Chicago
I'm in Chicago today and this is one of those postcard summer days that make me wonder why I left. Was that lake always here? That thing is awesome. But, then of course it took an hour to get from my parent's house and the traffic from the airport was just silly. A ten dollar cab ride to go 3 miles with a driver who doesn't wear deodorant. Still, best city in world between June and mid-October.

Sports Rules
I wish I like watching sports more. I don't know what happened. I used to live for 12:00 on Sunday in the fall to watch Walter Payton rush for 100 yards and the Bears lose, but for those few winning seasons. And the Cubs? Man I loved staying up late on those summer nights watching the West coast road trip against the Dodgers back in the 80s. And what about those Bulls playoffs in the early to mid 90s? Those were classic. I never missed them. Now, maybe I'll watch some college football now and again, but that's about it.

Anyhow, not that any of that matters, but here was a good article about the dumbest rules in sports, most of which I agree with, but maybe not this one:

Baseball Managers Wearing Uniforms
An unwritten rule, to be sure -- but no less unforgivable. Imagine Stan Van Gundy in a jersey and shorts, Bill Belichick in shoulder pads and a helmet, Scotty Bowman in a sweater and skates. Silly, right? So how is Jack McKeon in a uniform any different?

I think that reason for this is that the coach actually goes out on the field, which is quite dirty, and in the past was likely hitting ground balls to the players and actively involved in the pre-game. So it's unlikely that they could get away with dressing business casual. I suppose you could argue that the football coach dress would be more appropriate since there is no reason to wear spikes and a cup. But in the end, I think tradition rules on this one.

TV
If you missed it live, now you can watch my short TV appearance on the Internet. Here is an earlier post about what happened and here is a link to the video. I appear just before halfway in the video and am getting my haircut and holding a remote. My brother is also there getting his shoes shined, and is also in this Today show segment.

Supreme Court
The more serious bloggers are developing theories about how the appointment of John Roberts is going to alter the dynamic of the Supreme Court. Me, well I'm trying to find a better picture of Greg Kinnear to support my theory that they look a lot alike.

Wedding Crashers
It's rare that I'll go see a movie on a Saturday night that just opened--what with the cramped elbow rubbing with strangers--but I got roped into Wedding Crashers this weekend. I read the Ebert review the day before, and he didn't have much good to say (sticking it with 2 stars) which for Ebert now is pretty bad. These days it seems like he will give 3 stars for just trying hard and having a good message, the good liberal that he is.

Anyway, two thumbs up from me, with a few caveats. Part of the reason that we went to see this is that my wife really digs both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn: Owen because he's really cool and all (and I guess he is) and Vince because he's really tall (which, well, I guess is also true). He's also quite bloated these days, not the rakish young Trent that we all remember. So there's that.

But the movie was very funny. Again like most movies, they could have cut 20 minutes out and it would have been better, but at least you get your money's worth on a per minute basis. The gist of the plot is the standard boy meets girl, boy decides to change his ways and win her from her current boyfriend, etc. The girl, Claire, played by Rachel McAdams is pretty amazing, and if I met her I'd say she was radiant (and I knew I'd seen her before, she was the Hot Chick in the movie of the same title).

There are lots of funny moments in this movie and I think it will do well because there is an element of chick flick in it. I only noticed because on the way out of the theater there were some college dudes behind me that were expressing some reservations about that like, "It was funny but it got kind of girly at the end, etc." I'd say it was better than the most recent Wilson-Farrel-Vaughn-Stiller movies that have come out over the past few years.

One last thing that was kinda funny, for me anyway. There's a scene (or two) where Vince's character tries to rationalize their somewhat irresponsible womanizing behavior away by saying "you know, when we look back on this we'll just say we were young". To which the now 36-year old Wilson says to the 35-year old Vaughn, "You know, we really aren't that young." Yep.

Trees/Lightning
I was driving home in a rainstorm yesterday and decided to call my wife on my new work cell phone. About a block from home I saw a lightning strike that I was sure hit our house. My wife heard a huge bang and saw a bunch of leaves fly around. Turns out it didn't hit the house, but it hit a tall oak tree about 20 feet from our house.

So I was wondering if that meant the tree was toast. A quick google search and turns out, probably not. Here is a picture of what the tree kinda looks like now, and here is what a tree looks like after it recovers. Not pretty, but it'll probably pull through.

Overused Cliche
I just found this huge hornet's nest under my deck and am trying to decide how to get rid of it. But googling "get rid of a hornet's nest" results in more articles about Iraq and the war on terror than actual step by step instructions.

If I get stung later today when I attack the thing with a broom and wrestle it to the ground with my bare hands, then I'll blame you liberals and your overused cliches.

Update: Ouch.

No just kidding. All it took was 2 cans of Raid to stun the bastards, 2 pool cues and some duct tape to make a long poking stick, and that hornet's nest looks like a shredded newpaper. I was fortunate to be able to perform the entire procedure from a window that I shut whenever they got worked up, so no stings for me.

Perseverance
I really like stories of people who passionately pursue these ridiculous hobbies. Like this Danny May guy who wanted to jump the Great Wall of China with his skateboard. The videos are here and they are pretty cool. Also this article here about the US Air Guitar National Championships, written by one of the competitors. Excerpt:

I know the glory of dressing up and fanatically playing an invisible instrument in front of a crowd is not something that everyone immediately grasps. When I tell people I've spent more than two years as a competitive air guitarist, they often look at me bewildered, like a dog tilting its head at an unfamiliar command.

And how about those competitive eaters. That's just amazing to me, the dedication that it must take to compete at that level.

Sharks, Missing Girls
I was just thinking last week that this summer is starting to resemble the care-free summer of 2001. Stories of shark attacks and missing women were prevalent; it was Chandra Levy then as I recall, now that Natalie Holloway. So when I turned on the Today show at 7:03 and saw Tony Blair instead of some report from Aruba, I knew something bad had happened. Hopefully this one isn't as bad as the one they had in Spain. Perhaps the sharks were trying to warn us in their own clumsy sort of way.

Sue Everybody
They have this local law firm here, Marks & Harrison, which is one of those ambulance chasing firms that has these silly commercials that are pretty memorable. The commercials all sort of have the same plot:

In the back room of some insurance company the slimy executives are trying to figure out a way to avoid paying for some accident cause by their client. Then the phone rings and they find out that Marks & Harrison is the new attorney. Oh no! These guys know what they are up to! Suddenly the insurance guys are overcome with dread and they scramble to figure out a way to pay, because at Marks & Harrison, they mean business.

Anyway, this would be a good case for them: Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Mission