A Conspiracy?

News came over the wire that Herman Franks, who managed the Chicago Cubs from 1977 to 1979, died on March 30th at the age of 95.

I immediately began to suspect a conspiracy; two other former Cubs managers have died this year. Cuban-born Preston Gomez, who managed the 1980 Cubs, died on January 13th. Whitey Lockman, who managed the Cubs from 1972 to 1974, died just a couple of weeks ago, on March 17.

Should we sending some security to protect Don Zimmer-- or will the "Celebrities Die In Threes" Rule protect him?

Isn't It Nice...

Just saw on an internet news headline that President Obama has accepted invitations to China and Russia to work out trade issues and to try for arms reductions respectively.

Isn't it nice to have a President who isn't surrounded by neo-con nutjobs? Isn't it nice to have a President who sees a future cooperating with the rest of the planet for a sustainable future? Isn't it nice to have a President who doesn't induce cringes every time he opens his mouth?

Isn't it nice to have a President who knows his ass from a hole in the ground?

Changes

Today, while reading the New York Times, a couple of articles I read intrigued me and made me think of the future.

One was Skype. The article told how Skype, which has brought cheap internet-based phone service phone service to millions, was going to add mobile phone service. The article mentioned that Skype had brought cheap VoIP (Voice over Internet Provider) based phone service to 400 million users. That's about 8% of the planet.

Another was about how European newspapers have fared better than their American counterparts, in part because of better use of their internet versions. Yet another article was about how AMC movie theaters were going convert their theaters to 100% digital projectors over the next few years. Movies will be streamed over the internet to the theaters, where they will be stored on hard drives.

I remember years ago, my late friend Mark showing me this marvel, the internet, in 1994 or so. When he'd described it to me, I was skeptical. It sounded like a fad, like CB radio was in the seventies. We sat at his computer and he told me to come up with any question, something I'd wanted to know, but couldn't find the answer to. The first thing that popped in my mind was "Don't Go Back to Rockville," the REM song. He and I and all our friends in college had become fans of REM from the start. Their first couple of albums were notorious for their cryptic, half-mumbled lyrics. "Rockville" was hands down our favorite-- but we had no idea what the lyrics were.

Mark opened a browser-- the first time I'd seen an internet browser-- and ran a search. Within a minute, we had the lyrics, which he printed up for me.

I was hooked. Pretty soon, I was hooked up too, through Tezcat, a long-gone local ISP. Over the years, I was able to get books and music I'd been looking for forever. I found long-lost friends and was able to keep in much better touch with friends and family. I pay my bills online, email back and forth with people, check my bank account, and a bunch of things. I did most of my Christmas shopping online. I rent movies through Netflix, and will soon try their streaming. I bought the textbook and dissection kit I needed for my Anatomy class online. I started Facebooking recently, and was rewarded with contact with another wave of people I'd long given up hope of finding. My home phone service is over the internet, through Vonage.

When Mark, the guy who'd gotten me onto the internet, was killed in a robbery a few years ago, I first found out through an email. We set up a Yahoo group to disseminate information about his funeral, dealing with his estate and progress in his case. He would have found it amusing and ironic.

The internet has changed things, especially newspapers. As someone I knew who was in sales of newspaper ads said, how do I sell an ad in a newspaper when people can use Craigslist for free? In the old days, newspapers were filled with classified ads, which were their bread and butter. Ad revenues have plummeted catastrophically. Major newspapers are in trouble-- this has affected close friends of mine. Even today, the New York Times had an article about how the venerable institution the San Francisco Chronicle is in deep trouble.

So where is this all going?

I have no idea. But as a student of history, I know that every change in technology and infrastructure, such as railroads, telegraphs, telephones, personal computers, radio, air travel and television, have had unforeseen consequences, some bad, but mostly good in the end. With each of these things, after some uncertainty, society has adjusted and thrived, with new opportunities-- and jobs.

Not too long ago, I was talking about it all with my old friend Tim, who works in the newspaper business. He said that it was clear that the business model for journalism is changing for sure, but no one is sure how. It's difficult, he said, to separate the change in the business from the current recession. How much is each responsible for the problems in the newspaper business? We won't really know until the flush times return-- and they will inevitably return. And the newspaper business will come back up with it. It may be a little different, but in the end, I don't believe that people will want to give up their newspapers-- even if it's on a laptop or a Kindle. I know I'm not giving up my New York Times.

Delayed Friday Random Ten

Kim and I made the decision recently to switch to satellite tv from our increasingly expensive cable. They installed our satellite tv, I made arrangements with the cable company to disconnect the cable television-- but not our cable internet access.

Sure enough, the technician cut off both, and I had to wait for another technician to show up to reconnect it. We were without internet access since yesterday afternoon. That was no problem, though-- I got a call yesterday afternoon from Bubs, who was in the neighborhood, and he dropped by for a cup of coffee and conversation.

1. The One On The Right Is On The Left- Johnny Cash
2. End of the Night- The Doors
3. Nightclub Jitters- The Replacements
4. My Pledge of Love- The Joe Jeffrey Group
5. My Sweet Lord- George Harrison
6. Slow Ride- Foghat
7. Love March- The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
8. We Close Our Eyes- Go West
9. I Want You Back- The Hoodoo Gurus
10. Comin’ Back To Me- The Jefferson Airplane


1. Johnny Cash gently ribbing the folk movement
2. The Doors’ first album came out 42 years ago and still sounds great.
3. From the “Pleased To Meet Me” album, which also features Yen family favorite “Alex Chilton.”
4. Great little R and B one hit wonder.
5. This is the song that got George Harrison in trouble—it sounded to much like the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine.” I love both songs.
6. Foghat played at the first concert I ever went to at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1977—the “Superbowl of Rock.”
7. My parents used to get out to see Butterfield at Big John’s, a club in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago in the 1960’s.
8. Great ‘80’s one hit wonder.
9. A terrific Australian band that had a bunch of great songs in the ‘80’s.
10. From “Surrealistic Pillow,” one of my desert island albums

Johnny Yen's Chicago Stories: The Purple Motel

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving near the intersection of Lincoln and Devon, near the border of Chicago and the suburb of Lincolnwood and I realized for the first time that two Chicago-area landmarks are within a couple of blocks of each other: the Bunny Hutch and the Purple Motel.

The Bunny Hutch is a misnomer, actually. The Bunny Hutch is a fast food restaurant attached to Novelty Golf, a beloved miniature golf place, but everybody calls the miniature golf place "The Bunny Hutch."

The Purple Motel is known these days for, well, being purple. But in 1983, it became part of Chicago gangland lore when Allen Dorfman got whacked in the parking lot, back when it was known as the Hyatt Lincolnwood Hotel.

If you've ever seen the movie "Casino," you know Allen Dorfman's story-- his was the character played by comedian Alan King. He was a Teamster's guy who came up with the idea of using Teamster's money to invest in the then-Mob-infested Las Vegas casinos in the 1970's.

As things began to unravel in Vegas after Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal's childhood friend, mob killer Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro began drawing unwanted attention to mob activities in Vegas thanks to his "Hole In The Wall" gang's less-than-subtle breaking and entering and home invasions, things were breaking bad for Dorfman. The FBI had launched a campaign to get him-- "Operation Pendorf" ("Penetrate Dorfman"). They finally managed to catch Dorfman and Teamster president Roy Williams trying to bribe Nevada Senator Howard Cannon to support a bill blocking trucking deregulation.

Dorfman was convicted and was scheduled to be sentenced on February 10, 1983. But someone else had other ideas. On January 21, 1983, as Dorfman walked with his long-time associate Irwin Weiner to his car in the parking lot pictured at the top of this post, two masked men walked up to them and announced a robbery. As Weiner stood by, the two gunmen shot Dorfman seven times in the head with .22 calibre pistols-- the preferred gun of mob hits.

Time Magazine quoted the Chicago Crime Commission as saying it was the Chicago area's 1081st gangland style hit since the Commission started keeping records in 1919. For years it was assumed that one of the gunmen was Anthony Spilotro, but it is now believed to have been Frank ''The German'' Schweihs, who, ironically, is believed to have been involved in the murders of Spilotro and Spilotro's brother Michael in 1986. Schweihs died of cancer in prison last year, having been caught, along with Joey "The Clown" Lombardo in "Operation Family Secrets."

The mob was obviously afraid that if Dorfman received a long sentence, he might cut a deal and rat out other Teamsters and mobsters to cut his sentence. The hit guaranteed that Dorfman would not make a deal, whether he had planned to or not.

And what of Mr. Dorfman's "associate," businessman/mobster, bail bondsman, friend of Jack Ruby and Niles, Illinois resident Irwin Weiner, who was standing near Dorfman when he was whacked? Weiner, who had beaten a charge in 1975, along with Dorfman, of defrauding the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund after the key witness was murdered (by Joey Lombardo)... didn't see a thing. He ended up dying of old age.

A Missed Opportunity

There's a big hubbub about Obama's "Special Olympics" comment on Jay Leno's show last week regarding his mediocre bowling. Yes, it was insensitive, not particulary funny and a poor choice of words-- and he immediately realized it. I'll cut the guy some slack--granted, I'm not the parent of a special needs kid, but god help me if I was judged on the stupid things I've said in the last month, let alone in my life. And he's a little preoccupied trying to straighten out the mess of eight years of aggressively stupid governing.

But even worse, he missed the opportunity for a line that would actually have been funny: "Yeah, I probably better not give up my day job."

Occasional Forgotten Video, Moby, "We Are All Made of Stars"

Moby started out as a punk rocker, and has written a lot of songs that have been on film soundtracks (the movie "Heat" had a couple of his songs) and commercials.

I love this video, with it's odd theme-- Moby wandering through Hollywood in a spacesuit, running into B-List celebrities and the ending, with it's "2001: A Space Odyssey" homage. See if you can name all the celebrities.

Midterm Friday Random Ten

I'm going into midterm in my Anatomy class with an A, which I'm very happy about. This was the class I was most nervous about. I'm still nervous-- I've got a test coming up where I've got to identify bones and parts of bones-- there are 206 bones, each having between 5 and 8 parts. I'm getting together with a couple of classmates to study them today.

1. Good Shepard- Jefferson Airplane
2. It's A Happening- The Magic Mushrooms
3. Sometimes Always- The Jesus and Mary Chain
4. Send A Picture of Mother- Johnny Cash
5. He Was A Friend Of Mine- The Byrds
6. The Crowd- Roy Orbison
7. The E-Street Shuffle- Bruce Springsteen
8. Cherry Bomb- The Runaways
9. I Don't Know What It Is- Pete Shelley
10. 20th Century Fox- The Doors