Chicago Radio Spotlight: Brian "Whip" Paruch

The latest Chicago Radio Spotlight interview is now up on the site. This week I talked to Brian "Whip" Paruch from the Eric and Kathy show.

You can read the entire interview here.

Johnny Horton

He was only 35 years old when he died in an automobile accident on this day in 1960. Most people don't remember Johnny, but he was a huge star at the time of his death. I didn't really learn about him until I worked at the oldies station. This was his biggest hit...



By the way, according to Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac, actor Ward Bond (Bert from "It's a Wonderful Life"), died on the same day.

Joke for a Friday morning

Contributed by "TH"...


The doctor, after an examination, sighed and said, 'I've got some bad news. You have cancer, and you'd best put your affairs in order.'

The woman was shocked, but managed to compose herself and walked into the waiting room where her daughter had been waiting.

'Well, daughter, we women celebrate when things are good, and we celebrate when things don't go so well. In this case, things aren't well. I have cancer. So, let's head to the club and have a martini.'

After 3 or 4 martinis, the two were feeling a little less somber. There were some laughs and more martinis.

They were eventually approached by some of the woman's old friends, who were curious as to what the two were celebrating. The woman told her friends they were drinking to her impending end, because 'I've been diagnosed with AIDS.'

The friends were aghast, gave the woman their condolences and beat a hasty retreat.

After the friends left, the woman's daughter leaned over and whispered, 'Momma, I thought you said you were dying of cancer, and you just told your friends you were dying of AIDS! Why did you do that?'

'Because I don't want any of those women sleeping with your father after I'm gone.'

Ah, web cam effects

This made me laugh...

Monopoly turns 75

On this day in 1935, the board game Monopoly was introduced by Parker Brothers.

The first players of Monopoly are almost done with that first game.






My son Sean and I play it pretty regularly, but we have our own rules. We double the money, hotels are free with the purchase of the final property of a color, and when the last property is sold, the game is over. It drives Bridget crazy that we don't follow the real rules exactly, but as I noted above...the real rules are insane.

Turn back the clocks

We get an extra hour of sleep this weekend.

Don't forget to turn back your clocks...

Sammy's corked bat sold after all

Mike Remlinger and Grant DePorter of Harry Caray's restaurants made a private deal after the bat didn't sell at auction.

DePorter's highest bid was accepted after all (more than $14,000), and he is now the proud owner of Sammy's corked bat.

Tina Fey gives Dave some Sarah

They were just another band out of Boston

On this day in 1978, the band Boston played their first live concert in the city of Boston...two years after the release of their first multi-platinum album. They were definitely not just another band out of Boston...

Ryno tells Cubs to shove it

This wasn't too hard to predict.

After doing everything he was told to do to train for the Cubs manager job, and still not be given the job when it opened up (even from an owner that considers him to be his all-time favorite player, and even after winning the minor league manager of the year award), Ryno said bye bye to the Cubs yesterday.

I have a feeling this wound will take a little while to heal, but it will. Don't forget, that flag on the right field flagpole still has his number on it. He will always be a Cub.

Ask Ernie Banks. He lobbied for the Cubs manager job for years from P.K. Wrigley--who also considered Ernie his all-time favorite player--and Wrigley wouldn't give it to him. A statue heals all wounds.

November Birthdays

Just One Bad Century will return for Spring Training with new features, but for now, check out some of the stories about some of November's birthday boys...

Larry French (Nov 1) (Photo)

Cub Fan Warren G. Harding (Nov 2)

Johnny Vander Meer (Nov 2)

Ken Holtzman (Nov 3)

Chick Tolson (Nov 6)

Dwight Smith (Nov 8)

Billy Sunday (Nov 9)

Mike Vail (Nov 10)

Cubs curser Martin Luther (Nov 10) (painting)

Former Cubs part-owner (and sausage king) J. Ogden Armour (Nov 11)

Rabbit Maranville (Nov 11)

Sammy Sosa (Nov 12)

Jody Davis (Nov 12)

Cub fan Joe Mantegna (Nov 13)

Steve Bilko (Nov 13)

Willie Hernandez (Nov 14)

Jim Brewer (Nov 14)

Rollie "Bunions" Zeider (Nov 16)

Mitch Williams (Nov 17)

Gene Mauch (Nov 18)


Dickie Noles (Nov 19)


Rick Monday (Nov 20)

Clark Griffith (Nov 20)

Cub Fan Kenesaw Mountain Landis (Nov 20) (photo)

Dick Bartell (Nov 22)

Cub Fan Harpo Marx (Nov 23)

Richie Hebner (Nov 26)

Clay Bryant (Nov 26)

Johnny Bear Tracks Schmitz (Nov 27)

Howard Johnson (Nov 29)

Tornado Jake Weimer (Nov 29)

Joke for a Wednesday morning

This was contributed by "AH"...

A husband walks into Victoria's Secret to purchase a sheer negligee for his wife. He is shown several possibilities that range from $250 to $500 in price, the more sheer, the higher the price. Naturally, he opts for the most sheer item, pays the $500 and takes it home.

He presents it to his wife and asks her to go upstairs, put it on, and model it for him. Upstairs, the wife thinks, "I have an idea. It's so sheer that it might as well be nothing. I won't put it on, but I'll do the modeling naked, return it tomorrow, and keep the $500 refund for myself."

So she appears naked on the balcony and strikes a pose.

The husband says, "Good Grief! You'd think for $500, they'd at least iron it!"

He never heard the shot.

Funeral on Thursday at Noon.

Closed coffin...

Undercover Boss

Phil Rosenthal has a little more information about Todd Rickett's upcoming episode of "Undercover Boss."

That will air this weekend, by the way. At the very least, it should be interesting for Cub fans to see what happens behind the scenes at Wrigley Field.

Sammy's corked bat doesn't sell

Mike Remlinger put Sammy's corked bat up for auction, but couldn't get enough money to make it worth his while. He was hoping for $15,000, but the highest bid was made by Harry Caray's restaurant ($14,407).

The San Francisco Giants

I'm happy for the Giants and their fans. They've waited a long, long time for this. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to root for a team that hasn't won it all in more than fifty years. That's got to weigh on you; slowly, achingly crushing your hopes, your dreams, your spirit and your soul.

But that's just a guess.

On the ground at the Rally to Restore Sanity

I finally have the feeling back in my legs.

On Saturday afternoon I spent six hours standing in a wall-to-wall crowd of over 200,000 of the most reasonable people you’d ever want to meet. And trust me; I had no choice but to meet them. The person next to me was literally inches away. We were packed in there like sardines. At one point I dropped something on the ground and it took me a few seconds to maneuver my body in such a way that I could actually reach down to get it.

Bridget and I arrived almost three hours before the show began, and I had a VIP pass to get backstage, but I couldn’t get near the VIP section through the sea of humanity. That turned out to be a blessing, because the story to me was not what was happening on stage, it was the size and scope and spirit of the crowd.

They came from all over the country. Just in my little section I spoke with people from Texas, Maryland, Tennessee and New York. I’ve seen a few reports that said the crowd was mainly 20-somethings, but unless there’s an epidemic of prematurely graying Anderson Coopers of the future, that wasn’t what I saw. They came in all different ages, shapes, sizes, and colors.

Some were there to witness a memorable event. Others came to express their political views. Still others just wanted to see a great comedy show. But nearly all of them also came just to prove that they existed. At one point Jon Stewart even admitted that’s all he wanted out of this rally—to show the country that it was OK not to be a screamer—that if you’re sick of the screaming, you’re not alone.

Take it from one of the sardines. You’re not alone.

The signs people were carrying were hilarious (see a few of them below). Despite the really uncomfortable conditions, the attendees were laughing and joking and wisecracking in the crowd all day long. But most importantly, they weren’t bickering. In a sardine can, that’s not easy to do. At one point, a man carrying a baby yelled out that he needed to get out of the crowd to change a diaper, and I’m still not sure how this was possible, but the crowd parted like the Red Sea to form an exit path.

After a relentless barrage of negative radio and television political advertising over the past few months, it was like breathing fresh air. Then again, it might have just been the minty fresh breath of the woman standing two inches away from me.

Rally to Restore Sanity coverage

I was there, and will have my report complete with photos soon, but in the meantime, here's a few examples of the Rally coverage....

CBS News: "Jon Stewart Rally Attracts Estimated 215,000"
(This one claims the crowd was actually more than twice as large as Glenn Beck's rally, and details their methodology for saying so.)

The Wall Street Journal: Counting the Crowd Hard to Do For Jon Stewart's Rally
(This one compares the crowd to previous rallies, but won't hazard a guess)

The New York Times: "Rally to Shift the Blame"
(This one is a little snarky--methinks they were upset by the media criticism.)

Here was the most important part of the rally...

Cubs bullpen catcher caught with weed

Corey Miller, a bullpen catcher for the Cubs, was pulled over in downstate Lincoln, Illinois. When the cops looked in his car they noticed he had some weed and "drug paraphanalia" in a bag of baby formula (and oh yeah, a baby was in the car too).

Then they found 8.4 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of the car. 8.4 pounds.

His plan was apparently to get the entire state high to help us get over the pain of the Cubs 2010 season.

Father Knows Nothing

This week's Father Knows Nothing column has been posted at NWI Parent. I call it "Meet the (2nd grade) Press."

Here it is, if you're interested.

Chicago Radio Spotlight update

I was in Washington this weekend, but I did post a Chicago Radio Spotlight update with Mitch Michaels.

If you haven't seen it, you can read it here.