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I live in a city where we don't have professional baseball; we have a custody dispute.

Explanation: Last night, over dinner, I was noting the Boston game on the TV at LTK, and my mind was riffing on the Tom Paxton line about growing up in Chicago, a city that didn't have a professional baseball team.

Some quick lunchtime news chum for your dining enjoyment:

• From the “Well, Shit!” Department: An appeals court has overturned the FCC Indecency Rule. Expect society to be totally warped as fleeting expletives and wardrobe malfunctions overtake violence on television in popularity.
  
  
• From the “There’s an App for That” Department: A Facebook app, that ( Read more... )

The New York Times has an interesting article on a sport that's making a comeback: Jousting. You read that right. Jousting.

Evidently, this is the sport you see at renfaires. The basic concept is remains: two armor-clad opponents charge at each other on horses while wielding 11-foot-long wooden lances. The goal is to break your lance on your ( Read more... )

I was hoping for a theme, but alas, that was not to be. Here are a few items that caught my eye from skimming the papers the last few days over lunch:

• From the “He Made It Too Easy” Department: The Chicago Tribune brings the obit of John Shepherd-Barron, the inventor of the ATM machine. We all know how we are stuck with 98.6 as normal human ( Read more... )

As you know, recently I've been commenting on things that reflect where society is going right or wrong. So, consider two recent sports superstars in the news, and answer the question: "Which of these stories is worse, and which will be the news story with the longest legs? Why?":

1. Tiger Woods cheating on his wife.
   
2. Mark McGwire using steroids to ( Read more... )

I guess all the papers waited until Saturday for the interesting articles. Here’s some chum for your Memorial Day weekend. Stay safe, whether you be at home or on vacation.

• From the “Well, I Guess Jack Does Know Shit” Department: Remember those Jack in the Box commercials where Jack sings about “...cattle the size of schnauzers...”. Turns out, he ( Read more... )

A late lunch today--I’ve been busy. A few quickies (no pun intended) that, in my opinion, reflect the times very well:

• From the “You Give Us 22 Minutes...” Department: Just as two city papers are no longer sustainable (hell, one isn’t even sustainable anymore), two “all-news” channels don’t make economic sense. So KNX and KFWB have diverged, and ( Read more... )

Today’s news brings an interesting mix of chum:

• From the “But I Always Thought They Wore Ties” Department: It appears that a publisher has gotten into trouble with his alma mater and his church because of a calendar he published. The calendar: “Men on a Mission”. The school: BYU. The church: LDS. The LA Times is reporting on the situation of Chad ( Read more... )

Today's lunchtime news chum all seems to come from the "I Remember When" era....

• From the “I Remember When Bozo Meant Something More Than an Insult” Department: One of the earliest children’s TV performers was Bozo the Clown. Originally devised by Capitol Records for children’s records, he moved first to children’s TV on KTTV in Los Angeles, then ( Read more... )