Of a Cubs Mascot, Bulls 3-OT Victory and More

January 16, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Thursday thoughts (or what passes for them around here where the bar is set fairly low and has a 4 a.m. closing time): When the Chicago Sun-Times (your humble correspondent’s previous employer) ran Neil Steinberg’s column about Clark — the Chicago Cubs’ spanking brand-new mascot — in the sports section, the aforementioned columnist received considerable response. Which generally makes a columnist feel good. This post from his Facebook page might indicate otherwise: “Eighteen years of column writing, and “All Things Considered” never called before. Today they called, because of Clark the Cub. And I was pleased, yes. But still, jeez….” Can’t win ‘em all, Neil. Which seems perfectly apropos for someone writing about the Cubs.

Playboy’s Natalia Barulich brightens things up around here.

* As today’s offering is being ~~crafted ever so thoughtfully~~ typed, it was unclear whether Steinberg was able to find any Greek philosopher — or possibly French or German — to provide a quote or two to capsulize his sentiments on all this Cubs silliness. I think it might have been Sartre who first said, “Wait till next year.” Of course, it might have been Aristotle. Or maybe it was …

* To those who think focusing on the Cubs mascot brouhaha is a win for the franchise because it takes the spotlight off the on-field efforts of the baseball team, rest assured that some of us do indeed mention the very fact that a mascot — with or without pants — in no way improves the winning percentage.

* Speaking of Clark, our good friend Bill McCormick has an incredible knowledge base. So when he came up with Clark looking like Disney figure Kit Cloudkicker, it provided a glimmer of hope for the anti-Clark crowd. Meaning litigation may be the one way to have Clark disappear. Or at least change his appearance. Or at the very least put on some baseball pants.

* Speaking of Bill McCormick (the man behind the jaythejoke.com web site), a reminder that the JayTheJoke Holiday Cookbook remains available at the incredibly reasonable price of free. As in no cost. F-R-E-E. It has been my experience that some of the best things in life are free; this would be one of those. To access the downloadable cookbook, you can click here.

* A team with a proven mascot is the Chicago Bulls. The basketball team won a road game (meaning Benny the Bull was not with them) in triple overtime against the Orlando Magic 128-125. Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21 points) played a game-high and franchise-record 60 minutes. A similarly staggering statistic was Bulls reserve guard D.J. Augustin (19 points) playing 40 minutes and not committing a turnover.

* Speaking of impressive guards, Boston Celtics great Sam Jones will be the guest on Thursday’s “Sports & Torts” on Talkzone.com at noon Central time with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris. The basketball Hall of Famer is a great guest — trust me. For those unable to tune in and/or for those who might like an encore of the highly acclaimed interview show (well, it is held in such high regard in the Spada and Harris households, as well as reportedly elsewhere), the program will become available via podcast at the Talkzone site later in the day.

* The Bulls are 4-1 since they traded forward Luol Deng to Cleveland. Not sure what that means exactly other than they are 4-1 since trading Deng.

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