The scene

Photograph by Michael Jarecki

Hole lotta love Business owners near the Montrose Avenue water-main break were still drowning in the fine print of insurance claims when performance comedian Ken Barnard single-handedly lifted the moratorium on jokes about the minicalamity. Inspired by the growing popularity of a MySpace account he set up for the hole, Barnard and a dozen friends staged a “protest” against the city’s filling of “Chicago’s Grand Canyon.” “This hole, for this neighborhood, is really our Wrigley Field,” Barnard announced via megaphone. Demonstrators shouted send-ups of classic protest chants (“Hole no, we won’t go!”), sang songs (“O Holy Night”) and waved homemade signs displaying slogans like NO HOLE, NO SOUL. “I believe this hole is here on a divine [mission],” Barnard said. “Couples that couldn’t get pregnant came to the hole and got pregnant. People that were addicted to drugs got off drugs. This is a dream, and you can’t just fill it up and make it go away.”