge drinking and bad behavior are synonymous with St. Paddy’s Day celebrations, so my advice would be to call out the militia, hire the cavalry, and rope off an area for the ignorant few who ruin it for the majority. And if the city planners of Evergreen Park are lucky enough to win over the hard-working people behind this legendary event from the Beverly/Mount Greenwood area, then they’ll have themselves a sweet addition to their community calendar.

Imagination Library

Chicago needs its own version of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Who wants to help?

Chicago Books, Free for Your Organization...No Strings

While supplies last, we are offering your organization, school, church, business a free case of either (or both) of the following books that we are discontinuing. There are no strings attached, except that you must come to pick them up in person from our office (or pay $15/case for shipping).

— A Native’s Guide to Chicago, 4^th Edition (28 in a case)

—A Field Guide to Gay & Lesbian Chicago (52 in a case)

Give your customers, members, associates something free! Don’t be shy—we need the warehouse space and we want to get these books into appreciative hands while the information is still somewhat current.

A Tale of Two Chicagos

Curtis Black, in a very nice piece for the Community Media Workshop, gives a great overview of one of our coming titles, Janice Metzger's What Would Jane Say?, tentatively sub-titled City-Building Women and a Tale of Two Chicago. Jane is Jane Addams, and what Jane (and Janice) are talking about is Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago in this centennial year:
http://www.newstips.org/interior.php?section=Newstips&main_id=978&topic=.

For Members Only in Huffington Post

Lake Claremont Press received its first book review on a highest-profile, must-read website with today's Howard Wolinsky piece in the Huffington Post. Congratulations to author Lisa Holton and her book For Members Only: A History and Guide to Chicago's Oldest Private Clubs.

Leslie's List

You know Craig's List and Angie's List, now there's Leslie's List, the brainchild of local M.D. Leslie Ramirez. It's a free, independent site for finding the best price on prescription medicines, medical testing, and other healthcare services in the Chicago area. For some back story on Dr. Ramirez, see the recent Trib article.