Beyond the Fringe

In their classic “Frog and Peach” sketch, Dudley Moore asked Peter Cook when he first came up with the idea for his bold experiment in fine dining:

DUDLEY: How long ago did you start this venture?

PETER: Tricky to say — certainly within living memory. It was shortly after World War II. Do you remember that? Absolutely ghastly business. I was against the whole thing.

DUDLEY: I think we all were.

PETER: Yes, well, I wrote a letter.

The Chicago Police are prepared to write sternly-worded letters in the name of peace, as well:

Chicago police are going to hand deliver letters to people suspected of committing or being victims of gun crimes in an effort to stem violence in the city, according to a new report.

Starting Friday, a district commander will be delivering letters warning certain targets in that district not to commit violent crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The pilot program is targeting individuals off a “heat list” developed by a Yale professor, who studied murders on Chicago’s West Side between 2005 and 2010 and found a small network of people was responsible for more than 70 percent of the killings, according to the Sun-Times.

The letters warn people who have been put on the list that they will be charged with the most serious crime possible if they are arrested for a violent offense.

Hey, good enough for Dudley and Peter, good enough for the Chicago PD. And it should produce equally ineffective results, as well.

Oh, and speaking of not being worth the price of the paper it’s printed on, Moody’s has downgraded Chicago’s bond rating. As someone quipped on Twitter this week, “If Barack Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit.” Will his former lieutenant’s city be the next municipal bankruptcy? (Presuming Rahm informs Barry of it first, of course.)