Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
“[This is] not a day for dancing in the streets” but for “reflection,” suburban congressman Peter Roskam told WLS-AM this morning.
I have to agree. The scenes of folks chanting “USA! USA!” and cadets at West Point singing the national anthem make me uncomfortable.
Posted on May 2, 2011
By The Weekend Desk B Team
Natasha Julius is in Taiwan on royal honeymoon duty. The B Team is here, though, to monitor the foibles of our very own Royal Family.
Vatican Counsel
Quick, before she goes south!
Posted on April 30, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
There’s no rule that says media coverage of the royal wedding has to be so approving.
In fact, the principles of journalism dictate just the opposite. We should be outraged – and our coverage should reflect that.
We should be offended by the continuing existence of a monarchy; by the absurdity of a royal family; by the elitism, sexism, and outright falsities projected by the media managers carefully cultivating cliched narratives for the masses to lap up.
A modern fairy tale? More like a modern nightmare.
Posted on April 29, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
Rahm Emanuel, anti-Semite:
“The mayor-elect spent a half hour Monday evening charming the alderman and the rest of the crowd with his usual mix of self-deprecating humor and policy chatter,” the Reader reports. “He got everyone laughing with jokes about taking his parents to dinner (‘These are Jewish parents – you’ve got to get used to that. My father just wants to know who’s paying before he picks out a place . . . ‘).”
Posted on April 28, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
For our fantasy baseball players – and really, just plain ol’ baseball fans – we have Dan O’Shea’s weekly installment of Fantasy Fix today (with interesting notes about Matt Garza and Sergio Santos).
The rest of the Beachwood is taking today off to catch up on royal wedding news. Our absence today has nothing to do with this:
Posted on April 27, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari may have just gotten engaged, and the whole world of total dipshits may be obsessing about the Royal Wedding, but we had something occur last night at the Beachwood Inn that easily tops both.
After a couple Schlitzes for him and a couple of glasses of red wine for her, a gentleman patron we had never met announced to the bar that he had something he wanted to say. He then got down off his bar stool and onto one knee and proposed to his sweetie. She accepted and Beachwood history was made. The text messages flew as various family members were informed; meanwhile I dug into our champagne supply and poured it gratis for the house so we could properly toast the happy couple.
Given bartender-client privilege, I will say no more except that the couple met playing dodgeball. Take that, Kristin and Kate.
Posted on April 26, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
“The judge and attorneys in Rod Blagojevich’s corruption retrial today were set to resume the daunting task of selecting jurors who can put aside what they’ve heard about the high-profile case and give the former Illinois governor a fair trial,” AP reports.
“Judge James Zagel was expected to individually question up to 40 more people out of a pool of more than 100 potential jurors to assess their suitability. Each filled out a 38-page jury questionnaire as the retrial started last week.”
Here’s the important part:
“But he refused defense requests to send home several people who seemed biased against Blagojevich, including a retired auto shop owner who wrote that, ‘Based on news accounts, my personal bias is – he is guilty.’ Zagel said he accepted the man’s assurances in court that he could set aside his preconceptions and focus solely on the evidence.”
Posted on April 25, 2011
By Natasha Julius
Don’t piss us off. You wouldn’t like us when we’re pissed off.
Market Update
Celebrity Truth took another beating this week as it was revealed High-Speed Escort figures were significantly more pedestrian than originally thought.
Posted on April 23, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has decided to merge the city Departments of Fleet Management and General Services to place all city assets – vehicles, buildings and leases – under one roof,” the Sun-Times reports.
Prediction: In five to 10 years the new megadepartment will be split back into smaller departments in the name of efficiency.
Posted on April 22, 2011
