Purple Flag on Saturday

Labor Day

Today is the beginning of the traditional last fling of summer, the Labor Day weekend. The reason that Labor Day is a September holiday is partly due to events that took place in Chicago.

Labor Day was born in New York in 1892 when the Central Labor Union of NYC declared "a holiday for the working man" and the Knights of Labor organized a parade. They held their next parade in September 1896, though organized labor in Chicago had their own event in May of that year, when the Haymarket Riots broke out around Randolph Street and Des Plaines Avenue, near the central business district.

An estimated 300,000 workers around the country were striking in support of the 8 hour workday. There was a peaceful rally taking place at Haymarket Square when, around 10:30 p.m., officials decided that it was time to disperse the crowd. The crowd resisted the police line and a bomb was thrown, killing a police officer. All hell broke loose. When the melee ended, seven policemen were dead, sixty officers were wounded, 4 civilians had been killed and an unknown number wounded, as many were afraid to seek medical attention, fearing arrest.

Eight men were convicted of the murder of the Chicago policeman who was killed by the bomb blast. One of the convicts received 15 years, two others eventually received life in prison, four were executed by hanging and the last one committed suicide the day before the executions. Three, five, seven, yep, that adds up to eight.

President Grover Cleveland, concerned that celebrating Labor Day on May 1 (the date of Labor Day in most of the rest of the world) would commemorate the Haymarket Riots and strengthen the socialist movement, threw his support to the September date in 1897. Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894.

By the way, ol' Pres Grover had been wed in the White House in 1886, when he married his former ward, Frances, the 21 year old daughter of his late former law partner, Oscar Folsom. Grover was 49 at the time. This tidbit has nothing to do Labor Day, it was just too weird to leave out, 'cause how often can you dish about Grover Cleveland, so you have to take advantage of these opportunities when you find them.

The picture at the top right is not Grover Cleveland, it is the Cleveland Indian, Chief Wahoo, which (also) has nothing to do with either Grover Cleveland or Labor Day, but it's a very cool mascot, even though is it extremely not PC.

Back to Labor Day, when there's nothing else on TV and you tune in Jerry Lewis (now in his 32nd year of the telethon and off steroids and percadin) or you head for Taste of Polonia for some stout food and robust music (or robust food and stout music, in either case, the Polish Cultural Center is at Lawrence and Milwaukee), your weekend par-tay has roots that are more than 125 years old.

Oh, and count yourself notified, Labor Day is the official end of white shoe season, too.

KICKOFF!

College football starts tonight and rolls through the weekend. Get a good butt groove going on the couch and get watchin'. Here's the games that I'm tracking:

--THURSDAY--

Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech

JState is the new home of QB Ryan Perriloux, whose exemplary behavior got him booted from LSU. My prediction isn't on the game, it's on Perriloux: he won't see a second year, may not even finish this one.

Vanderbilt @ Miami Ohio -3

Vandy will be dandy.

NC State @ South Carolina Gamecocks -12

Lay the points, take the 'Cocks

Oregon State Beavers -3 @ Stanford

Coach Jim Harbaugh's Cardinal will cover..

--SATURDAY--

Syracuse @ Northwestern -12

The 'Cats are going to score, but can they play "D"? 'Cats will win... by 6.

Utah @ Michigan -4

The Wolverines are supposed to have a down year, but they'll win the home opener and cover.

Akron Zips @ Wisconsin -27

Here's the numerical challenge of the day: lay the points, the Zips aren't in this class..

Northern Illinois @ Minnesota -8.5

This spread has been steadily shrinking. NIU thinking says they can win straight up. I say MN.

Illinois @ Missouri -8.5

MO covers, sorry Illini.

USC -20 @ Virginia

Another big number, a little more than the Trojans can cover.

The Whole World Was Watching

As the Democrats have convened in Denver to anoint Barack and Joe B. (Bill Clinton deserves an Emmy), there is a notorious anniversary at hand. Forty years ago, beginning on August 25, 1968, the Democratic Party threw its quadrennial soiree in Chicago and a whole bunch of uninvited guests crashed the party to voice their displeasure with war in VietNam. There were YIPPIES (Youth International Party), the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), the Weathermen, the Chicago police, the Illinois National Guard and more, thrown together in a roiling stew of violence, arrogance, brutality and fear.

In the months prior to the convention, we had already been stunned by the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Huge riots followed King's killing in April, while there was intense sadness after Kennedy was shot to death in June. The war in VietNam was raging at full throttle and fatalities were mounting. An offshoot of the SDS, the Weathermen, had begun to punctuate the anti-war message with their own acts of violence.

The Democratic party and the TV networks, sensing trouble, wanted the convention moved to Miami, where the Republicans had held their convention. Richard J. Daley would have none of it. He promised to "enforce peace". Such a curious phrasing; it foreshadowed the events that would unfold, on television, in Chicago's front yard. The messengers of peace would include 11,900 policemen, 7,500 Army troops, 7,500 National Guard troops and 1,000 Secret Service agents.

The convention was being held at the Chicago Amphitheater (a dump even back then) at 41st Street and Halsted. The Democrats were headquartered 4 miles north at the Hilton. The protesters were trying to camp in Lincoln Park, 4 more miles further to the north. The protesters held an anti-war rally Sunday night with a bonfire (fueled by some park benches) in Lincoln Park. The park closing time was 11 p.m., and the messengers of peace marched in to assure that the park was vacated in a timely fashion. Violence was widespread. Battles would recur nightly in Lincoln Park and Grant Park.

On Wednesday, the protesters began to march to the Amphitheater. The police and soldiers stopped them. A riot that came to be known as "the Battle of Michigan Avenue" ensued, with plenty of media coverage to record the events. These actions would later be pronounced by a government inquiry to have been "a police riot". Richard J. Daley would reject the finding and give his policemen a raise.

Inside the convention, the Democrats argued and protested as a minority attempted to fashion a peace platform for the party. Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Massachusets denounced the "Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago". The Hubert H. Humphrey/Edmund Muskie ticket was officially slated and went on to lose the general election to Richard Nixon.

President Nixon continued to bomb the hell out of VietNam while negotiating for peace.

On March 20, 1969, a grand jury indicted 8 policeman and 8 civilians. The eight civilians were charged with crossing a state line to incite a riot. They were the first people to be charged under a law that had been passed the previous year.

The law was the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

Peace in VietNam would officially come in January of 1973.

The whole world was watching. Still.

Today, Meet Joe South

Yesterday, Joe B.

Today: Joe South.

Joe South is a musician and song writer who is one of the finest talents that you probably don't know about. If you're on the younger side, you've probably never heard of him. If you're of the more, um, experienced perspective, well, you've still probably never heard of him. You have heard his work, though.

Joe was born in Atlanta in 1940. He had a hit at 18 with a gimmick song, but made his reputation in the music business as a session guitarist for some really big names. Joe recorded with an eclectic constellation that includes Aretha Franklin, Tommy Roe, Bob Dylan, Eddy Arnold, Wilson Pickett, Marty Robbins and Simon & Garfunkel. Joe South is probably the only thing those stars have in common.

He wrote a lot of hit songs. The biggest commercial success was "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden". Joe also wrote hits for Freddie Weller, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Deep Purple, the Osmonds and Billy Joe Royal. Again, probably the only thing they had in common was Joe.

Joe South hit it big as a performer in 1969, winning a Grammy for "Games People Play". He also had hits with "Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home" and "Walk a Mile in My Shoes". Joe is credited with creating the music genre called "Country Soul". Performing wasn't his thing and he had his demons to deal with, so Joe's performing career was brief, but there was some gold left for us to listen to.

You feel Joe South's music as you listen. So, if you have a few minutes of private time, courtesy of YouTube, you can meet (or reacquaint yourself with) the incredible music of Joe South. Sit back and let it roll over you. Here's his three big hits as a performer and one he wrote that was a big hit for Deep Purple. The visuals are crappy (I try not to even watch!), but the music is sweet!

Games People Play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znh58WITU8

Don't It Make You Want to Go Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AirBbS4R7Z0&feature=related

Walk a Mile in My Shoes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9Es4N4oGU&feature=related

Hush, from Deep Purple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilz5SxrHA3E

I hope that you'll enjoy them.

Meet Joe B.

Barack announced in the middle of Friday night that Joe Biden would be his running mate. I realized I didn't know Jack about Joe. Here's what I found.

Joe Biden is:

• a Senator from Delaware since 1973 (he was 30 when first elected)
• Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee
• Irish and Catholic and will turn 66 shortly after the election
• a graduate of the University of Delaware ( a "C" student) and Syracuse U. College of Law (76th in a class of 85)
• had 2 brain aneurisms 20 years ago
• has a son, Beau, who is the Attorney General of Delaware. Beau is in the Delaware National Guard and is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq in October.
• voted to support the war in Iraq
• is responsible for the Violence Against Women Act, legislation that addresses domestic violence
• failed in Presidential campaigns in '88 and this year
• voted against limiting product liability damage awards

Here's a link to a site that tracks Joe B's congressional voting record and public position on numerous issues: http://www.ontheissues.org/Joe_Biden.htm The list is much too long to print, and I'm not going to pick and choose to present to you my hot button issues, but spending a few minutes on this list is well worth your time. It will give you an idea of what the man is about.

BTW, Joe B. resembles the late Phil Hartman.

Informed people make better decisions.

Miners, Commodores and Cardinal

Who are the

• Miners?
• Commodores?
• Cardinal?

The Miners are the University of Texas - El Paso, frequently just UTEP. The name comes from the naissance of the school; it was founded in 1914 as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. Enrollment is around 20,000 and is 73% of Mexican descent.

The school is part of Conference USA.

The UTEP mascot (dedicated to my investment partner) is Paydirt Pete.

The Commodores, in addition to being the band that was the starting point for Lionel Richie in the 70's and 80's (which is better: Three Times a Lady or Brick House?) are Vanderbilt University.

The school and the teams are named for Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the school in 1873 with a million dollar grant. Today, there are around 12,000 students.

Vanderbilt is a member of the SEC. Vandy is frequently referred to as the Harvard of the South.

UIC, the University of Illinois-Chicago, formerly "Circle Campus", is known as Harvard on Halsted. Just sayin'...and Brick House is far and away the better song.

Finally, the Cardinal is Stanford University, established 1891, 15,000 students today. Leland Stanford was the governor of and later a US Senator from California.

The Cardinal refers to the school's color, cardinal red. The teams were known as the Indians until 1972, when they became the Cardinals, not the bird cardinals but the color, which didn't make a lot of sense. They became the Cardinal, singular form, in 1981.

It's noteworthy that the school moved to be politically correct nearly 40 years ago with respect to the team name. On the other side of the coin, the team mascot is a tree.

Guess Who

One week from tonight, the college football season begins anew. The investment partners STP (Petey and I) will once again be looking to improve their financial standing as the games go on and on, over 4 1/2 months of games, taking us through the wonderful madness of bowl season.

By the way, I counted 31 college bowl games last year, and STP had a financial interest in 30 of them. We somehow just overlooked that last one. For our efforts we earned a very, very modest profit, but a profit nonetheless.

One of the fun ancillary things of this endeavor is getting acquainted with the sometimes obscure nicknames and tradtions of these institutions of higher learning. So, today I offer three questions arranged in decreasing order of difficulty, about teams who will kickoff their seasons next week. See if you know what schools' teams are the :

1. Miners
2. Commodores
3. Cardinal
   Answers, and a little trivia background on each, tomorrow.

Really, I Was the Governor

During the "dot com" craze, when internet related businesses were springing up everywhere and everyone had hopes of becoming an instant millionaire, I spent a couple of years working in one of those companies. I didn't make millions, or even many thousands, but it was a pretty fun environment and had its perks.

One of the responsibilities I had was to find new office space for our burgeoning enterprise. We were housed in a business incubator on the Northwestern campus in Evanston at the time, and I was intent on taking us to downtown Chicago. The process involved inspecting a lot of available downtown real estate, that was a story unto itself. maybe another time.

On one particular day, I had a series of inspections scheduled and was joined by the planning person, a lovely woman named Linnea. Linnea was born on the east coast and would eventually settle on the west coast, but for this period of time she was in Chicago. She obviously couldn't have had a native's perspective to the city, so on the day in question, as we tromped from building to building, I added some historical perspective and sidebar visits.

One of the visits was spending a few minutes inside the State of Illinois building, a.k.a. The Thompson Center. Like most people, Linnea was dazzled by the visuals inside and outside the building, a Helmut Jahn work of art (saddled with lots of operational problems like poor ventilation, lack of privacy, there was a whole series of events). We resumed our appointed rounds and strolled north on Wacker Drive, headed for the Sears Tower.

I told Linnea that the building was a somewhat self aggrandizing monument to its namesake, former Illinois governor Jim Thompson. As the words came from my mouth, who should come walking toward us but----Jim Thompson.

I motioned toward Mr. Thompson and greeted him with something like "Hello, governor, we were just talking about you". He stopped to chat and I told Linnea that this was the guy after whom the building had been named.

She looked at me, and then at Mr. Thompson, and responded with "Just how stupid do you two think I am? Pretty good improv, you guys, but puh-leeease!"

Thompson was clearly confused by this less than warm reception from Linnea, who obviously thought that this was some pal of mine who was quick on the uptake of a joke. I explained the same to him.

It is a fond memory indeed that I hold of the six foot six Thompson bending toward the barely five feet tall woman and in a tone somewhere between mildly offended and totally astounded explaining "Young lady, it's true, really, I was the governor".

Mr. Thompson continued on his way, appearing a bit vexed. We continued on ours, with Linnea still challenging me "Come on, the governor? The building? Give me a little credit. Not really that funny..."

As we entered the Sears Tower, I picked up a newspaper that serendipitously had a photo of Thompson on the front page, and held it up for my companion.

You can imagine the rest, 'cause it's beyond me to describe the look on Linnea's face.

He really was the governor, Linnea.

Duck, Gecko

What comes to mind when you're asked about the best commercials or ad jingles? They don't have to be likable, just memorable. Here's some of mine.

• 5-8-8, 2-3 hundred, Empiiiiiirrrre! Everybody knows this one. Luna is the new Empire, by the way. 7-7-3, 2-0-2, Luuunaaaaa....


• Where you always save more money! Memorable, but Celozzi & Ettleson broke up, eventually.


• The gecko. I found him annoying at first, but he's grown on me. I particularly like the radio spot where he starts chatting up the guy working under his car. "How'd you get under here?" "Walked, actually."


• The AFLAC duck. Don't like AFLAC's products, love the duck, especially the spot with Yogi Berra. "They give you cash, which is just as good as money."

Which commercials work for you?

Chicago 2016?

I'm pretty lukewarm on the whole Olympic fever thing. NBC brings a zillion hours of TV coverage of what happened the night before, there's a lot of flag waving, and there's a collective chest beating about medal counts. It's just not that interesting to me.

I find that the athletes themselves present a compelling story. They've worked countless hours to develop skills in their respective sports, and I respect that. My issue is that some sports aren't all that, um, Olympic, and others aren't really that interesting.

Take beach volleyball as an example. Why is beach volleyball an Olympic event? It's a nice passtime for the hardbodies who hang at the beach while the rest of us are working, and it has a professional tour for the devotees. But a world competition for Olympic medals, I don't get it.

Equestrian events should present the medals to the horses. Basketball in the Olympics...not as good as a the NBA, or even most NCAA games. Gymnastics and track and field events, those seem to me to be most "real" Olympic events, traditional events that have some heritage. I take a bit of notice, and hope there's not too much drug enhanced performance in what we see, and it's fun to see world class track stars go head to head.

That brings me to the subject of Chicago's bid for the summer games eight years in the future. Is it really a matter of great local pride, or is there something else? Check out the Chicago 2016 website, where you can already buy souvenir clothing http://www.chicago2016.org/

If Chicago hosts the Olympics, there could be events added that have local significance, for example:

• Olympic competition to quarterback the Bears. It's usually the more the merrier anyway, and the Bears aren't likely to have regular quarterback eight years from now...or eight weeks from now.
• Olympic competition to determine the best pizza, New York need not apply, and there will be no French judges.
• Olympic stacking old kitchen sets to save parking places. This really belongs in the winter games.
• Olympic fastest driving through a construction zone.
• Olympic beer chugging. The women's division would be more interesting.
• Olympic pickle bucket drummer and saxaphone player doubles. Events would be held under the train tracks next to Sox Park, where all the great pickle bucket drummers got their start. Saxaphone players gold medal round is based on playing "The Flintstones" theme over and over. And over. And over.
• Olympic polka dancing, a real crowd pleaser. Favorites usually come from Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Chicago area, known world-wide as "the polka belt".
• Olympic "see how many relatives you can give patronage jobs" competition. If he hasn't been ousted by then, the Toddmeister will likely have the gold clinched years before the games.
• Olympic auditing. This would determine, as part of the games themselves, who made the biggest pile of money putting on the games in Chicago.

Any events you want to add?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

NASCAR yesterday at Michigan: Carl Edwards wast he winner --as predicted here on Friday. Not so good for the other recommendation, Jimmie Johnson was 17th. This weekend: BRISTOL AT NIGHT!

Haunted Cadillac

Our rental car here in paradise has a navigation system. These things aren't very useful in and around your hometown (you know how to get back and forth to work and the grocery store at home), but the GPS can be a great tool when you're in an unfamiliar place.

It helps if you read the instructions. We never do.

So, off we went this morning, leaving Anna Maria island, across Perico Island, through Bradenton, across the big bridge and onto Treasure Island and all the connected communities. Mrs. Purple Flag on Saturday was drawn to the GPS like a moth to a flame. She started jabbing at the screen like a pensioner at a penny slot machine. After about ten minutes of furtive and assertive screen jabbing, she flopped back in her seat, quite flush, and announced "It doesn't work".

Not being in an argumentative state of mind, and hearing the kids' growling stomachs, I ignored the proclamation and asked her to watch for a suitable lunch destination.

Suddenly, an English accented gentleman's voice implored me to turn right in eight tenths of a mile. I looked at Mrs. PFOS. She issued her standard response, one that the children all learned very early, "I didn't do it".

I did as the Englishman had directed, turning at the assigned intersection. He responded, telling me to proceed two point two miles and then veer right. I did as told and Mrs. PFOS began anew with rapid fire denials of any involvement.

I followed the chap's series of instructions for five or six miles, at which point he told me to enter the parking lot of my destination. I hadn't interacted with him to this point, hadn't given him a destination, but I pulled in anyway.

We looked about and were silenced, all. We were in front of a Carabba's. Mrs. PFOS was clutching a wad of Carabba's gift cards in her mitt, denying any knowledge of how Chadwick (we had named the disembodied voice by this point) had managed to pull this off.

Unfortunately, Chadwick apparently wasn't aware that the restaurant wasn't scheduled to open for another hour. As punishment, we spent the next half hour ignoring his instructions,purposely driving other than what he said, finally stopping for lunch at Leroy Selmon's a few miles away.

We didn't offer to bring anything back for Chadwick. Kitt from Night Rider would have known what time the place opened.

*******************

NASCAR this weekend at Michigan: look for Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards. Mrs. PFOS will be looking to squander cash on Kenny Wallace, so hope he doesn't qualify.

NASCAR last week...STP Investments got schmeeaarredd.

Lightning Capital of the USA

When we checked in here at the idyllic Cedar Cove Resort here on Anna Maria Island , Jim the Manager told us to beware of the weather on the beach as we were in the lightning capital of the USA. Since it is part of Jim’s thing to yack it up with the guests, I dismissed it as just a friendly, chatty observation.

Turns out, he was absolutely serious. We’ve watched lightning storms over the Gulf and Sarasota Bay every night. One of the cottages next door has a newly patched hole in its roof from a lightning strike last week. When we were sitting on the patio the other evening, storm watching, we were chased in by a lightning strike that sounded much too close for comfort. We learned later that it had blasted a downspout off the resort office, so it was too close indeed.

Florida leads the nation in lightning fatalities each year. The great majority of incidents occur in June/July/August. The area from Tampa to Titusville (around Cape Canaveral) is known as Lightning Alley. Floriday has averaged about a million and a half lightning strikes each year. That doesn't include the lightning flashes that don't hit the ground-- and there have been many more flashes that don't hit in the storms we've been watching.

The temperature of a lightning bolt is 50,000 degrees, nearly five times the heat of the sun’s surface. The average length of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike is 6 miles.
Stats about lightning strike victims:
98% were outside
89% were male
30% were males between the ages of 20-25
25% were standing under a tree
25% occurred on or near the water

So, young men out by a tree next to the lake, beware or be fried.

Tampa’s hockey team is named the Lightning, and now you know why.

The likelihood of a team from Florida becoming hockey champions is about the same as the chance of getting struck by lightning? The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, in their 12th year of existence.

Just sayin'.

Later, Gator. I'm off to the beach.

Island Economics

The main activity for the day was sailing on Palma Sola Bay and on into the Gulf. To get to the boat club, you turn off the island main road, cross the bay and head east past the access road that is under construction (just like home, nobody working) and drive through a subdivision to return to the edge of the bay. On the way, Mrs. Purple Flag on Saturday saw a brochure tube for a house for sale and couldn't resist. Just reduced, to $1,999,000.00.

Pass.

Out on the boat, a catamaran, we passed through two drawbridges on our way to the Gulf. Bridge tender appears to be a more boring job than being a toll collector.

While out on the boat, I chatted up the captain and learned a little island economics. We paid for the trip with cash. He was setting aside money to pay for fixing his truck, the repairs coming from a mechanic friend who would be paid in cash.

If there was no evening booking on the sailboat, he said he might go work the sort on the fish docks. There, for three or so hours work, he'd bring home a five gallon bucket filled with freshly caught from the gulf Jumbo shrimp for the freezer.

Life on the island has some tangible intangible advantages, and for a lot less than $2 million.

Anna Maria Has Her Way

Here we are, just another day in paradise on Anna Maria Island. There’s a lot of living going on out on this sandbar. This is the not too busy season. There’s a lot of empty parking lots at the cottages and condos. Winter and spring must be crazy crowded and busy here.

Watching the weather out over the Gulf is pretty intriguing. You can see storm centers brew up, with giant high thunderheads in one place heading in one direction while a big dark storm center gathers in another area and heads off in its own direction.

The perception of weather is pretty interesting, too. Tropical storm Eduardo is pretty tame to all the weather people on the tube down here. We turned on WGN Superstation and their talking heads credited Eduardo with much bigger muscles.

There were big, big storms back at home this evening. Meanwhile, lightning strikes entertained us out over the Gulf.

BTW, Maureen, the checkout lady at Publix, recognized us today.

Hmmm..... I’m amused by watching the weather and getting chummy with the old lady at the grocery store.

Is this what retirement is like?

Doing What We Do Best

Today NADM comes to you from Cedar Cove Resort, Anna Maria Island, FLA, USA. It’s an hour from Tampa airport and light years from the rest of the world as we know it. The Gulf of Mexico is in front of us, Palma Sola Bay is behind us. Fresh seafood, gulf breezes, and friendly people are the order of the day.

Getting here, the world exacted its price. We fly infrequently these days and thank heaven. At 4:30 a.m. O’Hare is buzzing with activity, and activity in USA 2008 means subjecting oneself to various indignities in order to get from one place to another.

My god-daughter is traveling with us. She bought her plane ticket after we did. As a reward, American Airlines charged her fifteen bucks to check her bag. Nothing extraordinary about the bag, it’s just the new air travel economy.

I brought my computer on the trip, jamming it in the bag that I carry back and forth to work each day. In the bag is a pocket knife that my daughter brought me from Toledo, Spain. I forgot that the knife was in there. The friendly folks at the TSA found it after a 20 minute examination. It’s a glorified letter opener, but rules are rules, and I understand.

American Airlines understands, too: Twenty five bucks to check it as extra baggage!

So, we were down 40 bucks before we got on the plane. I did a lot better in the Vegas airport, and they have slot machines everywhere.

Remember the slogan?

“We’re American Airlines
Doing what we do best”

Yes, indeed.

Celebrity Madness

How many celebrities have you met, and how did you behave? After the last two days of going thru my "5's", I was thinking about celebs I've encountered and what they thought of the encounter. Going to a "meet the actor/athlete/etc" event doesn't count here, only chance encounters doing what you would have been doing anyway.

We met the actress who played Weezie on the Jeffersons, standing in line with us at DisneyWorld years back. No biggie for either of us, but a pleasant encounter.

Met NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip while we were each paying our bill at a Cracker Barrel. I acted like starstruck teenager, and he's not even that big a deal. My spouse was chatty and charming. I was a nitwit.

Met TV race announcer Jeff Hammond in an elevator. He was extremely charming, made his wife hold all his stuf so he could autograph pictures for everyone. I didn't get stupid this time.

Met Blackhawks' coach Denis Savard a few times. We chatted, he's a good guy.

Years back, met then White Sox manager Tony LaRussa in a bar. He bought drinks.

Met Bill Veeck back at old Comiskey while I was buying tickets, late in winter when no one was around. He invited me and my sidekick to join him for lunch. We had to get back to work. I will regret that decision forever.

Ran into then Governor Jim Thompson on the street one evening. It's a good story for another time.

That's a pretty short list.

Who have you encountered?

I Feel Better About Thorsday

Thursday.

Wednesday is your hump day.

Friday, gateway to the weekend.

Dumpy old Thursday, just marking time every week...BUT WAIT!

Thursday is named after the Norse god, Thor. Thunder in the skies comes from Thor riding his goat-drawn chariot through the heavens, like a GTO for a god.

Thor's hammer,when thrown at a target, returns magically to the owner. The hammer can throw lightning bolts, too. Thor's belt and iron gloves give him the strength to throw the hammer.

Thor likes to fight giants a lot. His wife and mistress are both giantesses. Go figure.

So why the goats? When Thor is hungry he can roast the goats for a meal. When he wants to continue his travels, Thor only needs to touch the remains of the goats and they will be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, assuming that the bones have not been broken.

I didn't make this stuff up, either.

Thursdays look a lot more macho now, huh?

Favorite TV Characters, Women in Reruns

I started to compile my list and discovered that I would need 2 lists, one for my Fave Five from Reruns and one for Fave Five All the Others.

My Rerun group also has some "Honorable Mentions", 'cause there' just too many great female characters. Here goes, let me know who's in your five.

First, the Honorable Mentions: Thelma Lou (she had no last name), Daisy "Granny" Moses, Agent 99, Bailey and Jennifer from WKRP, all the Eight is Enough girls...this list goes on a long, long time, so let's go with the top 5.

5. Miss Jane Hathaway

Sometimes beauty is not skin deep. Miss Jane was efficient, timelessly fashionable, shamelessly turned-on by Jethro, a Biddle Bird Watcher and relentlessly committed to propriety. Her buzzword was a barely restrained "Chief!", voicing her objection to whatever caper Milburn Drysdale was trying to pull.

4. Ginger Grant...or MaryAnn Summers?

I couldn't choose. They inspired endless debates, still going on today in bars and rec rooms: Ginger or MaryAnn? I wanted to be a castaway. The Skipper was old and fat, Gilligan was a dunce, the Professor a nerd, and Thurston Howell III was always under Lovey's watchful eye. Were I a castaway, both would be mine!

So, Ginger...or MaryAnn?

Bet you didn't know MaryAnn's last name before...

3. Samantha Stephens

When I was a little kid, I was hopelessly enamored with the beautiful witch. I knew that she couldn't really wiggle her nose, either, she shifted her mouth around so it looked like her nose moved, but that was OK. I wanted to be Darrin, and I think the original Darrin was way better than the replacement Darrin. I figured that Sam could nose-twitch me a new car, a million dollars, a new baseball mitt...come on, I was a little kid. When Samantha's dark haired sister came to visit it was like a Ginger vs. MaryAnne match up. How could you lose?
2. Laura Petrie
I still think that every guy would love to have a wife who can launch into a dance number at the drop of a hat. Laura would do that "OHHH, ROB!" thing and Rob would comfort her "it's ok, Honey" and then she'd start dancing, that kind of samba/tango thing in the black pants and sweater, and everything would be OK, as long as that battle-ax Sally stayed away.

1. Lisa Douglas

The chores...da ta ta dum dum...The Stores!

Fresh air...da ta ta dum dum..Times Square!

You are my wife...

Good - byyyye, city life...
Lisa flounced around in a gorgeous negligees, made lots of hotscakes, conversed with a pig and was always meticulously coiffed and made up even though there were no salons or spas anywhere around. She charmed everyone while husband Oliver Wendell Douglass was always in a pickle of some sort.

This has been a Filmways presentation, dahling....

Favorite TV Characters

Almost every one of us spends a lot of time staring at TV. It's entertainment, information, a fifty yard line seat, background noise and more. There's thousands of performers that come thru our homes over thousands of hours. Some characters stand out from the crowd. Here's my top 5 male TV characters. Who's yours?

5. Fred Mertz
Fred was living large way while his TV peers were slaving away. No kids, no job, no problem...other than Ethel.

4. Dwight Schrute
The psychotic, intensely loyal and potentially lethal wingman on The Office. Every boss should have a Dwight.

3. Kramer
Cosmo Kramer sold his memoirs to Peterman, coached a Miss America contestant, adopted a highway and drove the dealer's demo car the furthest past empty ever. He launched a rickshaw company with Newman, fed the carriage horse a can of pork 'n beans, moved in with the Costanzas, and became the MoviePhone guy. There's more, too much more.

2. Barney Fife

Mayberry's #2 lawman has timeless moments. There's Barney singing "Juanita" to the diner waitress on the ancient courthouse phone, Barney's "here at The Rock we have 2 rules" speech to a prisoner, and every time he went up against Ernest T. Bass. Oh, yeah, can't forget the time he registered at a hotel as Barney Fife, M.D. Stands for Mayberry Deputy, Ange.

1. Homer SimpsonHomer has had incredible adventures during his 15 years as Everyman, way too many to recount. My all time favorite is when he purposely became legally obese in order to work from home, then got a bobbing stork toy to do his job for him. Homer's best quality: he's made millions and millions for the guy who draws him and the guy who is Homer's voice.

Send me your favorites. Tomorrow, my top 5 female TV characters.

Rock 'n Roll, Relevant Again

If you watched American Idol ,(in my home you have little alternative) as I occasionally did, you may recall seeing Graham Nash perform an acoustic duet with the cute little blond girl who looks like Nancy Travis. She lost (I don't remember -already- who won), but the rendition of "Teach Your Children" started a chain of events.

I decided that if Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were touring, I was going to see them. Again. Their website said they were launching a tour in June, starting on the west coast and heading across the country over eight or ten weeks.

The Chicago date said "Radio Show", no location or time. Just "Radio Show". No other information. I did more research and came up empty as far as the Chicago show.

No problem, they were headed for South Bend after Chicago, a manageable hour and a half drive.

Problem. South Bend was already sold out. Back to the schedule I went, finding a concert date at a casino in Iowa. No problem, just a little longer drive in the other direction.

Problem. The casino is on the west side of Iowa, the side that borders Nevada or the Phillipines or whatever. Check the schedule again.

Minneapolis. Pass, no comment.

Then, a ray of light. The Chicago show was to be a private concert at the Rosemont Theatre, sponsored by FM radio station WDRV 97.1, a 7th birthday party the station was throwing for itself. They hired Crosby, Stills & Nash (Young is doing something in Holland, the wooden shoe and windmills Holland, not the one in Michigan) and they were giving away all the tickets!

Knock me over with a feather, I won a pair of tickets.

The show was terrific. CSN has re-tempo'd a few songs, slowing them down to be a little more perform-able for guys who are 39 years removed from their first Chicago appearance. The revisions work just fine. There was a wedding bouquet of music: some things old, some things new, a few songs borrowed and a little bit of Steven Stills blues guitar.

CSN is still, 40+ years after they started, embracing politics in their music. More striking is that some of their music is relevant again. Not still relevant, but relevant again. When Nash started wailing about "Military Madness", there was a discernable emotional response from the audience. A few hollered in support, many seemed uncertain as to whether this was an acceptable reaction, at least one started hollering his objection to the message.

The pro-peace, anti-war, anti-administration message gained acceptance and support from the audience as it was played up for a stretch of a few songs plus some banter from the band. They moved on into another segment, but CSN had made their statement, just as they always have.

The show was wonderful. I'm a big CSN fan and I had my fill. I've now seen them at the Chicago Stadium, the United Center and this most recent, more intimate performance. The audience was decidedly middle aged, happier to sit and listen than to stand and interact.

The lingering sentiment, aside from the "I love their music" feeling, is that we are in a different day. Politics and music aren't interwoven very frequently, and nobody seems to get very excited about the things that used to make us very excited. Read about GenX, GenY and whatever follows and you read about people who are into getting everything for themselves and getting it right now. The Boomers, by comparison, sang and spoke and acted upon everything that mattered to the group. Seems that very little of that migrated to the successors.

Teach your children.

So What if Norbit Sucked

I watched Eddie Murphy's movie "Norbit" the other day. It's predictable and not too funny and started me thinking. My thought was that Eddie Murphy is the Jerry Lewis of another generation. Murphy frequently plays multiple roles in his movies, the movies aren't always all that funny and he's even reprised Jerry Lewis' roles -the Nutty Professor, I and II.

So off I went to research my hypotheses. The answer: right shape/wrong size.

Eddie Murphy is, um, really something special. Here's some of the facts:

33 feature film credits, plus projects booked two years into the future

• the first film was "48 Hours" in 1982
  
• he is the highest grossing filmstar IN HISTORY, grossing over $3,400,000,000. That would be $3.4 BILLION


• he is an award winning voice actor: Donkey in the "Shrek" films, Thurgood Stubbs in "PJ's" and the Dragon in "Mulan"


• he started with "Saturday Night Live" at age 19 in 1980


• he turned down a role in "Ghostbusters"
  
• he had a successful singing career (I don't remember it, either)


• he was nominated for an Oscar for "Dreamgirls"


• he has 4 sons, and 4 daughters by 4 women (Jerry's kids, no pun intended, all have the same mother)


• he's 47 years old


• he was influenced by Richard Pryor, Peter Sellers, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, Elvis and....JERRY LEWIS!
  
  So, there's a link between the two,, but Eddie Murphy is a unique success.
  *************
  This week, the racers take to the Pocono triangle. The investment selection for this weekend is Kyle Busch for the checkers, Jeff Burton for a top 5. Watch the anthem and the flyover, then nap thru the middle and watch the exciting (maybe) finish. This week has to be more entertaining than last Sunday's yawner.