Minutia Men, Episode 78

EP78 – Rick and Dave discuss the happiest women, half-pint movie critics, a German banker’s dream, Just One Bad Century roulette, and Rick’s brush with Darlene Love.​

Listen to it here.

Isn't This The Exact Plot of "The Natural"?

Today at @baseballpro: Everybody's upset about the Marlins. Players. Fans. Even Scott Boras. But you know who's not? The hedge fund that will make a ton of money if the team does well, and potentially even more if it doesn't. https://t.co/8XvZc2AVFb

— Rob Mains Your Days Be Merry and Bright (@Cran_Boy) December 20, 2017

Shortest Day of the Year

Today’s winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Here’s when the sun sets near you https://t.co/NBwscJOEP9

— TIME (@TIME) December 21, 2017

What Happens When You Sign a Non-Disclosure, And Then Disclose?

You get sued again.

Bill O'Reilly obviously wanted the non-disclosure included in the agreements because he didn't want the women speaking out about what he did or said. The problem, of course, is that it goes two ways. He has to keep his yap shut too. If he starts going around saying he didn't do anything, that violates the agreement.

There's a good chance those details are going to come out now.

Rolling Stone Magazine Sold

The company that owns Variety just paid over $100 million for Rolling Stone Magazine.

Jann Wenner will stay on in some capacity, according to the article.

Ryen Russillo Leaving ESPN Radio

From this morning's Radio Ink...

SVP for ESPN Audio, Traug Keller, made the announcement that, despite a lucrative offer, Ryen Russillo will not return to ESPN Radio next year. He’s been with the network for over eight years. Keller said Russillo, who hosted the 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. slot, has decided to pursue other opportunities when his contract expires next year. Russillo’s final day on the air will be this Friday.

Jerry Taft

“While I still have my health, wit and vitality it’s time to hang out with my real family, assuming they still remember me.”— Jerry Taft https://t.co/I3N2Cp9o8Q

— Robert Feder (@RobertFeder) December 20, 2017

We the People

President Obama created a page on the White House website for people to start petitions. He vowed his administration would respond to any petition that got over 100,000 signatures. They actually lived up to that, including to a petition that asked for the president to deport Justin Bieber. (They said no.)

President Trump had to take the page down. From the Washington Post...

The Trump White House has not responded to any of the petitions that have circulated on the site since the president took office, many of which have taken a particularly grave tone.

Other popular petitions on the site this year included those calling on Trump to put his businesses and financial assets in a blind trust (356,000), asking for the anti-fascist organization Antifa to be recognized as a terrorist organization (366,000), asking that the liberal financier George Soros also be declared a terrorist (152,000) and calling on President Trump to resign (138,000).

We're not a very serious people, are we?

High School Rick

This photo was sent to me yesterday by an old Heidelberg High School classmate. It's from the school yearbook...in 1979. I was a junior. This is the year before we moved back to Chicago.

Kaempfer's Woodpecker

This is The Kaempfer's Woodpecker, a real bird in Brazil. It's named after the man who discovered it--a man named Kaempfer. It wasn't me, but I do believe we have some relatives that settled in Brazil. (Not for THAT reason. Generations earlier)



The Kaempfer’s Woodpecker, once thought extinct, now has its first protected habitat through a 593-acre land purchase in central Brazil’s Cerrado biome, the world’s most biodiverse tropical savanna.

Read all about it here.

(Photo by Instituto Araguaia)

Fixing up the old girl

The renovations are looking busier than ever at Wrigley Field. pic.twitter.com/oF4T0KSS92

— Wrigley Aerials (@WrigleyAerials) December 19, 2017

Another Potential Creep Revealed

This time it's Silicon Valley star TJ Miller. He's accused of sexually assaulting and punching a woman.

Return of "The Office"

It looks like NBC is preparing to bring back "The Office". Details at the Hollywood Reporter. Steve Carrell will not be involved in this reboot.

Hall of Presidents

It does kind of look like that, doesn't it?

The more I see of Disney's 'Hall of Presidents' Trump, the more I'm convinced they made a Hillary one first and had to redo it pic.twitter.com/vJTMnZPak8

— maple cocaine (@historyinflicks) December 19, 2017

Twitter Blocks Violence & Hate Speech

Twitter is finally cracking down on violence and hate speech. From AdWeek...

“Content that glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act,” according to the blog post. “This includes celebrating any violent act in a manner that may inspire others to replicate it or any violence where people were targeted because of their membership in a protected group. We will require offending Tweets to be removed and repeated violations will result in permanent suspension.”

Along with cracking down on violence both on and off the platform, Twitter says the rules will apply to anyone who intimidates a user or group in an effort to silence their viewpoints or voice. That now includes anyone that uses their profile’s user name, display name or profile bio. Hateful imagery will also now be banned as sensitive material.

The president just lost about a dozen twitter uses he has retweeted over the years.

Jill Stein Collusion?

Is it possible that former Green Party candidate Jill Stein also colluded with the Russians? The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating that very possibility. I say, go where the evidence takes you. I've always thought it was strange that she was sitting at the same table with Michael Flynn and Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Fogel is Back at WLS-FM

This is good news for Dave Fogel. Happy to see he has landed back at his old station/time slot. From today's NOW newsletter...

Brant Miller and Dave Fogel both see changes out of Entercom turning Chicago’s WJMK/104.3 from classic hits to classic hip-hop/throwbacks “104.3 Jams” WBMX last month. That liberates Dave Fogel to cross the street back to Cumulus, to co-host “Wakeup Call” on classic hits WLS-FM/94.7 with Kim Berk. (He’d previously held down mornings there from 2010-2013.) And Entercom’s format change lets the versatile Brant Miller focus on his specialty – weather. He segues from co-hosting with Kim to supplying weather forecasts for both WLS-FM and talk sister WLS/890. Cumulus market manager Marv Nyren calls Brant “the best in the business.”

Sunday Breakfast with Tom Weinberg

Great piece in the Daily North Shore about Eckhartz Press author Tom Weinberg. Here's a small taste...

Mid-February 2015. Tom Weinberg, still adventurous, is a 70-year-old journalist/TV producer/professor, braving the conditions in the Mosquitia Jungle of Honduras with author Douglas Preston, cinematographer/documentarian Steve Elkins, jungle survival experts and a team of archaeologists.

“We dealt with rainstorms on steroids,” Weinberg recalls. “And Doug Preston called a spot in the jungle ‘more Jurassic than Jurassic Park.’ ”

They were there to search for The Lost City of the Monkey God (or Ciudad Blanca), a quest that began with an Elkins video shoot in 1994.

Weinberg, 73, and Elkins, 66, have been friends since the 1970s.

“It became something of an obsession for both of us,” Weinberg writes in his book, Chasing the Lost City: Chronicles of Discovery in Honduras (Eckhartz Press, 2017), a pictorial and personal companion to Preston’s 2017 New York Times bestseller, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story.

“Nearly every night I wrote my personal impressions [17 chronicles in 2012; 12 more in 2015] of our journeys into the unknown.”

Read the whole story at the link. I love their illustration of Tom too.

Illinois Youth Soccer Volunteer of the Year

This was a nice surprise. Look under "Volunteer of the Year"...

Congratulations to the following, very deserving, recipients of 2017 Illinois Youth Soccer Awards. Each of the award winners will be honored at the Illinois Youth Soccer Awards Banquet on March 2.

Competitive Coaches Of Year:
Frank Mateus, Rockford Raptors*
Craig Snower, FC United

TOPSoccer Coaches Of Year:
Cary Claver, Grove United TOPSoccer

TOPSoccer Buddies Of Year:
Jenna Birdsell, Trevian TOPSoccer
Alex Narel, Park RidgeTOPSoccer
Zoey Kolhoff, Kaneland TOPSoccer
Matthew Birkshire, Chicago TOPSoccer

Demosphere Administrator Of Year:
Jan Berkley, Young Sportsmen's Soccer League

Volunteer Of Year:
Shawn Danhouser, Chicago TOPSoccer
Rick Kaempfer, Green White Soccer Club
Steve Samuelson, Green White Soccer Club

Young Referees Of Year:
Gabe Billings
Kelsey Medina

TOPSoccer Community Partner Of Year
Maine South High School
More winners still to be announced

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN TO OUR HONOREES!

Two Legends

John Landecker (left) and Mitch Michaels (right)