7/29/2007

In a recent Tribune editorial, I noticed that, as they went over the story of the famed “Spindle’ sculpture- the pile of cars on a spike that resides in the parking lot of the Harlem-Cermak Shopping Plaza in Berwyn, which reportedly is going to be taken down so they can build a free-standing Walgreen’s store in its place- the writer talked about how its use in the movie “Wayne’s World” is what put Berwyn on the map. Ahem- now, as every Svengoolie fan knows, the Svengoolie family has been touting the suburb and its eccentricities since the early 70s- just from my aspect, when “Son of Svengoolie” ran in San Francisco, Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia, we were promoting Berwyn, as always…so, give us a LITTLE credit, won’t you? Whenever you hear a radio announcer or a train conductor read the word “Berwyn” and they give it that same well-known Sven cadence- “BER-WYN?!” –you get the idea of how much we have had a hand in engraining that village’s name into the public’s consciousness. At least we’ve always given the “Spindle” its proper location, in Berwyn…while Mike Meyers had to allege that it had been transplanted to Aurora.

“Au-RORA?!” (See- it doesn’t work!) In a recent public appearance, I mentioned that the “Spindle” had originally been Berwyn’s answer to parking congestion-they thought they could just pile cars up on a spike. This plan was thought out by the same people who worked on Berwyn’s “Man into Space” project- see, they got this trampoline….

Speaking of the Tribune- I haven’t checked my Sunday edition out yet, but I was told that, if you look in the “Q” section- there will be an article by Pat Kampert. Pat says he was a lifelong 3 Stooges fan, and suddenly found their appeal waning a bit for him. He tried to figure out why- was he getting too old and boring, or was it just that he’s seen the films too many times? Then, his family bought him some remastered and colorized Stooges- and, lo! Even though he, like myself, abhors most colorizations, it turned out to be a revelation for him. I noticed new details he hadn’t seen before, and got his “Stooge mojo” back! He spoke with me recently about this, and may just include some quotes from me in the article, so please check it out! Also, try the wacky TV Jumble in the Tribune TV book- it’s just about the only thing that’s different between that and the one in the Sun Times…