By Steve Rhodes
1. It turns out Nelson Muntz is running for governor.
2. Tribune Company has sold a corporate jet valued at $30 million. Just for perspective, Tribune Company paid $35 million when it bought Chicago magazine in 2002.
3. I don’t understand the Sun-Times today. A judge finally decides on the driving arrangements in Brian Urlacher’s child custody case, which the paper plastered over its front page last week, and the story is nowhere to be found in the The Bright One. A deal is struck in the teen iPod case, which seems a natural for S-T front page treatment, but the story is relegated to a brief. And the fate of Illinois’s hottest bachelor in Cosmopolitan magazine’s “Bachelor of the Year” contest is all but ignored. (He lost, but still.)Instead, the paper put real news on its cover today. What in the world is going on over there?
4. The Sun-Times did a smart thing: They compared Mayor Daley’s “clout list” kept by his former and now convicted patronage chief city workers who have filed workman’s comp claims since Daley took office. What they found should not surprise you.
At what point does the paper’s editorial board say that, based on the investigations they’ve read in their own paper, they simply cannot endorse this mayor any longer? Isn’t it insanely hypocritical to take any other stance?
5. Jesse Jackson Jr. is smarter than the Sun-Times editorial board. (Second letter)
6. The Tribune endorsed Melissa Bean in the 8th congressional district race this morning, meaning the paper’s editorial board is backing both Democrats in the most closely contested House races in Illinois; it endorsed Tammy Duckworth in the 6th yesterday. The editorial board is also backing Dennis Hastert and John Shimkus despite the congressional page scandal that has engulfed both of them; the paper calls Shimkus “a decent, honorable man.”
7. Props to the Tribune editorial board for what it did in three other House races: It declined to endorse any candidate.
8. How in the world, by the way, are the driving arrangements of Brian Urlacher and his child’s mother news? This time it’s the Tribune that makes it so.
9. The Sun-Times, on the other hand, found that the announcement Wednesday by its parent company that it is considering “a range of options” in response to poor performance, which no doubt includes selling the newspaper, unnewsworthy. You had to read the Tribune to learn about the announcement, as well as the Sun-Times Media Group’s stock tumble to a 52-week low.
10. The third “dive bar-themed lounge” has opened in Wicker Park, Susanna’s Night Out reports. I remember when there were actual dive bars in Wicker Park (besides the Beachwood). This reminds me of when the Friar’s Grill, an old-man diner in the Flatiron Building, closed, and shortly after the Deluxe Diner, a modern retro version of the kind of diner that had just closed, opened. The fake upscale version is never better than the real version; neither are the fake, upscale people.
11. Warner Saunders: All class. He certainly taught those Northwestern students a thing or two about the business.
12. Lou Piniella has a thing or two to learn about curses. (via Quick Hits)
13. “[O]ne committeeman said [Todd] Stroger brought his young daughter to a recent fund-raising meeting with veteran ward bosses – and she sat on his lap the entire time.”
And Stroger sat on Bill Beavers’ lap the entire time.
14. Lovie Smith for Cook County Board president? If only.
15. Product Placement of the Day: Enterprise Rent-A-Car. (Entering the car-sharing market; “story” unavailable online.)
16. Catching up with yesterday’s Product Placement: Pedigree ice cream bars.
17. The Sun-Times asked a handwriting expert to analyze Barack Obama’s signature (second story). Of course they did.
18. “She was not told to whom the signature belonged.” See if you can spot the problem here.
19. Political reporters who forget they have jobs as journalists and not campaign strategists continue to approvingly repeat formulations such as the one that Barack Obama ought to run for president now before he has a Senate record that could be held against him.
Wouldn’t we all be better off if we knew just what to hold against Obama before we made him president? Shouldn’t we prefer a president who has a record? This isn’t a game.
20. Colin Powell visited Colin Powell Middle School in Matteson on Wednesday. No word on whether he participated in the mock United Nations session.
21. “Oh my goodness, they really have filed the paperwork.”
– Rich Miller on Tim Nieukirk, Illinois’ Nelson Muntzian candidate for governor.
22. Among Nieukirk’s qualifications: “Part-time customer service work at Best Buy and CVS Pharmacy helped Tim develop the personal skills that will help him navigate through the political bickering of Springfield . . .
“Tim believes strongly in education, particularly in higher education. Thus he has attended three such state institutes. He started at Illinois Central College, achieved his Associate’s Degree, transfered to Western Illinois University, and transferred again to Illinois State University to really round out the experience.”
23. I’m kind of hoping Tony Rezko doesn’t show up for his court date today so we can put Dog the Bounty Hunter on his trail.
24. Another reason why the Internet rules.
25. The bad Beatles pun contest has begun.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Placing products daily.
Posted on October 19, 2006