'The Chicago way' (and other wayward words)

'The Chicago way' (and other wayward words)
By Mark Jacob
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 13, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-perspec0913chicagosep13,0,4703960.story


Everyone seems to be talking about "the Chicago way" these days.

Fox News' Sean Hannity recently railed against "Chicago thug-style politics and the Chicago way." After Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels lost his re-election bid last month, a blogger there said Nickels was "attacked for practicing the Chicago way."

In recent years, our culture has produced a novel by Michael Harvey, an episode of the TV show "ER" and a board game with the same name: "The Chicago Way."

But what exactly is this "way," and what does it say about Chicago?

We asked Barry Popik, a Texas-based consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary whose research established that the phrase "Windy City" originally referred to both Chicago's weather and its bloviating politicians.

As for the Chicago way, Popik noted that in the early 1980s, the takeover of banks by South American governments was described as "the Chicago way to socialism," the presumption being that bank robberies were commonplace in Chicago.

But Popik affirmed the obvious conclusion that the Chicago way was popularized by the 1987 film "The Untouchables," written by David Mamet. The key passage: "You want to know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"

Even Barack Obama seemed impressed by that piece of screenwriting. As a presidential candidate in June 2008, he vowed to counter Republican attacks, declaring: "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

Because of Chicago's handgun ban, Obama can't bring a gun here, though he does have a nuclear arsenal at his disposal.

Perhaps the term "Chicago way" is weaponry enough. Its firepower raises the question of how a phrase from a 22-year-old movie gained such belated popularity.

"I think it's Obama," Popik said, "and certainly the conservative blogs."

Indeed, "The Chicago way" was the name of a Republican National Committee ad last year that sought to handcuff Obama to the corruption of his hometown. Lately, the term has been favored by such stalwarts of the right as Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and Cliff Kincaid.

Even so, the chief purveyor of the term is Tribune columnist John Kass, who has used the phrase in about 120 columns since 2000. Kass' concept of the term is different from Mamet's. To Kass, the Chicago way does not describe a policy of escalating violence; it reflects a constant erosion of society from a corrupt system of insiders giving political favors to each other.

If the Chicago way sticks, it will be our city's most prominent piece of slang that includes the word "Chicago." More obscure phrases found in slang dictionaries are "Chicago contract" (an oral agreement sealed only by honor) and "Chicago typewriter" (a Prohibition-era term for a Thompson submachine gun, based on the sound it made).

Then there are a couple of baseball phrases. Considering our city's frequent frustration in that torturous sport, it's no surprise that both terms have negative connotations. A woman who generously shares her favors with players is often called a "Baseball Annie," but she's also known as a "Chicago Shirley." And according to ancient ballpark slang, a team that is shut out is "Chicagoed." The origin of that word is unproven, but some experts think it began when the 1870 New York Mutuals defeated the Chicago White Stockings 9-0 in an era when shutouts were unusual.

Sox fan Obama should not feel bad, though. The White Stockings of that era became the Cubs, not the Sox.

And the president has other things to worry about. If he doesn't reach a Chicago contract with the Republicans soon, he risks getting Chicagoed on health-care reform.

Mark Jacob is a deputy metro editor at the Tribune and edits John Kass' column. mjacob@tribune.com