Oh, I Think So

So LeBron James and his teammates -- who made the Oklahoma City Thunder look downright puny -- wanted to win their championship rings so bad that they worked together and kept their heads level and won it all at the conclusion of Game 5 in a best four out of seven series.  Congrats, LeBron.  I would say "now go away" but he has not been all up in our videos with his happiness.  I haven't seen a single LeBron interview or news piece anywhere nor have I been looking. I learned something this week.  I was talking to my work pal and he said he hated LeBron James too, "but not for the reason you do.  You hate him because of what he said, right?"  Yes, I confirmed that I did.  He said, "I hate him too, too, but I hate him because he didn't come to Chicago."  Interesting, yes?  "And," he added, "unlike Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley and a lot of other elite players, he doesn't go off on his teammates."  Because I wasn't...

It's the Thunder vs. the Heat, y'all, and everyone I know well or casually who cares even slightly about basketball is so hoping that the Heat gets beaten to a cold hard pulp.  As one fellow told me on Friday after the Heat barely beat the Thunder, "I hope Oklahoma wins the next three games in Miami so the Heat fans will suffer and be miserable."  And who do nonfans (practically legion) hate the most?  Why, that wacky LeBron James, natch. Every year, my friend Ray has a party for his birthday in the middle of June.   The party is announced months in advance -- this year was five months ahead but some years he's told us the date before Christmas -- and if you go once, you have to go thereafter because now you're a fixture.  There are vast platters of catered food:  Puerto Rican, Cuban, Filipino, American.  There is an insane open bar where you can find everything and anything but mango-orange martinis were the featured bevy this year.  The apartm...

This past Tuesday and for the last time until 2117, the second planet in our solar system, Venus, crossed the sky between the Earth and the sun.  It was an event that brought out every dork, nerd, and geek around the world and had them congregate at planetariums and observatories.  I am a proud member of those three teams and was pleased to be able to put my face to the sky and looked directly at the sun, even though my coworker said to me before I left for the evening, "Please don't look directly at the sun."  I had on special glasses, y'all.  I am not a complete idiot. Getting the special glasses was a whole other story.  In terms of arriving just when things were getting under way, we got there late.  We all have jobs that often require us to stay late and Tuesday, June 5, was just like every other darn day so the parking situation closest to the planetarium was filled up with cars jammed into every crevice on the street so we parked at the Soldier Fie...

We've all been on freeways or highways or expressways or toll roads where someone comes speeding by so fast that it's like he had a rocket strapped to the bottom of the car, even changing from the far left lane to make an exit that is just 50 yards from the starting point.  We've seen motorcycles -- hogs and crotch rockets -- shooting by with such velocity you wonder if the rider has no penis and therefore much to prove or maybe a death wish or maybe he just likes the wind in his hair and and face because the knucklehead isn't wearing a helmet.  (I let the latter get well ahead of me so if he crashes and his head is cracked open like a melon, I don't have to see it.  The former, well, I've been the former in LA when my sister or I realize we are at the exit we need.) I've lived in major cities -- Detroit, New York, Chicago -- and have visited many others several times -- Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, St. Louis.  Chicago is my home and only here have I seen ...