bracket implosion begins

Dang you, Memphis and Duke!

Obama Obracket - the madness continues

The President's March Madness Bracket:

When I have time, I'll compare his picks to mine and see how close we are.

STOP FREAKING OUT. The Playboy Mansion is NOT for sale!

* this is not an official statement from Playboy or anyone other than myself.

Some people have already started asking me if I know about the Playboy Mansion being for sale.
THE PLAYBOY MANSION IS NOT FOR SALE!

The mansion next door, where Hef's separated, but never divorced wife, and college-age sons live... IS for sale.
The boys are going to college and it seems that Ms. Kimberly Conrad Hefner wants a change of location.

What little details are available are here in this article by the National Post.

Cheesy Marchy Madness

I have little to no experience with college basketball, with the exception that I sometimes watch March Madness and participate in the time-honored tradition of filling out a bracket with my best-guess estimate of who I think will win. As I rarely follow any college basketball team, I have little to go on other than each team's mystical "ranking" and their win-loss statistics.
I'm told that this may, in fact, give me an advantage, as usually the person least knowledgable inevitably wins these things.

Here's my "bouncy bouncy" bracket. Click on it to see the bigger one.
I'll probably get a lot of crap from people in Chicago about Illinois getting knocked out in the second round by Gonzaga, but so be it.
Time will tell.

Whatchyoo talkin bout.... WILLIS TOWER?

You may or may have not heard about the Sears Tower possibly being painted silver (dumb).
You might not have heard that the current owners of the Sears Tower in Chicago have reached an agreement with the Willis Group, who is consolidating its offices and moving 500 employees into the tower.

They are changing the name of the Sears Tower to the WILLIS TOWER!

As I'm sure every news outlet will do, let me be one of many to scream...
WHATCHYOOTALKINBOUT, WILLIS?

Does Landmark Status mean NOTHING in Chicago?
OK, forget about landmark status... have businesses learned nothing of Chicago and their brand loyalty and tradition?
Ask Macy's . They're still struggling with the takeover (and dismantling) of Marshall Field's.

If you want to call it: Willis Group Sears Tower or Willis/Sears Tower, I can see an argument for that, but don't expect people to start calling it Willis Tower..... JUST BECAUSE YOU BOUGHT THE NAMING RIGHTS!

Did you people all drink a giant bucket of stupid? No-one but the Willis Group is gonna call it the Willis Tower, at least... not for at least 50 years. I understand there is a precedent for this. The Standard Oil building (the cousin of the former twin towers of New York's World Trade Center) was renamed the Amoco Building when the company changed names (many still continued to call it the Standard Oil Building) and is now called the Aon Center. Many have adapted to the name change, but I still call it the Standard Oil Building.

The Sears Tower, completed in 1973, was commisioned by Sears, Roebuck and Company and for many years was the tallest building in the world. It remains one of the most well known structural icons of Chicago. You can't erase that legacy overnight just by buying naming rights and updating a wikipedia entry. The building has gone through several owners over the years, even after Sears had vacated the building , yet the Sears name has remained... until now.

Why? Excellent question. There's a few possible reasons. For one, Sears' naming rights for the building expired in 2003, and they probably can't afford to support funding for naming rights if given the option to renew them. The lousy economy is probably the other reason. Building owners had received offers for naming rights over the last few years from several other tenants in the building, including CDW and Ernst & Young, and have rejected the offers. Its possible that the building owners need to increase their cashflow. It's pretty clear that the Sears building owners and The Willis Group suffer from greed (or poverty) for the former and misguided vanity from the latter.
It's highly doubtful that the city will adjust to the new name any time soon. I don't think I'll ever be visting the Willis Tower anyway.
In the meantime, I think I'll go visit the Sears Tower Skydeck. I haven't been there in a while.

Please..... Cheese

Look...
I understand "too little too late".
I realize there are things you say and do...
you can never take back.
But what would you be if you didn’t even try?
You have to try.
So after a lot of thought...
I’d like to reconsider.
Please...
If it’s not too late...
.

.

.

.

Make it a cheeseburger

- Lyle Lovett

VCB Version 2.0 - The Kuma's Led Zeppelin Burger

If you ever get the chance to visit Kuma's Corner
at Belmont and Francisco in Chicago,
You will discover one of the best burgers in the city (tied with Rosebud).

The burger menu at Kuma's is extensive and all the burgers are named after rock or metal bands.
Every month, there is a new special burger that they post on their giant chalkboard.
One of my favorites is the "Led Zeppelin" burger, an amazing 10 oz. beef burger topped with pulled pork, cheddar cheese, bacon and pickles, served on a pretzel-style bun. These burgers are not for the faint of heart, nor is the kick-ass music they play inside this gourmet restaurant disguised as a heavy metal dive bar. Despite their numerous tattoos and/or piercings, the wait staff and bartenders are the nicest, coolest people in the world. If you think you can handle all of that, then all you have to do is walk in and order one of their large list of seasonal bottled independent beers. I like the Left Hand Brewery's Blackjack Porter when it's in season, but they also have a few interesting ales on tap. If you're not adventurous, the only domestic bottle they have is PBR. Prepare to wait a while for a table or a spot at the bar to open up, because this place is REALLY REALLY POPULAR. If you're looking for a quick bite, you probably want to go somewhere else.

A quick note about sides:
Chips; the fresh cut home-made potato variety - EXCELLENT!
Fries; the thing that bothered me on my various visits was the variation of french fries.
The shoestring fresh cut belgian style greasy sticks of awesomeness.... OH YEAH!
The cheapo pull out a frozen bag of waffle-cut spuds and deep fry 'em for 3 minutes.... no thank you. Apparently, it depends on what day you show up as to whether or not the chef on duty will give you the shoestrings or the waffles. I'll have to remember to ask next time I go. If you can't get the shoestrings, you really can't go wrong with the chips.

Kuma's burgers that I've tried so far: PANTERA, YOB, CLUTCH, LED ZEPPELIN, MAYHEM, PLAGUE BRINGER, LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR

National Debt - Don't Believe the Hype

Let me begin this post by telling you that I am not an economist and I am neither Democrat nor Republican. Other than the cool job I have in the entertainment industry, I consider myself a regular middle class American with midwestern values, a good sense of humor, an irrational love for the Cubs and bacon cheeseburgers, and I am quite convinced that...
ECONOMIC CONSERVATIVES ARE DECEIVING YOU.

Here are the latest figures on the National Debt:
(If you can't see the graphic, it shows the total Debt Held by the Public - 6.57 trillion, followed by Intergovernmental Holdings - 4.3 trillion, followed by the total, which is $10,881,159,722,022 and thirty six cents.)
The U.S. Government regularly updates the National Debt Info.
You can find it here: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

The reason I mention this is that I need to tell you all something about the National Debt.

IT DOESN'T AFFECT YOU!

Well, it affects you, but not in any substantial way. Definitely not in any way that many economic conservatives (mostly republicans) would want you to believe.
True, we owe a lot of this money to China (whom we purchase a lot of goods from).
This explains why the U.S. has been merely giving lip service to China's human rights violations.
True, it's better for the country to not be in debt. If it makes you feel any better, most countries around the world aren't doing much better than we are.

Economic conservatives continue to hammer in our brains the concept that the U.S. debt works the same as our personal debt, and that we should stop all spending, even the productive kind of spending, because it's just digging a deeper hole for us to get out of.
But here's the reality:

It's too late for that kind of thinking! We've LITERALLY dug a financial hole to China! We're almost 11 trillion dollars in debt. Our Economy sucks. Banks continue to be greedier than necessary, The Auto Industry is dragging their feet on making eco-friendly high mileage cars. People are losing their jobs because nobody is spending.
Many Americans are in debt up to their eyeballs (as of 2008, $951 billion in credit card debt alone) and on the verge of, or already in, foreclosure.

So, I ask all of you...
WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD ANOTHER TRILLION OR TWO MAKE ?
Bail out the public and stop throwing our money away to CEOs to pay for their private jets, superbowl parties and Sheryl Crow concerts!
Pay off the banks instead of bailing them out and ERASE THE PERSONAL DEBT RECORD.

Why?

THE BANKS WILL BE UNFROZEN:
Paying off the banks will give them immediately available funds to start lending again.

NEW RULES:
By paying off their debts, some people may still not learn their lesson about getting in over their heads, but erasing the debt and starting over would allow us to begin new, more responsible rules and legislation for lending to keep this from happening again.
Then people and banks will both have the opportunity to lend or borrow more responsibly.

REAL ECONOMIC STIMULUS:Americans, with less debt and more money in their pockets, will be able to put more back into commerce, thus jump-starting the economic recovery.

The banks, of course, will hate this because they will no longer have consumers by the short and curlies.
I say, "TOO FRICKIN BAD!" They're not innocent in contributing to this financial mess we're all in.
The old game is over. Time for the new one.

OK, so you're one of those people who doesn't want to "pass on the debt to our grandchildren".
What makes you think that they're not just going to do the same thing we do and pass it along to the next generation?
This debt is a virtual fairy tale. It's the boogey man! It's there to scare you into believing that we need to all tighten our belts and everything will be OK.
Well, I have another concept: You have to spend money to make money.

If you're an economist or financial guru, I'd love to hear your take on these ideas.