Friday, October 11, 2019

Book of the Year Finalists

From the Eckhartz Press blog...



Eckhartz Press is proud to announce that two of our books have been named finalists for the CWA (Chicago Writers Association) Book of the Year. In the Indy Fiction category, William Mansfield’s harrowing tale of recovery after a dog attack “The Scar Dance” claimed one of the four finalist slots. In the Indy Non-Fiction category, Rick Kaempfer’s “Everycubever” is one of the three finalists for Book of the Year. Congrats to those two Eckhartz Press authors! We have now had nine finalists (John Landecker, Mitch Michaels, Ken Churilla, Bobby Skafish, Lee Kingsmill, Pat Colander, ML Collins, Rick Kaempfer and William Mansfield) and two winners (Pat Colander & ML Collins) in our eight years of existence. We strive for excellence, and we thank our talented stable of writers for delivering.

Tomorrow's Podcast guest

We talked to Catherine Johns for this week's Minutia Men podcast. She gave a heads up what we might be talking about in her post on Linked In...

Guest Podcaster

Had a lot of fun recording this with Brent in my home studio...



Here is a photo of the sunset from my time in Rovinj...

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Go Hawks

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

Happy birthday John

He would have been 79 years old today. In honor of his birthday, this is currently my favorite John solo song...

43 New Charges

Matt Lauer

New charges...

Real Housewives of the Premier League

This story is amazing. It features the wife of English soccer star Wayne Rooney, and the wife of English soccer star Jamie Vardy. From the Guardian...

Coleen Rooney has claimed to have caught another footballer’s wife passing her private information to the Sun, after apparently running an elaborate sting operation that involved placing false stories in the tabloid newspaper.

Rooney, an online influencer who is married to the former England international Wayne Rooney, said she was forced to act after a series of posts on her private social media account appeared in the media. She has publicly accused Rebekah Vardy, the wife of fellow England footballer Jamie Vardy, of being the individual who was leaking the private information.

Vardy, a former contestant on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, has denied any involvement and suggested someone else may have had access to the password for her Instagram account. The Sun has not disputed Rooney’s suggestion that Vardy was the source but amended all the disputed stories on its website to note that they could have been fabricated.

Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Thanks for the memories Schweini!

One of my all-time favorite players is hanging up his cleats...

New boss at ESPN Chicago

Mel Karmazin's son, the new owner of ESPN Radio in Chicago, made his first move. This news comes courtesy of the RAMP Newsletter...

In a surprising turn of events, Beasley Media Group announced that Mike Thomas, who has successfully led the programming efforts of the mighty WBZ-FM (98.5 The Sports Hub)/Boston since its 2009 launch has made one of those "life decisions" -- in an effort to a) be closer to his family, and b) fulfill a career goal of becoming a Market Manager, Thomas has accepted a new position as Market Manager for Good Karma Brands Sports-Talk WMVP-AM (ESPN 1000)/Chicago, starting in January 2020.

"We're thrilled to welcome Mike Thomas to the team," said Craig Karmazin, Founder & CEO of Good Karma Brands, who will continue to serve as interim Market Manager. "We're thrilled to welcome Mike Thomas to the team," Karmazin said. "He is the epitome of best-in-class and his expertise, passion for Chicago sports and sports-radio experience will elevate what already is a powerhouse brand." Thomas exclaimed, "As a lifelong Chicago sports fan, this is a dream come true. It's so exciting as ESPN 1000 Chicago has a great team, loyal advertising partners and passionate fans. This also gives me the opportunity to be close to my family and work with a company, who like me, has Midwest roots and a passion for sports!"

I'm not sure he realizes quite what he is getting into here. ESPN has really been struggling. I expect there will be some other changes coming soon.

Monday, October 07, 2019

RIP Rip, Ginger & Diahann

Lost three big names over the weekend. RIP all of them...





A Letter from Tom Ricketts

I think this went to all the season ticket holders, but I was happy to receive this e-mail from Tom Ricketts over the weekend...

Cubs Fans,

In a season full of ups and downs, we are grateful for your incredible, ongoing support. While we enjoyed several exciting wins at Wrigley Field and solid individual performances from many of our players, we struggled to deliver as a team in the moments that mattered most. Falling short of our potential and failing to make the postseason for the first time in five years was extremely disappointing for all of us. We share your desire for change and are committed to building our next championship team.

As we look forward to creating our future success, it is important we also take a moment to honor a vital part of our past five years. I join our staff, players and fans in offering a heartfelt thank you to Joe Maddon. Joe’s leadership and dedication helped ignite one of the greatest eras in Cubs baseball. He guided us to the most postseason victories in our franchise’s history and helped bring the World Series trophy home to Chicago. We are forever grateful for Joe’s immense impact on our organization, fans and city and wish him continued success and happiness.

As Theo shared during his end-of-season press conference, we are focused on strengthening our roster, defining our team identity and fostering a culture of accountability to help us return to championship-caliber form. Selecting our new manager is just one of the many actions we’ll take. While it’s premature to predict the extent of change, we will be open-minded, thoughtful and thorough as we explore new opportunities and evaluate all levels of our operations to identify areas of improvement. I’m confident our Baseball Operations staff will make the right decisions to maximize our opportunity to win now while also ensuring our long-term success.

Whether we’re working to field a competitive team or preserve Wrigley Field, we keep you at the heart of everything we do. We don’t take your support for granted and will continue to find impactful ways to enhance your experience and provide best-in-class service at our ballpark and Gallagher Way.

While we’re already working to address our challenges, we understand October should be a time for meaningful baseball games not promises of offseason action. We appreciate your faith in our team and look forward to enjoying more division titles and deep postseason runs together. We believe that’s what we’re capable of and what you deserve.

Go Cubs,

Tom Ricketts

Minutia Men--Fat Bees and Sting, please

Rick and Dave discuss fat bees, he really is just happy to see you, scamming scammers, Rick’s brush with Sting, and they interview great Chicago photographer Barry Butler. [Ep153]

Listen to it here.