I’d like to bring your attention to an event 700 miles away, but one you may wish to attend just the same — Chicago Day at the Bethesda (MD) Library on Saturday, Oct. 24.

There’ll be Chicago-style hot dogs, deep-dish pizza and headliners galore, including –

• Scott Simon of NPR on Chicago politics. Simon is the author of a hilarious new novel on Chicago politics, “Windy City.”

• Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune colunmnist, on Chicago’s storied and stormy journalism.

• And a Cubs-vs.-White-Sox smackdown pitting David Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist (for the Cubs), vs. Mark Plotkin of WTOP (for the White Sox). The moderator is Paul Dickson, author of the recently released Third Edition of “Dickson’s Baseball Dictionary.” Dickson is at work on a biography of Bill Veeck, under whose ownership the White Sox had their most glorious of glory days.

Also: A panel on Chicago after the Great Fire; a panel on the two world’s fairs, the 1893 Columbian Exposition (subject of the best-seller “The Devil in the White City”) and the 1934 Century of Progress; and long-lost, much beloved Riverview Amusement Park. I’m moderating the Riverview panel. I’ve invited two old pals to join me — Elliot Greene, whose family ran a hot-dog stand across from Riverview, and Bill Costanza, who attended Lane Technical High School across street from Riverview.

The all-day event begins at noon and ends with a meet-the-speakers-and-eat-the-pizza reception 7-9 p.m. at the Edgemoor Club, three blocks from the library. View the flyer at http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/0L_ZSqvQsrwKIu0BNzDwNKaozhu8O68zPjhPKi-k2Y4vAayKoXqOEbu4QWKlKsHXoI7MOnmUMa9J9affFyBXDK8Yskckp1FHQwiy/Chicago%20Day%204.pdf

The library is at 7400 Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD 20814. Here’s a link to a Google map:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/Libraries/branchinfo/be.asp#map&ved=0CA4QngIwAA

For more information, please contact me at keycom@verizon.net or 301-656-8753.

Hope to see you there!

Frank S. Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. It’s ages since I posted to this blog — not because I didn’t want to, but because I’ve been hugely busy doing other (good) things. I’ve almost finished writing TO WALK HUMBLY — might even write “The End” this coming week. When it happens, you’ll know. And maybe at that time I’ll start posting more regularly again.