STUTTER MISSTEP
In the end, it never seems to be the bottom for Donald Trump. The mock jock. Trump, the former U.S. president cum 2024 Republican prez nominee, is back in the gutter, this time mimicking President Joe Biden’s stutter.
The GOP’s bad, bad bully boy drew a storm of outrage for his latest schoolyard stunt.
So Sneed decided to make it local. How does Paul Vallas, who battled a serious childhood stutter before he became a familiar name in Illinois political circles, feel about Trump’s “B-B-B-Biden” ridicule at a political rally in Georgia last weekend?
“I don’t want to get into politics,” said Vallas, an academic who began life with a stutter so profound he couldn’t even say the word “mother.”
The former Chicago Public Schools CEO was also a mayoral candidate who insisted he was a lifelong Democrat amid suggestions he was a closet Republican due to large donations from politically conservative donors.
“Yes, of course it does bother me what he [Trump] said,” said Vallas. “There should be zero tolerance of that kind of ridicule.
“A lot of people have speech impediments. They don’t understand the embarrassment and agony of dealing with stammering and stuttering,” he said of those who make light of the problem.
“It’s a tough battle, but to be made fun like that is dehumanizing. I put my mother through hell, and it became a battle led by my mother to overcome.
“Call my mother,” Vallas advised.
So I did.
Mary Vallas, 94, is “angry and upset” and not afraid to say it in English and repeat it in Greek when it comes to Donald Trump.
“To judge other people if they stammer and stutter is outrageous,” she said. “How can you encourage your kids with Trump’s words? I don’t care for that man! To judge other people who go through a heroic struggle! What is wrong with him?
“Why isn’t everybody telling him to shut up? Only a bully demeans others to feel stronger; a way to deal with his own inadequacy and stupidity to feel smarter.
“Back then, when Paul was little, the only thing I was told to teach him to stop his severe stutter was to put a button on a string in his mouth and hold the string so he wouldn’t swallow it while attempting to talk,” she said.
“It was a huge struggle for years for Paul, and he did it,” she said. “We are so proud.”
Mary Vallas added a bit more coal to her fire.
“I also don’t like it when Trump calls people senile and feeble,” she said. “I’m going to be 95 years old soon, and I still do my online banking, although I can’t drive because of an eye problem.”
“But I’d probably be marching to tell Trump to shut up if I were younger,” she said.
Opa!
Spare change?
Now changing lanes … a 14oe-pound bowling ball dubbed “The Red Rose” is now on the auction block. It was once hurled down a movie bowling lane by actor Bill “Ghostbusters” Murray in the 1996 film “Kingpin.”
More specifically, the translucent, polyester “red rose” orb is now available through Heritage Auctions, which is located in Chicago, at a starting bid of $37,000.
According to certification stats, Murray, who starred in the film along with Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid, actually rolled three consecutive strikes during the tournament in the film’s climax. No extra footage required. And if the movie audience didn’t applaud … apparently director Bobby Farrelly did.
Is it one of the most famous sporting props in filmdom? How should Sneed know?
Stay tuned for translucent orb outcome.
Sneedlings ...
A personal condolence to Courtney, Peter and Patrick Thompson on the loss of their beloved mother, Patricia “Pat” Martino, who was not only the daughter of the legendary Mayor Richard J. Daley — but a special female member of that oh-so-male Chicago Irish clan who was as genuine as it gets. And she was someone who also touched my life in a quietly, wonderful, nonnews way. … Saturday birthdays: Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, 48 . ... Sunday birthdays and a happy St. Patrick’s Day to actor Rob Lowe, 60; Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, 57; actor Kurt Russell, 73; Lesley-Anne Down, 70; Chicago actor Gary Sinise, 69; and actor Casey Siemaszko, 63.