Oh, I Think So

Did you seriously think I was going to let something as wonderful as this go by without comment?  Long story short:  Somehow the footballs used by the New England Patriots in last week's final playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts lost air pressure.  This is a big deal because a deflated ball is a ball that is easier to catch and throw.  The QB can get a better grip on it when he throws and whoever catches it also can more easily grip it.  Famed, very, very rich and very, very beautiful supermodel Gisele Bündchen's husband, the very, very rich and very, very beautiful Tom Brady, is at the center of the controversy because allegedly he is the most logical person to have taken air from the balls.  More mysterious still, the balls seemed to gain pressure in the second half of the game. 1.  If the ball is found to have been tampered with, the result of the game will not be reversed.  The Pats will still have royally creamed the Colts' corn and...

Chicago's many fans of the Bears are rejoicing because there is a new head coach -- John Fox, who has taken the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl -- and there is a new general manager -- Ryan Pace, who started as a very young college graduate with the New Orleans Saints organization.  There is already much speculation about how soon the Bears will be going to the Super Bowl again.  People are happy!  Joyous!  Delighted! Hold your horses, I say.  We still have Jay Cutler as our number one QB. Maybe Mr. Fox can make a silk purse out of Jay's ear of sow, but I am so wary about all this that I just can't be so elated. So these points: 1.  Phil Emery did the stanky bad deal of the century when he extended Jay for so many years with a guarantee for two years.  (Jay's agent?  Really very bright, that one.) 2.  Marc Trestman was not a very good fit with the Bears. 3.  It will be a building year.  (I am w...

The Paris march against terror earlier today started from the Statue of the Republic -- whose name is Marianne -- at the Place de la République.  According to Le Figaro, 3.7 million people turned out for the rally in the capital, including 40 world leaders who walked arm in arm.  To encourage people to attend, subway rides in Paris were free.  (Bus rides might also have been free, but with 3.7 million people clogging the streets, would you want to be on a bus?)  In Lyon, 300,000 turned out; 150,000 in Toulouse; 100,000 in Bordeaux; 60,000 in Marseilles; 115,000 in Rennes; 100,000 in Grenoble; the list goes on.  In just the provinces, 2.5 million people turned out to march against terror.  The population of France is 66 million.  At least 10 percent of the population -- all religions represented -- turned out to say they were against terror. Here is the Statue of the Republic, taken on that one November vacation day when it didn't rain . Allons enfan...

Yes, it's been a while since I yakked on and on about the Bears but it's the new year and the topic needs to be put to rest for the rest of the season.  Why?  The playoff season's just getting started, you might say.  Not for the Bears it isn't.  This year they plumbed the depths of sucking.  The Bears are known for their defensive line.  The defensive line bit.  The offensive line, on the other hand, brought out at least three real stars -- Kyle Long, Kyle Fuller, and Alshon Jeffery.  Jay Cutler, much reviled by me, has proven himself to be as poor a prospect as I've been saying he is.  The coach, Marc Trestman, so popular and successful in the Canadian Football League, was a flop.  The general manager, Phil Emery was a flop because he brought in Trestman and gave Jay Cutler such an impossibly-good-for-Jay-bad-for-the-Bears contract (seven years, $126 million, with three seasons of guarantees) that the Bears can't really get rid of Jay....

A few years ago I spent several weeks giving props to the late Jacques Brel -- to the passion, the talent, the face like a foot.  Below please find the link to a live 1966 concert at Olympia in Paris, part of a series of farewell concerts.  It ends with Ne Me Quitte Pas , Jacques all sweaty with Those Teeth and me hoping that maybe she might give him another chance. Enjoy the master singing his own tunes and a happy new year to you.

Another year has been kicked in the crotch and left in a pile by the side of the road or did another year hit me about the head and neck and leave me concussed and stupid?  Either way, I am taking the rest of 2014 off. I wish you happy holidays and a wonderful 2015.  See you on January 4, 2015!

The City of Chicago has managed to get trees donated from area residents the last few years.  (They used to lash together many smaller trees to make the bigger one and I thought that was pretty ingenious although labor intensive, i.e. expensive.)  Two or three years ago, they had a tree that was just terrible -- thin, rangy, not anything like bushy.  I thought I was alone in this estimation but I had a bus driver going east on Washington past Daley Plaza who opined, "Where did they manage to get Charlie Brown's Christmas tree?  That looks terrible."  Since then, the donated, former-front-lawn trees have been improvements and this year's looks kind of pretty.  I went to Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza this year with coworkers for a private thing (hardly a party; it was a thing) in one of the rent-a-tents.  I ate and ducked out early and took this picture of the crowd and the tree before I got on the El.  The annual Christkindlmarket in Daley...