5 Things to Know: Going for the Guinness
All together now. Chicago's venerable Old Town School of Folk Music - which claims ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn and singer-songwriter John Prine as alums -- on Tuesday staged a massive music lesson, in an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. The record previously was set by a 2006 harmonica lesson in Switzerland that had 539 participants, the school said.
The guitar play-along in Chicago's Welles Park, which included basic chord instruction and the performance of two songs, apparently did the trick. It drew 1,377 guitar students. For those calculating, that was 8,262 guitar strings a-janglin'.
A coincidence? Mayor Richard Daley announced an unprecedented bundle of labor agreements with six unions covering city and school employees. Lucrative trade-union contracts will last for 10 years - a year beyond the 2016 Summer Olympics that Chicago hopes to host.
Reporters wanted to know the back story. Did Daley give too much away to make peace with labor and thus help with the Olympic bid? Or was that - ahem - just a coincidence?
"Yeah, I guess it is, to tell you the truth," Daley said.
A sign of the Apocalypse? The Chicago Tribune announced plans to take over home delivery of its arch-rival, The Chicago Sun-Times, and its suburban sister papers. The surprising deal demonstrates how newspapers must be innovative to stay afloat in these Internet-dominant times, observers said.
The melting pot. With 1.4 million black residents, Cook County continues to have the largest black population among counties in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Meanwhile, there were 2.4 million white Cook County residents in 2006, while Hispanics numbered about 1.2 million.
Combined minority groups here comprised more than 50 percent of the population, a demographic mix known as "majority-minority." That occurs in 10 percent of U.S. counties.
What's new. Bank robber John Dillinger met his end 73 years ago outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago's Lincoln Park. The landmark building is still there on Lincoln Avenue but has been renovated and re-opened as a live-theater venue. The new occupant, Victory Gardens Theater, is hosting an open house over the weekend.
For more information about the center, go to www.victorygardens.org <http://www.victorygardens.org/> .
Mike Ramsey is Chicago reporter for GateHouse News Service. He can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net <mailto:ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net> .