Archive for December, 2008
December 16th, 2008
What do you think will happen in 2009? Write your predictions in the comments section at this blog.
Yes, we can all predict sure-to-happen things like: “The sun will rise,” and “The economy will still suck.”
Let’s try to be a little more inventive and specific than that.
A few of my local predictions for next year:
1. Developer Sunil Puri will make more money than me.
2. Rumors will surface (for the umpteenth time) that Rockford Speedway has been sold.
3. Former Judge Paul Logli will find a permanent full-time job.
4. Retired tourism ‘czarina’ Wendy Perks Fisher will again be nominated for the Register Star’s Excalibur Award.
5. Cheap Trick frontman Rick Nielsen will announce his one-day-to-be-built eatery will be shaped like a guitar pick.
December 15th, 2008
“This is a farewell kiss, you dog!”
(AP photo)
Muntadar Al-Zaidi, a Cairo-based reporter, yelled those words as he hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush during a Sunday press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister in Baghdad.
Bush later said he didn’t think one guy throwing shoes represents a broad movement in Iraq. And he also joked: “I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.”
Locally, a contentious situation is expected to come to a head tonight, and there could be a lighter side.
There is passionate dialogue going on between WXRX and its listeners and Loves Park city council members over the city likely voting tonight not to let the annual Wing Ding festival happen at Rockford Speedway this year.
The all-day hard-rock music festival the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend draws some 20,000 people, mostly youth. Detractors say the event causes mayhem.
No one is advocating anyone throw anything tonight at anyone else.
But I could see DJ Jim Stone handing a package of uncooked chicken wings to Mayor Darryl Lindberg, saying, “This is a raw deal, man!”
And I could see Lindberg offering Stone a roasted foul, saying, “You cooked your own goose!”
Got any similarly veined one-liners about contentious situations you’d like to invent/share? Be at least half-way civil, will ya?
December 12th, 2008
As I write this, Jim Stone, DJ and program director, at WXRX (104.9-FM) is telling listeners that Wing Ding, an all-day hard rock music festival the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, may not take place at the Rockford Speedway in Loves Park next year.
He’s saying that objectors complain about the “mayhem and madness” at the festival attended the past few years by more than 20,000 people each year. Nine bands played, including P.O.D., Theory of a Deadman, Black Stone Cherry, Drowning Pool and The Last Vegas.
Stone is asking supporters to attend Monday’s Loves Park City Council meeting. Here’s a bit of what he says at wxrx.com
“We went to the Loves Park City Council meeting on Monday, 12/8, to discuss the future of Wing Ding at the Rockford Speedway. The committee that approves these things made a motion to deny us from having the concert. The entire City Council will meet on Monday, 12/15, to vote. The Council has only heard from the people who have complained. As in so many instances, “government is run by those who show up.”
We need YOU to show up and have YOUR VOICES heard. We need YOU to become part of the process.“
December 12th, 2008
By now, you’ve probably heard that the body of a child was found yesterday very near the home of where missing tot Caylee Anthony lived in Florida.
(Caylee Anthony photo provided by Orange County Sheriff’s Police to news organizations)
It’s a big deal, and two national newsmagazines will cover the developments tonight:
“Dateline NBC” is devoting an hour to the story of the disappearance of Caylee, who was 2 years old at the time. Her 22-year-old mother, Casey Anthony, is jailed on a charge that she murdered her daughter. She’s the one who didn’t report her daughter missing for a month and has continually lied to police.
And ABC’s “20/20″ and Elizabeth Vargas also will examine Thursday’s developments. CNN’s Nancy Grace for months has almost exclusively been reporting nightly about the case, and her show saw a huge audience bump last night.
The circumstances surrounding Caylee’s disappearance remind me of Carrie Lynn Gaines’ murder in Rockford in 1990.
Carrie Lynn’s disappearance was explained away by her mother, Sherri Ann Gaines, and her killer, Richard Lee Howard (her mother’s boyfriend), for five years by saying she was living with relatives in Wisconsin. Casey Anthony said she left Caylee with a nanny who must have taken her. The woman she named as a nanny said she didn’t know the Anthonys.
Carrie Lynn’s body was found buried in a neighboring back yard after a tip in an anonymous letter. The body of the child whose remains were found yesterday in a bag in a wooded area near the home where Caylee had lived with her grandparents and mother has yet to be identified. But an EquuSearch investigator believes it is Caylee’s.
Howard is in prison for Carrie Lynn’s death. He beat her. Casey Anthony faces a murder charge.
After Carrie Lynn’s death, a center in Rockford was named after her as the first facility in Illinois and among the first in the nation to coordinate social service and law enforcement agencies’ responses to abuse reports in one plan.
To report any suspected abuse, call the Illinois Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-25ABUSE (1-800-252-2873).
December 11th, 2008
When I hear the now-popularly mainstreamed word “czar,” I still think “Russian emperor.”
And I picture a man.
Those two reasons may be why I’m having trouble appreciating the “car czar” term that’s all the rage on Capitol Hill now.
President Bush will appoint a “car czar” to hand out taxpayer’s $14 billion in emergency loans to U.S. automakers if Congress passes a pending bill.
I’m thinking “car czarina” or “car czarette” might better suit my way of thinking.
After all “czar” connotes “power,” and isn’t it powerful men at the top of the Big Three automakers that have helped get the industry into this mess by making powerful SUVs to their delight?
And doesn’t “czarina” make you think of Thumbelina, in other words, “small,” as in let’s make smaller, more-fuel-efficient cars?
I’ve gone too far out there with that logic, you’re thinking?
OK, then propose better ones. Or choose from a few below.
What would you substitute for "car czar"?
December 10th, 2008
“Men are hardwired after eons of evolution to overspend, a new study suggests. Their maxed-out credit cards and mega-purchases have been tied to their desire to attract mates.”
“The finding, detailed in the current issue of the journal Evolutionary Psychology, did not hold with women.”
In your household, who is the overspender?
December 9th, 2008
Give Gov. Rod Blagojevich credit for one thing: He has undoubtedly made “Saturday Night Live” Dec. 13 must-see TV.
Can you already see the skits?
A big-haired Blago (any guesses on which SNL actor will play him?) acting as a sports agent, selling Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
A sick child in a hospital playing tug-of-war with Blago.
An Ed Asner-lookalike wearing a Cubs hat fumbling around in a newsroom trying to secretly tape a Blago underling.
A bunch of FBI guys acting out a Pictionary word with props and sound effects: They’re eating a peach pie and saying “mmmm.” (Impeachment, get it?)
What comedy sketch ideas would you offer?
December 9th, 2008
Just how were all of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s conversations recorded? The Chicago Sun-Times reports day-to-day conversations implicating the Illinois governor.
Did an FBI agent posing as a janitor have to physically attach a device to Blago’s office phone?
Did an FBI agent posing as a carpet cleaner have to tap the phone at his home?
What about Blago’s cell phone? And the phones of the others involved in conversations?
Or can this all be done with an FBI agent flipping a switch somewhere?
How does such wiretapping work these days?
December 8th, 2008
Just curious about something:
Does your child give his/her teacher a gift at Christmas?
Is this something only elementary-aged kids do?
If your child is giving a gift to a teacher, what kind of gift?
And are they giving Christmas gifts only to classroom teachers? Music teachers? Gym teachers?
Do any of the local schools have policies regarding this?
Do tell about what you think is appropriate.
December 8th, 2008
Don’t worry, if you were one of the 300 people at the fifth annual Entourage party put on by developer Chandler Anderson and Mark Bonne, community development coordinator for Rockford Public Schools.
I’m not publishing any of the pictures here that were taken by a photographer that the duo had specifically assigned a photo-taking task at their November party at Anderson’s Brown Hills Road home in Rockford. Nor am I publishing here any pictures taken by a certain tall blonde who never goes to any party without her digital camera.
Why not, you ask? Well, I wouldn’t want to unnecessarily embarrass any objective news media types who might be hugging a school board president or anyone else who wouldn’t want to be seen with a drink in their hands or dancing all wild and crazy.
Which leads me to this question: I wonder if any of the dozens of movers and shakers in town — or any of the rest of us — who typically attend the party would be inhibited by what Anderson and Bonne are thinking about for next year’s Entourage party?
Here’s the plan: Bonne, who by the way said he filed papers today to run for 14th-ward alderman for the city of Rockford, said next year’s schtick could revolve around the opposite of Las Vegas’ catchphrase: “What happens at the Entourage Party doesn’t stay at the Entourage Party.”
(It’s called the Entourage is because you are supposed to arrive in a group with the person who was given eight tickets to hand out to their friends and family.)
Here’s how it would work: One of the rooms in Anderson’s home would be outfitted with video equipment that would enable the live streaming on the Web of whatever is going on in the room.
“It would only be in one room so that people would not feel inhibited by the camera,” Bonne said.
Bonne said he and Anderson haven’t yet decided if they’ll do the live Web show because of logistics and cost. In fact, he said he’s not sure that the two will host the party again because of the costs for booze and food. This is the second year that Steve Shannon, whose day job is morning show host at WZOK, has performed DJ duties. And this year Anderson and Bonne added a temporary hardwood dance floor in one carpeted room.
But the two have said in previous years that they wouldn’t host the party again, and yet they do.
So my next question is, what if I were at the party “twittering.” I’d post short updates or “tweets,” text-based posts via instant messaging, about what’s going on starting at 9 p.m. and continuing every 10 minutes or so until 2 a.m. Of course, I’d use the utmost discretion in identifying the innocent and guilty. Or not.
Sure would add to the “What happens at the Entourage party doesn’t stay at the Entourage party theme,” wouldn’t it?
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