What do you call a $20 bill?

Plus: Aguijón Theater celebrates 35 years. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | September 24, 2024 On the Blue Line to O’Hare, I fell into conversation with a street salesman hauling a cart filled with his wares. T-shirts, Mexican flags, Pokemon backpacks, a bottle of Tide detergent, and other odds and ends. He was, he said, getting off at Rosemont, where he’d catch the bus to Schaumburg to spend the day outside the Woodfield Mall, selling his stuff. “Damn, that’s a haul,” I said. It’s not so bad, he replied. On a good day he could make a few hundred dollars. Maybe more. For instance, Mexican Independence Day was huge for him. He set up shop on a downtown street corner and sold dozens of T-shirts and flags. The Fourth of July is also pretty good. Though in that case he sells more American flags. Chatty guy. Friendly, looked to be in his late 20s. He had a street hustler's edge and kept referring to making a “dove.” I tried to figure out what “dove" meant from the context of how he used it. But I couldn’t. So I just asked, “You keep referring to a dove. What’s a dove?” “A twenty.” “A twenty-dollar bill?” “Yeah, on the street we call that a dove.” “I did not know that,” I said. He nodded. As I’ve said many times, if you think of the body of information you can possibly know as a giant ocean, my knowledge is a thimble that’s not even half-filled with water. I looked out the window as the train pulled out of Irving Park. Then I asked: “What’s a fifty called?” “Huh?” “If they call a twenty a dove, what do they call a fifty-dollar bill?” “They call a fifty a fifty.” I thought about that. “Why do they have a street name for a twenty but not a fifty?” I asked. He looked at me as if to say, “What am I, a linguist?” And he said, “I don’t know.”  I asked him, “Have you seen Pulp Fiction?” “No.” “There’s this scene where Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta are talking about hamburgers in Paris. And Travolta says they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese a Royale with cheese. And Jackson asks, what do they call a Big Mac? And Travolta goes, they call a Big Mac a Big Mac.” He stared at me blankly. “That kinda reminds me of what you just said about the fifty,” I added, as if that explained things. “I might have messed up the line.” When he got off the train at Rosemont, I told him, “Hope you make a lot of doves.” He smiled and waved. And for the rest of the ride, I thought about our conversation. How could have I gone this far in life without knowing a dove was a twenty? Later, I asked my friend, Brian (who’s been around), “Did you know a twenty-dollar bill is called a dove?” He laughed and said: “Not a dove. A dub. D-u-b.” And that’s when I realized. I’d misheard the street salesman when he said dub. And he’d misheard me when I said dove, sorta compounding my confusion. But looking on the bright side—at my advanced stage of life, I learned something new. Proving once again that it’s never too late to add a drop of water to the thimble. 🎙 [Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show]( 🎙 ◈ To Rise Again At a Decent Hour by [Joshua Ferris](. Hilarious book. I can’t believe I found a novel this good in a little free library. ◈ [Mike Sula]( on a good Beefy Cheezy ◈ [Ben Joravsky]( on a salesman in Hyde Park (1992) ◈ Nonprofit director and former aldermanic candidate [Denali Dasgupta]( on ShotSpotter and more ◈ Author and professor [David Faris]( on the “Mark Robinson factor” ◈ Political consultant [Julie Lynn]( on disconnected voters [Entering the mirrored world]( Federico Solmi transforms the Block into a monumental video installation. by [Nicky Ni]( | [Read more]( → [The language in which they dream]( Aguijón Theater celebrates 35 years of producing theater in Spanish. by [Kerry Reid]( | [Read more]( → [a portrait of a woman in a blue hazy light]( [Caterina Barbieri sails into the seas of a retro future]( Tue 9/24 at Epiphany Center for the Arts by [Noah Berlatsky]( | [Read more]( → [Footballhead’s mammoth Before I Die should be an alt-rock hit]( Tue 9/24 at Subterranean by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → Join us at the UnGala next Thursday, October 3 at the Museum of Contemporary Art! Put on your best Reader Yellow outfit and dance the night away to DJ sets by Ariel Zetina and Grammy Award-nominated DJ Terry Hunter. Help us celebrate the bright future of the Reader! [WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE UNGALA!]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, September 19, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 33]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616