This Has Been Some Exciting Basketball

While watching one thrilling overtime period after another this evening as the Chicago Bulls outlasted the Boston Celtics in 3 OTs 128 - 127 to force a seventh game in the best of seven series, I got to thinking about the level of play in this series.

The Celtics were one of the best teams in the NBA regular season. The Bulls were a .500 team. Is this series a matter of the Celtics playing down to the Bulls level or the young Bulls rising up to meet the challenge of the veteran Celtics?

I'd like to think the latter. I'm not sure you can really tell until one of these teams move on to the second round.

Regardless, this is easily one of the most exciting NBA basketball series I have ever witnessed. Whatever the outcome on Saturday, I hope game seven in Boston lives up to intensity that the rest of the games have exhibited (with the exception of that game three blow-out).

And I Don't Even Like Pepsi Cola

Not only is Stephan Pastis comic Pearls Before Swine brilliantly funny, but the guy's blog can be equally as fantastic.

I am disturbed by mindless conformity to long-held traditions. And I am determined to change them.

I am starting with a drink now unanimously referred to as "Pepsi."

In restaurants, bars, fast-food joints and grocery stores, I have taken to using the product's God-given, full name: Pepsi Cola.

It is harder than it seems.

For example, try telling the person at the Taco Bell window that you would like two "Pepsi Colas." And don't just say it. Over-enunciate each syllable for emphasis, as though the person to whom you are speaking is deaf and you are facilitating their reading of your slow-moving lips. And wait for the response.

"You mean Pepsi?" they will ask.

Then there is a pause while they consider the possibilities:

1) The customer I am dealing with is developmentally disabled and I should not stare.

2) The customer is from an obscure Central Asian nation and I should not stare.

3) I am not getting enough money to deal with this shithead.

While the Taco Bell employee ponders this, I, too, ponder.

I ponder all the revolutionaries that have come before me: Jefferson, Paine, Marx, Lenin, King, Gandhi. And I know that at that moment I am in that line of great men.

"No, no. Not Pepsi," I reply, pausing briefly to smile.

"Pepsi Cola."

Mr. Pastis is my new favorite person.

5 Things I Think

I still can't believe that it never occurred to the Defense Department that flying a 747 in low over Manhattan on a busy Monday morning in New York City and not telling everyone beforehand might freak people out.

I think it's interesting that with all the talk about the death of newspapers and how their future is in online distribution, that when a major paper decided to drop the print edition and go online exclusively their website traffic drops dramatically.

Apparently that old fashioned newsprint is good for something. Too bad the kids running the newspapers can’t figure out how to make money at it.

I think all the coverage of the swine flu is over-reactionary. I agree with the stance that the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune takes – there isn’t enough known as to why so many people are dying in Mexico from this strain of flu, if the strain in Mexico is the same as the rest of the world, and what the real death rate of those who have contracted the illness actually is for anyone to get panicky about swine flu.

Throwing around terms like pandemic or epidemic and continually reporting on possible or suspected cases is only whipping up a frenzy over something that might not be anything most people need to be worried about. This is like the scares over SARS in 2003 and MRSA in 2006 all over again.

I think the World Digital Library backed by the United Nations is a fantastic idea.

Best quote from one of my kids in the last . . . ahhh, let's call it two months.

When Ian was riding the train home with me after attending Bring Your Daughter or Son to Work Day, he started playing his Nintendo DS. I decided to pull out the book I'm currently reading, The Stories of John Cheever.

His reaction: "Whoa, Dad, are you reading the dictionary?"

All the Young Talent is in Chicago

When I read earlier this week that Chicago Blackhawks forward Kris Versteeg was named as one of the three Calder Trophy finalists for the 2009-09 NHL season, it reminded me that not only did Patrick Kane win the award for the outstanding rookie player in the NHL last year for the Blackhawks, but that fellow line-mate Jonathan Toews was a finalist for the trophy as well. I know that the Blackhawks have a lot of great young talent, but having three guys in two years being recognized as the tops of top says to me that the Blackhawks have a bumper crop of great players.

Then it occurred to me that the Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose was just honored as the NBA’s 2008-09 Rookie of the Year and that Geovany Soto of the Chicago Cubs is the reigning National League Rookie of the Year for 2008. Plus, Chicago White Sox infielder Alexei Ramirez finished second in voting for the American League Rookie of the Year balloting in 2008.

What about the Chicago Bears? Running Back Matt Forte was named one of the five finalists for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2008, and now the Bears have Jay Cutler, a Pro Bowl selection in his third season.

That a lot of great young talent in pro sports in this city. If the respective players and their teams are managed well (and stick around), Chicago could be in for a number of years of competitive and exciting pro sports teams. That’s pretty exciting.

Take That, Mr. Recession!

There is a certain logic to it . . .

Edible Art

Somebody got the idea of sticking un-cooked spaghetti into hot dogs and then boiling the two together.

The results look a bit Lovecraftian if you ask me.


As fun as it may seem, I don't know if Heather and I could get our kids to eat this. I think they might find it too weird to eat.

Muppets' Eleven

The Muppets and Ocean's Eleven mashed-up

Deliciable

Methinks This a Novel Idea

To celebrate the 445th birthday of the William Shakespeare, somebody decided to make today "Talk Like Shakespeare Day."

The Mayor of Chicago even made it official.


Have fun.

5 Things I Think

I think Rob Blagojevich’s request to the courts that he be allowed to leave the country so he can be on a reality TV show makes it painfully clear exactly why he went into politics in the first place – to be famous.

He couldn’t hack in sports, apparently can’t sing or dance, and must not have any creative skills in demand. But I guess he did like seeing his name in the papers and his face on TV.

So what was left? Politics of course.

It would explain why when impeachment proceedings were brought up against him he didn’t stay in Illinois to defend himself, but used the attention it generated to show up on any TV and radio program that would give him air time.

It explains why after he was thrown out of the Governor’s mansion he didn’t try to prepare a defense to the corruption changes that have been filed against him, but instead agreed to participate in a hack reality show that caters to D-list celebrities.

He wasn’t in politics to try and help the people who elected him, he was in politics so that he could be famous.

What was it with comic strips taking a whack at newspapers yesterday? I saw two strips that appeared to be participating in a little "biting the hand that feeds you."

Non Sequitur (4.20.09)


Pearls Before Swine (4.20.09)

I don’t think I’ve given the Chicago Bulls much more than 20 minutes of my time since Michael Jordan retired over a decade ago, but when I accidentally stumbled into the fourth quarter of the Bulls – Celtics game on Saturday (I was looking for the Cubs game) with the Bulls hanging on to a slim lead, I suddenly couldn’t pull myself away from the game. I had to keep watching through the overtime to see if the Bulls would pull it off.

Derrick Rose was fantastic. Maybe he can make me a fan again.

A poem written by Neil Gaiman with accompanying artwork from Charles Vess that celebrates the glory of growing up a girl – that book has to find its way into our house.

I really hope this happens.



And I don’t think the organizers of Baconfest should invite these guys, they’ll suck the fun out of everything.

I'm a Godfather

I was honored when my sister asked me a few months back to be godfather to her first son, Declan. I’ve seen the sort of special relationships that my own children have developed with some of their godparents and I know how my Dad has tried to remain closely involved in his own godchildren’s lives – not to mention my own relationship with my own godmother who just might be the most fantastic godmother/aunt/person ever.

Being a godparent is such a unique opportunity. I really hope to make the most of it.

The baptism took place yesterday at a church near my Mom’s house. Unlike any baptism I’ve been to over the last ten years, which are usually huge group baptism of a dozen children or more, Declan had the ceremony all to himself. This was great for everyone who attended, especially the great-grandparents from both sides of the family.

With it only be us in the chapel, I would have thought photo taking would have been a snap. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. Take for example this photo that my Aunt Kathy emailed out to us this morning.



It clearly shows baby Declan at the moment of baptism, the water being poured over his head while his godmother holds him over the baptismal font. You can see my sister (Declan’s mom) clearly in the background.

Now this is where the photo composition goes all screwy. Not only is Declan’s Dad’s head cut off, but I don’t even make it into the picture.

Luckily, there was another photo emailed out today that captured me at the moment Declan was being baptized



Patrick, your plane tickets to Vegas and a ride to the airport will be arriving later today.

Oh yeah, I’m going to enjoy this godfather role.

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is the Man

I know I've mentioned it here a number of different times on this blog - comic artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is one of the all-time greatest comic book artists ever. There is nothing that the man cannot draw, and what he does draw has a classic elegance that few other artists can achieve.

While clearing out some bookmarks I rediscovered this page - a smorgasbord of Garcia-Lopez artwork.

I could spend all day pouring over the artwork on that page. There is so much to see and enjoy. There can never be too much Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art.

Memories of Medieval Times

Our trip last week to Medieval Times was everything that I expected, and some things that I didn't. To be sure, the show of battling knights was as cheesy as I remember from the last time I went nearly twenty years ago, but it also remained equally as much fun - especially with Ian, Emma, and Zoe there. They had a blast watching the show, eating their meal with the hands, and partaking in the pre-show activities.

With everything that went on, my two favorite moments don't have anything directly to do with the spectacle of Medieval Times.

My dad, Heather and the kids drove up separately while I met my sister, brother-in-law, brother, and friend in downtown Chicago. Thanks to after work traffic, ur trip out of the city took forever; so Heather, Dad, and the kids enjoyed the pre-show activities without us. Dad snapped these photos of the Ian, Emma, and Zoe while they were waiting to go into the arena.


The photos were captured using my Dad's iPhone, so they're not the highest quality, but I think they are fantastic. The grainy photos capture my kids being themselves - not hamming it up for the camera or holding a pose forced upon them. They look natural and real - like my kids.

Maybe it was because I wasn't there to enjoy that part of the Medieval Times experience with them, and these photos give me a glimpse at what was going on, but I'm glad my Dad sent me those photos.

The other memory I am walking away from our trip to Medieval Times is seeing Zoe honesty become smitten with a boy.

For the show we sat in the Green Knight's section. The Green Knight was the "bad" knight, the one who wanted to fight everyone and was overall a nasty guy. When he spoke during the show he always used a angry, menacing voice.

After the show all the knights come out and sit on thrones for the audience to come up and snap photos, talk to them, and in general act goofy. We were all milling about trying to get a closer look at the Green Knight and the others when Heather suggested to Ian, Emma and Zoe that they might want to get the Green Knight's autograph.

Ian and Emma begged off the suggestion, but Zoe thought it was a perfect idea. She immediately turned and started making her way through the crowd to get herself up in front of the Green Knight. Once she had his attention, she stepped right up and asked for the autograph - which he graciously provided.

A short time later, while we were all still talking, I noticed that Zoe had wandered back close to where the knights were all sitting. The crowd around the knights had thinned out, so Zoe had found a spot on a bench where she could sit and stare directly at the Green Knight without any obstacles. She sat with her Green Knight autograph firmly in hand while staring intently at the man who had signed it for here. She hardly ever took her eyes off him.

As I went over and sat down next to her, she turned to me and said, "I know what the Green Knight's voice is really like. He was talking mean during the show. But now I know what his voice is really like."

She then turned and went back staring at the Green Knight. I put my arm around her and gave her a hug. She never stopped staring. It was even difficult to get her to leave, she kept wanting to turn around and look back at the Green Knight.

I don't know what it was that captured her fancy, but the girl was smitten with the Green Knight. It sure was cute to see when she is only 5 years-old, but I imagine my reaction my be entirely different ten years from now.

Heather Would Smash My Potatoes

Remember last week when I brought up the Pearls Before Swine comic and poked fun at how I might handle a similar situation.

Well the wife kidnapping storyline came to its conclusion today, and I imagine it would end in similar fashion for me.


Pearls Before Swine has become my favorite strip being published currently. It is well written, well drawn, focused in its approach, and displays an overall creative energy that is lacking in many current comic strips.

Disney Copies Disney

Now I know how Disney was able to crank out so many animated films in the 1960s and 1970s - they just kept using the same animated models over and over and over.

5 Things I Think

I’m sure by now you’ve seen this already, if you haven’t – you’re in for a treat.

I don’t know what the San Francisco Giant marketing team was thinking when they rolled this slogan out, but it sure is a doozey.


Even a week a later, every time I read “Play with balls of fire” I shake my head and laugh.

Haven't figured out if I think this thing is cool or totally dorky


Knowing that I have a long road ahead of me, I’ve already started telling Heather that I want to buy a motorcycle. Even though I figure that I won’t have time to really ride and enjoy a motorcycle for about ten years, I need to start working my argument now in order to wear her down enough that I could pull the trigger on that sort of purchase in the next seven or eight years. (Economy and college tuition willing)

I need to figure out if the Can-Am is cool or totally dorky in case I want to work it into my argument.

The more I look at it the more I'm coming down on the side of totally dorky.

I think I would really enjoying filling these book shelves up.

I can't deny that I love seeing all the super heroes that ended up in the new mural that graces the outside of the Warner Brothers Burbank studio building. But I do think that Bugs Bunny and his pals have earned the right to get more face time than they ended up with in the new mural.

Before


After

I think Darby Conley is running out of things to say in his strip Get Fuzzy.

A few years ago Get Fuzzy was the popular strip, even won a Reuben Award in 2002, but now it feels like Conley keeps re-hashing the same jokes over and over – usually dragging them on (badly) for days.

Even when you think he might be trying something different, like last week when he started the story with the ghost hunters; it only ended up as way to bring the terminally un-funny Manc back into the strip for some more tired bad accent jokes.

And this week we're back to monkey jokes.

Move on or get off the page. Don't turn into Garfield.

My New (Old) Reading List

My dad stopped over at our house briefly this past Saturday to sugar our kids up with some early Easter candy and have a short visit. Somewhere during the conversation we wandered over into talking about books that we had read which had made a strong impression upon us the first time we had encountered them, but a second reading of the same book years later failed to recreate that original experience.

It got me to thinking about all the books I read in high school and college – especially the piles of novels and short story collections I consumed as an English major with a focus on modern fiction while at college. So many of those books I read because I had to read them. I remember enjoying some of them, but many of them I approached with the mindset of an assignment. Which in retrospect, probably put up a barrier to me really experiencing the author’s work like he or she may have wanted me to.

Now it just so happened that I had recently finished reading Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (fun in a classic British humor sort of way) and was wondering where to go next. The only new book I had at home was one my father gave me for Christmas, The Ten-Cent Plague. It’s a book that I want to read, but it was still too soon after working through six months and 800 pages of Team of Rivals for me to venture back into a history book again. I crave more stories.

So following our conversation on books’ first impressions, I’ve decided to dig back into the history of my reading log and pull out books I read in high school or college and read them again – but with a twist. Instead of selecting books that I really enjoyed or influenced me upon first read, I’m targeting those books that I really can’t muster up an opinion on because I was so wrapped up on the assignment of reading them the first time.

To start things off, I thought I would go big: The Stories of John Cheever

Considered a modern classic for almost the moment it came off the printing press, I have almost no recollection of reading The Stories of John Cheever even though the copy I own is marked up with notes and observations in my own handwriting. I found the mere existence of its bright red cover within my collection of books a mocking sneer at my experience as a reader.

"You call yourself an English major and you don't even have an opinion on Cheever! Bah!"

I started reading it this morning on the train. In keeping with my experiment – or is it self-imposed assignment? – I am reading only the stories that I had marked in the table of contents that my professor had assigned to the class. It won’t be every story in the collection, but it will be the majority. Once I’ve completed those selections, I won’t have any excuse for not having an opinion on Cheever anymore.

I grabbed two other novels from the boxes of books I have in the basement: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (mainly because Heather expressed such a dislike of Hemingway’s writing), so I know where I’m headed after I finish my time with Cheever. When I’ve read all those I’ll take a step back and see where I’m at. Maybe it will be more books from my past or maybe it will be time to search out something brand new. Either way, I’m excited to see where things go from here.

Opening Day in Chicago

Technically the Cubs have been playing for a week; but today is Opening Day at Wrigley, so now the season officially starts.


With the success the team has enjoyed under Lou Piniella, it's sort of uncharted territory to go into a Cubs season actually expecting big things - but that's where I know I'm, and a lot of other Cubby-faithful, are at as this season gets rolling.

We expect another Division Championship.

We demand winning in the Playoffs.

We anticipate a World Series appearance.

Should make for an exciting summer.

[image taken from my favorite Cubs-centric blog - Cubby-Blue]

Magic

Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated with magic and magicians. I will always stop to watch a magic show when I stumbled upon one on TV. I find it just as exciting to give myself over to enjoy illusion as it is to try and figure out how the magician is tricking us. One of the regrets of my only trip to Las Vegas was passing up on an opportunity to see magician Lance Burton live (the other people I was out in Vegas with thought a magic show wasn't cheesy enough for Vegas, so we saw Rick Springfield in concert).

It is because of this love of magic and respect for the skill required to perform close-up magic that I think clip of Ricky Jay is so fantastic.

I found this video on the YesButNoButYes blog thanks to a post by Scaramouch, who is a former part-time magician. He promises more of his favorite clips of magicians from YouTube this week.

I can't wait to see what he shares with us.

The Gathering

Artist Glen Tarnowski substituted Looney Tunes characters for the Jesus and his disciples in "The Last Supper" and called his version of the painting "The Gathering".

I think it's great. Other people - not so much.

I'll Continue to Chew My Food, Thanks

David Edwards has invented inhalable chocolate.

He calls it Le Whiff, and he was able to develop it thanks to work he has done on creating inhalable insulin and an inhalable TB vaccination.

According to the story in the Chicago Tribune, Edwards developed a modified inhaler that delivers a thin layer of chocolate particles - too large to enter the lungs - that coat the inside of your mouth with the taste of chocolate.

That's all fine and kooky-weird in a fun way, but this was what I thought was just plain goofy from the story:

"We believe really strongly that there's a whole new way of eating—by aerosol," Edwards, 48, said in a phone interview from Paris. "The big picture here is that for thousands of years we've eaten with our hands or, more recently, with chopsticks and forks and things. We're sort of moving on. People have been whiffing [my product] here in Paris for the past few months."

I have a hard time believing that the next logical step in eating evolution is to get food into our bodies by spraying it out of a can (cheez whiz and whip cream aside).

I understand stumping for your new invention/product, but claiming that we're ready to move beyond forks and spoons to a spray can is taking it a tad too far.

Dial it down a notch there.

Finally, Someone Understands

I’ve been ranting about how disgusting dudes wearing sandals are for years and always get quizzical looks from people when they hear my arguments against male sandal wearing.

Now I can tell them I’m not the only one who is disgusted by the sight of a man in sandals, there’s also a talking . . . .duck . . . . inna online . . . . comic . . . that shares my . . . .

Ah, damn, people are still gonna look at me funny when I talk about this, aren’t they?

Hey. It's a Joke

If Heather ever happened to be kidnapped - not that I want that to happen, but let's just pretend for a moment that it did - I can imagine there being a scene at our house not unlike what occurred in today's Pearl Before Swine.

And that's only because I like messin' with my kids' heads.

Batsymbol Mutations

I think this is pretty damn cool.

5 Things I Think

How come none of the veterinarians at the McKillip Animal Hospital in Chicago, IL are named "McKillip"?

And if none of them are named McKillip, why don't they explain the origin of the name on their website?

I'm curious.

I think this may be the winter that never ends. It was April 6th and there was two inches of snow on top of my car.

That’s just not right.

I don’t even want to think about how the nail got up there in the first place: Man Coughs Up Nail Stuck In His Nose For 30 Years

Aaaaah!

Trop50, the 50% less sugar orange juice "beverage" from Tropicana, may be the worst tasting liquid I have ever ingested that wasn’t intended for medicinal purposes.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to forgive Heather for bringing that into our house. I think she received this sorry excuse for a drink for free from the store.

Who is this product for?

The sugar and calories from your orange juice isn't going to kill you. Cut the sugar and calories out from someplace else.

Ugh. My tongue hurts just thinking about Trop50.

Every once and a while something comes along that makes me think it would be nice to live in California.

Starting this May, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be screening each of the 10 Best Picture nominees from 1939 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of what is probably Hollywood’s greatest year. Ten great pieces of film making, plus animated shorts from 1939 and chapters of Universal’s Buck Rogers serial from that year as well, all up on the big screen. And the series ticket is only $25 – that’s $2.50 per movie! That would be a fantastic ten weeks.

But then I realize that’s only one reason for being in California and I can always come up with five or ten reasons to stay in the Midwest.

Mow the Law

This is the UK TV commercial for the Wilkinson Sword Quattro for Women Bikini razor.

It will never air on TV in America because of either 1) America's prudish hyper-sensitivity to anything remotely sexual in nature or 2) Britian's off-kilter sense of humor.

My guess is #1

And I love that British sense of humor

Evap-or-what?

I was always a good student in school, so I delivered my assignment to Emma on Thursday as she requested.

If you recall, she had surprised me with a question Sunday night, "Can you dry out water," and then gave me three days to consider my answer.

Following her instructions, I wrote my answer down ("Yes, you can dry out water"), sealed it in an envelope, and handed it to her.

She excitedly ripped the envelope open and pulled out the slip of paper. She read my answer aloud before charging up to me declaring that I had gotten the answer correct. Then I learned the inspiration for Emma's puzzle for me.

A little over a week ago her class had put some water into a small class cup. The cup was set in the window of their classroom in a spot that would get the most sunlight. Thursday the class had checked the cup and learned that much of the water was now gone. It had "dried up."

Emma asked me how I came up with my answer, particularly if I had put a glass of water out by a window for a few days. I told her that I didn’t put any glass of water out; I just thought about the problem for a few days and wrote down my answer. I think I impressed her with my keen scientific reasoning abilities.

Heather asked Emma some questions about the water evaporating. Emma's response was along the lines of "What's evap-or-what?"

So the classroom experiment might not have been the resounding success that the teacher may have hoped for, but at least I know Emma had some fun learned some basic scientific concepts – even if she can't remember all the terms.

When Zoe saw all the attention Emma and here question for Dad had generated, she decided to try and jump into the action.

"Daddy," she said, "I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to write it on piece of paper and put it in an envelope and give it to me. Okay?"

"Sure, Zoe, what’s the question?"

"Can you dry out a balloon?"

I don’t know how I’m going answer that one.

Hmmmmm . . . .

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.

But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said on Thursday.

"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.

I never thought about just tearing down the dirty walls and rebuilding them. I've always opted for repainting, but there's something to be said about starting fresh instead of just covering up.

WOW! What a Homepage

This is the homepage of the Chicago Tribune this evening.


Wow!

The former-Governor, his brother, and slew of close friends all indicted political corruption charges. I can't wait to see how many talk shows Rod makes the rounds on this time to plead his innocence.

The Bears land Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler and tackle Orlando Pace. They had to give up Kyle Orton and some draft picks to get Cutler, but the Bears now have a certifiable top tier quarterback.

I'll miss Orton. I liked him.

Orlando Pace might be approaching the twilight of his career, but I think the Bears can probably get a few good years out of him and strengthen the offensive line. An older Orlando Pace is still better then a lot of the offensive lineman out there today.

Internet Annoyance Day

Enough of the cheeky website pranks and fake press releases on April 1, 2009. Let's give it a rest already.