Books for my Reading List

I really should start a Reading List page on this site.

Hey look, I just did!

Here are a few “must” reads on my mind right now:

• Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob (Jeff Coen) – see this fascinating interview with Mr. Coen, a federal court reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Here is a summary from that piece:
  

  Using source material like police reports, interviews, and court transcripts, as well as his own notes from covering the trial, Coen recreates not only the trial of mobsters Frank Calabrese, Sr., Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, James Marcello, Paul Schiro, and Anthony “Twan” Doyle, but he gives us a significant look at Nick Calabrese, Frank Sr.’s brother and Outfit hitman, whose turning states evidence gave us incredible testimony and an unprecedented look into the inner-workings of the Outfit.

• The Forgotten Man (Shlaes) – she makes the case that FDR did not solve the Great Depression, he lengthened it and made it worse.
• The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid (D. Luskin) – using the word “conspiracy” might indicate overreach, but there is no doubt that very powerful interest groups — government, media, buisness, etc. — go to great lengths to keep us in the dark and even to actively obfuscate and spin half-truths in order to protect themselves and their corrupt pals.

Some others I want to check out:

• Lippmann, Liberty, and the Press (J. Luskin) – no idea if it is a good book or not, but the whole debate about Walter Lippmann and his conception of journalism interests me. And ironically, I chanced to see this title when searching for D. Luskin above. What are the odds?!

Top Nine Reasons Cubs Will / Won’t Win 2009 World Series

Everybody’s favorite team to pity, the Chicago Cubs, is back at it for the 2009 season.

Surprisingly, they have won two Central Division titles in a row, for the first time in like twelve thirty eight a whole big bunch of years.  Yeah, I’m too lazy to look it up, really. Let’s just go with “been a real long time”.

So, in breaking it down, there are two camps here:  people who figure the Cubs should win it again, and maybe even finally get to a World Series, and people who are White Sox fans, who enjoy their hatred for the North Siders a little too much (quite frankly, we’d recommend professional help).

Accordingly, let’s look at some of the reasons the Cubs will both win, and fail to win, the 2009 World Series.

Top Nine Reasons Chicago Cubs *Will* Win 2009 World Series

9. They win every 101 years, like clockwork baby!
8. Milton Bradley is best combination toy company / baseball player name ever
7. Kosuke Fukudome can’t really be as bad a hitter as he was latter half of last year … right?
6. Two words: Aaron Miles.
5. Nothing would piss off White Sox fans more
4. Lou Piniella is getting old, really need to get this done right now, fellas
3. Figure they can quit bluffing and start trying now, after going 0-6 in playoffs last two years
2. Probably the best way to get both White Sox fans and the media to stop talking about the 101 year thing, it’s getting super annoying, and killing all of them just seems rash
1. Media cabal conspiracy for killer TV ratings, umps and commissioner in on it too, of course

Top Nine Reasons Chicago Cubs *Won’t* Win 2009 World Series

9. Haven’t won it in 101 years, not likely to start now
8. Obama is a Sox fan, and thinking of pushing legislation through that would make it illegal
7. Team is named the Chicago … Cubs – duh!
6. Outside curve balls in the dirt still not outlawed, for some odd reason;  Ramirez, Soriano, Lee very upset
5. Billly Goat curse still in effect for another, let’s see, …. yes, another 1,000,000  years
4. Steve Bartman is a voodoo zombie master, with lots of voodoo dolls and pins, and he knows how to use them!
3. No matter how good they might be in the regular season, will find yet another creative way to meltdown when the pressure is on, somehow
2. Dusty Baker Effect lingering many years past expiration date
1. Relying on the “damn day games screw them up every year” excuse

Top 10 Reasons Tiger Woods Came Back Early

10. Newborns cry at night.
9. Hasn’t kicked any Phil Mickelson hiney in a loooonnng time.
8. Bored with counting the money from his $100M yearly income aside from golf.
7. Have I mentioned, newborns cry alot?  ‘Cuz they do.
6. Wants to try out the cool new set of irons he bought at Wal-Mart for $129.  With free sand wedge!
5. President of CBS offered to wash Tiger’s fleet of cars, every week for the rest of his life.
4. You can only do so many Sudoku puzzles.  Especially the impossible 6 star kind.  Really, is that necessary?  Making us feel like idiots?  It’s a puzzle, not a torture device.
3. Baby … crying … must … get … sleep.
2. PGA Tour officials were starting to get a little too emo. Time to man up.
And the number one reason is …
1. Wife finally told him to get off his butt, cut out the beer drinking, get out of the house, and find a damn job.

Top Thirteen Goofy NFL Mascots

Those of us who watch our NFL action at home don’t get to see them very often, but there are mascots patrolling the sidelines at most of those games.  Some of them are pretty cool; for instance, the Cardinals, the Bengals, the Falcons, these I can work with.

But some of them are either a) goofy looking for b) have goofy names, or c) both.  I guess that’s part of their job, but there is a fine line between “cool, silly, and goofy” and “just plain goofy”.  Here’s a list of “just plain goofy”.