Chicago Radio Spotlight: Paul Barsky

This week's Chicago Radio Spotlight shines on the former host of the Z-95 Barsky Morning Zoo, Paul Barsky.

Interviewed per several requests from CRS readers.

You can read the entire interview here.

Coming this weekend

This week I had a chance to talk to former Z-95 morning host Paul Barsky. I'll be posting that interview on Chicago Radio Spotlight Saturday.

On Sunday, I'll also post my latest Father Knows Nothing column. This week I'll confess to simply not caring about one particular aspect about the lives of my children.

As an Oscar preview, I'll also be posting some of my "Brushes with previous Oscar nominees" on Sunday.

Have a great weekend!

These Boots are Made for Walkin'

This record was certified gold exactly 45 years ago today. I confess it's a guilty pleasure...



My favorite line is "You've been samin' when you shoulda been changin'" Great line.

Handy Andy Pafko

I believe he's the last surviving member of the last Cubs team that won the pennant, the 1945 Cubs.

Handy Andy Pafko is 90 years old today.

Don Knotts

Five years ago today, we lost one of the comedy greats, Don Knotts. Barney Fife could be the best television sitcom character ever.

Nine to Five

Thirty years ago today, this was the #1 song in the country. Seriously.

A present for Dusty

How bad did it get for Dusty Baker at the end of his reign as Cubs manager?

According to Dusty, somebody came into the dugout and took a crap on the place he ordinarily stood.

I kid you not.

Dempster to start opening day

Carlos Zambrano's streak of seven consecutive openers is over.

Ryan Dempster has been named the opening day starter for the Cubs.

9 million views

Not sure if this is being viewed by pro-Bieber or anti-Bieber forces, but it has more than nine million views. Justin Bieber shot and killed on CSI...

Adam Greenberg

Remember Adam Greenberg?

He's the Cubs player that faced exactly one pitch in the majors--and it hit him in the head.

He's never made it back to the big leagues since then, and it's beginning to look like he won't. Today is his 30th birthday.

Last season he played for the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Independent Atlantic League.

Presidents and Baseball

A very good history of Presidents of the United States and the national pastime, courtesy of the Hall of Very Good.

Their relationships to the Cubs are chronicled here by your good friends at Just One Bad Century.

Happy President's Day

To celebrate President's Day, please enjoy this encore presentation of my friend Dave Stern's dramatic reading of a poem he wrote as an eleven year old.

Honest Abe He Was Called

Happy President's Day.

Father Knows Nothing

This week's Father Knows Nothing column has been posted at NWI Parent. It tells the tale of my marriage proposal to Bridget twenty years ago.

You can read it here: "An Awkward Proposal."

Chicago Radio Spotlight: David Kaplan

This week I spoke with WGN Sports Night host David Kaplan. We talked about his tumultuous last few months, the return to the night-time airwaves at WGN, his new and old partners, and some of his favorite sports highlights.

You can read the entire interview here.

Coming this weekend

I spoke with WGN Radio's David Kaplan this week, and he'll be this weekend's Chicago Radio Spotlight interview. He has some great stories about sports figures we all know, and the behind the scenes stories of what went wrong during the previous WGN regime. I'll be posting that on Saturday.

As for Father Knows Nothing, I was inspired by this awkward proposal tale to tell my own. I don't think I've ever written about that before. I'll be posting it on Sunday.

Sammy's corked bat gets a CAT scan

The saga of Sammy's corked bat was bound to continue when Grant DePorter bought it, and sure enough he made headlines with it yesterday and today.

He has given the bat a CAT scan.

If you'd like to know the forensics of exactly how Sammy cheated, click on the link above.

A Suburban Dad

I forgot to post a piece I wrote for my friend Kim Strickland's "A City Mom" blog at ChicagoNow earlier this week. I go by "A Suburban Dad" on her blog, and contribute a column a week.

This week's column is called "The Unwritten Rules of Valentine's Day."

You should check out Kim's site, she's really very good.

An unforgettable proposal story

Miguel Cabrera gets busted for DUI

And he did it in spectacular fashion.

The Sun Times headline really says it all: "Miguel Cabrera pulls a Ron Burgundy"

Percy Sledge

Fascinating story from 45 years ago today, courtesy of Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac this morning...

February 17, 1966…In Sheffield, Alabama, Percy Sledge recorded "When A Man Loves A Woman." Before the recording session, the song had no title or lyrics. The session proceeded, the instrumental track was laid down, with the expectation that Sledge would eventually reveal the lyric sheet for the vocal takes. But when it came time to record the vocals, Sledge improvised the lyrics with minimal pre-planning using the melody as a guide for rhythm and phrasing. The performance was so convincing that everyone working on the session assumed he had the lyrics written down.