Summertime, when living is easy, and some see chance to justify strip joint

One of the things I enjoy about a Chicago lifestyle is the maze of weekend events we always manage to have take place during the summer months.

DANIELS: Gave political pervs a show

Yet I wonder if the most offbeat event of them all was the one up at the Admiral Theater – the one where Stormy Daniels, an exotic dancer, is trying to take advantage of her “15 minutes” of fame to bring in as much money as she’ll ever earn.

DANIELS IS THE sexually-explicit dancer/performer who has her fame because of rumors claiming she had an affair with now-president Donald Trump, back when now-first lady Melania was pregnant with their son, Barron (he’s now 12).

There also are stories claiming that Trump paid her off (supposedly $130,000) to keep her mouth shut – stories that Trump backer and adviser Rudy Giuliani has claimed are not true and that we should ignore because a stripper like Daniels has no credibility. Even though many of us think Trump has even less.

Anyway, Daniels (that’s actually her stage name, the birth certificate reads Stephanie Clifford and has been identified in court documents as Peggy Peterson) is now traveling from city to city on what she’s calling her “Make America Horny Again” tour – and that tour was in Chicago this weekend.

Five shows in three days from Thursday through Saturday – and people with an interest in seeing just what kind of “T & A” the president gets aroused by turned out en force. Although many of the news reports (no, I've never had an editor assign me to cover a strip show) that took it upon themselves to “cover” the show pointed out the large number of women and gay people who turned out.

TRUMP: Wasn't welcome in Chgo this weekend

THE IMPLICATION BEING that people inclined to think our nation’s current president is a sleaze want to see for themselves just how trashy a tramp the Donald goes for.

Which probably says more about us as a society than it does anything negative about Trump, or Daniels herself. We’re willing to watch the sleaze and “tsk tsk” about it. Perhaps we get some false feeling that we’re above it all.

The Chicago stops did manage to create some controversy. For a while on Friday, Daniels quit. Or was fired. It wasn’t clear. Although the sides ultimately reached an agreement that resulted in her doing the five full shows she was under contract to do in Chicago.

GIULIANI: Does he have credibility any longer

I’ll give Daniels one bit of credit. Her show name may be a parody of the campaign slogan that many Trump backers still wear on their red caps, but she’s not trying to make a political spectacle out of it.

SHE’S PUTTING ON a sex show, and nothing more! Which probably upset the spectators who were expecting an anti-Trump weekend (one story found a man upset because he wanted his picture taken with Daniels so he could rub it in the face, so to speak, of his Trump-loving aunt).

In fact, the reason she nearly walked out of her Chicago gigs was she resented the attempt to have her perform on stage with a man who was a crude-looking Trump lookalike. She wanted the stage to herself, figuring the sight of her bared breasts was enough to attract attention.

No bad-wigged men were necessary. Besides, those of us who care have all heard the story about the time she is alleged to have spanked the future president with a business-oriented magazine. Do we really need to have it acted out for us live?

Although I’m sure some people were determined to see something sordid. If they weren’t perhaps they would have spent the weekend at the Puerto Rican parade in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, or the Uncork Illinois Wine Festival in suburban Oak Park.

THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING offbeat that one can do on a summertime weekend in Chicago. It’s part of what makes this city such a joy to live in – even if the Trump backers can’t quite comprehend that fact.

LOZANO: Scored goal upsetting soccer/Trump fans

Although I have to admit that the summer temperatures that reached such intense levels on Saturday and Sunday made me look for every excuse to stay inside an air-conditioned house.

All the more reason I was able to enjoy World Cup soccer on Sunday and that 1-0 victory los Tricolores of Mexico managed to achieve over Die Mannschaft of Germany.

Which, considering all the Mexico-bashing rhetoric Trump has engaged in, is just as big a blow to the political blowhard’s rants as the Daniels traveling sex tour.

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A society of ‘dishwashers’ sees El Tri victories as a drop-dead to xenophobes

It’s a question I often hear – how can anybody who lives in this country possibly root for Mexico in the world of international soccer? Particularly since the Mexican national squad is considered to be an archrival of the U.S. national team.

This restaurant snub, ...

Yet then, all I need to see are little tidbits like the sign I saw Sunday outside a restaurant seeking workers to be reminded that every time we see an Equipo Mexico win, it upsets the sensibilities of so many in our society.

PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO think they’re offending us when they go out in public wearing their ridiculous red “Make America Great Again” caps.

The fact that Mexico pulled off a shocking 1-0 victory over the German national team on Sunday (Germany is actually the defending World Cup champion, and so many Anglo pundits were determined to believe that Mexico was unworthy of a spot on the same pitch with Die Manschaft) was my ethnic brethren’s way of saying “Drop Dead!” to the nitwits who probably see nothing wrong with The Sign.

Which, I must admit, my father was the first to notice. We went out for a Father’s Day dinner (we all wanted a hearty meal, but nobody wanted to cook in Sunday’s excessive heat), and as we left, he pointed out what he termed a racist sign.

For the restaurant in question had two signs on their window – one in English and the other in Spanish. The English sign was a properly printed poster seeking a need for people to work in jobs as cashiers and counter-help.

… does goal make up for it?

THE SIGN EN Español was a makeshift thing that expressed a need for trabajador para lavaplatos. As in dishwashers. As in back-in-the-kitchen and out of sight of paying customers. Implying that such people wouldn’t be bright enough to speak English.

Although I’d wonder if there’s really an intelligence level between up-front and behind-the-scenes workers when it comes to a restaurant employee pulling minimum wage-or-less (and counting on a share of tips to make up the difference).

In the overall scheme of things, this is a lesser snub. It is almost laughable that anybody who thinks in such a way would be capable of running a business that doesn’t immediately delve into bankruptcy.

TRUMP: Another 'Drop Dead' target?

But then again, I still had the after-glow of watching the Mexico victory over Germany just a few hours earlier on Sunday. And in seeing that moment when television cameras panned over to the faces of German fans in shock that they had actually lost to “Me-xi-co! Me-xi-co!”

ONE THAT I watched largely on the Spanish-language Telemundo network broadcasts. I tried watching the Fox Sports 1 English-language broadcast, but quickly found it annoying to hear announcers complaining that the Mexican fans who made the trip to Moscow to watch their team in the World Cup managed to sing their national anthem in a louder, more boisterous manner than the German fans.

Almost implying that Mexican fans should be meek and accept their eventual defeat. Which didn’t happen, and which gave many people of Mexican ethnic origins a moment of joy.

Particularly in Mexico City, where seismic sensors detected a small earthquake – albeit of man-made causes, in the federal district. Which, coincidentally, matched up with the exact minute when Hirving “Chucky” Lozano scored the Sunday match’s lone goal in the 35^th minute.

Chicago Cubs fans love to think the whole world was all worked up when they had their post-World Series victory parade to Millennium Park. Yet not even they managed to create a seismic disturbance of the likes we saw Sunday.

A cinematic moment when Mexico prevailed over Germany

I DO HAVE to admit one thing – I wasn’t alone on Sunday. I noticed while trying to order food a family – of whom the mother and three sons were all clad in various jerseys of the Mexican national team.

It has me thinking I’m going to have to go out and get myself an El Tri jersey – although I’m still trying to figure out which design I like the most.

Although I also have to confess it wasn’t a complete picture; the father/husband figure of the family?

He apparently is still living in the past of 2016 – he was wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey! I’d like to think the rest of his family was ashamed to be seen in public with him.

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