Chicago once had a pretty high-quality collection of commercial radio stations. This may come as a bit of a surprise to anyone reared during the current state of affairs, but it’s true. There were news stations, classical stations, mainstream rock stations that did everything short of mud wrestling to win listeners, a varied supply of…
A NORAD Christmas
Christmas is a time of good cheer. It’s a time of family gathering around the fireplace, children laughing and opening presents, sugar cookies, egg nog, sugar plums–you know the drill. It’s also the time to check the NORAD Santa web site. That’s what I found myself doing the other day. There’s something strangely intriguing about…
Intersecting minds
“Officer, I’d like to report a theft.†“Uh, huh. Name?†“Peter Pollack.†“Address?†“37 Schmuck Lane, Oak Lawn.†“And when did you first notice the theft?†“Last night, driving to White Castle.†“Had you been drinking or partying at the time?†“What?†“Never mind. Go on. What is it that was stolen?†“An intersection. Several…
Sox in Series, bully for them
The White Sox are going to the World Series. Yikes. At least it turns out that they aren’t playing the heinous Cardinals, which to my Cubs-fan senses might not have exactly rated as hell on earth, but would have been an ample substitute until the real deal came along. When I was a kid, the…
Energy hogs are wrong kind of tough
The Ad Council brought us a new ad campaign the other day: the Energy Hog. It appears that energy is being wasted and President Bush has finally decided enough is enough. Decisive action needed to be taken, so the Ad Council, having done a fine job in the past with Smokey the Bear and McGruff…
Beware of the blog
I don’t consider myself to be a trendy person. More importantly, no one else considers me to be a trendy person. Yet, here I sit, typing the first words into my new blog. The question begs itself, simply because nobody else is around to do so: Why? I have finally decided what I want to…
War Notes, part 1
Saddam Hussein had it coming. There’s no mistake about that. He’s had it coming since he decided to invade Kuwait, maybe even before. It’s hard to say. Before Kuwait, we never really heard much about the guy. I’ll go on record here and tell you that I was against Operation Desert Storm, as we called…
You have our attention…
77-11-175-93 Grade school in the early ’70s. My walk-home routine often consisted of watching over my shoulder for bullies. They’d usually follow you, so you knew they were coming. Half of your fear (and their fun) was just waiting for the assault. Rarely on the school grounds, of course, unless they were so mad about…
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Editor’s note: this post originally appeared on one of the earliest versions of BigNoisyBug.com, several years before it became a “blog” in the current sense of the word. Welcome to Big Noisy Bug–an outlet for various activities I am associated with and projects that lend themselves to publication on the World Wide Web. This is…