By Nancy Simon

In addition to rhyming with the word “vogue,” the term rogue just so happens to be all the rage.
Appearing everywhere – from books (former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin’s autobiographical, best-selling title, Going Rogue:An American Life to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s initial work Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything (predating their current offering SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance) to newspaper headlines (the Tribune’s November 30 front page offering “Rogue Taxis: Holiday Sting Aims To Put The Brakes On Unlicensed Cabdrivers”) to websites (Rogue Radio Show, Rogue Marketer and Rogue Mentality, which, by the way, believes in playing hard, living the adventure and having a sense of humor) – the term ‘”rogue,” now ubiquitous in its use, has itself gone rogue.
What remains puzzling, though, is whether the word is being used properly within an endemic array of multimedia contexts.
To make such a determination, we will first attempt to decipher the origins of this vexing and provocative word and the intent its inceptor may have had in mind.

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Posted on December 4, 2009

By The Beachwood Plug And Play Desk
We put the word “hangover” into the search bar on Amazon and came up with 58,080 results. Here are the top 20.
1. The Hangover Handbook, Revised Edition: 101 Cures for Humanity’s Oldest Malady by Nic Oudtshoorn.
2. Fiscal Hangover: How to Profit From The New Global Economy (Agora Series) by Keith Fitz-Gerald.
3. Hurricanes & Hangovers: and other tall tales and loose lies from the coconut telegraph by Dear Miss Mermaid.

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Posted on November 12, 2009

By The Beachwood Plug And Play Desk
We put the word “drunkard” into the search bar on Amazon and came up with 67,967 results. Here are the top 20.
1. Drunkard by Neil Steinberg.
2. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow.
3. The Modern Drunkard by Frank Kelly Rich.

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Posted on November 3, 2009

By Open Books
Stories of growth and expansion are rare these days, especially among non-profit organizations. Everywhere doors are closing as the economy struggles to regain its strength. To make matters worse, 53 percent of adults in Chicago have low or limited literacy skills, making it even more difficult for them to find jobs and support their families. Improving literacy and bringing the joy of reading and writing into people’s lives is the heart of Open Books’ mission.
On November 21st, 2009, in the River North neighborhood, Open Books will open the first bookstore of its kind not only in Chicago, but in the nation.

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Posted on October 16, 2009

By Wellons Communications
Now with news links!
Great news! Ripley’s new Seeing is Believing book has some stories in the Chicago area. The book came out earlier this month, and Illinois is represented well with its share of strange and unusual stories in the book.
Here are the stories:
* Beer Coffin
Bill Bramanti had a coffin specially built to resemble a huge can of his favorite beer. The 67-year-old paid $2,000 to resemble Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
* School Bus Driver Changes Name
Steve Kreuscher filed a petition to change his name to “In God We Trust” because he was worried that the phrase might be removed from U.S. currency.
* Cat with Four Ears
Valerie and Ted Rock own a cat with four ears. Yoda has two extra flaps behind his normal ears, probably a genetic mutation

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Posted on September 28, 2009

By The Special Guests Publicity Service
An economic meltdown that – based on its global scope – is even worse than the Great Depression.
. . . A nuclear-ambitious Iran that threatens to change the entire political and military dynamic of the world.
. . . A far-leftist U.S. leadership making a play for socialist government control.
. . . A Wall Street and Washington landscape riddled with corrupt individuals.
. . . A secular factious, often uncontested movement that’s eroding our moral fiber.
Can anyone really tell what’s going on? Is there a common-thread force at work here that is beyond our comprehension?

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Posted on September 17, 2009

By Scott Buckner
The Top Ten books (actually, the only ten books – and at 20 percent off) on the rack Tuesday evening at the Strack & Van Til supermarket along the state line in Munster, Indiana:
1. 92 Pacific Boulevard/Debbie Macomber
2. Scarretta/Patricia Cromwell
3. A Good Woman/Danielle Steele

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Posted on September 16, 2009

By Rick Kaempfer
I knew a few things about Leo Durocher before I cracked open the pages of Nice Guys Finish Last (just re-released in paperback by University of Chicago press).
I knew that he was such an irritant as a player and manager in the 1930s and 1940s that he once provoked Cubs pitcher Hi Bithorn to throw a pitch into the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout.
I knew that his language was so foul it would have made Bobby Knight blush.
I knew that he was essentially an unlikable guy. When Vin Scully, a man who never has a harsh word for anyone, heard Leo took a job in Japan he said: “It took the U.S. 35 years to get revenge for Pearl Harbor.”
But most importantly, I knew Leo Durocher was the manager and wore No. 2 for the team of my childhood; the late 60s and early 70s Chicago Cubs.
What I didn’t know about Leo Durocher was his almost sociopathic motto: “Do whatever you feel like doing whenever you feel like doing it, and everything will turn out just fine.”
I learned that in Nice Guys Finish Last.

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Posted on August 25, 2009

By Connie Nardini
The month of January is supposed to be a beginning, not the end of a beginning. To 13-year-old Jason Taylor it was both.
He is the January Man in David Mitchell’s 2006 coming-of-age-novel Black Swan Green. The story starts in the first month of Jason’s 13th year and ends, thirteen chapters later, in the first month of his 14th. So what happens to the January Man? Does he seem become a new person after these manic months of being lurched into adulthood, or is he still a beginning being? You must judge for yourself after you listen to his voice.

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Posted on August 24, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
In 2006, I listed the books for sale at my local Kinko’s as a sort of cultural document, a sign of the times, if you will.
Today we revisit the same store to see how the books currently on sale reflect our culture now.
1. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tough Times, Tough People.
By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Amy Newmark
2. Become a Better You.
By Joel Osteen
3. Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More.
By Earl Proux and the editors of Yankee Magazine

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Posted on August 13, 2009