Frank McCourt

"You love me, ...you really love me."

I tried to get out of this Frank McCourt post, but the overwhelming response was for me to honor this school teacher turned Pulitzer Prize winner. And why shouldn't I? Despite my surname, I have always felt more Irish than Italian. Oh, and I'm a writer, and, at times, a reacher of writers. And I live in Connecticut, for Christ Sakes! Where do I send the flowers?

I suppose I just didn't want to open the doors to all the writers of the world, because then you have to do all the screenwriters, the potters, ...pretty much anyone famously involved in the creative arts. But, fair enough, I'll do McCourt, because there is a story in there, I think.

Thus far, some of the best couple years of my life were those spent in Chicago in the late nineties. I was running the creative department in the Modem Media Chicago office. It just so happened that I ended up working with a bunch of Irish guys...McCue, Feeley, Tullis. And, one of these guys, I think it was probably Tullis, turned me on to "Angela's Ashes." Heard of it? So, when I think about that book or movie, I think about the good times down on West Erie, my commute on the green line from Oak Park, Kerry Wood's ridiculous 20K performance, and the Mexican place down the street from our rental which was eventually shut down by the board of health, but I enjoyed very much. What can I say? I'm Irish. I have a high tolerance for filth.

Speaking of filth, a professor friend of mine, Scott Barnett, wondered how McCourt contracted menningitis which is more or less a college kid's sex disease. The thing about McCourt is that his days in the spotlight were relatively brief and his back story has been neatly summed up, not only by the press, but by McCourt himself in the aforementioned Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man.

But I got a huge bag of tricks from this here Internet. Let me shine a light on Stuyvesant High School, where he taught for 30 years. How about a shout out to his less famous brother, Malachy. And, I'll even throw in the other famous Frank McCourt who isn't dead yet.