Goin' South

Now, some of you stalkers might have figured out that I actually moved out of Uptown years ago after my sterling career at Truman College - the Uptown Barber Shop being a metaphysical establishment. That being the case, I've been participating in the discussions at the South Loop blog Sloopin, the Sloop (South Loop) being the latest tragic attempt (see SuHu) to ape New Yorkers who like to pin acronyms like SoHo, NoHo, DUMBO, etc., on their marginal neighborhoods.

While the guy who runs it is kind of stupid and doesn't seem to have a lot of actual knowledge about the area (he wasn't sure if the Lexington Hotel at Cermak (or as he typically spells it, "Cermack") and Michigan was torn down, for example - 1995, genius!), he did offer a forum and I largely ignored the gushy and boosterish nature of his posts.

Unfortunately. there's a fellow or two over there who like to obsessively post about "animals" who live in housing projects, slaughter people with abandon while nice people are trying to eat at Gioco, eat chicken wings in the Jewel parking lot, and transfer to the #12 bus. I don't think that you have to be a French literary deconstructionist to figure out what the guy is trying to say and I (occasionally along with a couple of others) would call out this sort of rhetoric on a regular basis.

It had gotten to the point where this racist anon was repeatedly calling me out and trying to twist everything I said into being some sort of attack on Western Civilization along with me being a member of the Black Panthers, ACORN, and probably a member of the Third Internationale. After an extended exchange over the merits of the Custom House Tavern, a failing upscale restaurant at Congress and Dearborn, "Sloopy" decided to enforce comments moderation.

I actually was happy to see this because I thought that it might tone down the racial rhetoric on the forum. However, the next day, the usual suspect was posting the usual material and calling me out by name even though I hadn't posted anything.

I send a pointed message to "Sloopy" and asked if he felt that this sort of thing added to the discussion and if I would be allowed to rebut it. I received a tentative response that I didn't particularly appreciate and this led into a rather heated discussion in a couple of different media.

Well, it's his circus and stupid is as stupid does, so I'll leave him to his quest for exciting Groupon offers and rumors of upscale supermarket construction. However, it was amusing to see who he uses as a model!



Of course, that isn't actually the case since Uptown Update doesn't allow anonymous comments and quite frankly, the UU people are a little more responsible when it comes to the racial stuff. And to cap it all off, "Sloopy" weighed in at UU on the perils of 7-11 selling private label beer!



Well played. And of course, I can see why he wants to emulate Uptown Update given its noted civility.