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Adam Selzer

@adamchicago.bsky.social
2.5K followers 249 following 2.7K posts

historian, author, and tour guide. I talk about Bob Dylan, Chicago stuff, old time true crime, and cemetery stories. There's a canon Star Wars character named after me. He/him. Linktr.ee/adamchicago

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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 6h
And I use Ai often as a one-stop interface for reformatting, batch resizing, light tech support, transcription, etc. I’m willing to pay a few bucks a month for how well it can streamline basic “computing” stuff. But just a few; if they jack it up half enough to turn a profit I won’t miss it.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 6h
There have been weeks where my anti-ai investments have taken big hits. This week they’re all way up. It doesn’t take a genius to see that for these companies and data centers to turn a profit, they’d have to start charging WAY more than people are gonna be willing to spend.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 6h
Yeah it’s part of the game to act like you were never ambitious. Even though we all know that just to think you can handle the campaign, let alone the job, requires an ego the size of all outdoors, we still expect them to deny it. It’s part of the game; gotta respect the process.
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Leor Galil @imleor.bsky.social · 8h
that’s right!
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 10h
I was really stunned to learn that ep was written before the whole thing with Steinbrenner
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 12h
Still just can’t get used to seeing him clean-shaven. It just looks wrong.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 14h
Well I bet I know how he became the injury king.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
From 2005-2015 I ran something like 300 ghost tours a year. Since then I’ve mainly focused on cemetery tours (and the Haunted History tours for Lincoln Park Zoo) , but it’s fun to do a ghost tour on a bus again now and then. Running a couple this weekend! www.eventbrite.com/cc/ghost-tou...
eventbrite.com
Ghost Tours 2026 by Adam Chicago / Mysterious Chicago | Eventbrite
Ghost tours 2026!
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Harebrained @harebrained.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU? You stop by your favorite hot doggery and buy a dozen. You’re carrying them home but you only got two hands so they all start dropping onto the street? THERES GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY! Introducing the Got That Dog In Me tote! It can hold at least twelve hot dogs.
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Leor Galil @imleor.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Has anyone experienced as much of Chicago’s late-night musical offerings the past few decades as Claudio Velez? I interviewed 16 musicians, DJs, and nightlife workers about the Tamale Guy’s relationship with Chicago music for this Reader oral history.
chicagoreader.com
An oral history of Chicago nightlife’s most beloved visitor - Chicago Reader
Claudio Velez, aka the Tamale Guy, as seen by the musicians, club owners, bar staff, and regulars sustained by the contents of his magical red cooler
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Like a a lower-tier candidate for class president at Napoleon Dynamite’s high school.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Well as long as it isn’t rice colored it’s probably not cholera so you’re doing a whole lot greater than a lot of Chicagoans were OTD in 1866, Degg.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The Times on Jackson is harder to read on the microfilm, but they included a drawing of him. As usual the press thought the onlookers were sick.
All along the line of the procession the road was thronged by thousands of both sexes, hurrying, bustling and rushing along to be in at the death, lest they should miss the sight of the visitation of the terrible penalty upon one of their species.

Countless vehicles, hacks, express and country wagons, loaded with a heavy freight of humanity, pressed and struggled on, over, or rather through the muddy prairie road to be present at the spectacle. Most of the women were of the lower class, who stoutly strode on by themselves or with their husbands or [?], though here and there a bevy of prostitutes relieved the sombre hued garments of the rest of the crowd by the display of dashing [?]finery.A bearded man sketched in a newspaper
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
And the Trib on William Jackson, hanged in the same place in 1857:
Early yesterday morning, crowds of people of every age, sex, color and condition, began to assemble near the Court House Square, and policemen were placed at each entrance to prevent all persons, except those having business in the Court House, from entering the square. By ten o'clock the streets and sidewalks were filled with people, and it was with difficulty that teams and pedestrians could force their way through the masses of human beings. In spite of the efforts of the police, a large number of persons, many of whom were women, obtained access to the square, and crowded about the main entrance of the jail, intent upon getting a look at the condemned man.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I may do a thread of Chicago papers’ reaction to public executions; we only had three here, but sometimes they let so many people into the jail they may as well have been public. Here’s the Chicago Times on the crowd when Albert Staub was hanged on Rueben (now Ashland) between Polk and Taylor, 1856:
As usual in all countries where capital executions are performed in accordance with the common law, in a public place, a great crowd of curious, wondering, morbid spectators assembled to witness the shocking sight. As early as 7 o'clock a. m., crowds began to gather about the court-house, and collect at the windows of the jail, each morbid individual struggling with his neighbor for a chance to peer into the mysterious recesses of the dimly-lighted halls and corridors within; expecting, doubtless, to discover there some horrid instrument of torture, rivalling in barbarity the "Hooded Lady" of inquisitorial days. At 8 o'clock, there were nearly two thousand people in the court house square, and this number rapidly increasing. Such the depraved appetite of human nature!

The morning was rainy and the mud deep, but it seemed to have no effect upon the sanguine temperaments of those who had gathered together to see a fellow-being launched into eternity. From the lanes and alleys, where poverty, sorrow and crime are daily before the eyes of the inhabitants, came an eager troop; from the prairie farms, clad in coarse fabrics, the hardy sons of toil gathered in; professional pickpockets, with semblance of more excitement than any others, moved here and there in the crowd.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Okay this guy sucks but I also kinda want to see someone try this.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
In That 70s Show Eric’s Spider-Man sheets used the late 90s Spider-Man logo.
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Dag. @3fecta.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Worst letter to Penthouse ever.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It was mostly the book world, but I got soooo many more aggressively hectoring, pedantic weirdos on Twitter. I don’t worry about backlash if I say what I’m reading/watching, and I don’t feel like anyone is dying for a reason to cancel me just to build clout. It was “last ditch” every day there.
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Libby Cudmore (SHE/HER) @libbycudmore.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
JUSTICE FOR DANNY TREJO
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Lincoln never said a thing about the pilgrims in his thanksgiving proclamation; it’s a day to celebrate crushing the slaveholders rebellion.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Ngl “ambassador” sounds like a sweet gig.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Fred here hired mediums to channel the spirit of Rafael to paint portraits of his wife. These people lived in a whole different world. But sometimes I can guess which news channel they would have watched. Or, in this case, which of them would have been insufferable w claims about what Ai could do.
Grave of Fred Ehrenfels, 1803-1865, at Rosehill Cemetery.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The facebook hack a week ago seems to have hit my advertising hard. What bad timing! But there's still some room on today's Rosehill Cemetery tour, and on my upcoming ghost tours. www.eventbrite.com/o/9900304388
eventbrite.com
Adam Chicago / Mysterious Chicago
Adam Selzer is an author, historian, and tour guide who, in the course of any given day, might solve a mystery or rewrite history. He turns deep archival research into incredible stories for his tours...
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SMB @smbdemocracy.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The man had his five year old in the car. Why wouldn’t he try to get away from men running at him with guns drawn?
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Often I found ghost tour stories exaggerated the history (certainly at this location), but sometimes the reality was even worse. Still a bit of space on cemetery tours this weekend! www.eventbrite.com/o/9900304388
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I can imagine him being up since 4am getting many things accomplished.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The 90s sucked cause you could flip channels and randomly find things like Red Skelton and Vincent Price singing corny songs and lip syncing cheesy skits, but you couldn’t find out what it was or tell anyone about it. youtu.be/7MdnD-yEiHo?...
youtu.be
"Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner". Red Skelton and Vincent Price clip. 1981.
YouTube video by Vincent Price
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Hell yeah. When they go low, kick ‘em in their stupid face while it’s nice and close to your foot.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Nah, just got hacked and lost my Facebook/insta (but not the fb business page at least). Meta Ai robots run all of their customer service now so it’s unlikely I can get them back.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Not sure what losing my Facebook/insta will do to my tour/book sales yet. The usual “end of week” surge hasn’t really happened this week. I tried telling myself rebuilding was an opportunity but the reality is hitting and depressing. The novel in progress is going well but that never ends well.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Remember that Muppet Babies ep where Scooter buys an awesome robot that will be his new best friend, but then the robot turns out to be a terror and when it explodes they make the pieces into a bunch of other toys? I don’t remember all the details but learned a lot about life from Muppet Babies.
Scooter with Transgo Jobot.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Guys my Venmo is adamchicago
Af for Sesame Street-themed shoes from Bull Airs
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“Erdmuthe Kirchner” sounds like an old baseball player whose name would have ended up in the song “Van Lingle Mungo.”
An old gravestone
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Cemetery tours this weekend! Two at Graceland on Saturday, one at Rosehill on Sunday. Losing my instagram is a real hit on my advertising! www.eventbrite.com/o/9900304388
eventbrite.com
Adam Chicago / Mysterious Chicago
Adam Selzer is an author, historian, and tour guide who, in the course of any given day, might solve a mystery or rewrite history. He turns deep archival research into incredible stories for his tours...
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I admit I haven’t real ALL of Marx but I’m pretty sure this never comes up.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
first time seeing sneakers at a senate debate
Photo of Abdul El-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers Michigan Senate debate. Both men are standing at podiums wearing dark worsted suits with white shirts and neckties. El-Sayed is wearing black dress shoes; Rogers is wearing sneakers.
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Stephen Robinson @playtyperguy.com · 09/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Friday Meme: DAAAAAAAMN Reaction
ALT: Friday Meme: DAAAAAAAMN Reaction
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
And despite moral dilemmas I have used AI for old doc transcripts, formatting, code fixes, mass file renames. You know, computing stuff - but with an easier interface vs having to remember which program is which (and update all my subscriptions). Handy but unreliable; I wouldn’t pay much for it.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ah, bad revenue news from OpenAI. Well that was easy to predict. To ever turn a profit these outfits will have to jack prices WAY up, and not nearly enough people, even regular Claude users, are gonna want to pay that much. There’s yet to be an ai product everyone really wants.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Hey how come all my anti-ai stock options are suddenly surging? Good news but what’s up?
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I thought Mamdani's statement today about Oct. 7 was fine. Just saying that because man, a lot of people today apparently feel very free to announce to journalists how upset and angry "Jews in New York City" are, and I'm one, and I'm not.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
No one who has dealt with an Ai customer service help bot from CVS is going to call it “super intelligent.”
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I don’t really use dating apps, but when I tried, I saw it (or variations) surprisingly often.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I know, I know, it’s not necessarily yada yada…. But if you put “no zionists” in your dating profile I assume I’ll never convince you I’m one of the good Jews.
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Zohran Mamdani is living proof it is possible to be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic, and some antisemitic anti-Zionists AND some right-wing Zionists will never forgive him for that.
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
How I arrived on Bluesky
Yoda going into exile
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Yeah, went around in circles a while, no luck so far. It doesn’t seem like a wise investment on their part.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
JON STEWART: “So in the FUTURE we WILL use A.I. to cure diseases… but right now it’s mostly murder, surveillance, and surge pricing for the McRib — What a trade! I’m getting the sense you guys might be full of shit.”
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Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
In a five minute span overnight I was hacked and had the accounts disabled. No way to get to a person on meta. Business page is still there but I can’t currently post there.
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