‘Chicago’ gets moment in Hall of Fame

It’s at a time like this that I wish the Chicago Transit Authority hadn’t been so uptight about its public image nearly a half-century ago.

Now immortalized, music-wise

Because just think of how unique it would seem if the announcement had been made Thursday that the CTA was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

THE ROCK ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame, to be exact, which decided that the 1970s soft rock band Chicago was one of five musical acts worthy of some lasting recognition for their contributions to our pop culture.

Chicago's biggest band, if not for "Chicago"

Of course, Chicago is the band that has given us countless albums distinguished from each other merely by the numbers used to identify them. Although I’m sure there are some hardcore fans who can tell me off the tops of their heads what the difference is between “Chicago 8” and “Chicago 17.”

 

Now I’m not knocking the band, although I must confess to not having been a big fan of theirs when they were in their 1970s heyday, and think of the fact that they continue to perform and tour as being something along the lines of the fact that The Turtles (a late ‘60s’ band that gave us “Happy Together,” for those of you so clueless) still performs nostalgia concerts.

Not exactly something I want to pay good money for in order to get pricey tickets.

Would anyone really mistake a bus for a band?

BUT THE BAND did always stand out, and not just because of the song “25 or 6 to 4.”

After all, how many bands take on the identity of our home city as their very own? If not for Chicago, we’d have to get all worked up over that ‘60’s band” The Buckinghams, who chose to take on the identity of the Grant Park fountain that the Germans allegedly identify with Al Bundy and “Married, with Children.”

A Chicago band called “Chicago.”

Kind of intriguing, particularly since the band originally created itself as the Chicago Transit Authority – taking on the name of our very own elevated train and bus system.

We stop there today for a hot dog, if they were still open

WHICH, AFTER LEARNING that a real-live rock group released an album called “Chicago Transit Authority,” actually filed lawsuits to force a name change. Which is when they simply became “Chicago.”

Too bad, because let’s be honest. If there’s anyone whose image would have been ruined by the association, it would be that of the band. Who’d want to hear music performed by a group that named itself for the entity that often can’t get people to their destination on time and whose cars and buses have been known to reek of graffiti and body odor?

So we don’t have the CTA making it into a Hall of Fame. Nor will we have officials in Brooklyn (which likes to think it has the ultimate mass transit) having to honor Chicago transit during ceremonies to be held in the spring of '16.

Instead, we’ll be hearing our home city’s name being praised – regardless of what you think of all those horns being incorporated into a musical form that some people think should never advance beyond three guitar chords and a simple bass line.

THAT IS WHY one of my favorite moments from the 1999 film “Three Kings” was the quarrel between soldiers played by Spike Jonze and Ice Cube over what was good music – with Jonze’s character favoring heavy metal and Cube preferring something softer and we hear the intro to “If You Could Leave Me Now.”

Besides, you have to admit that a band (even with its most significant members long gone) that can last for decades and still draw some crowds (no matter how old or nostalgic) has to be worthy of some attention.

Particularly if they bring to mind the finest city on Planet Earth every time somebody mentions their name!

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Internet scam appeals to those who want to be greedy, instead of stupid

It seems that somebody has spent way too much time watching Three Kings, that 1999 film about soldiers in the aftermath of the early 1990s Gulf War who stumbled across, and tried to keep for themselves, gold bars that belonged to/had been stolen by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.


That film had a soldier portrayed by actor George Clooney, with a platoon consisting of Mark Walberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze, seizing the gold in the days after the war, then trying to figure out a way to smuggle it out of the country.


I WAS REMINDED of that film earlier this week when I stumbled across an e-mail message I received that purported to be from a U.S. Army sergeant currently serving in the military efforts in Afghanistan.


This sergeant contends that while on patrol on Friday, she found three bags in a small hidden tunnel.


Inside the bags was $3.2 million in U.S. currency which may have been stashed away for future use by Taliban interests (although this sergeant chooses to spell it "Taleban").


Hence, this soldier doesn't seem compelled to do anything to let higher authorities know about this (claiming in the email that I am "the first person am disclosing this to"). Just as in Three Kings, where it was only by a fluke that the higher brass learned of the gold, and which some of which was inadvertently "lost" before it could be returned to the Kuwaiti royal family.


NOT THAT I'M gullible to believe there is a soldier out there with $3.2 million (or THREE MILLION TWO HUNDRED United States dollar) who's willing to cut me in for a piece of the action, IF I'm willing to provide some personal financial information about myself to help that "soldier" get the cash out of the country before she gets shipped off to a new province.


It's the oldest Internet scam known to mankind; appeal to someone's greed in thinking that they can get something that really isn't theirs -- then bleed them dry of what little they do have once you get that valued financial information.


My guess is that suckering a lot of people of little bits of cash each can add up to a significant financial score.


I usually don't feel sorry for people who get scammed in such a way -- because it usually is their own greed that makes them dumb enough to get suckered.


BUT SOMETHING ABOUT this particular scam caught my attention -- the fact that when I first saw the "line" about this e-mail, it came up as "Active USarmy." Some soldier's private e-mail account got hacked into, which makes that person the victim.


If not just for the hassle that soldier is going to have to go through in order to change their accounts to make them secure again.


Somebody seems to think that putting the military spin will appeal to all the people who want to go out of their way to "support our troops" no matter what the cause or action they're involved in. It has way too much potential to appeal to more gullible types in our society, in addition to the greedy who probably fantasize about spending the Taliban's cash on Internet pornography, or something equally insipid.


A part of me wants to send a response to this e-mail, one laced with expletives, so as to express my contempt for anybody who would stoop to such a level.


AND NO, I don't believe the Taliban is in any way involved with this effort. It's some wormy little twerp who has spent way too much time with his/her carcass parked behind a computer -- which ought to be tools to do significant things with, rather than an end in and of itself.


But I'd probably wind up singling out my e-mail account at this site for more potential hacker abuse. It's not worth it. I'm off to dig up my copy of "Three Kings," which is always good for a laugh, along with a mix of serious commentary about that two-decades-old military initiative.


So consider this commentary my response -- which not only serves to warn anybody else of the possibility of getting this message, but also allows me to say to whomever came up with this message the following of my own.


Drop dead!!!


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