Hot Damn, 'Cilla...

I was burning off some Elvis bootlegs the other day, including his final performance, which took place in Indianapolis, and "I Can't Stop Loving You" was hard to get out of my head.

I know that the late Elvis is rather sad, what with the drugs and fried banana sandwiches and all, but it's something I can't turn away from, either.

Weird.

Oh well...enjoy The King from 1970.

Could Not Let Christmas Pass Without the Adam Sandler Classic

I'm Back

Well, glad I didn't shut the door on my little joint here...;-)

I've been reading up on this Madoff character and, as I get more information on how his web seems to have spread, I'm starting to get a more complex opinion of it.

Obviously, I don't condone financial monkeyshines of any kind. If this story is remotely true, Bernie seems to deserve the public scorn and legally-inflicted punishment headed his way.

That said, an article in Saturday's Times lays out how people became involved in this investment scheme. It was not presented as a publicly-available financial product to invest in, but rather a membership in some kind of exclusive club. Friends meeting each other at their synagogues, country clubs and charity events would offer the opportunity to invest as kind of a membership in a clique.

These folks seem to have thought they had one up on regular Joes the Plumber, if you will. They were the smart cats who knew the right people and were not going to invest their dollars in the products that the rest of us might be stuck with...no, they were special and wouldn't offer it to the rest of us.

This is not something that I think merits them getting lied to and screwed out of their fortunes, and I certainly place the recipients and volunteers connected to charity work in a whole different ballpark, but there's a little part of me that has trouble drumming up a great deal of sympathy for people who thought they were more special than the rest of us and reaping benefits of financial relationships not available to everyone.

I'll need to learn more about this, but this is what was going through my mind when reading about this fascinating scheme this shyster was able to pull off.

Maybe It's More Like Hibernation

I'm not sure what it is...nothing bad is going on, but I just haven't had the urge to put things up here lately. I'm not exactly ready to kill this off...I kind of like having the outlet now and then to throw things out there in a semi-anonymous way, but this was always just a hobby, primarily for my own recreation and I don't feel like forcing myself to keep it up.

So that said, who knows...I assume I'll throw something up here now and then when I'm particularly irritated or jubilant, but the frequency of posting has gone down for now.

Talk to you soon...

Hiatus

Heading back to Chi-town for a few days, so won't be posting...I think you can do it from the iPhone, but I have not found it to be all that pleasant to post or read, so probably won't bother.

Maybe I'll pop in on Rod and see how he's doing, or offer to watch the kids for a while so that Barry and Shelly can go see a movie or something.

Yeah, right.

All of a Sudden...

The post below on the goings-on with Chicago politics became much less relevant.

I'm lovin' this story on Governor Blago...

"Bank of America Would Also be Prohibited From Riding the Gravy Train of Pinstripe Patronage"

Here's yet another problem with the government 'bailouts' of the Banks...and it don't bode well for the future.

Bank of America was one of the TARP recipients.

Over the last few weeks, they decided to turn off a line of credit for a Chicago manufacturing plant which was then forced to close its doors.

Its workers, scared they would not get their due vacation and severance pay, have staged a sit-in, which has gotten the attention of lots of attention seekers, like Rep. Louis Gutierrez, who are now stepping in and trying to dictate just how BOA should do business.

I'm not smart or informed enough to know exactly how much BOA is directly responsible for the decision to close the company's doors or how much control it has over money paid out to the employees here, but it seems to me that if this tactic works in the Windy City for employees, we could be in for a very bumpy ride going forward, with lots more ad hoc government intervention in how banks do business.

Buckle up.

Go, Maroons!

A Nod to the Hometown

No, I won't do my version of Go Higher with Dyer...I'm talking about Frank Zappa's hometown, silly.

Here's Uncle Frank doing What's New in Baltimore? from the Mothers of Prevention album. While there were vocals he did live, this is just the instrumental and I rather like it that way...

Cool Photo Pool

Came across The Consumerist's nifty little Flickr Pool...it's kinda neat to browse through.

Douchebagsayswhat?

I'm not the biggest fan of reading The New Yorker...I tried it for a while, and have to concede that they usually have very interesting articles, but given their output, I just couldn't make the time for it in a week and I have to admit it can come off as somewhat snooty for my tastes at times.

But I did enjoy their election seasons podcasts and will occasionally go over to Hendrik Hertzberg's blog.

Bill O'Reilly decided to start going after my boy this week about something he wrote about Newt Gingrich, who I think is the man of Bill's fantasies.

I could care less about his little rants on the show, but this week, they pulled the old 'catch him on camera while walking out of his apartment' routine which is just so low-class. Faux News continues to earn its reputation as the WWF of the news media.

I weep for the future.

That Barney Frank...He's a Funny Guy

I was up early this morning doing some work and C-SPAN was running yesterday's House Financial Services Committee hearings with the boys from the Big Three. One of the members, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, kicked off an exchange that made me chuckle.

She was prefacing her question with a statement about how attached we are to our vehicles and how her family had nicknames for their cars (mine did, too, I guess...we had the White Elephant and the Brown Bomber). One of her family's cars growing up, belonging to her father was "the chick magnet."

Remembering about Chairman Frank's orientation, she offered a joking apology to which he replied, "It's not something I would ever want to drive."

Random Political Funny

I've met more than my share of people on the 'conservative' side who also had shockingly silly beliefs about the world, but here's a little anti-Obama video that is mildly amusing...

It Just Reeks of Class When You Use the Race of a Worker in Your Hotel Review

So, I think I'll get back into this blogging thing again after a quasi-hiatus to take care of some things in the real world.

Next month, I'll be going to Chicago for a friend's wedding. I haven't taken a real, extended vacation in a little while so didn't feel bad about staying at The Allerton...although with the deal I got, it's not pricey at all.

Anyway, in typical Dan fashion, I checked out Tripadvisor after paying for the package. It was there that I found this awesome review. I don't care if the poster is right or wrong, someone who finds it necessary to point out to me the race of a worker he found to be unhelpful is just so Archie Bunker.