Obama drugged, Jesus risen, Hitler studies, Irving's Dresden, Foie gras in Chi, Macy's, Revolutionary stew

* Barack O's drug use is less the issue here -- vs. various scandals or non-scandals that have bothered campaigns for many decades -- but his being author of self-revelatory book with literary value (ck: have to read the copy of Tales from Father that I got for my birthday).  this is the new thing he brings. 
See: "Past drug use may test Obama" at http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/197111,CST-NWS-sweet04.article

 

* Two Jesuits on bodily resurrection of Jesus, some time past:
1. Don't play logic game, said one, a theologian and university chair-holder, when I put it to him, did J. rise bodily or didn't he?  (He's not with Aquinas et al., who put logic up there with the best of mental exercises.)
2. Doesn't matter to me, said another, a publisher of spiritual books.  (He's not with the fanatical Paul, who said we are the most miserable of people if J. did not rise.) 
See: tenacious if quirky memory of James H. Bowman, ex-SJ.

 

* Hitler studies?  Whence came he philosophically?  Try Mark Dery's Shovelware, 8/7/05 http://www.markdery.com/archives/blog/dept_of_hitler_studies/ and find extremely wry commentary on swastika as brand, etc., all based on absolute-evil concept, with references to the devil, yes.  Not much help here.

 

Or Don DeLillo's novel White Noise http://www.amazon.com/White-Noise-Contemporary-American-Fiction/dp/0140077022 whose main character announces himself on p. 4: "... I am chairman of the department of Hitler studies at the College- on-the-Hill. I invented Hitler studies in North America in March of 1968. ..."  Nor here: it's a riff on evil again.  We know he was evil.  We wonder how he got that way, something beyond unhappy childhood and the rest.  Anybody?

 

* Holocaust-denier and currently jailed David Irving's The Destruction of Dresden gave Kurt V. Jr. the data for his 1969 novel Slaughterhouse Five, as the # of dead, 135G in bombing of D. vs. # of dead, 71G-plus, in b. of Hiroshima.  (Item from N.B. column by J.C. in Times Lit Supplement, 3/17/06)

 

* Sell no, give yes: That's foie gras in Chicago, where inspectors gave up on imposition of fine because ordinance applies only to what's sold, not to what's given away, as f.g. with other dishes at Bin 36 restaurant.  But nobody said it was easy being a legislative meddler: Alderman Joe Moore (sponsor of ordinance), tear down that law!  Or at least fix it, for gosh sakes, to cover shameless defiers of same on technicality and at same time defilers of animal rights!  [Ald. Joe sees no need for fixing it, by the way.] 
See: "Their goose isn't cooked" at http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/195054,CST-NWS-foie03.article

 

* Heard in nursery: "Mommy, Mommy, please take me to see Santa Claus at Macy's iconic State Street location?" 

See: Chi Trib cutline 1/3/07, p. 1 top left under pic of new store manager, who may be a mommy herself but definitely has the capacity to be one biologically speaking. 
See: "Macy's learning what's in a name" at http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0701030050jan03,1,3348903.story?coll=chi-news-hed

 

* Meanwhile, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appears in ads for Mexican restaurant saying, "Long live socialist revolution."  "People took offense," says manager.  It's Las Palmas, 1835 W. North Ave.  The ad's designer said there's an "abstract but real" connection between ads and Las Palmas.  The ad is part of "a melting pot of ideas."  A pot of stew, perhaps?  That's it!  Las P. should offer revolutionary stew, a mish-mash of goulash.  They can serve it on a silver platter, with abstract but real silver soup spoons inscribed with the provocative but intellectually tasty question, "Were you born with one of these in your mouth?"  The implication would be that now you pay for the sins of your parents and grandparents. 
See: "Eatery's ads turning stomachs" at http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/195085,CST-NWS-palmas03.article