Now that this blog is expanding beyond my inner circle of friends and is even three and four times removed in some instances, I feel the need to clarify things a bit.  If you read a majority of my ramblings, you’d naturally come to the conclusion that I’m a miserable mope.  Nothing could be further from the truth, at least not nowadays.  Having a wonderful wife and two healthy daughters has really given me the proverbial new outlook on life yet it hasn’t entirely rounded out my rough edges that were sharpened as a youngster in Detroit during that city’s darkest two decades of it’s existence.

Since April, the Chicago Sun-Times has had an interesting mini-section on their web site called Chicagopedia.  It’s basically all things Chicago and is a handy guide for newcomers or out-of-towners or people simply interested in Chicago lore and terminology.

Maybe I’m being too picky but I sometimes wonder whether marketing executives are either a) geniuses for certain campaigns or product claims, b) ignorantly make ignorant claims which ignorant consumers accept as fact or c) purposely make misleading claims or ones that truly have no basis in fact.

Take my latest Cool Mint Listerine bottle for example.  A new sticker on the top face now displays “2X a day” in giant boldface on the left.

I got exposed to just another example of how much advertising is seeping into our life.  I went to my bank’s ATM yesterday and was exposed to an ad during the process.  Before I could select “Get your card back”, I had to read an ad carefully to make sure I pressed the proper “Please don’t charge me $25 for whatever service you’re offering” button (this is a touch-screen ATM).  If I’m using my bank’s own ATM, I’m not fond of this latest intrusion into our lives.  Most of us are “nickeled and dimed” with various surcharges unless you’re careful and this is my bank’s latest foray into trickery and legal thievery.

In the “There Has To Be A Valid Explanation For This” Department, I passed an SUV in traffic this week that had a dirty back windshield.  True to form, someone had written something in the dirt with their finger.  What was on it though was the eyecatcher.  I can’t imagine how a driver couldn’t see in his rear view mirror the following text:

There is a symptom that amputees sometimes have where they can “feel” their missing body part.  Even worse are the phantom itches some experience where the brain decides to mindfuck the amputee into thinking the missing limb is also having an itch.  I can’t imagine not going mentally insane trying to make a nonexistent itch on a non-existent appendage go away.

By no means am I comparing what I’m about to describe next as even i ...

Having lived in major metropolitan areas all my life, I don’t get fazed by a lot of things I see.  You get your standard weirdos and assorted public tomofoolery here and there but for the most part us cityfolk are jaded by things someone in a rural area might not be used to seeing.  From seeing Baton Bob walk down Peachtree Street every week when I worked in Midtown in full cheerleader outfit, whistles, and twirling baton to meeting

I don’t normally post articles on this blog, but the headline I saw today for a story on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s web site made it impossible for me not to pass along.  I'm speechless.

&l ...

I am quickly becoming a menace to myself.  Let’s look at the latest two incidents that I’ve encountered.  First, dreams are quickly becoming very dangerous for my body.  I had an odd dream last week where I was in a food court in Chicago.