a few seconds of Studs on baseball

of my all-time favorite personalities is Studs. He is one of the last of the giants and I will miss him greatly. Chicago without Studs just won’t be the same.

and I used to see him every year at a New Years Eve party. He was very sweet though he could come off as grumpy old man if you were not used to him. The thing I remember most was that my cousin wrote a very nasty profile of him in THE NEW REPUBLIC years ago and after that every time he saw my mother he would greet her by saying " How is that rotten nephew of yours ?" . I did not get back to Chicago for that party for the last few years but seeing him there always reminded me of the many reasons I miss Chicago.

I have lived in Chicago the past 32 years and never quite understood who Studs Terkel was or what precisely make him famous. Can somebody kindly clue me in?

Condolscences on his passing.

that a Chicagoan didn’t know who Studs Terkel was or what he wrote. He was a master of oral history. His books on World War II, the depression, Division Street, Working are classics.

Get away from the TV a while and read.

He was on WFMT radio in the afternoon and my Mom usually had him on when I’d get home from school…I loved his voice; you knew instantly that it was him, and level of conversation was brilliant.

Later when I read his books, they gave me genuine insight into what my folks and their generation lived through during the Depression and WWII; his bone-deep respect for people, their work, their feelings, and their lives came through on every page, and he was clearly able to draw things out of them that they might not have realized about themselves. He was a thoughtful patriot, a gentleman but never a pushover, and a visionary who always had both feet on the ground.

I agree with Laddie – he was the kind of person who makes Chicago a great city. We should all keep in mind one of his signoff lines – “Take it easy – but take it!”

Studs Terkel was one of the giants of Chicago in the last half of the 20th Century. He’s the last of an era.

He wrote 18 novels won the Pulitzer Prize and his novel Working is considered one of the great American novels. He received a law degree but never practiced law. Instead, he chose to live life, connect with people and chronicle the experiences.

Studs was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, but managed to survive and even thrive. He was a great interviewer and was the man to see when a stop in Chicago was in order.

He was a great quote and a keen observer. One qoute that epitomizes his life was “Curiosity never killed this cat!”. What a great man! We will miss him.

The last of a group of very special Chicago writers that included Kup and Royko. Hopefully they’re up there watching the Cubs together in heaven come opening day. There’s nobody even close on the Chicago scene today. John Kass has potential.

Was just rereading a book of Mike Royko columns the other day. Was thinking of posting one that said the Cubs history is not because of a stupid goat but stupid ownership. That’s why I was rereading the book but it’s not in that one.

Wish we had more guys like him in the media today. (Can you get working on that, Al?)

Playing one of the two reporters who suspected the World Series was fixed. And the other reporter was played by the film’s writer/director, John Sayles.

Terkel played Hughie Fullerton, who founded the Baseball Writers Association of American when he was denied entrance to the press box because it was occupied by one of the owner’s cronies. Fullerton was one of the reporters who suspected a fix, and wrote about it, leading to the investigation that busted the Black Sox.

Sayles played Ring Lardner.

He was one of a kind. A truly great writer, historian, American and Chicagoan.

I’ve gone back to an old, yellowing paperback of “Hard Times,” his book on the depression that I hadn’t read in 30 years. I’d remembered how good it was, but in today’s atmosphere of recession and financial meltdown, it has a special poignancy.

In honor of Studs, pick up one of his books and read it again. You’ll rediscover a legend.