Robert Loerzel
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robertloerzel.bsky.social
Robert Loerzel
@robertloerzel.bsky.social
8.5K followers 2.5K following 5.4K posts
Chicagoan, journalist, photographer, author, copy editor, flâneur. https://www.robertloerzel.com/
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Reposted by Robert Loerzel
jamellebouie.net
vance is a genuine lunatic
militaryanalyst.bsky.social The Analyst @militaryanalyst.bsky.social · 1d
JD VANCE THINKS BRITAIN & FRANCE ARE AMERICAS LIKELY ENEMIES.
The world is getting bizarrely screwed with this kind of bull being spewed out.
December 26, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
leebey1.bsky.social
Installation of the first of the 39 concrete panels containing the words from Obama's 2015 Selma speech has begun. Each panel weighs between 5.5 and 10 tons. The letters are a foot thick.
An Obama quote gets installed atop presidential center
The first of the 5-foot-tall concrete letters, quoting the former president's 2015 "You Are America" speech, are being placed on the 225-foot granite-clad museum tower at the Obama Presidential Center...
chicago.suntimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
petescholtes.bsky.social
Meade Lux Lewis, the uncredited piano player soundtracking Pottersville's meanness in 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946), was a boogie-woogie pioneer. He died in Minneapolis, in 1964, killed by a speeding driver after a residency at the White House in Golden Valley.
MEADE LUX LEWIS, PIANIST, IS KILLED; ‘Boogie‐Woogie’ Pioneer, 58, Is Dead in Minnesota (Published 1964)
www.nytimes.com
December 25, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
whetmoser.com
one thing i post every christmas is my piece about charles dickens’s washout brother www.chicagomag.com/city-life/de...
How Charles Dickens's Screw-Up Chicago Brother Turned the Second City Against Boz
When Charles Dickens toured America for the last time, he gave Chicago the cold shoulder, as well as his widowed Chicago sister-and-law. The local press attacked him as a Scrooge and a hypocrite, but ...
www.chicagomag.com
December 25, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
etamny.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/obituary/lov...
Prunella Scales, remembered by Samuel West | The Observer
The actor pays tribute to his mother, whose eclectic career took her from Fawlty Towers to being the first person in 400 years to play a reigning monarch on stage
observer.co.uk
December 26, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
ladytophamcatt.bsky.social
Please pretend that I saw this when it was posted yesterday & my "You there, boy, what day is it?" joke is timely
Color detail of a small portion of the facade of a building that features alternating terra cotta panels. The uppermost panel is a rounded yellow rectangle framed in white. Centered inside is a white descending dove framed by a diamond. To the left of the dove is what my colleague TudorAF might call vermiculation, but what is obviously leopard print, and there is vertical fluting to the right. Very Lisa Frank vibes. Directly beneath is another rounded rectangle with the pattern reversed (fluting to the left and leopard print on the right), with St Dominic poking his head out of a roundel in the middle as if about to call out to passerby.
December 26, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
rickperlstein.bsky.social
Fascinating new book about how urban planning and speculation vaporized a poor neighborhood in Baltimore.

www.thebanner.com/economy/high...
How a ‘ghost highway’ destroyed a prosperous Black neighborhood
“Road to Nowhere,” a new book by historian Emily Lieb, sheds light on what happened to Rosemont, a neighborhood in West Baltimore that was set to be demolished for a highway.
www.thebanner.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
madopal.bsky.social
Am absolutely thrilled that Goff got a huge exhibit at AIC. Cannot wait to see it.
December 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
beatgrrrl.bsky.social
The Velvet Underground • Café Bizarre, Greenwich Village, New York, New York, December 1965

The Velvet Underground were discovered 60 years ago by Andy Warhol at Café Bizarre

📷 Adam Ritchie
Live performance by The Velvet Underground at Cafe Bizarre
December 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
ninametz.bsky.social
To stay or not to stay for a movie's end credits

Much to my surprise, some audiences ascribe a moral component to watching the closing credits

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To stay or not to stay for a movie's end credits
To my surprise, some audiences ascribe a moral component to watching the closing credits
buttondown.com
December 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
jamiegump.bsky.social
You have no idea how historians work, do you? You can just say, "I have no idea how things work." You don't have to do this.
waxbanks.bsky.social waxbanks @waxbanks.bsky.social · 18h
twenty years from now 'AI enthusiast' won't really be a thing, because everyone -- even archival historians, can you imagine? -- will be using (so-called) AI tools all day all over their lives. worlds will have been lost in reaching that point. worlds will have been gained.
December 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
ericallixrogers.com
It's a good museum already but this will give them a lot more space for exhibits than they've had. www.metalmuseum.org
Metal Museum | Art Museum in Memphis, TN
Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the Metal Museum welcomes all to experience the beauty of fine metal artwork through rotating exhibitions, educational programming, and a fully functioning metals studio...
www.metalmuseum.org
December 26, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
theonion.com
Cat Clinging To Side Of Christmas Tree Admits That Was Extent Of Plan https://theonion.com/cat-clinging-to-side-of-christmas-tree-admits-that-was-1849899567/
Cat Clinging To Side Of Christmas Tree Admits That Was Extent Of Plan
December 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
chicagovtfloor.bsky.social
Chicago Athletic Association.
The ornate stairway and mosaic tile floor of the Chicago Athletic Association.
December 26, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
ericallixrogers.com
Excited to see one of the best modernist buildings in Memphis, the 1956 Rust Hall by Roy Harrover, under renovation to reopen in 2026 as the home of the National Ornamental Metal Museum!
Nighttime Photo looking obliquely at a white concrete modernist building with a screen of concrete rectangles facing the front and thin white columns holding up a folded white concrete roof undulating up and down. Nighttime Photo looking obliquely across a distance and up a hill at a white concrete modernist building with a screen of concrete rectangles facing the front and thin white columns holding up a folded white concrete roof undulating up and down. Nighttime Photo looking obliquely up a hill at a white concrete modernist building with a screen of concrete rectangles facing the front and thin white columns holding up a folded white concrete roof undulating up and down. Nighttime Photo looking directly at a white concrete modernist building with a screen of concrete rectangles facing the front and thin white columns holding up a folded white concrete roof undulating up and down.
December 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
whetmoser.com
thinking about the fancy lads who were like “you might not like elon but doge has some good ideas”
johnholbein1.bsky.social John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 1d
DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.
December 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
kathleenmrooney.bsky.social
"Snowfall in December"
a typewriter poem
from Chicago Artisan Market
by yours truly!
poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/8040055...
poemswhileyouwait
"Snowfall in December" by Kathleen Rooney -- Chicago Artisan Market, 12.14.25
poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
This is why it’s so important to trace things back to the beginning whenever possible.

I believe @rauchway.bsky.social calls these “historical urban legends”
amabel.bsky.social Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Jul 31
looking up the source of quotes, whether for a book or a video script, is great for figuring out when a quote everyone "knows" and has repeated for ages is actually just weird bullshit someone else made up
December 26, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
buckweaver.bsky.social
Then we used the wonderful @sabrlandmarks.bsky.social map to find a few other notable baseball grave sites on the far south side of Chicago, including Negro Leagues greats Rube Foster and Bruce Petway.
A large stone grave marker for Baseball Hall of Famer Andrew “Rube” Foster, the founder of the Negro National League, at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois. The marker is weathered and says “A.R. Foster” with engraved star-shaped leaves underneath his name. A small tree trunk stands behind the marker. A flat grave marker with an engraved plaque that reads: BRUCE FRANKLIN PETWAY "Buddy" December 23, 1885 - June 27, 1941 Petway was one of the premier catchers of black baseball. He was known for his ability to throw out base runners without coming out of the "catcher's crouch". He reportedly threw out Ty Cobb three times during one series in Cuba as Cobb attempted to steal second base. The backstop for several dominant Negro League teams, Petway was also a consistent hitter and strong base runner. The marker was placed in 2012 by Dr. Jeremy Krock and SABR’s Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project. A man in a red hoodie, black pants and a gray beanie stands over the grave marker of baseball great Bruce Petway and takes a photograph on a chilly winter afternoon. A flat grave marker surrounded by brown leaves says “Richard Higham, July 24, 1851 - March 18, 1905” at Mount Hope Cemetery in Chicago. In 1882, Higham became the only major league umpire ever expelled for allegedly colluding with gamblers to fix games.
December 26, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
buckweaver.bsky.social
The Christmas Day baseball tour tradition continues with @shoelesspodcast.bsky.social and @pulhitzherprize.bsky.social! Today we paid our respects to my Internet namesake for the past quarter-century with a visit to Buck Weaver’s grave.
A flat grave marker, slightly wet from yesterday’s rain, for former White Sox baseball player George D. “Buck” Weaver, 1890-1956. The marker has “Husband” at the top and one baseball rests in a small pile of leaves against it. Another baseball on the right side holds down a copy of the Chicago Tribune sports section from May 15, 2025, a day after the Black Sox were removed from MLB’s permanently ineligible list. A copy of the Chicago Tribune sports section from May 15, 2025, showing a large photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the headline “It is so, Joe” rests on the grass between two flat grave markers, one for George D. “Buck” Weaver (1890-1956) and one for his wife Helen Weaver (1892-1965). An old weathered baseball rests on top of the newspaper and another baseball is placed next to Buck’s marker. All of the articles on this page were edited by @pulhitzerprize. @buckweaver at Buck Weaver’s gravesite on Christmas Day 2025. A woman’s hand holds a cell phone with a large @ symbol displayed on the screen next to a smiling man who is squatting down with his hand placed on Weaver’s grave marker at Mount Hope Cemetery in Chicago. A newspaper is placed on the ground beside the marker. Collage of the author visiting Buck Weaver’s grave in 2001 and again in 2025. The older photo on the left shows a young man with bright blond hair wearing a navy and gold buttondown shirt and khaki shorts and white sneakers. The grave marker has red flowers next to it. The newer photo on the right shows a fully bearded man in his 40s in a green quarter-zip and blue jeans.
December 26, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
raypride.bsky.social
Lonely and berserk.
December 26, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
backwardsriver.bsky.social
Letter to Santa from “first floor, back of a big yellow house” in Chicago, 1912.
December 25, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
backwardsriver.bsky.social
Letter to Santa from Chicago, 1912
December 25, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Robert Loerzel
royalpratt.bsky.social
Bison return to Kane County after 200 years, a crucial step for conservation and Indigenous connection. Come for @adrianaperez.bsky.social great story, stay for Jason Wambsgans' great photos www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/25/b...
Bison return to Kane County after 200 years, a crucial step for conservation and Indigenous connection
Citizens can help monitor the prairie and bison, and Native Americans can reconnect to their roots under a community science program.
www.chicagotribune.com
December 25, 2025 at 9:14 PM
robertloerzel.bsky.social
French media call beavers "an ally in the fight against climate change."
liberation.fr Libération @liberation.fr · 1d
Longtemps chassé, le castor est aujourd'hui un allié dans la lutte pour le climat. A la force de ses dents et 365 jours par an, il protège les écosystèmes face à l’intensification des inondations, sécheresses et canicules.
«En inondant les terres, il recrée des zones humides» : en Isère, le castor fait barrage au réchauffement
Longtemps chassé, le rongeur est aujourd’hui reconnu comme un allié qui, à la force de ses dents, protège les écosystèmes face à l’intensification des inondations, sécheresses et canicules.
www.liberation.fr
December 25, 2025 at 8:25 PM