Another One Bites The Dust

A friend requests Queen as a way to mark the Chicago Sun-Times' fall into bankruptcy, but I'm thinking back to the glory days and Santana.

So, no, it's not "Another One Bites the Dust," although that's a perfectly appropriate tune to cue up after today's filing in Delaware. I am remembering a most daring moment of journalistic theater, which I followed day after day when in school in Chicago back in the late `70s.

After hearing tips about city licensing workers shaking down businesses for bribes, The Sun-Times went into business itself, opening up a cozy little bar it called Mirage. Pam Zekman became Pam the Barmaid. Her colleague Norty the Bartender was really investigative reporter Zay Smith. Bill Recktenwald of the Better Government Association helped out.

Photographers posing as repairmen shot the payoff parade as city officials shook down the newcomers on Wells Avenue.

For 25 days in early 1987 the Sun-Times gave readers an amazing look at how business was really conducted in Chitown. As Time Magazine said it, "bribes flowed like beer." 

We leave you with this Santana song, "Mirage," in hopes the paper reappears, better and stronger.