“The only limit to what the Chicago Symphony can do is your imagination. Without even a murmur, they will do anything. They will do whatever you wish, as long as you wish something. It’s when you don’t ask them to do something that they become restless.“ – Departing music director George Solti to Dennis Polkow, February 3.
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Daley was known not only for killing anything that smacked of reform, but also for his manners as political executioner. When his father died in December 1976, Mike Royko wrote, “young Richard isn’t much of a charmer. He is considered something of a bully and doesn’t make much effort to hide his arrogance.” Even after the next legislative session, in which Rich had already begun to go soft on reform, he still make Chicago magazine’s informal list of the state’s ten worst legislators. (Harold Washington and Dawn Netsch were among the ten best.) Daley made the list “for arrogance, for sharklike qualities, for living off his father’s name, and for pulling puppet strings attached to some of the worst members of the Senate.” He was considered “too shrewd to be one of the worst, but he controls so many of the worst senators that he belongs on the list to represent all of them.” – from “Is Rich Daley Ready for Reform” by Doug Cassel, February 10
BUT THAT WAS THEN…
