THE Thais call it gin muong (nation eating). In Chinese, it is known as tan wu (greedy impurity), in Japanese oshoku (dirty job), and to the Pakistanis, it is ooper ki admani (income from above).

On many nights during his long career as alderman of the 43rd Ward, Mathias “Paddy” Bauler would hold court in the North Avenue tavern that served as his headquarters from the 1930s into the 1960s.