After a while, you start to notice what Bob Greene doesn’t say.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Then there’s Baby Richard. You’d think that by now no idea has gone unexpressed in Bob’s endless keening for the lad.
Not true. Bob keeps listing the names of those five Illinois Supreme Court justices, over and over again. “James D. Heiple, Michael Bilandic, Charles Freeman, John Nickels and Moses Harrison II.” But he doesn’t say to what end. At times he seems to want his readers to track them down and kill them. “The Illinois Supreme Court reconvenes in Springfield this week,” he points out, stopping short of providing a map and bullets.
Love is a better explanation. It puts Baby Richard in the context of Bob’s world, places him on the pitiful small shelf of his fixations, next to Ohio, the Beach Boys, Elvis, and Barbie. All beloved objects, worn away by Bob’s kisses. And now Richard.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Illustration/Jeff Heller.
