Friday, July 28, 2017

Colbert on Scaramucci

Friggin funny, pardon my Mooch-ness.

Reviews for Minutia Men

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! These are our reviews from the past month.

What just happened?!?! I love it!
in iTunes by Ryan34689 from USA on July 26, 2017
I love the convo and how random some of it is. While random, there are random facts and random historical points! I can say that I leave listening a little smarter... but with random facts which I always appreciate. Fun show, perfect length and great personalities!


So much fun!

in iTunes by Dignityandmoney from USA on July 26, 2017
This pod is so much fun to listen to the topics and things they talk about are so great, what are you waiting for?? Subscirbe already!!


Such a fun convo!
in iTunes by Gabe_deleon from USA on July 23, 2017
Very integral podcast. Makes you actually think about things in a different way


Excellent Stuff here
in iTunes by Gretchie Love from USA on July 20, 2017
Minutia Men are really terrific guys. I mean just really swell from their trivia to their Cub Geekness . They really make my day brighter. They are especially funny . Thanks for your podcast Minutia Men you are the best .


Great listen!
in iTunes by Rockstar Chris Cole from Canada on July 20, 2017
Always nice to get the news with some humour. Really enjoy Every second!


Need a break?
in iTunes by Carol in NC from USA on July 18, 2017
We spend a lot of time thinking about people, politics & policy... when we need a break, some of us pop in on (cue the music) Minutia Men. - Carol from the Ways & Means podcast (Sanford School of Public Policy/Duke University)
View in browser


Quality Radio
in iTunes by SteeleEmpire from USA on July 17, 2017
Rick and Dave run a tight ship! This show reminds me of when radio used to be good. This is quality entertainment with great audio. Give it a listen, and it will quickly become one of your go to shows. Steele Empire


Excellent!!
in iTunes by DocTruman from USA on July 13, 2017
Great podcast!! Enjoy listening and all the content.


Dynamic Duo
in iTunes by The Long Life from USA on July 12, 2017
Rick and Dave are a dynamic duo who bring on the laughs even when discussing the most minute of minutia. A great listen! I'm hooked.


Really dig the show!
in iTunes by Codie 🌺 from Australia on July 7, 2017
You guys have some great chemistry!


Pointlessly Delightful!
in iTunes by W.T.T.D. Hole from USA on July 6, 2017
The Minutia Men is solid good times! A perfect duo of friends with a rapport so engaging they literally don't need to do anything to be fun. I found my cheeks delightfully sore after my first episode, and am definitely now a fan! Thanks guys!! Keep it up!!


Great Podcast!
in iTunes by theiMACdaddy from USA on July 2, 2017
Love this podcast, new subscriber! But now a long time listener! Black Series Rebels is here to support!


Manages to be informative and entertaining, rare combo!!
in iTunes by Bills with Luke from USA on July 1, 2017
A great show! Both hosts are very entertaining and have wonderful chemistry together. Super funny and definitely worth the listen!!


This is the Pod for You
in iTunes by Cmsleaps from USA on June 29, 2017
Do you like humor? Car Talk? Veep? Real talk? If you answered yes to any of the above, this pod is for you. It's like walking into a great conversation with two guys. This is the most fun you'll have in the world of podcasts!


Rick and Dave crack me up!
in iTunes by Jlanders ASPodcast from USA on June 29, 2017
Minutia Men is a new favorite of mine. Rick and Dave crack me up. The show segments are timely and interesting, I also dig the sound effects. Keep up the great work guys!


Just fun

in iTunes by TakingShip from USA on June 28, 2017
Listened to a few episodes and its the exact right amount of irreverence and smarts. Always a good listen when you're in the "what can I listen

You say it's your birthday

Happy birthday to Sally Struthers, Walter Jacobson, ex-Cub Carmelo Martinez, soccer player Pedro, and a 54-year-old blogger/writer/author/publisher. I have big plans for my birthday. I'm going to the dentist.

Minutia Men, Episode 59


EP59 – Rick and Dave discuss a celebrity politician, a White House theft, OJ’s little OJ, A Cubs baby boom, and Rick’s brush with Phoebe Cates.

You can listen to it here.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Funniest Cub

He couldn't pitch anymore, so they released him yesterday, but Brett Anderson was the funniest Cub.

RIP June Foray

She was one of the all-time great voice artists, the voice of Rocky (and Natasha) in "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle" and so many more. June Foray passed away yesterday at the age of 99!

We had her on the Landecker show a few times, and one time our own resident cartoony voice-over boy Vince Argento got to interview her. It was one of the biggest thrills of his life.

June was an incredibly nice lady. She will never be forgotten.

The Richest Man in the World

As of close of business yesterday, one of the people in this picture is the richest man in the world. And it isn't John Landecker. The story of how John met that person will be included in the upcoming special Radio Hall of Fame edition of "Records Truly Is My Middle Name". We're working on it right now. The book comes out in early October.



Me Last Night at the McCartney concert

Now he's even lost Ken Starr

That's right, Ken Starr. The fiercely partisan Republican who led the Bill Clinton investigation. Even Ken Starr has had enough of the current president's shenanigans. In today's Washington Post, he said this...

Mr. President, please cut it out. Tweet to your heart’s content, but stop the wildly inappropriate attacks on the attorney general. An honorable man whom I have known since his days as a U.S. attorney in Alabama, Jeff Sessions has recently become your piñata in one of the most outrageous — and profoundly misguided — courses of presidential conduct I have witnessed in five decades in and around the nation’s capital. What you are doing is harmful to your presidency and inimical to our foundational commitment as a free people to the rule of law.

The attorney general is not — and cannot be — the president’s “hockey goalie,” as new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci described Sessions’s job. In fact, the president isn’t even his client. To the contrary, the attorney general’s client is ultimately “We the People,” and his fidelity has to be not to the president but to the Constitution and other laws of the United States. Indeed, the attorney general’s job, at times, is to tell the president “no” because of the supervening demands of the law. When it comes to dealing with the nation’s top legal officer, you will do well to check your Twitter weapons at the Oval Office door.

Cross Ownership Ban on the way out

I have been fighting this fight for so long, I just don't think I have the energy to do it anymore. Congress is now talking about eliminating the cross-ownership ban. They aren't even waiting for the FCC to do it. Media deregulation is going to happen, and bad things will follow. They received something like 14 million letters saying not to do it, but nothing can stop it now.

Here's a video I recorded during this same debate ten years ago...

Jon Stewart Stand Up Special

Boy we sure could have used him during the last presidential campaign. Better late than never, I suppose.

Jon Stewart has signed with HBO to host his first stand up comedy special in more than 20 years.

Variety has the details.

Sir Paul

Took the whole family to see Paul McCartney last night. The boys and I got there before the doors opened so that we could secure a good spot on the lawn.



Bridget met us there.



If you saw me there and it appeared that I was balling like a little baby, just know those weren't tears streaming down my face throughout the show. It was the um...rain, yes that's it. It was drizzling and the rain was disproportionately just below my eyes.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Colbert on Trump speech to Boy Scouts



Chicago's Baby Boom

I've been fixed, so I couldn't contribute this time...

Jordan Klepper

The former Daily Show correspondent is hopeful of creating the kind of franchise that shot Stephen Colbert into the limelight. He will be hosting the time slot after The Daily Show, and the main target of his satire will be the crazy alt-right press.


Adweek has the details.

WGN Moving Out of Tribune Tower

The iconic showcase studio on Michigan Avenue will soon be gone. From yesterday's Robert Feder column...

WGN Radio will join two other units of Tribune Media in moving across the river to the Illinois Center complex, occupying two floors of the 28-story high-rise at 303 East Wacker Drive. Tribune Media sold the 1925 landmark neo-Gothic Tribune Tower at 435 North Michigan Avenue last year to Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group in a $240 million deal.

Word of the move also comes as WGN Radio is on track to be sold as part of the $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

“I’m pleased to tell you that we have decided to relocate WGN Radio to 303 E. Wacker, the same building in which the broadcast and technology groups will be working,” Larry Wert, president broadcast media for Tribune Media, wrote in a memo to staff.

“We purposely chose this space in order to remain together as a broadcast ‘family.’ The new space is being custom-designed for the radio station and will be state-of-the-art. While we will give up the showcase studio on Michigan Avenue, listeners will hear no difference in the outstanding programing WGN has provided for nearly nine decades.

(Photo: Eckhartz press author Bill Paige with Bill & Wendy)

The Chickenman Podcast

From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

Dick Orkin’s “Chickenman” is reincarnated as a podcast, which could be a natural format for the comic series about the clueless crime-fighter created in 1966 for Chicago’s top 40 WCFL/1000. Orkin was ’CFL’s production director and he quickly had a huge hit on his hands, which eventually unfolded into 273 episodes that were nationally syndicated. Now Scripps-owned Midroll Media is putting Chickenman on its “Stitcher Premium” podcasting tier. Other offerings in Stitcher Premium’s Earwolf line include its calling-card “Comedy Bang Bang,” plus newcomers like “Off Book,” billed as “the improvised musical podcast.” Also a couple of podcasts connected to the Midroll-owned “Cracked” humor site. Scripps bought Cracked last year for $39 million.

Sessions is Being Zagorski'ed

The lead character in my novel "$everance" is named Zagorski. His bosses are trying their best to get Zagorski to quit because they don't want to pay his severance. Zagorski responds by saying and doing things that will get his bosses to fire him, without giving them cause. It's a passive-aggressive stand off.

Witnessing that right now with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump. The President doesn't want to fire Sessions because he has been told it may lead to a constitutional crisis, so he is trying to humiliate him into quitting. Sessions won't quit because he knows what Trump is trying to do, so he keeps saying very professional things...which sends the president into a rage.

Pray for this country's poor satire writers. This is literally impossible to satirize. Nothing is more ridiculous than reality.





That's the president of the United States, folks. Classy behavior, right? He's mad at the Attorney General for following the law (correctly recusing himself) and not using the office to become a political tool of the president (going after the president's political opponents).

I'm hoping this is as bad as it gets and he simply remains a humiliating embarrassment to our country. I fear it's about to get worse.

CTE

Mama don't let your babies grow up to play football.

This is really an incredible story. CTE is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that causes dementia and worse. A recent study of nearly 200 ex NFL football players who had contributed their brains (after death obviously) found that 90% of them had CTE. 90%!

Happy that none of my boys chose to play the game.

I still watch it. I'll admit that. But its getting harder and harder to enjoy it, knowing that every man on that field is risking his life.

New Orleans

Back in the office today after taking a few days to attend Bridget's family reunion in New Orleans. We had a great time visiting the city, hanging out at the family beach house along Lake Ponchatrain, going on a "Swamp Tour", and more. Here are a few photos...

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Back on Wednesday

Taking a few days off from blogging. I'll be back at the blogging desk on Wednesday.