28 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Books

continued from page 27 for Granta, the Guardian Cohn’s in his element when a kind of memorial. Certain contains not one reference to each other. Bounce’s rules are Weekend magazine, and he’s looking closely at hip-hop’s passages have an eerie pre- Katrina. He had no interest in inflexible, and Cohn’s ideas British GQ , and its seams allure, especially how and monitory tone, as when the pursuing new subject matter, simply don’t match up with his occasionally show—the why it titillates white audi- mother of once bounce pro- he recently told the New York artists’. Cohn wants an ode to chronology is scrambled, and ences. He’s conflicted about ducer describes the decay of Times. “When I get behind the independent women and single the stories of many characters gangsta rap and devotes her neighborhood: “Now there mike, I got a whole ’nother mothers, but Choppa just are confined to a single chap- numerous pages to his love- was nothing left, just wicked- mind frame,” he said. “I rap wants another remix of his ter. But the book has a com- hate relationship with it, but ness and crime, and God was about what they wanna hear.” familiar hit, “Choppa Style.” pelling theme in Cohn’s rela- for Cohn the hedonism of mocked ....But he would not Master P recently addressed Cohn leaves a voice mail for tionship to New Orleans as bounce accurately reflects a be mocked forever, no, God the disaster by releasing producer Supa Dave suggest- well as his constant grappling very New Orleans worldview: always had the last word.” Hurricane Katrina—We Gon’ ing a change to a bass line, and with race, particularly race in “Fantasy, braggadocio, myth— Katrina also reveals just Bounce Back (Gutter Music), an the message gets played in the pop music from the earliest these weren’t just fancy words how difficult a task Cohn cre- album by bounce supergroup studio to riotous laughter. days of rock ’n’ roll to the pres- for lying, but a sort of ated for himself: even the the 504 Boyz, but most of the Choppa nicknames Cohn ent. He worries that his obses- art....That was how I came to hurricane couldn’t rewrite the tracks wouldn’t sound out of “Triksta” during a pot-fueled sion with black musicians has think of New Orleans: my city rules of New Orleans hip-hop. place on any of No Limit’s late- studio session, after first call- “some taint of idealization, of beautiful lies.” Rapper and Cash Money 90s releases. Resilience is at ing him “Nik da Trik.” Neither the flip side of condescension,” Triksta was written and Records president Lil’ Wayne, the heart of bounce—Triksta name is exactly affectionate. and that sort of candor keeps printed before Hurricane who was raised in New Orleans, ends when Cohn gives up the Triksta is constructed in Triksta from becoming a work Katrina, and it’s hard to read recently released Tha Carter II rap game, but the game keeps part from pieces Cohn wrote of unintentional comedy. it now as anything other than (Cash Money/Universal), which right on going. v CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE 29

Books

THE RIDDLE OF THE TRAVELING SKULL HARRY STEPHEN KEELER (MCSWEENEY’S BOOKS) The Case of the Lost Logorrheic McSweeney’s brings local mystery stylist Harry Stephen Keeler back into print.

By John Marr etween 1924 and 1953 Cracksman. Articles celebrating sive poetess, Abigail Sprigee; nor Keeler’s beloved “London of the Chicago native Harry his demented aesthetic began to of the Great Simon, with his 2163 West”—a thoroughly skewed B Stephen Keeler published appear in publications ranging pearl buttons; nor, of—in short, I Chicago. One memorable about 50 of the most exuberantly from the Journal of Popular then knew quite nothing about sequence finds him hunting for odd mysteries ever written. Set in Culture to the New Republic, and anything or anybody involved in clues in a cemetery dedicated to a seemingly alternate universe his fame started to grow. This the affair of which I now became a circus freaks. He finally deter- thick with eccentrics—and excla- winter McSweeney’s Books for- part, unless perchance it were my mines that the skull belongs to a mation points—Keeler’s novels mally launches a Keeler revival Nemesis, Sophie Kratzenschnei- man Pelton murdered 20 years feature a dozen or more disparate with its reprint of The Riddle of derwumpel or ‘Suing Sophie!’” ago. The skull contains incontro- plot strands woven together the Traveling Skull, originally This is the sort of prose that vertible evidence of Pelton’s guilt through an astonishing agglom- published in 1934. It’s the first led one reviewer to accuse him of and is now in the hands of a eration of weird wills, lunatic Keeler to see print in America in writing in Choctaw. But if you blackmailer intent on his ruin. laws, crackpot contracts, idiotic more than 50 years. can see a certain loopy beauty in But after spotting the oaths, and some of the most out- Even the staunchest fan will the ornate syntax and rampant “Sherlockholmsian” hat and a rageously beautiful, layered coin- admit that Keeler is not for semicolons; if you can sense the er when Clay opens his bag and ventriloquist’s dummy outfitted cidences ever put to paper. The everyone. Consider this typical touch of a genius in the creation finds inside, instead of his toi- as a cockney costermonger in New York Times could but mar- sentence, from the first chapter of Legga the Human Spider and letries, a trepanned skull. Pelton’s butler’s room, Clay is pre- vel, of one forgotten title, “You of The Riddle: the Great Simon; or if you’re just He quickly deduces that he pared to unmask the blackmailer. cannot possibly dream of any- “For it must be remembered wondering how the hell it can all must have switched bags with a At this point, two-thirds of the thing half so bizarre as the yarn that at the time I knew quite come together coherently, Keeler clergyman on a Broadway street- way through the book, the pub- Mr. Keeler has strung together.” nothing, naturally, concerning is a sublime pleasure. car. However, this is no ordinary lisher issues a “Challenge to the Although he enjoyed moderate Milo Payne, the mysterious The Riddle of the Traveling trepanned skull—and in short Reader.” An insert announces, commercial success early in his Cockney talking Englishman with Skull opens with narrator Clay order Clay is mugged and “Stop! At this point all the neces- career—one of his books was the the checkered long-beaked Sher- Calthorpe returning home to relieved of the object by a myste- sary clues have been presented to basis for a Bela Lugosi film, The lockholmsian cap; nor of the Chicago from a business trip to rious Chinese man, inexplicably make it possible for you to deter- Mysterious Mr. Wong—Keeler latter’s ‘Barr Bag’ which was as like Asia. He’s worried about a poten- jilted by his fiancee, and inadver- mine the identity of the black- was long out of print when he my own bag as one Milwaukee tial entanglement with “Suing tently involved in blackmail mailer. CAN YOU DO IT?” died in 1967. But after his death, wienerwurst is like another; nor of Sophie,” a middle-aged mission- directed against his employer Blanks are helpfully provided a small cult began scouring used- Legga, the Human Spider, with ary who files breach-of-promise and potential father-in-law, for the reader to write down a book stores for titles like The her four legs and six arms; nor of suits against every man who Roger Pelton. guess, but the answer is: of Skull of the Waltzing Clown and Ichabod Chang, ex-convict, and crosses her path. However, she’s To untangle the mystery, Clay course not. The solution to a The Mystery of the Fiddling son of Don Chang; nor of the elu- soon relegated to the back burn- sets out on an odyssey through continued on page 31

Q 30 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Letters

continued on from page 3 sources who have an online rev- political commentator is deter- uct is distributed in is a little dif- Professor Allen for so patiently cial comic section. It will be enue model). Is there original mined by the individual reader, ferent. The Internet is also a sharing his e-business expert- popular in comics and cartoon- journalistic content online? Of not the editor, and certainly much more inclusive and robust ise, particularly in the area of ing circles, and the only ad rev- course. Check out not by whether the commenta- distribution system. advertising, a subject we know enue there is if there’s an Chicagoist.com. While they link tor’s words are on paper or I hope Mr. Lenehan can quit very little about. I fear, howev- arrangement with the holders to some print-originated mate- a screen. It is freedom of what wailing like an infant with er, that my humble attempt at of the print advertising on the rial, they do plenty of original you want to read. soiled diapers and learn about humor has eluded him in a page of ads included in the work in areas print publications Newspapers and magazines the different types of ways to variety of ways, of which I’d like block to shell out a little extra gloss over. have revenue models that are distribute a news story and to to address just one: With capi- based on downloads. In this Chicagodailynews.org should be based primarily on advertising. get a check for it. The model is tal letters and a great deal of case, yes, the Web would not up and running before too long Alternative weeklies like the changing, and you can either condescension, Mr. Allen be making any money for and will be specializing in origi- Reader are based exclusively on adapt or go have a drink with informs us that blogs provide the Reader. nal material. You can hardly be advertising. Web pages are those nice young men from the FREE ADVERTISING for Now past the issue of online for half an hour without based primarily on advertising, buggy-whip factory. newspapers and generate whether bloggers prevent accidentally tripping over politi- with a few entering into the traffic for their Web sites. Todd Allen money from flowing to the print cal commentary. Liberal, con- realm of subscription and anoth- In his eagerness to deliver Adjunct professor of e-business media or actually help it, there’s servative—whatever—the com- er set reaping the benefits of a lecture, he seems to have Columbia College the issue of whether online jour- mentary is out there. Print selling merchandise that com- completely missed my point nalists can do anything besides columnists expanding their out- plements their product and/or Michael Lenehan replies: about the Wonkette item in link to print sources (and help put online, people who are topic area. The product is not so Over here at the Buggy Whip question, which was precisely the revenues of the print online only. The value of the different; the medium the prod- Gazette we are very grateful to that it did neither. Forgive me for repeating myself, but Wonkette linked to Sploid, a sibling blog, and to a page on Yahoo News. The item made no mention of the Houston Chronicle, which originated the story, or the AP, which delivered it to Yahoo. 0G Damn the Health Taliban

After reading Ben Joravsky’s piece on Chicago’s smoking ban [The Works, December 30], I found it odd that he fails to mention the fact that “second- hand smoke” damage itself is about as proven as “intelligent design.” Or the fact that despite humanity being aware of possi- ble damage from inhaling smoke since the first caveman tried building a fire within the cave, not to mention the fact that citizens have many choices of places to go that don’t allow smoking, some people feel Big Mother needs to step in and form the Health Taliban. But since the conservatives have their own pseudoscience justifying the War on Drug Users, liberals need some too, evidently. John Biederman DailyLimerick.net Ben Joravsky replies: My point was that the city started with the assumption that secondhand smoke is dangerous then did nothing about it. Swift Justice

Dear Michael [Lenehan], I enjoyed your piece in the lat- est Reader [“A Year Without Journalism,” December 30], and your modest proposal for a year’s sabbatical for journalists. As I’m sure Swift would’ve agreed, per- haps those daughters (and sons) of reporters and writers who are unsuitable for lives of prostitu- tion can be eaten. Fred Donini-Lenhoff River Forest CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE 31

Ink Well by Ben Tausig Books

42.Arbiter who calls strikes Subscription 44.Puncture sound Descriptions 45.Buckle up 47.Four: prefix ACROSS 49.Greenpeace target, at times 1. “No problemo!” 52.Desisted 6. Quarters in college 56.Mr. or Ms. Right continued from page 29 10.Genghis or Chaka 58.Hit the big time Keeler mystery is impossible to 14.“______adrink . . .” 59.Smart divine from mere clues, and 15.Trice of hip-hop 60.Crepe paper? Keeler had a penchant for intro- 16.Reprehensible 62.Ancient South American empire ducing twist upon turn upon 17.Driving instructor? 63. Land of limericks 19.Premade waffle option 64.Halloween 2005 nominee complication right up to the final 20.Riffs 65.Stern’s opposite page. Clay’s impeccably reasoned 21. < 66.Went platinum, perhaps, but solution quickly crumbles when 23. Take down the aisle, in a way probably not gold the truth comes out; the final 24.Really 67.Phone company that merged with answer involves so many unlikely 25.Not busy Bell Atlantic in 1996 coincidences and almost avant- 27.More sore garde literary devices (including 30.Chi. summer hours DOWN 1. Cuban, e.g. four characters who all turn out 33. Add slack 2. Battery terminal to be the same person) that it’s 36.Plus-size model 37.Stand-up responses 3. Carter and Gwyn almost postmodern. 39.What a swish misses 4. Flouts It’s not too surprising that this 40.False start? 5. Nuts sort of tomfoolery didn’t play too 41. Early garden 6. One may lead the blind well in post-World War II 7. Division symbols America. As cold war paranoia set 8. Out of bed LAST WEEK: SOUNDS LIKE LOVE in, mysteries grew increasingly 9. Seinfeld, notably 10.Bitches straight and serious and the pop- 31. Subversive art movement 48.Nearly never ularity of hard-boiled writers like 11. Joint publication? 12.Seaweed, e.g. 32.Rap sheet? 50.Type of tower Mickey Spillane and Erle Stanley 13.Dodge model 34.Nurse 51. Bottled spirit Gardner skyrocketed. Even Ellery 18.Playground retort 35.Give off 53. Protest strategy Queen swapped his pince-nez for 22.Pouch 38.Civil War battleground 54.Online party-planning resource a psychology textbook. Against 26.Apple problem 40.Perpetual child 55.Dry out, so to speak this buttoned-down backdrop— 28.Big Aussie birds 42.Like a model in a life-drawing class 56.“Get _____!” when a “cult writer” meant 29.Bolsheviks 43.Play the highlight reel 57.Litter’s littlest someone like Kafka—Keeler 30.Child, notably 46.Wing 61. Not to mention must have appeared hopelessly screwy, if not downright un- American. But with the line between high and low culture now so intractably blurred, his time may have finally come. v