Summer of Disappointment

As summer winds down and transitions into autumn, I was thinking of an adequate summary of the summer of 2015, as each summer has its own hallmarks and events that make it special and memorable.

But candidly, there is no other way to appropriately label the summer of 2015 other than as the Summer of Disappointment.

Early, in the summer, I joined a group of old friends at Ravinia Park, the local summer outdoor music venue to see The Doobie Brothers (who was at the height of their popularity during my teen and preteen years), to enjoy friendship, a little wine, music and nostalgia.  The weather was more suitable to a November football game at Soldier Field, as we were huddled under jackets and blankets.   The band was late at an already late start time,  and they sounded old, tired, and flat, sounding more like a bad local band playing China Grove at a wedding than the actual Doobie Brothers.  I left after about four songs.  That set the tone for the summer.

Baseball also disappointed.  My beloved White Sox were a flop.  Several off season acquisitions were made to complement starts Chris Sale and Jose Abreau and most baseball writers had predicted this team to contend for a division title.  I was looking forward to several nice summer nights at the ballpark with my son, cheering the team on during the 10th anniversary year of their World Series victory.  The team came out of the gate losing four straight and never really gained any traction.  Adam LaRoche decided to challenge quarterback Jay Cutler for the title of "Biggest Waste of Money in Chicago Sports History." A team that should be in the playoffs is now practically giving away tickets through its app just so there is not a resounding echo in the ballpark every time a player gets a hit.

The other big sports disappointment was, of course, Patrick Kane.  He seemed like he had matured and there were no reported incidents of his drunken frat-boy-like behavior over the last few years until this summer when Kane got himself tangled in a whopper of a problem, being accused of rape at his Buffalo home by a woman that he picked up in a bar.  No charges have been filed yet, and these cases are very difficult.  At worst, he is a violent criminal and may go to jail.  At best, he showed terrible judgment, a penchant for recidivism, and he put himself, his team, and the sport in a terrible position.   It may very well be that Kane has played his last game for the Hawks.

In politics, despite a horde of candidates that threw their hats in the ring, I was certain that Scott Walker would quickly emerge as a front runner.  Nonpoliticians like Donald Trump typically make noise but inevitably sink as things get more serious.  Walker was conservative, tough, survived difficult campaigns and a recall and took on and defeated a rabid public union that threatened to turn Wisconsin into a mobocracy.   He restored fiscal sanity to his state and stood in stark contrast to Illinois, which can't even pay its lottery winners and is bleeding jobs and population.  But as the summer wore on, Trump's brash style continued to dominate the press.  Walker's adjustments made him look more like the Republican establishment of Boehner and McConnell and his support in Iowa plummeted to 3%.  Most ridiculous was his assertion that building a wall at the Canadian border was a legitimate issue.  Of all the serious issues facing the U.S., keeping those crazy Canucks out is not an issue that keeps most Americans awake at night.

In the literary world, the long-awaited, much ballyhooed sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird was set for release this summer.  TKAM is on the list of many readers' top ten most beloved novels.  The reclusive Harper Lee refrained from any other publications for decades, and there was much mystery surrounding her and the true authorship of TKAM remained subject of some speculation, given her relationship with Truman Capote.  Social media was abuzz all summer prior to the release.  At release, it was the fastest selling book in HarperCollins history as fans of TKAM gobbled it up.  But as readers dug in, the reviews came back with such descriptions as, "money grab," and "fraud" as some booksellers offered no-questions-asked refunds and others labelled it an "academic curiosity."  Go Set A Watchman landed with the biggest thud in literary history.

Even nature disappointed this summer.  The Chicago Botanic Garden splashed news about the blooming of the famous corpse plant (famous to botanists, anyway).   Spike, the corpse plant evidently infrequently blooms and when it does, it emits a strong and foul smell designed to attract insects.  The CBG attracted 57,000 visitors for the event, had news updates, planned to keep the garden open until 2 a.m. and had a live cam set up for people to watch over the internet.  But Spike never bloomed and horticulturalists deemed it to be "past its prime."   Despite Spike's failure to perform, there were no calls for research into a botanic Viagra.

Lest you think I only indict others in this list, I am not exempt.  Summer whizzed by without accomplishing many of the things that were on my list on Memorial Day.  The Wright Brothers by David McCullough and Misbehaving by Richard Thaler still rest upright on my shelf, unread.  The long list of cultural events and institutions that I wished to see only have two checkmarks next to them.   And although I made a mad dash at the end, I barely dented the catalog of house projects that needed to be done--the basement is still full of useless junk.  Oh, and a few pounds of the 15 that I vowed to make disappear are still here, ready for the holiday add-ons.