Slog - Comments on Studs Terkel

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:38:33 -0800

You know what? I'm not sad. He got 96 years, which is a hell of a long time, and he left a fantastic legacy. He'll be remembered forever for Working and all the rest. He gave a lot, and he had a great, fulfilled, fulfilling long life. We all should be so lucky. They stopped making guys like Studs fifty years ago or more. Rest well, man.

Comment by greendyke

greendyke — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:44:45 -0800

Chicago Public Radio will no doubt be cranking out some excellent rememberances in the days to come: ChicagoPublicRadio.org Nothing up yet, though.

Comment by John Bailo

John Bailo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:46:52 -0800

Yes, you should read it.

Because SLOG is the anti-thesis of Studs Terkel -- an imposition of elite values and a pandering to the bureaucratic power structure.

Comment by Jonathan Bailo Thomas

Jonathan Bailo Thomas — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:47:48 -0800

Wouldn't you rather watch Working Girl? Books are for people who can't watch movies.

Comment by Gurldoggie

Gurldoggie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:52:28 -0800

I'm really glad I got to see him speak, once upon a time. So many of his books are classics, but I'm still partial to "Giants of Jazz," in which he interviewed not ordinary Americans, but Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. I'm gonna see Charlie Haden at Town Hall tonight and fondly remember Mr. Terkel.

Comment by Brendan Kiley

Brendan Kiley — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:54:30 -0800

I hear you, Fnarf, but I'm still sad. He was America.

Comment by tomasyalba

tomasyalba — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:56:57 -0800

Studs used to ride my bus, the Sheridan Park run. He'd sit in back and yak with whoever sat by him. My favorite book of his is "The Spectator," accounts of his interviews with an astonishing range of performers whose work he had come to know intimately before meeting them. He was both erudite and completely accessible in describing how his encounters with their work shaped his perceptions of beauty and of being human, of work and love and duty. Shivers.

Comment by Arvid Hokanson

Arvid Hokanson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:57:51 -0800

KUOW will run a one-hour interview with Studs Terkel tonight at 8 p.m.

Comment by Jason Josephes

Jason Josephes — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:10:38 -0800

The Sun-Times finally gets to use the obituary they had penned out in the early 1980's.

Comment by The CHZA

The CHZA — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:21:52 -0800

I read "The Good War" over the summer. I thought he already died a year ago.

Comment by Balt-O-Matt

Balt-O-Matt — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:22:30 -0800

RIP, Studs. RIP.

Comment by Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:53:30 -0800

What kind of God silences a voice like this so soon?

Comment by Tiktok

Tiktok — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:01:47 -0800

A giant has checked out.

RIP

Comment by cdc

cdc — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:21:18 -0800

I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've never read any of his stuff, but I *almost* picked up one at the bookstore the other day. Now I'll have to go do that for real. Is Working the best bet to start with?

Comment by tomasyalba

tomasyalba — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:43:05 -0800

cdc, here's an easier place to start if you like. It has a good Terkel flavor, and starts with his reflection on his wife's passing after they had sixty years together.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200110/terkel

Comment by john

john — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:47:07 -0800

Hope Dies Last

Comment by blackhook

blackhook — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:53:20 -0800

I do feel sad whenever one of the Chicago greats dies. I cried when Bill Veeck & Mike Royko died, and Studs is one of the great humanists of this or any time.

Comment by rob

rob — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:04:41 -0800

I fell in love with his voice, and his heart, when I first heard him on the radio.

I'd like to bring that much decency and authenticity into my own voice, before I die. Even if I have to fake it.

Comment by Palamedes

Palamedes — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:30:43 -0800

As a young teen, living in the greater Chicago area, sometimes it just got too damn hot during a summer day to do much outside.

And in my air-conditioned parents' home, I learned about two things. One was the foreign movies the local PBS station, WTTW, ran at lunchtime, and the other was Studs' interviews, which I believe were on WFMT.

Both were a revelation.

I still have a copy of his Hard Times, about the Great Depression, bought from a lady who ran a used bookstore in the basement of her home on the old Route 49 between Valparaiso and Chesterton, Indiana. The inside cover lists, in longhand, the real identities of two of the people interviewed for the book.

Enjoy where you're going next, Studs - not that I need to tell you to do that.

We'll miss you.

Comment by raisedbywolves

raisedbywolves — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:14:24 -0800

RIP, Studs...

Comment by Amelia

Amelia — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:32:59 -0800

He was great.