It’s amazing how things come full circle.  I’ve not been a fan of every theatre and arena and ballpark selling their original name for a corporate name, thus creating multiple Tweeter Centers in different cities and changing cool names like Candlestick Park to 3Com Park or Comiskey Park to U.S. Cellular Field.  That being said, I experienced a “first” on the radio today.  One of the cooler venue names in town was called Center Stage for the longest time.  Around 2001, it was renamed Earthlink Live, as their headquarters were a block away in midtown.  An ad today on the radio (one of the few times I wasn’t listening to XM) was advertising a concert at “Center Stage, formerly Earthlink Live”.  If they wanted to be technically correct, they would name it “Center Stage, formerly Earthlink Live which was formerly Center Stage, which, hey wait, that was the original name!!!”  Finally, corporate naming rights get its comeuppance, at least in one small instance.  Since Earthlink still gets a majority of its business from dial-up internet accounts, I’m not surprised they decided to drop their corporate sponsorship.  Remember those wonderful days of 28.8 baud modems?  I do, and I don’t miss it one bit.

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I got my whopping $15 dollar check for the day I had to report to jury duty for Dekalb County.  Having thought it was laughable that I only got $40 a day for the federal criminal case I served on the other year, $15 is almost not worth them making the check.  That won’t cover lunch and gas each day you’re required to serve.  And the courts wonder why we’re all reluctant to do our civic duties?  Yeah, yeah, I know - this is how democracies work and if they paid us more they’d have to raise taxes but I’m sure that $15 per diem hasn’t been raised in decades.  I’m in a fortunate position where I still get paid from my employers but there are many more people who rely on hourly wages and live from paycheck to paycheck.  All of a sudden their pay drops from, say, $80 a day to $15.  That’s a huge percentage drop for a lot of people who can’t afford that.  That’s not a jury of my peers.  That’s a group of agitated people who, if I were ever a defendant, would be royally fucked since I look like The Man, or at least one of his descendants.