By Steve Rhodes
“Right now, no matter how you rationalize it, these Cowboys are a bad football team,” Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News writes.
“They’re overrated. And overhyped.
“A 27-20 loss to Chicago, hardly an NFL powerhouse, simply drove home the point.”
On the other hand, our very own Jim Coffman thinks maybe the Bears actually are better than we thought – even if they certainly didn’t look like it a week ago.
“There must be a few of you out there, feeling vindicated,” Coffman writes in SportsMonday. “The main thing that happened on Sunday was that Jay Cutler started to justify the hype that surrounded him when Jerry Angelo pulled the trigger on the greatest personnel move in Bear history the off-season before last.”
Crosswalking
“Chicago police have gone on a ticketing blitz focusing on dozens of high-accident locations to enforce a new state law requiring drivers to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks,” Jon Hilkevitch reports for the Tribune.
“The law, which took effect this summer yet remains little-known among the public, is all about improving safety and reducing crashes involving pedestrians, officials said.”
Yeah, um, really?
“The Police Department is applying for grants from federal and state agencies to conduct more crosswalk stings, using mostly off-duty police officers.”
It seems like a knee-jerk reaction to point out that we have much higher priorities, but I’ll let my knee jerk on this one. Ouch! Right up to my jaw!
We Know Why You Merge
“Travelers WIll Be the Big Losers in United-Continental Airline Merger.”
And Who Can Blame Her?
“Dog owners, beware: If you live in suburban Chicago and don’t pick up after your pet, you might get tossed an unpleasant reminder,” AP reports.
“Police in Naperville say a woman who stepped in dog feces outside her apartment appears to have retaliated by heaving it at the door of her neighbor who owns a dog.”
Piggy Bank?
“A family used its control of a Western Springs community bank to give millions of dollars in free loans to insider companies, the bank’s other shareholders claim in Cook County Court,” Courthouse News Service reports.
“Five people who allegedly own half the shares in Western Springs Bancorp., the parent company of the Western Springs National Bank and Trust, say the bank was looted by the other 50 percent shareholders: James, Allyson, Suzanne and Peter Regas.”
Jelly Belly
The best grape jelly on Chicago grocery shelves.
Debate Snub
U.S. Senate candidate vs. NBC.
Cubbie Occurrence
“Tyler Colvin is in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery. Still, it’s in poor taste to make the following joke: Since the stabbing occurred on the field during the middle of a Marlins game, there were no witnesses,” Thomas Francis of the Broward/Palm Beach New Times writes under the headline “Tyler Colvin Is Not a Vampire (And Other Things We Learned This Weekend In Sports).”
Eulogy
“The 2010 season effectively over yet the lineup still full of second-rate veteran bench players, the Guillen Meter reads 24 for ‘You want me to let the kids play? Play your own !@#$ing kids.'” our very own Andrew Reilly writes in The White Sox Report.
*
The Cub Factor will appear on Tuesday.
Living Without TV
“Unlike many newspaper columnists, I did not come to find the whole experience to be some quaint discovery of the simple pleasures my electricity-deprived ancestors enjoyed when they weren’t busy suffering from typhoid, catarrh, or consumption,” our very own Scott Buckner writes. “I did not start thinking our pioneer ancestors had more-fulfilling lives doing their homework with hunks of coal on the backs of shovels to the light of whale-oil lamps. I did not want to go rolling a barrel hoop down the street for entertainment. I did not want to start climbing a tree or lay on on the lawn to daydream at the clouds.”
State Secrets
Ethics waivers and internal inquiries.
Male Call
Skokie man in trouble for fetching his mail while naked.
Daley Doo-Doo
“Even Mayor Richard M. Daley himself had to flee the doo-doo that has been deepening since his big fadeaway announcement,” Chuck Goudie writes in the Daily Herald.
“Mr. Daley is in China and South Korea this week, but not before the praise and glory of his name grew into an outright love fest.
“Usually such lavishness and heart-throbbing is reserved for a politician’s eulogy. With few exceptions, though, there have been nothing but glorious stories recounting the mayor’s election victories and those sparkling avenues he will leave behind.
“Such a glowing public portrait, minus only the halo, is especially surprising considering that it was barely four months ago that Mr. Daley charitably offered to place a bayonet up the rear end of a reporter who dared to ask him a question.
“You really can’t even call Mayor Daley’s plan a retirement. By leaving office at a time when there is widening mayhem and gangland murders on city streets, a police department in growing disarray and the city broker than broke, it is more akin to abandonment.”
Go read the rest – including the part about the t-shirts on sale at Midway. Perfect.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Inquire within.
Posted on September 20, 2010