tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31999782024-03-06T23:14:53.992-06:00The Flannel Diaries 2014Proudly serving your banal Internet browsing needs for 10.014% of a century.Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.comBlogger386125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-89334574227805880902014-09-11T20:08:00.001-05:002014-09-11T20:13:03.452-05:00"The Teacher Wars"--a reviewIt's definitely a book worth reading that can simultaneously enrage, engage and entertain you. The Teacher Wars tells the story of why America's teachers are so roundly despised and used as a punching bag by the political elites and power systems. Completely fascinating and non-partisan as far as I can tell, this history should be read by anyone who ever had anything to say about the quality of Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-55856233603642797002013-05-06T17:22:00.006-05:002013-05-06T17:25:09.673-05:00The Reagan Buckley Knew: WFB's memoir and its alternative takeI seem to be unable to read this title as anything other than “The Reagan I Knew.” The Gipper, in the wake of the Iran/Contra scandal, famously proclaimed that, though his heart told him he hadn't approved arms sales to terrorists, his head told him he had. What Buckley’s head and heart told him over the years, I could not say, but The Reagan I Knew describes a politician who might as well be Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-14525825731499979582013-03-10T00:05:00.000-06:002013-03-10T11:26:11.858-05:00Local artist's performance gets rave reviews, and gets me tailMIDNIGHT, CHICAGO--I'm at the L'An Riche, the swankiest, trendiest, most elegant restaurant this side of the Mississippi and other side of Elkhart, Indiana. The place is dark, intimate. Across the table from me sits Victoria Beckham, model/singer/businesswoman currently in a transition, she tells me, to actress/model/lingerie tester. Tall, curvaceous, lissome, with an elegant bearing and nice Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-80121516054458331362012-11-05T21:01:00.000-06:002012-11-05T21:01:03.820-06:00How my home builder reminded me that voting is pointless<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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The timing couldn’t have been better.
I’d just finished a load of laundry and was taking it
upstairs when I grasped hold of the railing on the basement steps, and felt it
wiggle. Like a loose Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-15986066001322422062012-09-27T11:36:00.001-05:002012-09-27T11:36:21.783-05:00"A Shropshire Lad" RereadDeceptively simplistic, this collection ranges along the varied experiences and nuances of life itself. Love, death, defeat, fleeting victory, eventual demise and a general feeling of transience, A.E. Housman reminds us continually that we are but a page in a book we can never see entirely. Housman's Shropshire, in all its pastoral idyllic beauty, never existed any more than Margaret Mitchell's Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-8577470802604179232012-09-15T13:24:00.001-05:002012-09-15T13:27:43.846-05:00Text message conversations in which I rock #54--Kim packs me a lunchBecause no one will believe me later. Or care. Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-75606327466948345792012-08-30T19:55:00.000-05:002012-10-10T19:35:10.067-05:00Grammar counts when writing propagandaIn his column today, George Will writes, “In the 1960s, public-employee unions were expanded to feast from quantitative liberalism (favors measured in quantities of money). And qualitative liberalism was born as environmentalists, feminists and others got government to regulate behavior in the service of social “diversity,” “meaningful” work, etc.”
If I had the moxy, I’d use this article in a Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-36555257316656941722012-08-18T18:33:00.000-05:002012-08-18T18:33:16.205-05:00Meritocracy or "Meritocracy"?I've never seen Christopher Hayes on MSNBC, but I did see him speak on meritocracies and his book about them in Chicago last summer, and immediately picked up Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy. Hayes argues that America's meritocracy is flawed because it results in a new brand of elites who then proceed to create/maintain a system that guarantees the benefits of being in the eliteDigger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-16988571135205499982012-06-22T11:17:00.003-05:002012-06-22T11:17:40.152-05:00Two-"man"-ish indie rock concert sizzles at SchubasCHICAGO--At first, I suspect it's just my court-mandated medication that has me hearing things.
I mean, it certainly isn't the star performer making me distractable. Brendan Losch has nothing if not stage presence. He's at the microphone, guitar in hand as comfortably as a rod is in a fisherman's, his quiet humility balanced seamlessly with his curious blend of crafted showmanship.
Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-41612012780119195162012-06-10T14:04:00.001-05:002012-06-10T14:12:38.667-05:00How to entertain party guests: A tutorialWhen guests are over for a party, it's very important to me to make sure they know they're welcome. Or tolerated. Or expected to clean up and make room for my real friends once they show up. And since I don't like to be too obvious about such things, I've found that written reminders about the house is a subtle way to make your will and wishes known to a bunch of drunk strangers tearing up your Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-46960024084755178512012-05-28T21:08:00.000-05:002012-05-28T21:19:26.508-05:00The Adventures of Chase Harlin, Space Ranger!
Episode 23: Landing on Moon City
"I'm taking it in slowly this time, Skip."
Space Ranger Chase Harlin hunched over the controls of his space freighter, his long, lean jaw a slash of power against his chisled face; his hands clutching the controls with all the power of a steel cable. Skip Ripley, sidekick, yawned, wishing he had a cigarette.
"We're coming in to Moon City," Chase told his Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-67576066900510227262012-04-30T21:39:00.001-05:002012-04-30T21:39:17.617-05:00Here's a little game I like to play when my nephew James and niece Avery come to visit:
JAMES: Hi!
ME: Avery?
JAMES: James!
ME: I'm not James.
JAMES: No, I'm James!
ME: Look, if you see James, tell him I need him to clean the garage.
AVERY: Car!
ME: That's right, sweetie. Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-31176589415843762012012-03-01T15:18:00.001-06:002012-03-01T15:20:10.598-06:00Super Happy Fun Fallacy QuizSuper Happy Fun Fallacy Quiz!Directions: Identify the rhetorical fallacy in each of the following statements. Winners get a Certificate of Completion from the School of...Education. I guess. 1. "How is it that I watch twelve hours of Fox News a day and I'm still an idiot?" --media drone
2. “I’ve been in several office building lobbies, and every time I’ve been in one, I get thrown out. They must Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-74875019929937309722012-02-22T18:52:00.001-06:002012-06-10T14:17:38.348-05:00The Conservative Mind, by Russell Kirk: A dumb book reportI didn't pick this book out of a hat. Kirk's tome has been praised by figures such as Richard Nixon (according to Ambrose's biography, he read it avidly and used it to shape his own thinking) and William F. Buckley. Just last month, John Kass wrote a column in which he mentioned glancing at his own "dog-eared copy" of it and bemoaning the fact that today's Republicans can't articulate their own Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-72711796410585504442012-01-25T16:26:00.001-06:002012-06-10T14:18:02.898-05:00Things I should not have said on my anniversary getaway"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Bam! I'm out of here."
"Did you pay the gas bill?"
"Mind if I call you Mother?"
"I shouldn't have had those burritos."
"Remember, Two and a Half Men is on in ten minutes."
"Here's one my ex taught me."
"Wuh-oh."
"Did...did I just get a text? You mind if I check really quick?"
"What do you think the guys are up to right now?"
"There. That oughta hold you Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-38535064249199474362012-01-22T13:01:00.004-06:002012-06-10T14:18:19.805-05:00Griftopia: Manifesto for those struggling with the hangover of the financial crisisDisclaimer: When it comes to money and the business world, I rank somewhere between a pacifier-sucking infant and college freshman stoned on paint fumes in terms of comprehension. Ask me about my financial portfolio and I'll just blink and stare at you. Talk to me about derivatives and I'll most likely suffer an acute case of diarrhea so I can run to the safety of the nearest bathroom. I try to Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-9721428936895756912011-12-15T02:01:00.002-06:002012-06-10T14:18:56.363-05:00The Infernals Take TJ's and Texting to Town"Are you guys ready to rock?"
Lead guitarist Chris Dewey stands before the crowd of rockandrollophiles before him at TJ's Bar in Palatine, arms outstretched, fingers flipped into devil's horns, a gleam of defiance in his eyes and lip curled into a sneer Sid Vicious would kill for.
Dimly, electronic chimes jingle. He pauses and looks at an electronic readout.
"Hang on," my text reads. "I'm Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-25439475389928748472011-12-07T17:23:00.001-06:002011-12-15T16:51:31.022-06:00A potential submission to NPR's Fiction Writing ContestThis is quite possibly the worst entry I've ever written. In fact, this was actually a writing assignment given to a bunch of sixteen year-olds. They had to begin wtih "No one really believed the story at first" and end with "Like all good things, it came to an end." I was going to showcase their work, but decided to showcase my own instead. Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-65201673501277197382011-11-12T03:30:00.000-06:002011-12-07T15:33:52.908-06:00A late postHad I world enough and time, I would have told this story: It was late. Tso and I were boozing it up in an Irish pub. We laughed. We cried. We argued politics. We swore at each other and yelled at things. It was grand. And suddenly, a man passing by came over to us. "Excuse me," he said. "I don't mean to interrupt, but...are you two gay?""No!" shrieked Tso. "Yes," I said immediately. Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-33226944388566842722011-10-17T19:37:00.000-05:002011-10-17T19:37:00.846-05:00And now, a humorous comment, made in a suburban bathroom..."This must be where the Jolly Green Giant comes to take a piss."--me, at Lamplighters in PalatineDigger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-44675812122216108832011-10-16T14:26:00.000-05:002012-06-10T14:19:27.767-05:00Epilepsy walk-a-thon draws local band, volunteers, ass-kickingThe Third Annual Geriatrics Run for Epilepsy 5K began at 8 a.m. and in an hour and a half, I've already managed to lap the two runners in front of me. I take deep gulps of air and pump my arms harder, feeling the cold fall breeze burn my lungs and send my sluggish blood pumping like through my veins like Tom Sizemore through a Vegas brothel. I come up right behind my rivals. They look tough, but Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-81476665331653411032011-10-02T11:50:00.000-05:002012-06-10T14:15:37.115-05:00NPR's Fiction Contest, Take 7--A Western
This month, some author I never heard of gave the marching orders: "You want to enter the contest? Get your little story published? Oh, how cute! Of course you can give it a shot! And maybe you'll win! And maybe I'll quit writing and go back to busing tables! Anyway, send your putrid attempt at creativity to NPR before the end of September. The rules: Your 600-word story has to begin with Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-46299180212703915072011-09-10T14:24:00.000-05:002011-09-10T14:25:29.759-05:00Diane Ravitch reviews two books about education and education "reform." Take note: when have we not been in an educational crisis? Get off my back, America. I'm not the problem. Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-14570058710420744502011-08-14T18:32:00.000-05:002011-08-18T16:40:17.666-05:00Bachmann sets record straight on Biblical submissionsAMES--On her Sunday talk show circuit, Representative Michele Bachmann, after winning the Iowa straw poll, fielded questions about a comment she made in a 2006 stump speech in which she said she became a tax lawyer because her husband wanted her to. "“Tax law? I hate taxes,” she said in the speech. “Why should I go into something like that? ButDigger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3199978.post-6779503821919958792011-07-30T14:08:00.007-05:002012-06-10T14:20:09.480-05:00The Infernals, not Journey or Night Ranger, Play the Gallery Cabaret (and they're not the band Foreigner either...)Truthfully, I do make mistakes on occasion. Some of those mistakes are benign (“I swear, ma’am, I have no idea what you’re talking about; I think your breasts were staring at me”); others transcend the boundaries of the social compact (“I did say ‘Watch out for that truck’ dear; you just weren’t listening closely enough”). Whatever the case, while I am probably closer to perfection than anyone Digger Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10836274981993390037noreply@blogger.com0