"The Best of Mike Royko" J. Weisberg

From Jacob Weisberg's on site Slate Magazine, This is a promo from Weisberg's book; One More Time: The best of Mike Royko, University of Chicago Press; 312 pages $22


"Royko's hold came in part from his sense of place. He grew up in the Polish neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago that Nelson Algren captured in one of Royko's favorite books, The Neon Wilderness, and he never left it in spirit. Royko's father was a milkman, and the family lived over a tavern. Before finding his way into journalism, Royko already had experience "setting bowling pins, working on a landscape crew, in a greasy machine shop, and in a lamp factory and pushing carts around a department store," as he noted in 1990. When he said he became a writer because it was easier on the feet, he half meant it. To his working class and working-class-once-removed readers, Royko was, like Daley, one of Us."

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Why would I be promoting someone elses book? Because I like what he said about the old neighborhood and about Mike himself. I cut Roko's hair a couple of times. Not that he much cared about razor cuts or mens hairstyling. It's just that we were on his way to work. Our shop was at Illinois and LaSalle streets near all three Chicago papers. During one of his visits I told him about the culture shock of moving from Old Town Chicago to Berwyn, Il. He smiled wryly...and listened. two days later several of my clients said "I didn't know you cut his hair" When I read the column titled "He's moving in different circles now" August 8th 1977, I was amazed at the man's brain. It was as though he was a human recording device. Almost verbatum in spots and it was a fun and ironic article. I enjoyed his fearless attack on City Hall, Mafia, Chicago Police Dept., Sanitary district, gun control outlooks, Fern Basket Taverns were also not a favorite thing for him either. Thank You Mike for many great reads. And Thanks to you Weisberg for reminding us about a great writer and a man without pretense and brass balls......TT