By Steve Rhodes

Hey, that Ellery Queen episode is on again!
<— We’re working on it. In the meantime, let’s take a look at our world today. 1. “Larry Taylor never became the basketball star he hoped to be in the United States,” AP reports. “He never thrived at a top university, never made it to the NBA.
“In a few months, though, the point guard likely will be playing where only the best can play the Olympics in London. Instead of donning the stars and stripes of the United States, he will wear the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian national team.”
Why am I telling you this? Just out of local interest:
“The 6-foot-1 Taylor was born in Chicago and went to Rich Central High School in nearby Olympia Fields. He went to South Suburban College, a junior college near Chicago, for two years before moving to Missouri Western State College. He joined the Chicago Soldiers in the American Basketball Association in 2004, but stayed with the team briefly before accepting an offer to play in Mexico, where he stayed about two years before going to Venezuela.”

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Posted on May 3, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Hey, look who’s back in the news! Why it’s our old friend, Richard M. Daley. And it’s not even about him once again “agreeing” to submit to a deposition in a Jon Burge lawsuit that he’s been dodging since Jim Hendry was still generally managing the Cubs.
This time, it’s personal.
Or at least more personal than what he did or didn’t know about systematic torture that was brought to the attention of his office when he was the Cook County State’s Attorney but which he failed to investigate.
This is about his pocketbook.

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Posted on May 2, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The NATO summit coming to Chicago later this month will give a $128 million short-term boost to the city’s economy, according to a projection released by the head of the host committee Monday,” the Sun-Times reports.
“That does not count any long-term benefits of raising Chicago’s profile.”
It also doesn’t count any facts that reside here on Earth.

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Posted on May 1, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Rose’s awkward stumble in the lane was the latest bump in a career path that, until this season, had seemed charmed,” the Tribune reports.
“Rose won two state titles at Simeon High School, then led the University of Memphis to the national championship game in his first, and only, college season (though the team later forfeited every victory because of a cheating scandal that involved Rose). He was the first player taken in the 2008 NBA draft, then was named Rookie of the Year. Last season, he led the Bulls to the best record in the NBA and was named league MVP.”
Rose’s cheating continues to be merely a parenthetical.

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Posted on April 30, 2012

By The Weekend Desk B Team

Weekend Desk Editor Natasha Julius is on a mission of national import. She returns next week.
They’re Our Future
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton Announces CPS Students Will Be Studying In China.
So they can work there someday.

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Posted on April 28, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

So we had a little technical glitch here yesterday. It’s been a long time, really. When we first started it seemed like the site was going down every other day. Most of that was the fault of our host at the time, Media Temple. We’ve been with Hosting Matters for several years now and they’ve been a pleasure. I’ve recommended them before and I’ll recommend them again: They’re aces. Customer service is outstanding, the prices are good and the product is excellent.
Our problem yesterday was primarily that I was futzing with some code in one of our template – the one that controls the rail to your left – and I screwed something up. I’ve always said that the problem with code is that it does exactly what you tell it to do, not what you mean it to do. Business idea: create a Siri who writes the code for you.
“Siri, rewrite the Must-See TV and Weather Derby code so I change it in the template every day instead of using Dreamweaver files. Because I’m an idiot and can’t be trusted anywhere near the inside of a website.”

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Posted on April 27, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Every day, Larry Roark logs on to his 2002 Dell desktop computer in Tampa, Fla., and searches the cosmos for aliens,” Cynthia Dizikes writes for the Tribune.
“A retired insurance analyst, Roark spends hours online poring over pictures of radio waves taken from space, scouting for any unusual ripples or blips that could be Earth’s first interstellar ‘how do you do.’
“Since the Adler Planetarium’s Search for Extraterrestrial Life website, SETILive.org, launched earlier this year, an eclectic army of some 56,000 amateur astronomy buffs have joined in the hunt from personal computers around the world.”
Cool. But here’s the passage that really caught my eye:

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Posted on April 26, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Watching Chicago taxpayers being primed for a kick in the teeth is an old story by now, and what happened at City Hall on Tuesday is yesterday’s news,” John Kass writes for the Tribune.
“The teeth-kicking this time hasn’t actually happened yet. That’s news of the future. But we chumbolones know it is inevitable, the teeth skittering on the pavement of the Chicago Way like moist and shiny breath mints.”

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Posted on April 25, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The City Council on Tuesday is expected to approve a groundbreaking change in the way Chicago funds public works, paving the way for five financing giants to spend $1.7 billion on ‘transformative’ projects in the city,” the Sun-Times reports.
This despite the fact that hardly anybody other than Rahm Emanuel and the cowards on the city council thinks the plan – in its current form – is a good idea.
Opposed: The editorial boards of Crain’s, the Tribune, and the Sun-Times as well as the Better Government Association, the Grassroots Collaborative and the city’s own inspector general.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Posted on April 24, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago has become increasingly attractive in the areas of business and trade, but it has lagged in attracting international meetings, partly because the city has not promoted itself aggressively, said Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs,” the Tribune reports.
Really?
“When Chicago gets a NATO summit and a Nobel Peace Prize laureates meeting, it brings people to Chicago,” Longworth said. “It’s not going to erase the Al Capone or Michael Jordan memory overnight, but it raises the city’s profile in an area where we really need it – being in the world spotlight.”
First, why would we want to erase the memory of Michael Jordan? Talk about someone who raised our international profile. Second, Al Capone isn’t going away any more than Abe Lincoln; get over it already. Third, um, the most powerful person on the planet is from here – as are most of his cronies. Doesn’t that count for something, even if he did pull the G8 summit out from under us? Fourth, can everyone around here stop acting like insecure teenagers desperate for attention from the popular kids? New York City is New York City. It just is. And if you’re coming from the other side of the globe, Los Angeles is a good place to come ashore. Finally, rinky-dink is as rinky-dink does. And too often, that’s Chicago. Let’s work on ourselves, huh? Being a great city is a lot more attractive than just trying to pretend.

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Posted on April 23, 2012