in Northern Ireland, had some-how crossed the IRA, whichwas sending her a message andmight even have killed thewrong sister by mistake.

Bishop refused to cooperatewith the FBI in pursuing thiscrackpot idea, but the FBIshared it with the media, whichplayed it for all it was worthand turned her life into a biggerhell than it already was.Eventually David Biro, a localteen with a history of delin-quency, was arrested for themurders and convicted.

John Conroy describedBishop’s ordeal in a 1992Reader article. The story ofarrogance, intimidation, anddelusion apparently inspiredPost, and he set to work.Unfortunately, he wasn’t quiteinspired enough: the draft he showed Bishop lastNovember was at least hisninth, yet the story it told was still quite clearly hers, and Conroy’s prose littered his dialogue. “This scenario will obviously strike a familiarnote with you,” Post wroteBishop on November 7, whenhe finally let her in on his pro-ject, “but my play is a work offiction and not a documentary.”Yet City Lit was already pro-moting Somebody Foreign as“based on a true story.” Bishoptold him she felt violated.

Post wanted to do right byher. Artistic director TerryMcCabe made it clear to him in a letter that withdrawing the play at this late date was out of the question: the results

“would be fairly catastrophic.We would suffer irreparableharm.” Post set out to rewrite it. His protagonist, who’d beena lawyer, became a professor of Middle Eastern studies. Her interest in NorthernIreland became an interest inthe Gaza Strip. The IRAbecame Hamas. The changesmade his play so much moretimely one might wish they’doccurred to him years ago.

Bishop read the new draft in

4 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Hot Type

By Michael Miner

In the three and a halfmonths since Douglas Posthorrified attorney Jeanne

Bishop with the news that he’dwritten a play inspired by theworst experience of her life, Post has overhauled the playand City Lit Theater has opened it. The changes failed to placate Bishop, who remainsadamantly opposed to the pro-duction. Since I wrote aboutthis story January 27 the play,Somebody Foreign, has gottenmixed reviews—and worse

from the Sun-Times’s HedyWeiss. And the entire City Litboard has resigned.

Bishop’s sister and brother-in-law were murdered in 1990at their home in Winnetka. The FBI became fixated on the idea that the IrishRepublican Army was behindthe killings. The theory was that Bishop, who’d been affiliat-ed with human rights groups

January and wasn’t satisfied.Opening night was fast approach-ing. Here my first column ended.

For the edification of criticswho would soon be reviewingSomebody Foreign, McCabeissued a 15-page news release.A page-long statement titled“City Lit Theater andPlaywright Douglas Post WereUnfairly Maligned” assertedthat, contrary to what I’d writ-ten in Hot Type, Bishop hadnever asked City Lit to cancel

Post’s play. In fact, I didn’treport that Bishop had, butMcCabe believes the implica-tion was there.

Accompanying the statementwas an eight-page narrative,“Chicago Reader Article on CityLit’s Somebody Foreign WasIncomplete and Inaccurate,”that offered a blow-by-blowaccount of communicationsbetween McCabe, Bishop andher attorney, and Post and hisattorney. “The complete facts

A Predictable EndingCity Lit went ahead with the play inspired by Jeanne Bishop’s life and now nobody’s happy.

hottype@chicagoreader.comwww.chicagoreader.com/hottype

Douglas Post’s Somebody Foreign

RICK

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CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE 5

Comments, questions? Take it up with Cecil on the Straight Dope Message Board, www.straightdope.com, or write him at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611. Cecil’s most recent compendium of knowledge, Triumph of the Straight Dope, is available at bookstores everywhere.

S it down, Scott. What you’redescribing isn’t the worst caseoilwise; arguably it’s the bestcase. While it’s not clear when oil

production will peak, or whether the peakis already past, no one doubts oil produc-tion is bound to decline—the only ques-tions are how soon and how fast. Opinionsvary (boy, do they), but my feeling is, 40to 60 years? We should be so lucky.

Background: The concept most associ-ated with looming oil shortages is that ofthe “Hubbert curve,” named after the lategeophysicist M. King Hubbert. In a pre-scient 1956 paper, Hubbert drew on morethan a century’s worth of data to suggestthat fossil fuel production followed a char-acteristic bell-shaped curve, ramping upsharply in the early going, peaking oncepractical limits were reached, then declin-ing. If you could accurately estimate fossilfuel reserves, Hubbert argued, you couldpredict when peak oil production wouldoccur. Compiling such an estimate for U.S.oil reserves, Hubbert projected that U.S.oil production would peak between 1965and 1970. In the event, it peaked in 1971.

Hubbert estimated world oil produc-tion would peak in 2000. It didn’t, butthat hardly invalidates his theory. Worldoil-reserve estimates are inherently fuzzi-er than those for the U.S.; the oil short-ages of the 1970s and resulting conserva-tion may have briefly postponed theinevitable; and anyway it’s only 2006now. Some think that, if we haven’tpassed the peak already, we’re prettydamn close—and I mean by the end ofthis decade. Optimists say 2020 or later,but the exact date isn’t important. Thepoint is, the extraordinary growth of theindustrialized nations since 1900 hasbeen disproportionately fueled by a non-renewable resource that’s now roughlyone-half to one-quarter gone and thatwill cease to be a commercially practicalenergy source within the lifetime of manyalready born.

You’re thinking: We stand at the abyss.

Not necessarily. Fact is, theU.S. has been here beforeand we got through itOK. For most of the19th century theprimary U.S.fuel sourcewas woodextractedfrom thecountry’s vastforests, whichwere loggedoff at a ratethat takesone’s breathaway evennow. Asearly as theCivil Warconservation-ists warned of acoming “timber famine.” The crisis nevermaterialized. Total U.S. wood consumptionpeaked in 1907 and declined steadilythereafter, yet the economy hummed on.What replaced wood? Why, fossil fuels,mainly coal. (Coal, incidentally, remainsrelatively plentiful—Hubbert thought peakproduction might occur in 2150.)

But Cecil, you object, how is thisthought supposed to be comforting?Today we don’t have any comparablealternative fuel waiting in the wings. I canonly reply: Sure we do. What’s more, itwas waiting 50 years ago. The title ofHubbert’s 1956 paper was “NuclearEnergy and the Fossil Fuels.” His purposein writing had been to point out that, incontrast to oil, the U.S. had sufficientreserves of fissionable fuels, chiefly urani-um, to last hundreds and likely thousandsof years.

We all know what happened to thenuclear-power industry. Yet Hubbert’sargument has lost none of its force: theuranium in little more than three squaremiles of Chattanooga shale contains asmuch energy as all the U.S. oil reservesknown in his day. What’s more, his theory

SLU

G SI

GNO

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offers promise that the shift from oil tosomething else needn’t be the catastrophesome fear. The curve is, after all, a curve.Oil production won’t suddenly stop; it’lldrift downward as oil fields dry up. Oncewe’ve shifted from a buyer’s to a seller’smarket, of course, the cost of petroleumwill spike, making today’s gas prices lookcheap. That won’t be pleasant; one recallsthe sour 70s. But it will promote, in a waythat no amount of hand-wringing up tothis point has done, a search for less costlyalternatives. Petroleum sources heretoforeconsidered marginal or uneconomic, suchas oil shale and oil sands, will look a lotbetter. But even they won’t last long. Thepessimists think we’ve got a trillion barrelsof oil left, the optimists three trillion. Atpresent consumption rates, the world willburn through three trillion barrels in 105years—70 years if consumption increases50 percent as predicted. After that we’releft with wind, solar, biofuels, and yes,nukes. To be sure, people fear nukes andwill resist till the last. But they’ll comearound when it becomes clear, as it will,that the alternative is to freeze in the dark.

The Straight Dope®by Cecil Adams

It’s not often that I stumble into anything on the Net that scaresme, but this does. A large number of sites declare that we’re aboutto hit, or have hit, peak oil production and that our civilization isessentially on the clock and poised to implode in the next 40 to 60years. Are these accurate assessments, or are they taking the worst-case scenario to extremes? —Scott Lumley, via e-mail

will show that Post and McCabehave at every point acted honorably,” McCabe asserted,explaining that “Post had always told himself that in theevent the play ever got pickedup for production, he wouldseek out Jeanne Bishop.”Attached were copies of two letters from Bishop’s attorney,Todd Musburger.

The first had been written toMcCabe in mid-December.Musburger was letting himknow that Post’s attorney, DavidCudnowski, had informedBishop and himself that “Mr.Post has graciously volunteeredto completely rewrite the play.”The second was written amonth later to Cudnowski. Itsaid that Bishop was “eager tobring this matter to a positiveconclusion” and believed that ifPost allowed her to read thenew version of the play “thiswould be possible.”

Post did, Bishop did, and itwasn’t. Actually, says Bishop,she never believed a rewritewould satisfy her: “It took him 12 years and nine drafts to get to where he was, and he

couldn’t possibly rewrite it inthree months.” But McCabeoffered these two letters as evi-dence that amity had, in fact,been established and that CityLit had acted in good faiththroughout, even though “Hot Type portrayed Post andMcCabe as men caught doingsomething reprehensible andtrying to weasel their way out of it.” Hot Type might have told the story more accurately,McCabe noted, if he and Post could have returned mycalls, but he said everyone had agreed not to talk.

I believe I portrayed Post assomeone who did the rightthing years after he shouldhave, causing an unholy mess,and McCabe as someone Posthad put between a rock and a hard place. Later McCabe and I did talk. He told me hisnews release had made hisboard furious: “They wanted to make sure that nothing wassaid or done to upset ToddMusburger. In fact, it did upsethim very much.” But McCabebelieves he did what he had todo. “I felt City Lit’s good nameand my personal good nameand Doug Post’s good namewere sort of besmirched by the Hot Type piece.”

On February 11, withSomebody Foreign in previews,the board met at the theater, at1020 W. Bryn Mawr. By thenMcCabe was in big trouble, andnot just for the news release.

For one thing, City Lit hadheard from an unhappy funder.Chicago’s Elizabeth F. CheneyFoundation had given City Lit$2,500 to help financeSomebody Foreign, and the the-ater was advertising the grant onits Web site. Bishop, looking forwhatever leverage she could find,

According to artistic directorTerry McCabe, the board said “I could resign by noon the next day, or I couldassemble a newboard, and they’dvote it in and then resign. Ichose option two.”

continued on page 6

board believed that Bishop and board president GaryRedeker had worked out a “positive conclusion”—untilMcCabe got in the way.

Bishop had asked that a dis-claimer be inserted in the pro-gram saying that SomebodyForeign was inspired by realevents and that the familyinvolved in them had not con-sented to and would not profitfrom the play or the produc-tion. She’d also asked that theinsert invite the audience tocontribute to Murder Victims’Families for Human Rights, anorganization she belongs to that opposes the death penalty.“I thought that was a really gracious, simple, inexpensivesolution that would completelysolve the problems between us,” she says.

The board thought this was aterrific idea. McCabe wasn’t sosure. He tells me Post’s lawyerwarned it could be a trap—Bishop had no grounds for legalaction so long as City Lit deniedthe rewritten script had any-thing to do with her, and thisnotice would admit that it did. “I forwarded this opinion to the board, which was inclined

6 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Hot Type

not to take it,” says McCabe,“though it opened up City Lit topotential liability that did notexist otherwise. So I had a hugeargument with my board.”

At the February 11 meeting theargument came to a head.McCabe says, “They said I couldresign by noon the next day, or Icould assemble a new board, andthey’d vote it in and then resign.I chose option two.”

McCabe says he left the meet-ing, went upstairs, got on thephone, and in 24 minutesrounded up three new boardmembers, enough under CityLit’s bylaws for the theater tocontinue. One new member ishis wife, Nancy Flowers, whoworks with the EvanstonCommission on Aging. Anotheris Paula McGuire, a lecturer atNorthwestern University. Thenew president is Michael Monar,a business consultant.

“The old board members areperfectly fine people and a goodboard,” says McCabe, “but theywere afraid of Todd Musburger.”

Redeker told me, “I’m stillmulling over what transpiredand how we all collectivelyshould have handled this.Somebody Foreign really hit

on an issue that I don’t as I sithere have an answer [for] oreven a perspective on. I cer-tainly respect Jeanne Bishop’spoint of view, and I also respect Terry McCabe—andalso Doug Post’s having theright to produce something like this. I wish we could all goback and start over.”

Back to November? I asked. “Nine months or a year,” he said. Monar wrote Bishop to say

that on the advice of counsel the disclaimer idea was dead.Yet a lawsuit, the fear of whichprompted this advice, is some-thing Bishop says she’s neverconsidered. So Bishop movedon. Murder Victims’ Familiesfor Human Rights drafted astatement expressing “our moral condemnation” ofSomebody Foreign’s “appallinginsensitivity.” Cosigned by fourother organizations, it wasreleased on Monday.

Reviews of Post’s play dwelledon the backstory. The Tribune’sChris Jones called the play an“involving, plot-driven thriller(for the first act at least), butdemonstrably unsure aboutwhat to say about broaderMiddle East issues and how to

continued from page 5

discovered that one of the foun-dation’s directors was attorneyHoward McCue—he and Bishophad once worked at the same lawfirm, and when her sister andbrother-in-law were murderedMcCue had handled the estatework pro bono.

Bishop called McCue andexplained the situation. He wassympathetic, as was the founda-tion’s administrative director,Elisabeth Geraghty. McCabehad written Post, “With all duerespect to [Bishop’s] ordeal, itmay be possible she overesti-mates the number of peoplewho remember it.” Geraghtyremembered it well—herdaughter had sat behind DavidBiro in high school.

“We were surprised to learnthat our funding was being usedto support this story,” saysMcCue, “and even though welearned that the author hadchanged the story so it was notso immediately about JeanneBishop, we simply didn’t want tobe identified with it. So we askedCity Lit, to the extent they wereable, to remove our name fromthe production.”

For another thing, City Lit’s

say it. . . . All in all, this nowfeels like a work drafted andlawyered to death.” Hedy Weiss at the Sun-Times, whoreviews certain plays in thespirit of “Never again—atleast on my watch,” wrote thatSomebody Foreign had bumbledits way into becoming some-thing that would delightHamas. “The group could not hope for a more ferventtrumpeting of the Palestiniancause, the evils of the Israelis,the abusiveness of the FBI andthe ignorance and paranoia ofthe average American. Ofcourse, the irony of the wholestory is that the real demon issloppy police work by a smallsuburban force.”

The local police don’t come offwell in Post’s play, and Bishopobjects not just Post’s appropri-ation of some facts but to theway he departed from others.The Winnetka police, after all,arrested the real killer. “Theplay portrays the police asignoring the evidence and notdoing their job—can you imag-ine how much that hurts?” shee-mailed me. “How could I sitsilent and allow them to beunfairly maligned?” v

CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE 7