In the “I wish I wrote it” category is a letter in today’s Sun-Times by Nancy J. Thorner, of Lake Bluff, in which she criticizes standard MSM labelling practices: “religious right, never secular-left; right-wing, never left-wing,” etc.

In fact, I did write it, more or less, noting the dearth of “liberal Democrat” as finder in Google but wealth of “conservative Republican” – the latter often self-applied, by the way, which says something about honesty.

For whole letter, scroll down for “A news slant to the left.”

Stop the presses!  AP story about senior bloggers is in Sun-Times too, in addition to USA Today.  It’s also in Elgin’s Daily Courier-News, I am told.  And in Boston Globe or at least at its site, plus God and Google know where else. 

Writer Carla K. Johnson is on to something, I’d say, with her account of senior-citizen denizens of the blogosphere.  A fair-use excerpt of what somehow caught my attention, if you don’t mind:

“It’s easy to start [a blog] if you can connect dots,” said former Jesuit priest and retired newspaperman Jim Bowman, 73, of Oak Park, Ill. Bowman writes four regular blogs: one on happenings in his city, one a catchall for his opinions, one on religion, and one offering feedback on Chicago newspapers [this one].

A recent post from his newspaper blog praised the Chicago Tribune’s front page stories on the White Sox World Series games:

“It’s been a lovely thing, to see copy so clean and substantive enough to make E.B. White and his mentor William Strunk Jr. stand up in their graves and say Yippee,” Bowman wrote.

Bowman once had eight separate blogs, but has let some lapse. The blog topics he doesn’t keep up with anymore include ideas for sermons, Chicago history and condominium life.

“Like any other hobby, you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t take over,” he said.

I love it.

You never know what you’ll find in the newspapers.  This in USA Today is not all about me, which is a shame, but I’m in it.  Carla K. Johnson of AP-Chicago did a good job here, as did fotog Jeff Roberson, whom I gave a brief tour of OP’s Lake-OP Ave. intersection on a beautiful day.  In fact, as you can see, OP is featured as much as I, which is not a shame.

The story was also picked up by The Southern.com, “Southern Illinois’ home page,” without pic.

Chi Trib’s Dawn T. Trice objects to a Catholic parish’s decision to cancel a Girls Inc.-related fund-raiser because Girls Inc. is pro-choice, arguing that Girls Inc. does great work.  Its motto, “inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold,” should decide the matter, says Trice, who peeled data off its web site when its people were not available to her.

But what would Trice say about school districts (Oak Park is one) and community fund-raising operations that freeze out Boy Scouts of America because it’s anti-gay?  Groups do that sort of thing.  For them it’s not pursuing a “narrow political agenda,” as the fund-raiser doll-maker, American Girl spokesman called the parish’s decision.  It’s a heart-of-the-matter issue, as gay tolerance is at the heart of those school districts’ position. 

If Trice wants to argue that the good outweighs the bad in this case, fine.  But to profess acceptance of consumer boycott “for any reason” and then to condemn this boycott makes no sense.

ON THE VENTI FRONT . . . From one who knows:

Venti is a coffee size at Starbucks – the largest size you can get. Rather than small, medium and large, S-bucks offers something like tall, grande, venti. They want to make it all seem bigger and more mysterious. I try to stick it to the man sometimes by just ordering it the basic way, “Small coffee, please.” Sometimes they don’t know what I’m talking about.

“Crafty Russian seeks venti of cash from Starbucks,” is p. 4 Chi Trib head.

What, pray tell, is a venti? A kind of coffee, I guess. At www.decafmocha.com I see “decaf venti no-whip mocha” and a creamed-up cuppa. But has Chi Trib so completely written off the straphanger trying to make sense of the world as to put it in a headline?

And do not look for “venti” in the story. Whom are these guys talking to, besides each other?