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	<title>The City Desk &#187; Leonard Pierce</title>
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	<link>http://thecitydesk.net</link>
	<description>Fictional urbanism.</description>
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		<title>For your ears: Smart City, new Wasted Words</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/12/04/for-your-ears-smart-city-new-wasted-words/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/12/04/for-your-ears-smart-city-new-wasted-words/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:17:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shek Baker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wasted Words]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=459</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two audio items for you this week- :: Editor RJ White has a piece from The City Desk on this week&#8217;s &#8220;Christmas in the City&#8221; edition of public radio&#8217;s Smart City. It&#8217;s an amalgamation of some briefer holiday pieces over the years and he reads it slowly and with a pronounced Midwestern accent. Also on the program are various city officials discussing how they handle the planning of holiday celebrations in their real cities. [Smart City - 12.03.08] :: The City Desk contributor Leonard Pierce joins the Wasted Words panel discussion podcast this week as a special guest. Editor RJ White&#8217;s Midwestern accent is less pronounced and contributor Shek Baker&#8217;s voice is gravel-esque on the program. [Wasted Words - Episode 19] Please give them a listen, won&#8217;t you?]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The City Desk on public radio&#8217;s &#8220;Smart City&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/20/the-city-desk-on-public-radios-smart-city/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/20/the-city-desk-on-public-radios-smart-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:56:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart City]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=444</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new episode of Smart City™, a wonderful public radio program covering urbanism and city life, features a reading by Leonard Pierce of one of his pieces from The City Desk. It is even referred to as a &#8220;special treat.&#8221; But of course it is. We all knew this. So- listen on your local station or go and listen online and let them know if you like it. Also on the program is Shawn Micallef, editor of Toronto&#8217;s excellent Spacing magazine which you really ought to check out. - RJ White, Editor]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Concession Speech of Mayoral Candidate Leonard Pierce</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/05/concession-speech-of-mayoral-candidate-leonard-pierce/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/05/concession-speech-of-mayoral-candidate-leonard-pierce/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:27:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Election 2008]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=415</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[9:42PM, November 4, 2008 Ladies and gentlemen, members of the press, Bill – hey, Bill. I’ve been asked, in light of the fact that I appear to have lost the race to become mayor of our fair city, to make a concession speech. This I am all to happy to do, as I have no recollection of having filed papers to run for mayor, and have done my best over the past few months not to campaign in any way whatsoever. However, my aides tell me that I have somehow managed to accumulate 592 votes [He ended up with 3,025- Ed.], and I feel that I should thank all of you who showed me such confidence personally, as well as ask you why you would do such a thing. I highly enjoyed my time as chairman of the Fifth Ward’s Democratic organization, a position I have long attributed to poorly informed voters and the inability of former chairman Robert Hesselman to hold his liquor, but I have neither sought higher office, nor been able to discern how I became a candidate for same. I realize that Mayor Wilders has made a poor showing of it lately, a fact he seeks [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Concession Speech of Mayor Joseph Wilders</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/05/the-concession-speech-of-mayor-joseph-wilders/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/11/05/the-concession-speech-of-mayor-joseph-wilders/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:48:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Election 2008]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=412</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[10:57PM, November 4, 2008 Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens, Democrats of our fair city, and all of you who have worked so hard with me these last four years: it is time to move on. We extend our congratulations to Councilwoman Cosgrove, who fought a hard campaign and achieved victory after initially being considered a serious underdog. Of course, our Democratic ticket was split, and it’s easy to get people on your side when you have a kid like that, but that doesn’t make any difference now. Ms. Cosgrove beat us in a fair fight, and all we can hope is that she takes her role as the new leader of this city as seriously as she takes her role as chairwoman of the Upper West Bridge and Ornithological Society. The challenges Ms. Cosgrove will face as the new mayor will be many and varied. The decline of our environmental standards, a faltering economy, and a major shift in leadership at the national and state level will only exacerbate the existing problems of running a large municipal area such as this. Additionally, there were a number of crises towards which, once it became clear that my re-election was in doubt, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Blotter: Who Will Protect Gotham Now?</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/21/the-blotter-who-will-protect-gotham-now/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/21/the-blotter-who-will-protect-gotham-now/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:19:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=301</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from local police reports. (Note: More violent, standard items do not frequently show up here, as they are covered in the local papers with regularity.) 7:29 AM 700 block of Westmont Street: 26-year old man found sleeping in backyard hot tub of ex-girlfriend. 10:41 AM 1300 block of Farmer Avenue: Vandals have swapped prices on lot models at Uvalde’s Used Autos. Police are unable to locate perpetrators, but successfully quell a public disturbance when a number of customers all insist on purchasing a 2005 Lexus sedan that has been marked at a price of $29.99. 10:58 AM 1600 block of Villers Street: Assault and battery reported at Lula’s Hair-Did beauty salon. A 28-year-old female is taken into custody and charged with attacking another customer with her artificial fingernails. 11:14 AM 1400 block of Eudora Way: Police, acting on tips from an informant who has been working with them for over eight months, break up a gambling ring operating out of the basement of a residential home. Eleven people are charged with illegal betting, RICO violations, and animal cruelty for operating the city’s largest kitten racing racket to [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Odds-On Favorite Retires From Column</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/04/odds-on-favorite-retires-from-column/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/04/odds-on-favorite-retires-from-column/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:14:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gambling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[newspapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=286</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week, the News celebrates the 50th anniversary of its longest-running feature, the “I Make the Odds” column penned since July of 1958 by Harvey Preakston. Preakston, a graduate of City College and the son of former rugby impresario Reginald Preakston, joined the paper in 1955 as a young sports reporter who was assigned to cover Mighty Elms games. However, he soon proved to be somewhat uncanny as a prognosticator, and his reputation as being able to lay astonishingly precise odds on upcoming sporting events soon spilled over from the office to his column. So accurate were his predictions that he was thrice investigated by the city’s police department and once by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who compelled him to sign a statement that he was not acting in cahoots with any organized crime syndicate. After correctly predicting the winner of every World Series from 1955 to 1958 within one month of the start of the season, his astonishing ability to figure the odds netted him his very first column. Thanks to ongoing suspicions regarding the pernicious influence of gamblers and other shady criminal types, the News was obligated to include, at the top of every “I Make the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Blotter: Potato Guns Are Surprisingly Illegal</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/31/the-blotter-potato-guns-are-surprisingly-illegal/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/31/the-blotter-potato-guns-are-surprisingly-illegal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hoyt Schermerhorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=277</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from local police reports. (Note: More violent, standard items do not frequently show up here, as they are covered in the local papers with regularity.) 7:23 am 3700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue: A group of students are arrested after carrying Davidson High School principal Stephanie Allen&#8217;s 2007 Mini Cooper into the school&#8217;s second-floor cafeteria. The students, who are all underage, are charged with grand theft auto, operating a motor vehicle without a license, disorderly conduct, local and state hazardous-materials infractions, vandalism, property destruction and a parking violation. 9:02 am 1700 block of Marway Lane: Tandem bicycle reported stolen. 9:27 pm 2000 block of Dunn Avenue: Gupta’s Stop ‘n’ Pop calls in a shoplifting incident. When police arrive, suspect claims that Gupta offers free in-store refills on fountain drinks. Mr. Gupta explains that the policy was never meant to be offered in perpetuity, and the suspect, who has been continually refilling his 44-oz. Mountain Dew since 1:30 PM the previous day, is violating the spirit of the contract. No charges are filed, but suspect is politely asked to leave. 12:52 pm 2100 block of Villers Street: A 22-year-old [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Local Swedish Icon Actually Italian</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/21/local-swedish-icon-actually-italian/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/21/local-swedish-icon-actually-italian/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:50:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hist'l docs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[libraries]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=285</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever since its inception in 1952, the Hjalmar Marklund Annex to the Central Branch of the Municipal Public Library has been a point of pride for the city’s library system, and one of the United States’ leading collections of Swedish-American art and literature. Occupying the entire fourth floor (with the exception of the Pal Hutley Forbidden Books Vault) and containing thousands of volumes, important artworks and sculptures, photographs and sheet music, the so-called Marklund Collection – named after the famed yachtsman, financier, and philanthropist who moved to the city just after the Second World War – has long been a selling point to researchers, ethnographers, and tourists from Scandinavia. Unfortunately, recent revelations about Hjalmar Marklund have put the entire future of the collection in jeopardy, and could presage a long and difficult series of lawsuits. Three months ago, while researching a biography of Hjalmar Marklund, local journalist Peg Boatwright (author of He-Brews: How the Jewish Community Helped End Prohibition) made a stunning discovery. By going through birth and travel records, and piecing together identity documents that had been sealed since the war, she learned that Marklund was not, in fact, Swedish at all, but rather an Italian named Eugenio Zanzotto. [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>This City is Not Very Good at New Year&#8217;s</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/26/this-city-is-not-very-good-at-new-years/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/26/this-city-is-not-very-good-at-new-years/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:34:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[clubs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new year's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sister cities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/26/this-city-is-not-very-good-at-new-years/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our city’s reputation for somewhat slipshod urban planning is as much a part of its character, for better or for worse, as is government corruption in Chicago, gridlock in Los Angeles, and chili with spaghetti in Cincinnati. The city particularly seems to lose its grip around New Year’s: :: In 1994 at the Artemis Nightclub, the oversized mechanical silver apple and full moon contraptions, which are traditionally raised to the top of their housing at midnight on New Year’s Eve, somehow became entangled with one another, stalling halfway up the main shaft and making a calamitous grinding noise while the gears tried to work loose. Workmen finally fixed the problem at 1:33am, but by then, everyone had gone home. :: Icy roads and a higher-than-usual number of highway accidents in 2003 led to a citywide shortage of champagne, and a number of bars and clubs resorted to handing out 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor to their patrons on New Year’s Eve. :: In 1981, City Hall, using state-of-the-art satellite TV technology, intended to let the public in on a simultaneous New Year’s Eve celebration with Maracaibo, Venezuela, one of our former sister cities. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be aware [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The City&#8217;s Letters to Santa</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/17/the-citys-letters-to-santa/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2007/12/17/the-citys-letters-to-santa/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[formalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hoboes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Landon Ave Army]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[letters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[newspapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organized crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[santa]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[This week, the Journal-Clarion will mail, free to its subscribers, a small soft-cover book entitled The Kringle Memoranda. The book is a handpicked collection of children’s letters to Santa, which the newspaper has been printing in a special supplement in the week before Christmas since 1922 (when it was still the Journal-American). The volume, with art by Journal-Clarion editorial cartoonist Jack Belinsky, will no doubt appeal to the children and parents who are its primary target, but to long-time connoisseurs of urban strangeness, it’s more noteworthy for what it omits than what it includes. The letters bound within the red-and-green covers alternate between po-faced sincerity and kids-say-the-darndest-things humor, and entirely ignore the fact that, for almost seventy years, the letters-to-Santa supplement of the newspaper was where one could find some of the city’s strangest manifestations of subversive art and unexpurgated oddness. In 1926, Journal-American publisher R. Darren Mingers’ 6-year-old granddaughter Claire (who would later rise to fame as a director of sentimental melodramatic films in Hollywood, and who organized the first Founders Day Film Festival in 1972) wrote a letter to Santa, which was not published in the supplement. (Though no reason was ever given – the editor in charge [...]]]></description>
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