I've been listening to John Lee Hooker's 1978 live album "The Cream". Seriously some good stuff. I had forgotten I had this on here. Very laid back Blues.

-o-

a 1966 crowd: "BOOOOO!!!" "Judas!!"
(intro chords to "One Too Many Mornings" begins)
crowd: "Go home!" "Traitor!"
(The Band begins to play)
Zimmy: "Down the street the dogs are barkin'
And the day is a-gettin' dark.
As the night comes in a-fallin',
The dogs 'll lose their bark."

Without doubt, the best live album I have ever heard or owned, is Bob Dylan Live 1966. 1st half of the show is Dylan with just acoustic guitar & harmonica met with loud applause, and the 2nd half is Dylan on electric guitar backed by The Band, greeted with not-as thunderous applause but with unfortunately some heckling as well, with of course no encore. Also Levon Helm was not the drummer on that tour, that would be Mickey Jones, who if you ever watched "Home Improvement" when the construction workers came on "Tool Time", and when the last worker was introduced as "Pete", a long-haired and bearded enlarged Jones would say "...That would be me!" How cool would that to be say you were on that tour! As you recall, he also played "plastic red gasoline drums" on a segment.

Now this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOCBRkXlg-c until a few hours ago, was just some distant 1980s song I remember hearing on the radio & during White Sox games on TV right before they went to commercial, I did not know this was a George Harrison song or a #1 1988 song. I hadn't heard this song in 20 years, and back then I sure as hell didn't know what the Beatles were. With the exception of some early 80s Talking Heads & Van Halen, I really don't listen or like 80s music at all. But man, catchy riffs and ridiculously repetitive but memorable, and even tho with the video's 1950s wannabe look of hanging out with Potsie at the soda shop with greased up hair on the dudes and the song being a 1962 cover, the mentioning of money reminds us what the 1980s were totally about: money.

Now this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFVJLoUbQAw I hadn't thought about since it last aired on Fox! Oh my god, Jim Carrey was dangerously funny on In Living Color. I remember watching this on tape like 10 times in a row while laughing my ass off every single time, and also reminded me that I used to do a Vera deMilo steroid infested woman impression, even before the vocal chords had cracked yet. I never felt Carrey ever reached his potential in movies (I've seen about 5 or 6 of them) like he did on this show.

And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2llL9Z-82Qo was cla$$ic back in the day. Love the look Smigel had in the drive-thru window. And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMpm0-uOBws thrown in for good measure.

Man, I am still mentally and physically exhausted from that game. I did stay up and watched / listened to the whole game, all 4 hours and 50 minutes of it. I was at a friend's house while we had our traditional All Star Game barbq, and I had to drive home because it was midnight and he had to to get up early for work. We had grilled burgers. I had 1 1/2 burgers on a toasted bun with white cheddar, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes and sweet onion with some coleslaw. The little Boston Terrier there wanted some of my burger so badly, but I had to keep telling him, "No, Henry! This is 'people food' !"

What can I say about this game? It was absolutely poorly managed, and the unthinkable almost happened: running out of players and a tie. The traditionalist in me wanted to see the game end in a tie. That would had been splendid for those of us who hate Bud Selig and his stupid rhetoric. Stupid idiot managers burned through their rosters way too quick and the result was second-tier players playing most of the game. If you had A-Rod or Pujols on your team, why in the hell would you pull them early in the game?? It makes no sense. You should play your best players as much as possible if the games actually count for something. These managers did not do that.

It wouldn't be a baseball game if it weren't for bad calls ('Umpire is still a stupid dickhead' as I always say). 2 blown stolen base calls. Piss-poor strikezone. The American League was about as anti-clutch as you can get, going 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position. I think it's absolutely horrible when you load the bases in an inning with nobody out and you get all of your outs at home plate. But, it is an All Star Game and not some turd team with a tard bullpen, it is the best of the best, supposedly, and those National League pitchers knew to throw breaking ball stuff down low to induce ground balls.

Am I happy the A.L. won for a 6th time in a row and haven't lost in their last 12 games? Honestly, I couldn't care less. And this stupid gimmick cost my '05 White Sox from clinching the World Series at home (and the rotation would have had Houston home field advantage) so I'll use every ounce of ammunition against Bud Selig that I can get. I am going to assume the reason why fans don't care about the baseball All Star Game is partly because of the flawed fan voting and extremely flawed online fan voting, superstars getting taken out of the game and leaving early (Frank Thomas, A-Rod - looking at you) while we're left with a bunch of crummy All Stars, along with the dilution that Interleague Play has brought to the game.

But a tie game would had been sweet. Now what would Bud Selig and his adult diapers have done if that happened?? Actually logically give home field advantage to the team with the better record? Shockingly! Now if baseball would just lie down, relax and let the Traditionalist do the job that he has to do and everything would be allllllllllllllllll right.

Perhaps I'm a bit behind by a few months, but a recap on canceled shows of 2007-08.

1 vs 100, NBC 10/13/06 -2/22/08. Well, Saget certainly didn't last as long as the ever-annoying and staged America's Funniest Home Videos. This game show had a few amusing moments, which included a young and crazy bearded "bad clown" contestant and a Dave Chappelle reference, which unfortunately did not get a reference to Saget's cameo in "Half Baked", one of the funniest cameos in the history of time. This game show was frustrating, because it never got to the point of 1 vs 1, and even if they did get to the highest money amount and there was still people left, they'd keep rolling it over. This show was at least a little more interesting than the tapdancing crapola of Deal or No Deal, where Howie Mandel frantically continues his quest of not touching anything dirty.

Back to You, FOX 9/19/07 -5/14/08. Wow, this was a real shocker, eh? This show was deemed "the last hope for the multi-camera sitcom". Well, it's dead. If a show that was basically a Murphy Brown rip-off, with two stars from two former powerhouse sitcoms and Fred Willard can't gain an audience, well then, I don't know what would. I find it hilarious that Patrica Heaton said on Rachael Ray that she felt "this show is gonna be on for a long, long time". No. Sitcom-lite was all this ever was.

Girlfriends, CW 9/11/00 - 2/11/08. A long running show that I never even once watched. Another multi-camera sitcom that dies.

Judge Maria Lopez. Syndication 9/11/06- 2/13/08. Again, a show that I never even once watched. "Look Judge Lopez, I don't know how many cartons of cigarettes a day you smoke, but you're not a judge, you're just a small claims arbitrator. Now I'm "getting outta your courtroom". I don't know how many hours of commercials worth I saw of this woman on my WCIU station, but my vocal impression of her sounds like an angry Bozo the Clown.

Kid Nation, CBS 9/19/07 -12/12/07. Man, who were the ad wizards who came up with this one?? I heard something that the show ended when after they had resorted to cannibalism, the final child died after he couldn't eat anymore of himself.

The Montel Williams Show, Syndication 9/30/91 - 5/16/08. Wow, this show was on for a LONG time. I don't think my voice had even cracked yet when this debuted! One of my favorite moments of this show is when they had some young couple on, and he got annoyed and he retorted "Oh quit your crying, girl!" Tho unfortunately, he has been reduced in late night sketch comedy as nothing more than a pro-marijuana activist dopehead.

............................................................. That's a bunched up list of 2007-08 shows that kicked the bucket in deemed the worst cla$$ of shows ever.

What I learned and stopped watching:

Bones. This show is ridiculous. "Alright people, throw that pile of bones prop back on the table again and we'll come up with another crazy story behind it!"
How I Met Your Mother. Britney Spears = Jumping the Shark. Never again and the show's writing took a turn for the worse.
My Name is Earl. Paris Hilton = Jumping the Shark. I know I wrote about this last year, even I get tired of the tough luck / happy endings and the List.
Hell's Kitchen. Worst. Season. Ever. I'll spare you all the details of an overly long, piss-poor talent that some kid won. But this season really sucked. It had the worst kind of drama, completely inferior cooks and tired and predictable redundancy.
House. I stopped watching during the strike because that show too has become ridiculous. I'll start watching again come the Fall, but I heard at least that awful Amber died on the show! Yay!

One week from now the 79th All Star Game will be at Yankee Stadium's final season. 25 years ago Comiskey Park had its final All Star Game. I knew I had a picture, but it was in really bad color so I changed it to black & white. What's different about the game today than back then? Rosters were smaller back then. Today it's a ridiculous 32 players per team. The DH rule was not enforced in A.L. parks. Games started around 5pm, unlike today's near 8pm Central Time. They also didn't have the stupid rule of the winning league getting home field advantage in the World Series since 2003, which is unfair so far, especially since the A.L. is 5-0.

What do I remember from the '83 game? Nothing, because I was too young and was probably watching Mork & Mindy reruns on WFLD at the time. Eventually I'd find the starting lineup intro's on Youtube, which was pretty cool. Sox rookie outfield slugger and eventual A.L. rookie of the year Ron Kittle would get the biggest standing ovation from the crowd. It also featured the last game for Red Sox great HOFer Carl Yastrzemski who was retiring, and the game featured the only grand slam ever in ASG history, by Fred Lynn.

Back then there was also league pride, which is pretty much unheard of these days. Players took the game seriously. Now, we see players declining invitations so they can stay home and rest, others leave the game early after they're taken out, many use it as a bargaining chip for contract negotiations, and it's turned into some week-long media circus and convention, with so much preview garbage. Plus tickets are really expensive and hard to come by. When the ASG rolled around here in 2003 for New Comiskey Park/U.S. Cellular Field's first time, I didn't even bother getting tickets. So not worth it and had very little interest in going. Last year in San Francisco, they had Giants HOFer great Willie Mays hauled out from the outfield in a pink convertible throwing baseballs to various fans. WTF??!! Please. Baseball doesn't need cheesy tactics like this. It's lame.

Now this brings us to 2008. I have to say, I am not pleased with some selections. Joe Crede does NOT deserve to be an All Star. 17 errors by the 3rd baseman, hitting stats are middle to near the bottom amongst A.L. 3rd basemen. Jermaine Dye should had been the White Sox picked over Crede. Plus with manager Terry Francona filling up the roster with Red Sox, inexplicably the players voted catcher Jason Varitek, who I last saw was hitting .215! No hitter, batting a lousy .215 deserves to be in ANY All Star Game. It's ridiculous. It's things like that are why fans don't care about the game anymore, Bud Selig. I propose we take away fan voting, because most of them go by name recognition rather than actually looking up stats (broken down old man Ken Griffey Jr lost his outfield spot in the popular vote in the last week) and it's clear that the players are idiots as well in their say for the hitting reserves. The managers pick out the pitching staff.

So what do we do? First, we take way World Series home field advantage. 2nd, take away the fan's & player's vote and the manager's picks. Invent some kind of point system that rewards the very best. For hitters, say 1 point for every game played at the position, every hit, every RBI & walk & SB, but -1 for every K & CS & E. So this way perhaps the singles hitters aren't punished for not hitting homeruns. Pitching, 2 points for a win, 1 point for a K, -1 for a BB or H, 1 point for every 1/3rd inning, -3 points for every earned run, and 2 points per save. I don't know, it could work with some tinkering. That way we don't have too much punishment for pitchers with low Win/Loss records or outdated ballots that lists Detroit's Miguel Cabrera is 4th in voting who doesn't play 3rd base anymore. And no more online voting either. It's a waste of energy and paper ballots are a waste of paper. Or maybe my gimmick is just as bad as the current system.

This entry almost didn't happen. When I lose at tennis, I don't like to write or remember about it. Yesterday we only played 2 sets, despite it being a great but too windy day with a rare strong and weird northeast wind. Having not played since Memorial Day, I was a bit rusty. We had a 'record' 5 consecutive service games until I screwed up and lost the 6th game played in the set, I ended up losing 6-4. I was serving way too hard and my accuracy was way off. 2nd set I eased up midway and after being down 4-1, I came back and won 6-4. I didn't get sunburned except for my nose & face despite wearing a cap & used some of that anti-stinging / anti-greasy blue bottled athletic DNA-altering sunscreen that CNN hates. My friend got pissed that I eased up, because he was waiting so much farther back and ended up with these softer shots, but I keep telling him, "pitchers don't throw fastballs every time. They throw changeups and curveballs as well."

As for the 4th of July, I will be doing nothing. I'm too sore from tennis. Illinois has a ban on fireworks, probably since at least the mid 1980s, probably so all those stupid little kids in Chicago don't blow their hands off or stick a lit firecracker in their mouths. People here go to either Wisconsin or Indiana for their (illegal) fireworks. Here, everything but sparklers and smoke bombs are banned, especially anything that can go up a few feet in the air. And if you do want to shoot off fireworks, you have to obtain a special and extremely hard-to-get permit. Illinois could make a lot of money selling fireworks if they put a fireworks tax on them. My favorite growing up were Moon Traveler Bottle Rockets. Cheap, loud, plentiful and you can use them at anytime of the day. I remember my dad loved these red mini-sticks of dynamite, where he'd like, in the backyard, put it in a soup can, light it, and then put the garage oil changing collecting pan upside down over it, and the can would shoot up 30 to 40 feet in the air.

Never again: I followed a Rachael Ray recipe. Oven baked onion rings. Sounds simple enough; idiot proof. But no. Recipe took twice as long, was gritty and was essentially the equivalent of eating sand. You also shouldn't follow her recipes because they are extremely high in calories. No Rachael Ray, not "everything in moderation".... instead "eat like you're not an idiot". And everybody knows you have an unhealthy fetish with bacon.

Interleague Play and its idiot 18 games finally ended this earlier this week. I noticed Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't like Interleague Play either, and he's given up fighting it. I sent an email to the White Sox Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, telling him that Interleague Play is flawed by design, the old system was better and let Reinsdorf know not all fans like it. Scott replied and said (or at least humoring me) that he'd forward my email to Reinsdorf, which I thought was pretty cool. Nobody I know personally likes Interleague Play; especially N.L. fans, and I don't want to see crummy teams from the other league at the ballpark. And before I start to sound like Bob Sirott and complain about everything that is not old, I'll end this blog post.

I used to do that when I worked in construction & with my electrician dad. But I am here today to talk about something that's not very pleasant that's been going on in baseball for the past couple of weeks. It is Interleague Play. Every year since only 1997, around mid-June common sense stops in baseball, and teams are forced to play 18 Interleague games, including 6 against your "Natural Rival", which only works in about 4 places. Most teams, don't even have a rival close by, like Seattle, or Colorado, or Tampa, which makes the system even stupider.

I come to you today as a baseball "elitist traditionalist & purist", also referred to as "that miserable bitter pissed-off awful old rotten baseball fan in the room". One doesn't become one of these by accident. It took many, many years, thousands of articles, games, radio & documentaries to form such a view. Then a choice has to be made on whether or not you agree with the current system. I of course do not. From an Economic standpoint, it was a great idea to build new ballparks, expand and have Interleague Play. But of course, for the price of sanity, logic and soul.

I would consider the last time I was completely content with baseball was 1993. This was the last year of 4 divisions and no Wild Card. Growing up as a baseball fan since 1987, nothing seemed more absurd to me than a 2nd place team making the playoffs. It just didn't seem right. Other sports did it, but that's *them*, so I understood that. They're not as great as baseball. When baseball went to 6 divisions in 1994, they doubled the playoff teams which makes it easier to kick out the teams with the best records since there is no bye in the playoffs, and with a Wild Card in each league, it makes the regular season not mean as much, and you can settle having "the 2nd best record in the division". The idea of a true pennant race had been killed. Then suddenly this new magical playoff and division structure wasn't exciting enough, and too many people got this idea that they wanted to see more different teams in their ballparks, with players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Thomas or Sammy Sosa, so Interleague Play was born to play your division's league opposite. Then people started complaining, saying "oh but my team is in this division, and those guys aren't in any of the opposite divisions!" so they started a completely random rotation in 2002.

What doesn't work about this, is when you have uneven leagues & divisions and an unbalanced schedule, you get 30 different strength schedules in baseball. It's not right, it's not fair and it's not logical. 1996 apparently was the last time teams played with a balanced schedule, meaning you play everyone in the league the same amount of times (or off by 1, since the schedule was 162 games with 13 opponents). This balanced system is the most right, fair and logical. Natural Rivals add a lot of insanity to the unbalanced schedule. Some teams get really easy teams like the Orioles, while others get the really hard Red Sox, which isn't fair to their division foes or themselves. A.L. teams lose their big DH bat coming to the N.L. parks, but the A.L. overwhelmingly has a higher winning % in these contests.

Bad things happen to a sport when it caters to the casual, uneducated idiot fan who says "I want this!" and "I want that!" Let's take the White Sox / Cubs series. 63 games played. After the past 3 day's losses, the Sox are now 30-33 against the Cubs. I don't like losing to the Cubs. It's not a pleasant thing, especially when you're amongst Cubs fans in your everyday life. Of all the people who love to get up in the rivalry, people forget that these games actually count in the standings, and there is not any significant benefit to playing against the Cubs. I would still be singing the same tune if the Sox were winning the series, because of who I am. It's an idea that should have never been allowed to happen, and it's something that should only been done on video games.

I hope the next Commissioner, whoever it is, is a purist and is old school. I would get rid of Interleague Play, balance the schedule out, raise the seams on the baseball so the pitchers would get some help, I'd slowly raise the mound back up to 16", I'd order teams to make their walls higher so there's no confusion on what's a homerun or not. I'd widen the strike zone from the letters to below the knees, ban those ugly Coolflo batting helmets, require to show your socks / ban the long pants, get rid of the Wild Card, schedule more day games & Sunday doubleheaders to get more off days and shorten up the playing calender. Something is wrong when your first and last games of your season are in the snowing months. Oh and I'd ban all commercial music in ballparks as well.

To wrap this entry up, I'm to ask if anyone has any good baseball books to recommend. Someone suggested "Moneyball", which I'm going get cheap on Amazon. I read Goose Gossage's book when it came out 10 years ago, and I have to say, the man is not very interesting at all. Books I have particularly enjoyed were George F. Will's collection of columns and short essays in "Bunts", and Bob Costas's "Fair Ball", based on the Economic state of baseball in the early 2000's. I've also considered reading Ted Williams's "The Science of Hitting". I'm not the type read something like Jim Bouton's "Ball Four". There was a book that I read in Middle School by Tom Seaver that showed you how to pitch and train correctly, but I don't remember the name, and it was made before 1993. It might had been "Pitching with Tom Seaver". I figured if I was going learn how to pitch, it should be from someone like him, only the highest % Hall of Fame balloter ever.

Well here is the 2nd banner, consisting of White Sox graphics from 1976-1981, with a pic from the 1970s of White Sox television announcer Harry Caray before the game to cheer the crowd on our White Sox to victory! He probably a few Falstaff beers in him by this time, that then being the official beer of the Chicago White Sox. Harry was a Sox announcer from 1973-1981. Legend has it that Harry started his 7th inning stretch singing of "Take me out to the ballgame" by accident, "Habitually singing the song in the broadcast booth when it played by organist Nancy Faust, Caray was doing it one afternoon when WMAQ-AM radio producer/broadcaster Jay Scott decided to open the booth mikes on him without his realizing it." It caught on and it stuck with him for the rest of his career, where it became the farce that it is today on "the other side" of town.

The new team graphics were considered traditional and modern, the "CHICAGO" script was from the 1902-1916 & 1930-1931 road uniforms that were navy with white letters, and the script would be red with navy trim on grey roads from 1932-1938. The same script $tyle would be used for the '76-'81 uniform's numbers & the names on the back. The modern "SOX" lettering was inspired from an early 1900s pic of owner Charles Comiskey with a Sox pennant:

Bill Veeck had purchased the team for the 2nd time in December 1975 to prevent the White Sox from moving to Denver, and changed the red & powder blue uniforms of the early 1970s to navy & white. What was unique, was the ridiculous modern floppy collars on the jersey, a pullover no-tuck $tyle and striped socks & no stirrups. They had 4 uniform combinations during this era, from all white & white top / navy pants for home, and all navy & navy top / white pants for the road. Both jerseys said "CHICAGO" on them. They also wore shorts at least 3 times in 1976 which were made by Veeck's wife and were mocked by all:

Who likes short-shorts? Not me.

"They say in the blog business, 'If you put that on the internet, people will read it!' "

That is so true. After hearing that the price of crude oil went up $10 a barrel last night, I decided it's time to fill up the car as soon as possible. I went to Chicagogasprices.com and looked up stations near me. Said $4.09 as of 5am this morning. So I get there, and it's $4.19. Across the street that station was at $4.06. Pump took forever (I'm talking like a 15 minute pumping), but here's the final tally: Pump #5 / self pump. $4.069 / g Volume 14.523 GAL. Total: $59.12

I have to say, that's the most I've ever spent on gas in my life. I've been driving around on $3.31 gas. When I was a kid, I could fill up the '88 Dodge Aries ('The Pimp Dodge' as we called it, in cruel mockery) with $10, which got 22 city / 28 highway mpg. My '02 Camry gets 21 city / 30 highway. I don't speed, I don't make fast starts, nor do I turn on the A/C. I change my own oil and keep track of all my fluids, filters and tires.

It is hot. It is humid. It is windy. Dew Point is 70 degrees, which is Tropical air. It is sticky, tornado watches are on, and severe storms are building as I speak all afternoon. I can honestly say I'm a Winter person now. I can handle the cold a lot better than I can handle the heat. -20 below zero doesn't bother me as much as 85 degrees. Perhaps I should move to a hoose aboot in Can-o-da where it doesn't get so hot don'tyaknow.

I now have a TV digital converter box for Broadcast signal. A Zenith DTT 900. And I have to say, I love it. LOVE it! I now get 36 channels, clear and with no static or bouncing. Plus 2 weather channels that I can watch all the time. Now the bad: Broadcast signals are a weird thing, and their strength changes hour by hour. There's a signal button you push on the remote that shows you how strong the signal is. Unless you get a 50% or better signal, you're not going to get sound & your picture will look scrambled or blank. CBS & ABC seem to have this problem, tho it depends on the time of day. NBC seems to be the most consistent. Apparently these stations alternate between antennaes and it is rather annoying. That would suck to lose picture if you're watching a new show. Oh and apparently if you want to tape something, you have to make sure you have the right channel on the converter box, since if you have it going through the VCR because the VCR will always be on channel 3. Reminds me of my first VCR as a kid. No menu screen, only 24 hour / 1 channel manual program recording.

It seems like the past month, I've done more feedback than I ever have in my life. I've written numerous well-thought out to various companies, wondering if my feedback is actually being read. Today I wrote to Long John Silvers, one of my favorite fast food places, until about 5 years ago when I learned about the extremely high Trans fat content in its products. Now me, I loved the battered fish combo platter with two pieces of fish, fries, 2 hushpuppies & tons of tartar sauce and large lemonade. Unfortunately, this brings in 14 grams of Trans fat (4.5 each for the fish), over 7 times the recommended daily amount. I wrote to LJS and they responded with looks like a real written one, and said they're going to forward my comments to the regional vice president and the area manager. So hopefully they'll get this straightened out.

I emailed New Era Cap Co.about their disappointing products, especially on replica retro San Diego Padres caps. I cited examples, included pics of authentics, and various versions of the product, and told them I wasn't expecting any excuses like I've been getting in the past. So far I have not gotten a reply.

I emailed Accuweather.com with some specific regional Meteorological questions, which they responded promptly, insightfully and very politely. If I ever need a rain gauge or a thermometer, I will certainly buy one from them online.

When I'm bored, I'll waste time taking online surveys from survey sites that I'm members of. I honestly doubt I will ever win any prizes (tho I know people who have) but it's still fun to play, and to tell the companies that "John Q. Public doesn't like to buy oranges on Saturdays or fill out magazine subscription cards in blue ink".

Today I read a really stupid article on Yahoo. It was: The Cooley Zone: Fast food does the body good, by Chris Cooley, an apparent NFL TE Pro Bowler for the Washington Redskins. He wrote this article, talking about how eating gigantic amounts of fast food while growing up has made him a superior athlete. He talks about eating McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's and pizza all the time while growing up as if it were a normal thing. Engaging in 39-cent hamburger eating contests before playing in high school football games, a night before game snack consisted of a bag of hour-old cheeseburgers (um, I wonder how he came up with that recipe), 2 years into the NFL, eating 39 pieces of bacon in St. Louis and "was sick on the floor for the next hour in the visitor locker room", and concluding his article after finishing his sixth Mountain Dew for the day, he claims "I have proved to myself that my diet has continually worked for me."

I cannot even begin to tell you what an incredible idiot he is. Once he retires, he'll balloon up, his Trans fat hardened arteries will close, heart disease will be in full force and he'll probably be dealing with diabetes. And you know how some people responded in feedback? "Oh this is so refreshing, in an age of steroid users, this guy is real and being himself!" Yeah I don't think so. Steroids are stupid and he may not use them to be a pro athlete, but training on fast food it's still just another form of stupid, and you know you can't fix stupid.

They're putting the 1982 show "Square Pegs" on DVD! Oh come on! That show is terrible! If they're going to put that out on DVD, then at least put all 8 episodes of "The Dana Carvey Show" from 1996! This show had a young Stephen Colbert & Steve Carell, and this show was brilliant and ahead of its time. Stupid ABC, a garbage network who killed this show. The show should had been put on Comedy Central where it would have flourished. But back to Square Pegs. If there's anything that I learned about high school while growing up, is that popularity and social cliques is stupid and completely irrelevant. I had friends from all circles, and I was just trying to get through the day without getting thrown into the Dean's office, which of course I made a few dozen or so appearances. Square Pegs has its phony laugh track, showing how high school sucked in the early 1980s, and that if you're rich enough, you can get Devo to perform on your Bar Mitzvah, despite it being your 14th birthday.

Musically, recently I've been finding myself to be listening to Van Halen again. And I'm talking real Van Halen, not this cheesy crummy mid 1980s-early 1990s 5-minute pop music songs with a tequila swilling Sammy Hagar that was Van Hagar; this is Dave Halen. A few things come to mind: growing up, the Fair Warning and Diver Down albums were given extremely poor reviews, due to their dark nature or 80% cover material. But after the huge disappointment that post-Hagar Van Halen was and how irrelevant their music had become in the late 1990s and Van Halen not living up to being a lasting band like the 'Stones, suddenly their 4th & 5th albums don't look so bad. Seriously, is there any guitarist out there even close to Eddie Van Halen in the past 30 years?? And what's hilarious to me, some of the band and guitar playing that I've seen on "Eight is Enough" reruns is miles better than anything I heard in the past decade.

I learned a new Meteorological term: Pneumonia Front. What it is, is it's observed along the western Lake Michigan shoreline during the warm season, and these fronts are defined as Lake Modified Synoptic Scale Cold Fronts that result in one hour temperature drop of 16 degrees or greater. Earlier this week, we had a cold front come in around 11pm, were temps were in the mid 70s, and immediately dropped down to the mid 40s, shifting from light west winds to northeast winds gusting up to 40 m.p.h. In other words, it's still Spring in Chicagoland. And I can't believe the record-pace for tornadoes this year. Another four dozen-plus tornadoes Thursday. Unfortunately, I may get to doing my life-long dream of photographing a tornado.

Oh, and I have to say that Amy Dickinson of the newspaper advice column "Ask Amy" gives the worst advice. I have never seen anyone contradict themselves, give lousy remedial advice that only a moron could give. She seriously has to be schizophrenic.