The [Tuesday] Papers

I have to say The Chicago Code is actually getting good. Shawn Ryan's plot lines are developing in a nice, complex way - and so, finally, are the characters. The cheesy dialogue so prevalent at first is disappearing. The show is hitting its stride.

But the best moment of last night's episode was one Ryan should have reconsidered: We finally learned the name of the mayor and it's McGuinness. As in Mayor McGuinness.

Now, for all I know, it's McGinnis. But I'm gonna stick with McGuinness. (A commenter here says the name comes from one of Ryan's childhood friends.)

Code watchers at the Beachwood Inn last night imagined a meeting between Mayor McGuinness and Mayor McCheese - perhaps to work out a trade agreement. We wondered if McGuinness would hold a summit at McManny's or the Billy McGoat. We recalled Wifey McBeaty's.

Good times.

So a toast to Mayor McGuinness. May we one day see your face.

Living The Dream
"Kacey Jordan, the porn star whom Charlie Sheen paid $30,000 to party with during his now notorious weekend bender in January, was hospitalized Monday night in Chicago after an alleged suicide attempt," E! reports.

The incident happened at the Peninsula.

Porn Star
"Employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission caught in a porn scandal were on huge six-figure salaries, it has emerged today," the Daily Mail reports.

"Seventeen of the workers were earning between $99,356 and $222,000 a year.

"They were among 33 investigated for downloading pornography on their SEC computers at seven offices around the country . . . The men worked in Denver, Atlanta, Boston; Chicago, Fort Worth, Texas, Los Angeles and Washington."

Hot Dog Report
Harmons's Ol' Chicago brings Chicago-style dogs to Holden, Missouri.

Wheel Watcher
"Jason Anderson, of Bourbonnais, will be a contestant on Wednesday's Wheel of Fortune television show airing at 6:30 p.m. on ABC Channel 7 in Chicago," the Kankakee Daily-Journal reports.

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When tryouts came to Minneapolis for Wheel in my junior year at the University of Minnesota, a bunch of us went and two of my friends got on. I went out to LA with them to watch the taping. Bob Ryan will never forget not nailing "Seventh Heaven" in the showcase! Still, we got a lot of parting gifts for the house; a year's supply of this, a year's supply of that.

My favorite moment, though, was when Pat Sajak asked our buddy Chris what one does with a geography degree, which he was pursuing at the time. "Make maps, I guess," Chris said. Classic.

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He later switched to business.

Shovel Ready
"The Chicago area followed close behind battered Sun Belt metro areas in numbers of lost construction jobs in the downturn, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Associated General Contractors of America," the Tribune reports.

"Chicago-Joliet-Naperville region lost 33 percent of its construction jobs, or 52,100 positions, between January of 2007 and this January, the sixth-greatest loss among metro areas, according to the group's analysis of government data."

Search Results
"The latest results from the Tevatron collider at Fermilab near Chicago suggest that the Higgs boson is on the light side - which means that it could be harder to detect than a heavier particle," Physics World reports.

"Predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs, if discovered, would provide an explanation for how elementary particles acquire mass."

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Fermilab scientists also report that discovering who hired Angelo Torres is proving harder than expected. If discovered, the hiring of Angelo Torres would provide an explanation for how the Hired Truck program came to be.

Groupon Remorse
There's an app for that.

Cheeseburgers in Paradise
But no longer in Des Plaines.

Subway vs. McDonald's
Compare and contrast.

Genre Bending
TV Wives To Come.

Root Causes
Cops: Spend Money On Schools, Not Jails.

The Ball Is Round
Our guide to the NCAA tournament.

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Round ball.

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