Friday, March 03, 2017

How Media Works

As someone who studies the way conservative media works in this country, let me just say that this is 100% absolutely true...

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Hanks Gifts Espresso Maker

Tom Hanks gave the White House press corp a brand new espresso maker.

Nice gesture.

The way news always seems to break at night time during this presidency, it should help keep them awake.
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A Real Women's Strike

New York Daily News columnist Linda Stasi has another idea to promote women's rights in this country. Instead of another women's march, she is calling for a sex strike. You read that right...

The good old-fashioned sex strike isn't even as old-fashioned as you think. In this century alone, it's happened nearly a dozen times. In 2001, the women in Siirt, Turkey, pulled a Lysistrata against the unclean water there. It took a month for the pipes to be repaired.

It worked in Liberia in 2002, helping to end the 14-year war, which resulted in the election of the first female head of state. Americans haven't accomplished that either — yet.

Since 2009 women have crossed their legs in Colombia, Kenya, Ukraine, The Philippines, Togo, and yes, Canada, and all worked mostly to good effect.

Unfortunately in Tokyo in 2014, "The association of women who will not have sex with men who vote for Masuzoe" didn't stop sexist Yoichi Masuzoe from being elected governor. But it didn't hurt either. Two years later, the bum resigned in disgrace.

Hit 'em where it hurts — and screw the pink hats.

Uh oh. OK, what do you want and how quickly can we give it to you?

The former comedy writer in me would add--"Many men have already voluntarily participated in a strike like this. It's called marriage." (rimshot)
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Vacation Hypocrite

Of all the ridiculous complaints about Obama the last few years, the most ridiculous was the one about his vacations and/or golfing. This was a constant thing on Drudge (CONSTANT!), Hannity mentioned it every single time, and Trump tweeted about it all the time too. Now we hear crickets from Drudge, Hannity and Trump, when Trump is spending much more.

To be clear, I have no problem with him golfing or taking vacations or weekend getaways. I do have a problem with him financially benefitting from it.

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Don't Just Let the Dog Out Anymore at Night

From DNAinfo.com...

It's the stinkiest time of the year for Chicago's skunks.

This month is mating season for skunks, which means the usually solitary mammals will be on the move more looking for a partner
.

As someone who has scrubbed a skunked dog at least six times, I present this information to you a public service announcement.
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Our Kaempfer



My new favorite horse lives in the UK. His name is "Our Kaempfer"

For real. Read about him here.
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Minutia Men, Episode 41


EP41 – Rick and Dave discuss a nuclear message mishap, pizza toppings from around the world, a group that shouldn’t be allowed to crowdsource, Harry Caray, and Rick’s brush with Liesl from the Sound of Music.

Listen to it here.





This was put together by a Minutia Man fan. I think it sums us up pretty well...

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Thursday, March 02, 2017

For Those of You Keeping Score at Home

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WCIU Drops "You and Me" hosts

WCIU let Melissa Forman and Jeanne Sparrow go this morning. Robert Feder has the details. This is a bummer, and not just because Bobby Skafish was scheduled to be on their show on Tuesday. It's a bummer because I thought they did a nice job with the show. My best to Melissa and Jeanne.

In the interim Jon Hansen, who is also very good, will host with rotating guest hosts.
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Waiting for Godot's Obamacare Replacement

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Jeff Sessions on Lying Under Oath

Of course this was about President Clinton who had lied about sex. Much more serious than lying about meeting with Russian spies. Right?

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A Blackhawk on the Radio

From this morning's RAMP Newsletter...

WGN Radio/Chicago has acquired the services of former NHL player Brent Sopel, who has signed on as a hockey analyst and host on The Beat, the station's weekend sports show. Sopel will sit alongside Mark Carman, Adam Hoge and Jarrett Payton and will also contribute regularly to weekday shows. Sopel spent 12 seasons in the NHL and won the Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010. He retired from the NHL in 2015.

Todd Manley, WGN VP of Programming and Content remarked, "With Brent Sopel joining our sports conversation, we can ramp up for more expanded Blackhawks coverage. As a mentor to some of today's biggest stars, Brent brings a depth of knowledge in the past, present, and future of this great game." Sopel remarked, "I'm very excited to join the WGN family and look forward to a [Blackhawks] long run in the playoffs." Listen to The Beat Saturdays from 4-7pm and Sundays from 3-6pm.
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First Gay Disney Character

The live action version of "Beauty and the Beast" will feature Disney's first gay character. From the Hollywood Reporter...

In the live-action retelling starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens — Gad plays LeFou, the comical sidekick to antagonist Gaston (Luke Evans). Thanks to a subplot alteration, LeFou will be Disney's first-ever LGBTQ character.

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” director Bill Condon tells Attitude. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie."

I personally think this is long overdue. Children will not be damaged by this, believe me. Although, let's be honest about this being Disney's first gay character. Have you seen Peter Pan?

I once played a gay character on stage myself. Behold the Cliff Dancers, circa 1989...

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The Hammer Falls

You knew someone would get in trouble for this...

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The Godfather of Sports Talk Radio

Check out this great article about my old colleague Chet Coppock written by one of the great Chicago writers, Jim O'Donnell. It's generally positive but Jim doesn't pull any punches. It's really well-written.

You can read it here.

Full disclosure: I am quoted multiple times in the article.
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Dodge Baseball

Love the concept behind this. Taking a dangerous sport (dodgeball), and adding an even more dangerous element (a hard ball being hit very hard). Have to admit I would have played it as a kid.

Watch it in action here.
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NBC's Rob Stafford is ill

He reported it on the NBC News last night (in Chicago), but earlier in the day he released this message to his fellow Channel 5 staffers.

First the good news. They caught "it" early and my prognosis is very good. "It" is amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder where an abnormal protein (amyloid) is produced in bone marrow and can be deposited in organs. Before you read some scary stuff online, two facts: I'm an early stage 2 out of 4 and so far the effects are confined to my kidneys. I'm very lucky.

My persistent wife, Lisa, gets the credit for the early diagnosis. She pushed me to pursue the cause of a slightly elevated protein level discovered during a physical ("Relax. No big deal," I said. "I feel fine and I don't have time for this.") Lisa found a smart Chicago nephrologist who ordered a kidney biopsy. He sent the sample to the Mayo Clinic, which quickly identified amyloidosis, even though it's a tricky thing to diagnose. Again ... very lucky.

The Mayo hematologists are among the best amyloid experts in the world. They say a bone marrow transplant using my own stem cells and chemotherapy is clearly the best option for me. Two-thirds of amyloid transplant patients go into remission and my doctors are confident I will be one of them.

I head to Minnesota first thing Friday and will be off the anchor desk for several months as I undergo this procedure, live in a sterile environment, rebuild my immune system and recover from the effects of chemo.

For the record, I did not wait for the end of sweeps to schedule this. In fact, Dave [Doebler] and Frank [Whittaker] told me not to wait, but March 3 was the first opening on the Mayo schedule after the required medical tests. I thank the bosses for all their support, Allison for her prayers, Brant for his humor and Dick Johnson for covering while I went back and forth to Mayo.

I consider this early diagnosis a gift that left to my own devices I would not have received. I'm going to take full advantage of my good fortune and hit this head on with the most aggressive and proven treatment available.

I will announce this at the end of the 10 p.m. news tonight and share it on social media. As I go through the process, I will also post updates on Facebook. I can't wait to get ahead of this and back to the desk and all of you. Wish me luck!

Thanks,
Rob

I wish him a healthy and speedy recovery.
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Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Len Kasper


This month's IE is out, and features my interview with #Cubs play-by-play man Len Kasper. Great guy.

You can read it here.
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I think we might all get new cars!

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Obama's Book Deal


Eckhartz Press offered the Obama's a free breakfast at Danny's Egghead Diner in Chicago, but apparently I was slightly outbid. Penguin Random House offered more than $60 million.

The New York Times has the details.
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