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Robert Loerzel

@robertloerzel

Chicagoan, journalist, photographer, author, copy editor, flâneur. https://www.robertloerzel.com/

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Latest posts by Robert Loerzel @robertloerzel

Preview
Roseanne Tellez is latest casualty at Fox 32 Chicago after firing of Scott Schneider, executive producer

Tellez had been with Fox 32 since 2019. She began in Chicago in 1990 with WGN, then moved in 2004 to CBS 2, where she spent 15 years.

06.03.2026 22:39 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Doofus thinks you need to have a voter ID to pick up a 6 pack of beer...

06.03.2026 21:59 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
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nyt website currently resembles one of those mock covers people made before 2016 election: economy floundering, war in the middle east, scandal-plagued cabinet sec, brazen corruption....

06.03.2026 16:25 👍 2064 🔁 451 💬 38 📌 17

Birders report seeing huge flocks of blackbirds flying up the Chicago lakefront today — 5,000 or more.

06.03.2026 21:56 👍 30 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0

Most people also won’t finish your 500-word article. So write at whatever length is appropriate for the subject.

06.03.2026 21:27 👍 490 🔁 58 💬 15 📌 4

Your second question was the one I was about to ask.

06.03.2026 21:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Seems less than ideal.

06.03.2026 17:08 👍 4140 🔁 1656 💬 347 📌 108

When the commander in chief decrees that the Dow is 50,000, then it will be 50,000.

06.03.2026 21:35 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh, right.

06.03.2026 18:44 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Photos of 12 ghost signs painted on brick buildings in Chicago.  From top left, l to r: Wizard Oil, Kroll Krib, Val Blatz, Gold Medal Flour, Climax Plug Tobacco, Grocery and Market, Fox Deluxe Beer, Furniture, Gossard Corsets, King Beer, Debbie's School of Beauty Culture, Stern Clothing

Photos of 12 ghost signs painted on brick buildings in Chicago. From top left, l to r: Wizard Oil, Kroll Krib, Val Blatz, Gold Medal Flour, Climax Plug Tobacco, Grocery and Market, Fox Deluxe Beer, Furniture, Gossard Corsets, King Beer, Debbie's School of Beauty Culture, Stern Clothing

A ghost sign collage from a while ago. Not sure how many of these still exist. All in Chicago (I think).

06.03.2026 18:31 👍 36 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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This is an actual Pentagon press release. “An Army believed to be casualty…the believed to be death”

06.03.2026 18:02 👍 1166 🔁 280 💬 121 📌 212
Three attached 1.5-story brick cottages with gable roofs. The one at right has light brown brick, a dilapidated front porch,  and boarded up windows and door. The center house is yellow brick with a small front porch. Both of these have a diamond pattern of lighter brick on each side of the second floor window. The one at left has been  "fixed up," i.e, ruined, by covering it with large black squares of unknown material separated by thin white lines. The original double window in the gable has been replaced by a smaller one with no interesting features. To the right of the entrance is a closed-in section fitted with dark windows with black trim. It looks like crap.

Three attached 1.5-story brick cottages with gable roofs. The one at right has light brown brick, a dilapidated front porch, and boarded up windows and door. The center house is yellow brick with a small front porch. Both of these have a diamond pattern of lighter brick on each side of the second floor window. The one at left has been "fixed up," i.e, ruined, by covering it with large black squares of unknown material separated by thin white lines. The original double window in the gable has been replaced by a smaller one with no interesting features. To the right of the entrance is a closed-in section fitted with dark windows with black trim. It looks like crap.

The same three cottages a few years ago. The two at center and right are the same as in the previous photo. The one at left is pinkish brick with the entrance on the left and the closed-in section fitted nice multi-paned white-trimmed windows with transoms. On the second floor is the same diamond pattern that is on its two neighbors.

The same three cottages a few years ago. The two at center and right are the same as in the previous photo. The one at left is pinkish brick with the entrance on the left and the closed-in section fitted nice multi-paned white-trimmed windows with transoms. On the second floor is the same diamond pattern that is on its two neighbors.

It doesn't take much to set me off these days so this has me fuming. Look at what they did to this c. 1890 cottage at 5168 S. Wabash! 🤬😱🤯

06.03.2026 17:34 👍 33 🔁 3 💬 10 📌 2

I want Sanborn map X-ray spex.

06.03.2026 17:36 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Screengrab of a Sanborn fire map from 1950 showing 238-36 as they ever were, then 234, which now sports an addition in front, and 232-30, which is now two storefronts in front of a space that used to house two three story buildings.

Screengrab of a Sanborn fire map from 1950 showing 238-36 as they ever were, then 234, which now sports an addition in front, and 232-30, which is now two storefronts in front of a space that used to house two three story buildings.

And here we are in 1950, with a revision of the 1917 fire map to cover the now missing buildings in back. Literally. If you look closely, you can still see them underneath the new sheet carefully pasted on top.

06.03.2026 17:34 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

If you zoom out a bit, you can see that our little store is growing out of the front of another building. The ladies in back, built in 1892, have Seen Some Things. They originally had a permit sister & a friend sitting at 232 & 230 (originally 211 & 209), but these were knocked down in the late '30s

06.03.2026 17:34 👍 17 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0
Preview
Sudden cancellation of Army exercise fuels speculation about troops in Middle East The abrupt cancelation of a training event has put a spotlight on the 82nd Airborne Division, which specializes in ground combat and other fraught missions.

Breaking news: The Army abruptly canceled a major training exercise, officials said, fueling speculation within the Defense Department that soldiers specializing in ground combat and a range of other missions may be sent to the Middle East.

06.03.2026 17:05 👍 144 🔁 66 💬 23 📌 29

The band is donating its share of the proceeds to Letters Charity a nonprofit organization using Art "as a conduit to transform passive compassion into immediate assistance through the distribution of money given, without expectation or judgment, directly to families experiencing poverty."

Click it

06.03.2026 17:06 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Chicago Democrat.

I've looked at some issues of the Chicago Democrat on microfilm at the Chicago History Museum. Not sure if that includes what you're looking for. chhiso.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US...

06.03.2026 16:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Claude please compute tariff refunds.

06.03.2026 16:04 👍 17 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 0
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Tomorrow at @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social ⚾ Batter up, Chicagoans! We're hosting a special 1-year-anniversary screening at 11:30 AM. Feel the EEPHUS fever as we get closer to opening day.

Tickets are available here: bit.ly/4rztFka

06.03.2026 15:54 👍 12 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Lovely rainy day in Bughouse Square, Chicago.

06.03.2026 15:54 👍 32 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1

The fuck you mean? Put the money in the bag.

06.03.2026 15:42 👍 5717 🔁 797 💬 202 📌 20

Yeah, that's a survivor! There are some very early records of a saloon near the Rosehill entrance, but they're vague about the precise location.

06.03.2026 15:45 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Wanna bet?

06.03.2026 15:43 👍 213 🔁 32 💬 16 📌 1

woah

06.03.2026 15:44 👍 29 🔁 7 💬 3 📌 0

That will explain it.

06.03.2026 15:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ellison style.

06.03.2026 15:36 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Bring these back now

06.03.2026 15:36 👍 10 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
A digitally drawn homage to the George Herriman comic strip Krazy Kat. Starting left of frame we see yellow Ignatz Mouse having just thrown a brick which is sailing across the center of the frame and in another instant will bash the oblivious Krazy Kat (a blue bipedal cartoon cat wearing a red scarf) in the back of the head as he walks innocently to the right. Everything is drawn in rough black pen and colored in pale washes. A speech bubble from Ignatz reads ‘Maybe it will…’, the word ’Happen’ appears in the whooshing trail of the sailing brick, and a final speech bubble belonging to the Kat reads ‘…Today’.

A digitally drawn homage to the George Herriman comic strip Krazy Kat. Starting left of frame we see yellow Ignatz Mouse having just thrown a brick which is sailing across the center of the frame and in another instant will bash the oblivious Krazy Kat (a blue bipedal cartoon cat wearing a red scarf) in the back of the head as he walks innocently to the right. Everything is drawn in rough black pen and colored in pale washes. A speech bubble from Ignatz reads ‘Maybe it will…’, the word ’Happen’ appears in the whooshing trail of the sailing brick, and a final speech bubble belonging to the Kat reads ‘…Today’.

06.03.2026 14:10 👍 1383 🔁 354 💬 7 📌 5
Wider shot outside the L station. A few men are standing there, but another man is on the side, wearing a "Kiss me I'm Polish" apron (he does not look Polish), a chef's hat with both a Cubs bumper sticker and a Mondale/Ferraro bumper sticker on it. A sandwich board against a support beam is labeled "Operation Don Quixote" saying below it "I will feed the world now." At the bottom is a board with a bunch of newspaper cutouts, one clearly labeled "Mondale/Ferraro"

Wider shot outside the L station. A few men are standing there, but another man is on the side, wearing a "Kiss me I'm Polish" apron (he does not look Polish), a chef's hat with both a Cubs bumper sticker and a Mondale/Ferraro bumper sticker on it. A sandwich board against a support beam is labeled "Operation Don Quixote" saying below it "I will feed the world now." At the bottom is a board with a bunch of newspaper cutouts, one clearly labeled "Mondale/Ferraro"

I wanna know more about the sandwich board guy with the Mondale/Ferraro hat. He's all over that sequence.

06.03.2026 15:07 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 1