Whoops

Didn't mean to take a week between posts. Things happen, you get busy, stuff like that.

OPENING DAY!!!! One of my most favorite days of the year as baseball season starts. Spring brings hope to fans of every team this year, even the Royals and the Pirates, as they look for any bit of forward progression. I couldn't but help forward to my wife this article from today's Chicago Tribune by Rick Morrissey-

1. Denial (May). This isn't happening. This season isn't going down like the previous 98 Saharan seasons. No sir. The sky is always blue. Everybody has perfect posture. We'll all live forever. Heidi Klum/Brad Pitt wants me.

2. Anger (June). What kind of benevolent God would allow the Cubs to do this to me again? This kind of benevolent God: The kind of benevolent God who gets his kicks out of using a magnifying glass to burn the wings off defenseless butterflies. Me mad? No. But if the popcorn vendor looks at me the wrong way, I'll rip his lungs out.

3. Bargaining (July). OK, there is a God, and if He just lets the Cubs win a World Series, I promise I'll go to church every day, be kind to attorneys and work for a cure for post-nasal drip.

4. Depression (August). The Cubs are 25 games out of first. I don't want to get out of bed. The ivy at Wrigley is poison, all games should be played under the cover of night and cotton candy is the handiwork of the devil. Just to sum up.

5. Acceptance (September). Hello darkness, my old friend. Well, if I'm going to die, I can't think of 3 million paying customers I'd rather die with. I want an umpire to sweep my ashes off home plate. Woo! Woo!

Shortly after publication this morning, news broke that the Chicago Tribune, owner of the Chicago Cubs, is being sold, including the Cubs. The winner of the bidding is also a partial owner of the Chicago White Sox and will be forced to either relinquish his portion of the White Sox, or put the Cubs on the market; it's presumed he will see the Cubs.


I can't wait to read the reviews of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" after the first wave of Oprah viewers/readers get through with it. "The Road" is just a brutal work by my favorite living writer (Sinclair Lewis being my favorite). The journey the father and son take in the aftermath of a presumed nuclear holocaust is just terrible, and, maybe I'm not giving them enough credit, but I just can't see Oprah readers finding the beauty of McCarthy's language, the storytelling and the brutality that McCarthy describes. I am reminded back to when the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik" came out, and "Under the Bridge" became this huge hit; how many people were prepared for "Breaking the Girl" or "Sir Psycho Sexy"?

I took a contemporary American literature class in college, and McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" was one of the books that we read that year. The class was good for 2 reasons- 1) it introduced me to McCarthy and Annie Proulx, the good, and 2) it made me sure that I would never read another Anne Tyler, Jane Smiley, Saul Bellow, or John Irving book again. Yes, I'm sure that there are good books by them, but after what I read by them, I have no desire to read them.

After watching the the first two games of the Final Four, I am convinced that Greg Oden needs to stay in school at least one more year. He is immature and too raw of a talent. It is in spite of him that Ohio State is playing for the national champion ship game today. Kevin Durant, on the other hand, is at too large a risk to stay in school another year, by that I mean he's liable to blow out a knee and only have a measly education to fall back on, poor thing. Instead, he can come out, make a ton of money, get bounced around by NBA centers and forwards, and be good in 5 years when he finally bulks up. Oden has the size, but he just does not have the temperament, in my opinion.

A new restaurant is coming to my neighborhood. Canvas, a local bar/restaurant/entertainment place was apparently bought out by a company called Pacific Fish. There is a notice of new ownership in the window, along with closing specials, not that I'd really call a $5 Irish Coffee a closing special price. This is in addition to something opening up next to Masala on 9th Ave., and a new zone diet restaurant called Good Earth Cuisine is opening where the Burger King used to be on 9th, between Irving and Judah. Walked past that place and their menu is up, and I am quite excited to find that a Bison Burger is listed. Love me some bison burgers.