Have a great Thanksgiving!

A parting thought from this year's dinner...

Supper Club

Kim Strickland is a fellow author ("Wish Club," Three Rivers Press, 2007), and blogger (A City Mom), but she's much more than that to me. She's been a good friend since college, and I don't need to tell you how many years ago that was.

I know what you're thinking as you look at her picture. You're thinking: "She's the same age as you, Rick?" No, actually she's not. She's significantly older (twelve days).

Her latest blog for Chicago Now is about our every other month gathering of college friends called "Supper Club."

You can read it here.

OK, this made me laugh

"BP" sent me the following e-mail in response to my item about the Medill School of Journalism changing their name...

"Shortly after renaming the school, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications intramural softball team complained about the Library Sciences team running up the score on them."

Cubs programming note

From my e-mail box, this reminder from the MLB network...

"Chicago Cubs Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers will be featured in a new episode of MLB Network’s Prime 9: Double Play Combinations at 7:00 p.m. CT. The Tinker-Evers duo will be ranked alongside other combinations, including the Orioles’ Mark Belanger and Bobby Grich, the Indians’ Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar, and the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski and Gene Alley."

John F. Kennedy

47 years ago today...



I was four months old.

Weird Cub Vibe

I know some people wondered if Larry Rothschild had nude photos of Jim Hendry, considering that he has survived through all of these managerial regimes, despite the pitching staff not exactly tearing it up. And because he had another year left on his contract, I don't know anybody that saw this coming.

Larry Rothschild left the Cubs to take a job with the Yankees.

I was at a party with friends last night (nearly all of whom are Cub fans), and this was a big topic of conversation. Doesn't it feel like something isn't quite right with the Cubs?

They bypassed their Hall of Famer to hire Mike Quade. They have made ZERO player moves. The payroll will be cut. Their pitching coach left the team. The owner is saying that he needs the state to bail him out. The Cubs convention is not sold out.

At the end of last year I went to three different games, and the left field bleachers were empty all three times.

Despite my initial excitement about this new ownership, I have a funny feeling we're heading toward another PK Wrigley era. And let me tell you youngsters, that was NOT a good era for the Cubs. (I know, I know--when were the good eras for the Cubs? But in a century of bad eras--the PK Wrigley era was the worst.)

Buckle up, Cub fans. I suspect we're in for a few really bad years.

Father Knows Nothing

My latest Father Knows Nothing column has been posted. This week's is all about Sean's commercial shoot for the U.S. Soccer Players Association.

You can read it here.