About Last Night

I stayed up and watched as America made history last night. Some thoughts:

WGN TV should get an award for the visuals that it supplied from Grant Park last night. There were so many great pictures of the people in the audience, faces illuminated with joy and happiness, it was magnificent to view.

• The crowd estimates were classic Chicago: the reporters said 65,000, city officials said 125,000, and the mayor said a million. Other than that, last night Chicago went a long way to distance itself from the biggest-hick-town-in-the-world behavior that normally characterizes big events.
• WGN's on-site reporter was Jackie Bange, who stepped up and set herself apart with a top notch performance, sharing insight and showing restraint. Bravo!
• WGN's studio crew: their guest list was excellent, host Mark Suppelsa isn't quite to the level of Channel 7's Ron Magers (whom I now consider to be the top dog) and co-host Micah Materre isn't big news material. Suppelsa, a very likable fellow, was rather windy, and Materre, well, she appeared to be out of her element.
• Dennis Hastert is a crotchety old fart. Toni Preckwinkle is an excellent communicator, even though she always looks irritated. The political commentator, whose name I must go look up, was one of the most eloquent people on TV last night, local or national.
• Channel 7's Andy Shaw botched his big moment, telling us that his ABC network had not yet projected a winner, that coming just seconds after we saw that ABC projected Barack to be the winner.
• The woman who sang the national anthem should have had the words in front of her, what an embarassment!
• John McCain's concession speech was the most effective communication I've ever seen from him. It was another example of a candidate who has shown us a better side of himself too late. He was graceful, elegant and in control...too late.
• Barack's victory speech was a big step up in class; I was spellbound.
• The conclusion of the speech, when everyone had left him alone onstage, was incredible. He waved to the crowd, turned and walked to the back of the stage, where Michelle was waiting, her hand outstretched. He took her hand and they walked to the side curtain together, pausing and turning to each other for the briefest of moments before exiting. It was a unique, warm and exciting moment.
• From the sublime to the ridiculous: Jesse Jackson seems to have become irrelevant, and I wish the TV people would treat him that way and spare us the mumbly mumbles and history Jesse-style that comes with putting him on camera.
• Tony Peraica should go away.
• Likewise for Jim Oberweis, who is now 0-5.
• Paul Vallas reminds me of John Lithgow on Third Rock from the Sun. Doesn't matter what he's saying, all I can see is Third Rock.
• Fox 32 had snippy Lauren Cohn on their coverage. That's how I chose Channel 9.
• I didn't see Richie Daley, anywhere at all.
• My daughter texted me at 10:10 p.m. a simple message: God Bless America.
• Yes.

That is all.

U.S.A. VOTES TODAY!!!

Week 10 Football Scoreboard

More W's than L's this weekend, lovin' it. The investment portforlio, on the other hand, had its most miserable weekend in history.
Go vote tomorrow!

Iowa @ Illinois –2
Illinois 27, Iowa 24
Both teams will have 5-4 records come Sunday morning.The over and under on this game is 50. It will have gone over before its over .
This isn't exactly how I thought it would come out, but the numbers work.
"W"
Northwestern @ Minnesota –7
NU 24, Minnesota 17
The ‘Cats lost their leading rusher and probably their quarterback
Yes, they did, and the replacement for those two was Mike Kafka, the 'Cats QB who ran for over 220 yards as Northwestern hikes its record to 7-2.
"L"
Iowa State @ Oklahoma State –30.5
OK State 59, Iowa State 17
they are going to score 1.3million points against the Cyclones
Not quite a million, but yee-ha!
"W"
Missouri –21.5 @ Baylor
Mizzou 31, Baylor 28
The money is huge in favor of Mizzou.
Sometimes it's good to be a casino. Hell, it's always good to be the casino!
"L"
Washington @USC –45
Pete Carroll 56, Tyrone Willingham 0
I look for Pete Carroll’s Trojans to try to annihilate Tyrone’s Washington. 45’s a lot of points. Buckle up!
"W"
Wisconsin @ Michigan State –5
MSU 25, Wisconsin24
Sparty booted a last second field goal to win by a point. Not enough to cover.
"L"
Washington State at Stanford –30.5
Stanford 58, Washington State 0
Jim Harbaugh’s Cardinal don’t get many opportunities to really paste anyone, so they’re unlikely to pass this one up.
They didn't...
"W"

Four wins, three losses, one game closer to .500. Season record 33-35-2.

Point Spread Mania

Gotta move fast, strike and score today. We have ground to make up: a .500 record is within stiking distance. Trick or treat?

Iowa @ Illinois –2
Up and down, down and up, the Illini, the highly talented, highly touted Illini, are 4-4 as they welcome the Iowa Hawkeyes to Champaign. The Illini got whupped by Wisconsin last week, 27-17. The Hawks are on a two game win streak, interrupted with a bye week. They have a 5-3 record and are feeling reborn. Both teams will have 5-4 records come Sunday morning.
The over and under on this game is 50. It will have gone over before its over .

Northwestern @ Minnesota –7
The ‘Cats lost their leading rusher and probably their quarterback to injury in last week’s disaster at Indiana. Omar Conteh will do well as the running back. Mike Kafka, well, the jury’s out on him as the QB. Minnesota is 4-0 at home in the dome. Minnesota stays undefeated, and the scoring stays under the 44 point limit.

Iowa State @ Oklahoma State –30.5
I have a weakness for big spread games. OK State lost to #1 Texas last week, and they are going to score 1.3million points against the Cyclones this week to make themselves feel better.

Missouri –21.5 @ Baylor
It’s getting to the time of year when coaches like to pile it on to try to shine up their teams’ rankings. The money is huge in favor of Mizzou. Take ‘em.

Washington @USC –45
I look for Pete Carroll’s Trojans to try to annihilate Tyrone’s Washington. 45’s a lot of points. Buckle up!

Wisconsin @ Michigan State –5
Sparty is going to send the Badgers back to the other side of the pond with a butt whippin’. Wisconsin used up their charms last week on the Illini.

Washington State at Stanford –30.5
Washington State is inept. That is by acclaim. Jim Harbaugh’s Cardinal don’t get many opportunities to really paste anyone, so they’re unlikely to pass this one up.

Spring Ahead, Fall Behind

The ritual of changing the clocks is one of the dumbest acts we humans have programmed for ourselves.

In the 1880's, the railroads in North America instituted standard time zones. This seems to me to have been a really good idea, particularly for the railroads. Imaging chugging your big ol' iron horse into Podunk, Iowa, and having the conductor leap to the station platform and pull out his stopwatch to check to see that the train's on time. He notices there isn't a soul in sight to board the train. He walks in to the station, where the station master informs him of the source of his error. "Here in Podunk, we're on Iowa reformed time, yessir, so your train should have been here 37 minutes ago, or we might be waiting for you in an hour or so, unless this is the fourth Tuesday of thresher season., when you were here yesterday."

So we got standard time zones, including Canada, because you know how troublesome those Canadians could be, with their Mounties and their grizzly bears and their mountain men and all.

In 1918 the Standard Time Act was established and daylight savings time came with it. It was so popular that the act was repealed in 1919. Daylight savings time became a "local matter".

In February 1942 daylight savings time was reinstituted on a national scale, staying in place until September of 1945. For the next twenty years, America would wander through space and time, with no one telling it to change clocks.

Then came 1966 and the Uniform Time Act, stipulating that the clocks would go back and forth on the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October. Except where local custom prevailed.

Then came the energy crisis. In response to widespread gas shortages, increasing prices and long lines at the pump, our American Congress responded with earlier starting dates for daylight savings time. In 1974, when there was no gasoline to put in your Chrysler Cordoba with the soft Corinthian leather upholstery, daylight savings time began on January 6. Hip-hip, hooray!? Hold on, there, Ricardo. That didn't solve everything, so daylight savings time was changed to February 23 for 1975. Huzzah!? No.

In 1976 we went back to the April dates. We disco'd on.

In 1986, another revelation occurred. It seems we had the start date wrong (oh, no!), so that date was revised to the first Sunday of April for 1987. The ending date, thankfully, was unchanged, to the relief of the nation.

For nearly twenty years this appeared to be the solution (I'm sorry, I don't recall what the problem was/is, but we are all about solutions!). Then, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed (and we all know how well that's been going, the whole American National Energy Policy thing) and it decreed that thou shalt wait until MMVII and changeth the daylight savings timeth to begin on the second Sunday of March and maintaineth this time until the first Sunday in November.

So that's where we're at now in MMVIII, and three billion Chinese don't give a year of the rat's ass what time it is in Podunk where there's still nobody on the train, and you still gotta remember to change all those clocks in your house and your car and maybe your cellphone unless it's automatic and the guy on the Sunday morning polka show will laugh and remind you to fix the Betamax clock, too. Solutions, that's what we're all about here, solutions.

That is all.