APOL took a break from touring this week to go trick-or-treating. The witching hour found it in Chicago’s Wicker Park, where founder Charles Wicker is depicted in a life-size statue wearing (in the words of one commentator) “a grim visage, a Lincoln-like stovepipe hat, and a bulky overcoat that makes him look like a Wild West lawman.” The figure also wields an old-fashioned corn broom. Legend has it that Wicker often personally swept his name-sake neighborhood and, on at least one occasion, a local election-day polling place. When asked why, he is said to have replied, “because it was dirty.”
The resemblance of the statue to special counsel Robert Mueller is striking. For those of vile character and guilty disposition (especially regarding elections), this has been a particularly harrowing Halloween season.
Note: “APOL” is the anthropomorphic version of my satirical novel A Person of Letters, which has gone on tour without me (with a wink and a nod to magical realism). Follow APOL’s quixotic world tour here or on my Facebook Author Page, and read about all of APOL’s (mis)adventures in sequence on this tour archive. For information about the book, go to Martin Scribler Media.
Ron Thompson, Author 