Father Knows Nothing

My latest Father Knows Nothing has been posted. It's about those horrible few hours between the end of the school day and the end of dinner. It's called "The Witching Hours"

You can read it here.

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.'

Late Night TV ratings

The new king of late night ratings is not David Letterman or Jay Leno. It's now officially Jon Stewart.

I love Letterman, but I must admit I don't watch him more than once every other week or so. I haven't seen Leno a single time since he returned to his old time-slot.

Conan starts on Monday. According to this piece, he won't be featuring actors or actresses as guests. Although, I can't tell if he's joking or not. Sarcasm doesn't quite translate in print.

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.

CBS part 2

Yesterday's Tom Taylor column speculated about what CBS would do with it's huge pile of profits. I speculated that not a dime would go to the employees. We were both correct...

"Yesterday’s lead story (“CBS is loaded with cash”) suggested that CEO Les Moonves would either declare a significant new dividend or announce a stock re-purchase program. He, CFO Joe Ianiello and boss Sumner Redstone went for the buyback, of up to $1.5 billion, beginning in January...Ad revenue was up double digits, and there’s ample free cash flow. Moonves opened the call saying “You can forgive me for being a little more bullish than usual…It's a good time to be a shareholder of CBS."

It's good to see that things haven't changed in the slightest since I stopped working there.

Tina Fey gives Dave some Sarah

David Cassidy

David Cassidy was busted yesterday on a DUI charge.

He was weaving and nearly caused an accident. The police found a half-empty bottle of bourbon in the back seat of his car.

This is why Shirley always drove the bus.

Newsweek's Power 50

Newsweek Magazine has come out with a list of the 50 highest-earning political figures of 2010.

They call it "The Power 50" because in their estimation, amount of money earned as a political mouthpiece is roughly equivalent to amount of influence over the political world.

The top ten are Rush, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Stewart, Palin, Imus, Clinton, Olbermann, and Giuliani.

President Obama, by the way, comes in at #20, behind people like Bill Maher, George W. Bush, and Mark Levin.

I sure hope Newsweek is wrong about amount of influence. It's depressing enough to see how much money these people make.

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...

The "reporter" that broke the Favre story

His name is AJ Daulerio, and he works for deadspin.com

I just read this piece about him, and after I finished reading, I felt like I needed a shower.

Not only did he pay big bucks to the source, he feels no remorse about publicly outing the woman in question (who, by the way, didn't want to be revealed) because "the payoff was a lot larger."

The payoff, by the way, was increased traffic to his site.

Wow.

30,000 jobs available

Right now major corporations across this country are sitting on record piles of cash. Many of those companies actually fired more people than they should have when things went bad, and are now in the process of hiring.

There are about 30,000 jobs available at these 11 companies alone.

If someone you know is looking, send 'em the link.

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.

Oh, I C the BS alright

Every now and then I read something that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. This portion of Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com did that to me this morning...

"With lots of cash in the vault, CBS reports its third quarter today. So much cash, as CEO Les Moonves said three months ago, that they’ve got some decisions to make. Raise the dividend? Announce a big stock re-purchase plan?"

How about pay your damn employees? You know, the ones that are doing three or four jobs now--the ones you told you couldn't pay a dime more because of this terrible recession. I don't suppose that's even being considered.

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...

Keith Olbermann

During the Rally to Restore Sanity Keith Olbermann was lambasting Jon Stewart via Twitter, saying that Stewart had jumped the shark. He was bombarded by so many "followers" that disagreed with him, that I think that even Keith realized that maybe he only saw the shark because he was flying over it himself.

He responded by dropping the most incendiary portion of his show; The Worst Person in the World segment.

I guess he did it on Monday. I'm sorry I'm just finding that out this morning, because I honestly stopped watching him. Hopefully he will calm down the rhetoric a little bit.

If only some on the other side would do the same--though I fear yesterday's election results taught them exactly the opposite lesson. Look for Rush and Glenn to see if their dials go to eleven. I suspect they do.

Are paywalls working?

Rupert Murdoch believes they are because more than 100,000 people are paying the online fee for his London newspaper The London Times.

On the other hand, before the paywall, they had 20 million readers.

You make the call.

Magical Mystery Tour

From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac this morning, I learned that the Beatles wrapped the filming of their movie "Magical Mystery Tour" on this day in 1967. I think they wrapped about six months too soon. The movie is nearly unwatchable.

You can tell from the introduction, that's it going to be terrible...

 

On the other hand, this era of the Beatles music is probably my favorite, and there were lots of great music videos of my favorite Beatles songs. You just have to watch the movie with your thumb on the fast forward button.

And yes, I do own it. (Sucker, sucker, sucker!)

Citadel backs off

A few weeks ago I posted a story about a lawsuit filed against Citadel CEO Farid Suleman and the entire Citadel board for the brazen stock grants they gave each other after the company emerged from bankruptcy. (Farid was to get $55 million after nearly destroying the company).

Well, yesterday, Citadel backed off on that plan (under pressure from the judge) and agreed not to award that obscene amount of money. From Tom Taylor's column this morning at Radio-Info.com...

"U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton Lifland “called parties to his chambers ahead of the hearing” – and things started happening. Citadel says management and the board will forego their stock grants “to enable the company to focus on those business matters that will maximize value for its shareholders."

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.

Good night for the Republicans

Just for kicks, I flipped between Fox and MSNBC election coverage last night. It was like the difference between a wedding and a funeral--exactly the opposite of two years ago (and I flipped back and forth that night too).  I think I sustained whiplash.

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).

More Rally Coverage

My piece about the Rally to Restore Sanity was published yesterday in the NWI Times. You can read it here, if you're interested.

SHORE Magazine also published it, along with some of my pictures. Check that out here.

Blago is nuts!

That's why this is a poetic idea...

Blago was hired to endorse nuts.

Top story on Yahoo!

When I just checked my Yahoo! news page, the top news story was a little jarring. Granted, my Yahoo! News must have been set to the entertainment news page instead of the hard news page, but still, it made me laugh out loud.

Justin Bieber says he won't wear his namesake nail polish.

Spoiler alert! The headline like totally gives away what happened. Like, he's like totally not into wearing shiny stuff on his fingers.*

(*He actually uses the word "like" in every sentence. I was trying to get into character there.)

When he was fab

On this day in 1987 George Harrison released his "Cloud Nine" album, which is one of his all-time best. It marked the beginning of his collaborations with Geoff Lynne, and his first attempt at embracing the Beatles legacy.

This song addressed that subject directly, and features an appearance by another Beatle (take a wild guess which one). Always dug the tune, the album, and even this quirky video...



For my money, by the way, the song "Wreck of the Hesperus" is the best song on the album. (And yes, dammit, I'm going to keep using the word album. Don't e-mail me.)

Radio History

On this day in 1920, exactly 90 years ago, election results were broadcast on the radio for the very first time. It happened on KDKA-Pittsburgh. (Read all about it here.)

Their big news that day: the election of Republican Warren G. Harding over Democrat James Cox.

This story inspired me look up James Cox, a name that has been lost to history for the most part. He was the Governor of Ohio at the time, and a former newspaper reporter (remember those?). Cox's running mate was a little known politician from New York named Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the book "They Also Ran" (about failed presidential campaigns), the author argued there was never a stronger case in the history of American presidential elections for the proposition that the better man lost.

Of course that book was written in 1943, not 2001.

It's not your imagination

The Wesleyan Media Project tracks negativity in political advertising, and you'll be happy to know, it's not your imagination. This year is worse than ever before...

"Citizens are seeing many more ads this year, but it is no longer simply the number of ads on the air that are making this campaign feel more negative. More than half of all ads are pure attack ads, and if we include contrast spots, roughly 2 out of every 3 ads on the air are negative.” said Erika Franklin Fowler, assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. Negative ads mention only the candidate being attacked, while contrast ads mention both a favored candidate and his or her opponent. "Every year there is speculation about unprecedented levels of negativity, but at least in comparison to recent campaigns, we can now confirm the speculation this year is correct,” Fowler continued.

But today, Election Day, those ads will blissfully end. Bridget and I have actually chosen our radio stations this week based on the least number of political ads. And the TV has been off, period. Can I just once again thank the Supreme Court for their wonderful wisdom in the Citizen's United ruling? This is the new normal. Unlimited money, unlimited negativity.

Charlie O'Donnell

A broadcasting legend has died. You may not know his name, but you definitely know his voice. From this morning's RAMP newsletter...

Legendary announcer Charlie O'Donnell, whose distinctive voice was synonymous with so many shows over the years, from American Bandstand to Wheel of Fortune, died Sunday night in his sleep. He was 78. "Throughout my 40-plus years working as an announcer, I have had the honor to have worked with some of the leading entertainers in the world," O'Donnell had remarked of a career that dated back to 1958, when he worked with Dick Clark on American Bandstand. He later worked as a radio personality on KRLA/Los Angeles and an anchorman on KCOP-TV. O'Donnell also holds the distinction of being the stage announcer for The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl and Dodger Stadium in 1965 and 1966; he also brought The Rolling Stones onstage at the Long Beach Auditorium in 1965. More recently, O'Donnell spent more than 26 years as the voice of Wheel of Fortune, although his impressive resume includes such landmark game shows as The Dating Game, The Gong Show, The Joker's Wild, The Newlywed Game, Tic Tac Dough, To Tell The Truth and many more. He is survived by his wife, Ellen, and four children.

Real Estate Tip

If you're looking for a winter home, Ryan Seacrest (photo) is selling his.

It's a bit of a fixer upper, but if you can manage to make do with six bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, a double height rotunda entrance hall, a formal living room with beamed ceiling, fireplace, and Mexican paver tile floors, and a formal dining room with a pitched beamed ceiling and antique light fixtures, a den, a library, a family room with fireplace, a screening room, and a master bedroom with a very high wood paneled ceiling and a gigantic bed with wooden canopy, a fireplace, hardwood floors, a couple of leather and striped cloth club chairs, and a couple of banks of tall French doors, all nestled on a measly one acre lot with a long gated driveway, a circular motor court, a long lap pool sunk directly into a flat, tree-ringed grassy pad, and a lighted championship tennis court, it will only set you back about $14.5 million.

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.

Trib bankruptcy gets even more complicated

My eyes are starting to glaze over, and my head is starting to hurt trying to figure this all out, because another shoe dropped in the Tribune bankruptcy case.

This is my best translation. Another creditor filed another potential bankruptcy plan and the judge now has to sort through three different plans (in addition to the original company backed plan everybody hates) to figure out which is the most appropriate.

Oh, and everybody is suing.

I think that's about the gist of it, but I could be wrong. Read the article at the link above and let me know if I am. My brain hurts.