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Chicago Tribune
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From the Farm: Morel mushroom season in full swing, heralded by annual Ottawa fest
My longtime journalist pal Bob Tita was a newsroom desk neighbor of mine two decades ago before he left Northwest Indiana in 2002 to become a reporter for Crain's Chicago Business, and later, a similar writing position for the Dow Jones. Bob was born and raised in Berwyn, Illinois, and now, he and his editor wife Polly Smith, who was also one of my early editors, live in Bob's parent's family home in Berwyn. For years, Bob would tell me about the annual Houby Festival held in Berwyn and one of the wacky memories of his Chicago-raised youth. 'Houby' is Czech/Slovak as the Bohemian word for 'mushroom' or 'sponge.' Launched in fall 1968, the Houby Festival expanded over the years to swallow up joint hosting duties for both the neighborhoods of Berwyn and Cicero, usually held the first weekend of October and including returning features and festivities such as mushroom dining delicacies sold as food fare, a carnival, a Mushroom Parade, a crowning of a Mushroom Queen Pageant competition, live music and many attendees donning traditional Eastern European attire. The three-day celebration, now in its 57th year, is hailed as the International Houby Festival and draws an estimated 88,000 attendees. It's now only fall fungi that get the royal treatment. At our farm, we've been scouring our fields for spring morels, the delicate, honeycomb, coned-cap mushroom delicacies. About 90 minutes south of both Northwest Indiana and Chicago is Ottawa, Illinois, population just over 18,000. During my journalism career, the claim-to-fame I've always associated with Ottawa is that it's the hometown and headquarters of registered nurse-turned-celebrity-weight-loss/healthy eating advocate Seattle Sutton. She grew her small business of catering healthy, fresh prepared meals delivered from her home kitchen in 1985 into a multi-million brand and empire, which she later sold in 2018. Today, at age 93, she enjoys retirement with family. In more recent years, Ottawa became associated with the world of 'mushroom hunting,' with an emphasis on giving spring morel mushrooms their due as a treasured menu favorite of the Midwest. Earlier this month, on the weekend of May 3, Ottawa hosted the 11th Annual Midwest Morel Festival. This was a special year because the festival honored the passing of its founder, Tom Nauman, of Henry, Illinois, who died at age 74 in February. It was Nauman's idea to invite guests to his hometown community to join him on his guided mushroom hunts. According to Nauman's published obituary: 'His passion in life was morel mushrooms, so he founded Morel Mania, Inc. The story goes that after seeing a carved morel at a craft fair, he said, 'I can do better than that!' and so he did. In addition to offering hand-carved morel 'decoys,' shroom sticks, and various other accouterments for the eclectic morel maniacs of the world, he founded and ran the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship from 1995-2004, first in Magnolia, Illinois, then in Henry, and finally in Ottawa. 'The 2002 hunt, with 697 participants, was the largest gathering of mushroom hunters anywhere –ever. In more recent years, the hunt and festival made a revival in Ottawa, being rebranded as the Midwest Morel Fest. The Ottawa Visitors Center presented him with an 'Honorary Fungi' award for his contributions to the community in May 2024.' Even if the guided public mushroom hunts are sold out (which happens often), there are still plenty of fresh morel mushrooms sold during the festival along with food vendors, live music and entertainment. The festival is hosted by the 'groovy' mascot Mr. Morel, who loves to pose for photos. For more information about the morel festival, has details, as does for Houby Festival. Today's rich and delicious mushroom bisque recipe is from Chef Melvin Taylor, who spent years as the head of the kitchen operations at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond. He served this delectable creamy soup recipe in the ballroom of the Horseshoe for the New Year's Eve celebration dinner that welcomed the arrival of 2006. When he shared the recipe with me, he said it has been served to and enjoyed by Ivana Trump, actor Richard Roundtree and sports greats Michael Jordan, Dick Butkus and Brian Urlacher. 1 quart chicken broth 1 pound assorted fresh mushrooms of choice, chopped 1 small onion, finely chopped 6 tablespoons butter 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour 8 tablespoons half-and-half 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon salt White pepper Hot sauce Directions: 1. In a 2-quart pot, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add mushrooms and onions and bring back to a simmer. 2. Reduce heat to a slow simmer and cover for at least 1 hour. 3. In a separate pot, prepare a roux by melting butter and slowly adding flour. Whisk until evenly incorporated. 4. Continue to whisk roux while slowly adding half-and-half. Add bay leaf to thickening sauce and stir briskly. Remove bay leaf and discard. 5. Add roux to mushroom broth and stir until blended. Add seasonings, including white pepper and hot sauce to taste. Serve immediately.
Yomiuri Shimbun
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
What Pope Leo XIV Means for the U.S. Catholic Church and Trump
Joshua Lott/The Washington Pos Melvin Griggs, left, and Ronald Cashaw talk inside the now closed St. Mary of the Assumption church on Thursday in Dolton, Illinois. Pope Leo XIV grew up in Dolton and was a member of St. Mary of the Assumption. ROME – The new Chicago-raised Pope Leo XIV faces an immediate challenge in his native country: taming the brawling U.S. tribe of Catholics, riven by political divisions that have thwarted the will of his predecessors. Because Pope Leo – earlier known as Bob Prevost from the South Side – is an American better versed than past church leaders in the culture of his home country, some church-watchers and experts say, he may be able to navigate the U.S. Church in a way the Argentine Pope Francis could not. However, they said, it will still be a struggle to pry some American church members away from the now-deeply entrenched American habit of seeing faith through a tribal, political lens. In recent decades the U.S. Catholic Church, like many of the nation's religious groups, has been shaped by secular allegiances. Some who have followed the faith were hopeful that having a spiritual leader from the United States who can speak about the full range of church teachings – from Catholicism's demand to care for migrants, as well as the unborn – could bring some Catholics together. 'Pope Francis was so removed from American realities that … it caused him to really struggle to connect with many U.S. Catholics who didn't recognize themselves, their bishops, or their country in some of the criticisms,' Charlie Camosy, a Creighton University theologian and bioethicist, wrote to The Post in an email. 'Pope Leo XIV's critiques, praise, and invitations to dialogue will come from a place of knowing the U.S. in a far more intimate way.' 'Francis was pastor who was an outsider to the Vatican and U.S. institutions who was deeply committed to a 'poor church for the poor.' That made a lot of people uncomfortable,' said John Carr, who for 20 years led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development. Pope Leo 'may have opportunities to build bridges.' Yet some of the issues he is believed to care deeply about, such as helping migrants, run directly against the policies espoused by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, himself a Catholic convert. That could set up near-immediate conflict. The question, some U.S. church-watchers said, is what issues Leo will prioritize and how outspoken he will decide to be. Francis engaged in a running battle of words with Trump and, later, Vance, during his papacy over aid to migrants and the poor. Under Trump's presidencies, it's become politically acceptable for conservative Catholics – both MAGA members and those focused on protecting traditional rituals like the Latin Mass – to insult and dismiss the head of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church. Several U.S. cardinals who spoke to reporters Friday about Leo's selection thought he would want to be a bridge-builder to the administration. 'Is there the same type of freedom in his heart and soul, that was in Francis? I believe yes. But that's different from asking: Is he going to express that freedom in the same exact manner, or the same pathways Pope Francis did,' said Cardinal Robert McElroy, D.C.'s archbishop. 'We're looking for someone following the pathway of Francis, but we're not looking for a photocopy. I believe Pope Leo will not be a photocopy of Pope Francis.' The other complication for Leo is the makeup of the U.S. church, which contains factions holding directly conflicting views. If he were to speak more than Francis did about traditional doctrines on topics like same-sex marriage, it could irritate and alienate Catholics who see God as prioritizing inclusion and mercy. If he takes up Francis's emphasis on the world as a global family and extends the back-and-forth criticisms with the White House, he could anger theologically traditional Catholics who have sided with Trump politically. Denise Murphy McGraw, co-chair of the liberal U.S. group Catholics Vote Common Good, sees Leo as a likely ally, especially given his upbringing here. 'He learned at the feet of the master,' she said of Leo, and Francis. The late pope 'wanted everyone to feel they had a place in Catholicism and we have someone now who understands even better, because he understands us. Such a big part of it is he can speak to people in their own language.' But Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at the Catholic Association, an advocacy group that focuses on promoting Catholic teaching on abortion and other traditional social issues, saw something a bit different ahead for the U.S. church. 'He takes his name from a pope who stood firmly against the negative culture of moral relativism,' she wrote in a statement. 'As a canon lawyer, he is uniquely equipped to help bring about greatly needed doctrinal and moral clarity both within the Church and in a world that so desperately needs it.' U.S. Catholics are very diverse politically, and their views can fall into different camps depending on whether the issue is theology or secular topics like immigration and democracy. According to a 2024 poll by the firm PRRI, 39 percent said their political ideology was moderate, 35 percent said conservative and 23 percent said liberal. A Pew Research poll found that in 2024, 47 percent of Catholics sided with Vice President Kamala Harris and 52 percent with Trump. Among White Catholics, nearly two-thirds voted for Trump, while Harris won the votes of nearly two-thirds of Hispanic Catholics. Leo's background has made him as much an international religious figure as an American one. He has spent much of his life in Peru or traveling the world for his religious order (the Augustinians). He also served in Rome, where Francis made him head of the Vatican's powerful bishop-picking agency. While that may limit his knowledge of current American culture, it could also endear him to more U.S. Catholics, almost 30 percent of whom were born outside the country, Pew Research says, a much higher percentage than the population overall. 'How Leo XIV thinks about the many contested issues within Catholicism is entirely unclear. But he seems almost certain to be an internationalist pope – with a particular concern for migrants and the poor – in an increasingly nationalist age,' University of Notre Dame church historian and provost John T. McGreevy wrote The Post in an email. Several of the cardinals who spoke to reporters Friday said that Leo's American upbringing had little to do with his selection as pope, either as a counterweight to the Trump administration or as a way of building a bridge to the U.S. president. Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said he thinks Leo's impact on U.S. Catholicism will be fueled in part by his multinational, multilinguistic background, which will make it easier for him to connect with diverse U.S. Catholic communities. Leo, he said, will hopefully inspire U.S. Catholics to study their faith's social gospel. 'Picking the name Leo is indicative, I think, of the direction he wants to take,' Cupich said, referring to the last Pope Leo, the XIII. The previous Leo 'wrote stirringly about the rights of workers, immigrants, of those who were living at the margins of society. I think it will give him a platform to reintroduce' these teachings to Americans, he said. 'And I think he will be able to put it in language that's comprehensible and also challenging to Catholics in the United States. So that's what I'm looking for. I think that's the promise we saw.' Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the retired archbishop of D.C., said cardinals who elected the new pope were focused less on nationality than on his potential to bolster Catholicism. The cardinals looked more for 'who among us can strengthen the faith and bring it to the places where it's grown weak?' Gregory said. 'To places where there seems less enthusiasm or appreciation of the common things that draw us together.' As he introduced himself to the world Thursday, Leo presented himself as a global citizen. In his remarks to a wildly enthusiastic crowd in St. Peter's Square, he spoke in Spanish, Latin and Italian and gave a shout-out to his longtime home, Peru. He didn't mention the U.S. or speak a word of English. Robert George, a Princeton University political philosopher who often speaks from a conservative Catholic perspective, said the new pope will challenge Americans by emphasizing Catholic social teaching's call for 'the state to have a role in social life that is less robust than collectivists think it should have, but more robust than libertarians think it should have.' Francis was generally popular among U.S. Catholics, but as his papacy went on, a passionate minority of traditionalists became more strongly outspoken against him. Some opposed his limits on the traditional Latin Mass, while others despised his vague comments welcoming LGBTQ people into the church without any caveat. Some, like Vance, objected to his more liberal stance on immigration. Some experts Thursday and Friday said the new pope has a chance for a new relationship with the administration – of a sort. 'It may offer a reset, not in substance, but in style and leadership,' Carr wrote The Post. 'Leo may seek to deliver the same messages but perhaps more diplomatically. Trump and Vance ought to fear alienating Catholics by a lack of respect for a pope who is from America, speaking for a global Church.' Camosy said it was too early to conclude much about the new pope's approach. 'The pope's opening remarks seemed to suggest a desire to have dialogue and unity.' he wrote. 'I suspect that for some folks [especially younger ones], they are 'gettable' in this regard. But for those who put their secular political commitments ahead of the Gospel, well, I doubt this pope will be able to do much about it.'
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: ‘I'm glad it was me instead of you.' Mayor Anton Cermak shot.
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 15, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 69 degrees (1954) Low temperature: Minus 9 degrees (1905) Precipitation: 0.78 inches (1954) Snowfall: 6.1 inches (2021) Vintage Chicago Tribune: 4 Illinois athletes who won GOLD at the Winter Olympics 1932: Chicago-raised Billy Fiske piloted the U.S. men to their second Olympic gold medal in bobsled during Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. Fiske lived a brief but extraordinary life. Born into a wealthy banking family in Chicago in 1911 — that could trace its roots to the Mayflower — he was educated overseas during his teen years. That's where he was chosen — at age 16 — as the driver for the United States' five-man bobsled team in the 1928 Olympic games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The team won gold. 1933: Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was struck by an assassin's bullet presumably intended for President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami; he died March 6. Once at the hospital, Cermak reportedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb. Speaking to FDR, Cermak allegedly said: 'I'm glad it was me instead of you.' The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said. 1964: Chicago Cubs star second baseman Ken Hubbs was killed when the small plane he piloted crashed soon after takeoff from Provo, Utah. Dennis Doyle, a friend of the former MLB rookie of the year, also died in the crash. 1990: Space chicken' donated to Lincoln Park Zoo. Out of 67 billion chicken eggs laid in the United States the year before, 32 were sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery. One of the surviving embryonic space travelers — by then a 7-pound, 10-month-old white hen named 'Discovery' — was donated by Purdue University to the poultry barn at Lincoln Park's Farm-in-the-Zoo. 2023: The Chicago Bears purchased the former Arlington Park site. Chicago Bears and Soldier Field: What to know about the possible stadium move — or transformation Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
