I think my first regular brand was Pall Mall Gold 100s. They had just come out when I was in prep school and I thought they were kind of cool as well as good tasting.
I knew a Catholic priest with whom his pack of Pall Mall regulars was a constant fixture. I think he liked the Latin writing on the package: In hoc signo vinces -- Under this sign we conquer. Come to think of it, I was studying Latin when I started with the Pall Mall Golds. That must have been the appeal.
We all know that texting and driving has become the new bane of the common roadways, but WLS radio's ever-alert Jake Hartford has unearthed a new threat to public safety: PACE bus drivers who read while driving.
Once long ago on a college campus far, far away I regularly participated in a Saturday evening drinking game called "Hi Bob."
The game was tied to The Bob Newhart Show--- the first Newhart show where Bob played a Chicago psychologist who would be seen in the opening credits coming out of a condo at 5901 N. Sheridan (which still stands) and taking the El to his office at 440 N. Michigan Ave.
The rules of the game held that whenever anyone on the show said, "Hi Bob," everybody had to take a shot of whiskey.
Invariably, Emily would enter about 20 seconds into the show and say, "Hi, Bob." And about 45 seconds later, Howard would come over from across the hall and say, "Hi, Bob," and Bob would go off to work and Carol would greet him as he arrived with a "Hi, Bob" and Jerry the dentist would come by and say, "Hi, Bob" and all this "Hi, Bobbing" would require the consumption of 4 shots of cheap booze before even the first commercial break.
WLS radio announced Saturday that long-time conservative activist and journalist, Tom Roeser, was retiring from his Sunday evening "Political Shootout" broadcast.
Roeser, 82, is convalescing from an undisclosed ailment, but with the plaudits and elegies being bantered about you'd have thought that he had already joined Ronnie, Barry and WFB on the dais at the great CPAC in the sky.
The most truly smarmy of the accolades thrown Roeser's way was that of the truly smarmy Eric Zorn, one of the few remaining columnists for the sclerotic Chicago Tribune: "
"I've sparred many times with the arch conservative pundit over the years, but I wish him well in his convalescence and hope I'll be sparring with him again soon at one of his websites...." Zorn wrote.
Word is that a remake of the 1960s cartoon classic, The Flintstones, will be ready to air on FOX in 2013. The cartoon was originally based on Jackie Gleason's 50s TV sitcom, The Honeymooners, and you can easily see the resemblances between Fred and Gleason and Wilma and Audrey Meadows.
The FOX remake will be made by “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane.
I doubt he'll be able to work in Winston commercials as they did back in the 60s. See the astounding video below:
Just when we'd barely gotten over the excitement from the Kate Middleton-Prince William wedding, word now comes from England that Lily Allen, the reigning skank of European popular music will tie the knot this summer with one Sam Cooper.
Cooper, reportedly a "decorator," sired one of the several children that the hard-drinking Miss Allen miscarried over the past 3 years.
The blushing bride has been one of the biggest pop sensations in the UK and other parts of Europe since 2007, a fact of which, until recently, we had been blissfully unaware.
Miss Allen, the 26 year old offspring of a Welsh comedian and a feminist film director, made her mark on the dismal landscape of British pop culture by penning and performing such masterpieces as, "Fuck You," a thinly veiled critique of the homophobia, racism and warmongering of George W. Bush and "It's Not Fair," her paean to her adroit skills in the realm of fellatio performance.
Miss Allen placed in the top 10 on BBC-3's list of Most Annoying People of 2006, a fact of which was no doubt fueled by her penchant for displaying her unique 3rd nipple for the benefit of television audiences. That ranking gives us hope that there is still some smattering of good sense abroad in the once-Great Britain.
Miss Allen is an ardent enthusiast for environmental alarmist schemes, PETA animal protection and the Socialist Labour Party. Any surprise there?
She wrote an amazingly trite, anti-materialist song entitled, "The Fear" which contained such poetic gems as:
I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them
This profound work received the enthusiastic endorsement of one Right Reverend Dr. Steven Croft, the Anglican Bishop of Sheffield, who recommended its study for his theology classes.
Now we understand the level of intellectual vacuity that drives members of that august and sclerotic clerical body to concede the inevitability of Muslim Sharia Law in England.
So put aside the date, June 11, and if you happen to be anywhere near Gloucestershire, England, you'll surely want to pop in, have a drink or seven and wish the couple well.
For readers who have not yet had the good fortune to experience Miss Allen's work, following is a video of her 2009 live performance of It's Not Fair in Zagreb, Croatia. This is the song in which she touts her fellationous skills.
Many thanks to the ever-civic minded T-Mobile corporation for helping disseminate this great artistry to the more culturally deprived parts of Europe by its sponsorship of this Lily Allen concert:
The education of the children of new immigrants costs the Naperville public school system, CUSD 203, a base of $2 million per school year based on an assessment of salaries paid to English as a second language (ESL) and bi-lingual education teachers.
Naperville schools employ 22 ESL and bi-lingual education teachers at salaries ranging from $41k to $110k per year for a total of $1,585,000.
With salary costs estimated to comprise 80 per cent of total educational expenses, the base estimate for educating recent immigrants in Naperville schools comes to $1,981,250.
Posted below in alphabetical order are the 2011 teachers' and administrators' salaries for Naperville School District 203.
The teachers in Naperville's 2 high schools, 5 middle and 14 elementary schools are handsomely rewarded for their efforts. Yet this hasn't stopped their Naperville Unit Education Association from filing a complaint last week to seek even more cash for 107 of their members who've hit the ceiling of the salary scale.
It seems no one apprised the IEA affiliate that there was something of an economic crisis going on and many of those who pay their salaries are forgoing raises, if they still have jobs at all.
For all of their union's enthusiasm for the election of Barack Obama, they seem to have conveniently turned a deaf ear to his admonition that this is a time for "shared sacrifice."
Among the highlights of the Naperville teachers' salaries:
--- 2 sex ed teachers pulling down $122k and $115k
--- A $112k drivers ed teacher
--- 14 guidance counselors pulling down between $100k and $124k
--- 21 gym teachers with six figure salaries, the highest being $151k
--- 8 social workers and 4 psychologists reeling in 6 figures
--- And of course, an army of 57 administrators pulling down between 100k and $242k a year.
Following is the complete list of Naperville CUSD 203 teachers salaries and you can judge for yourself. It was compiled from data supplied by the Illinois State Board of Education pursuant to a Freedom of Information suit brought by the Family Taxpayers' Foundation (FTF.)
This data was garnered from the Family Taxpayers' Foundation which filed a FOI lawsuit to enable the public to see how their tax dollars are being spent.
For further information on an individual employee,such as teaching specialty and years of employment, click on the individual's name. These are the latest available salary figures and were updated on 10/22/12.
In most cases these salaries are for 9 months of work.
In fact, it is a windswept glacial burg that is the source of a never-ending supply of knee-slappers and outright horselaughs.
From the neophyte community organizer that it foisted on an unsuspecting American electorate to the mop-topped sociopathic boy-Governor that it sent to the Letterman show, to its storied depression era, tommy-gun toting philanthropists, it has produced some truly amusing and amazing characters.
It has a Mayor who is a former ballet dancer, who served in a foreign army and who threatens political enemies by sending them dead fish in the mail. It has 50 sleepy Alderman and 5, usually somnolent professional sports franchises
It has two Jesse Jacksons!
It has more potholes per capita than Nairobi, a creaky 1940s-era elevated train system and cops who get caught on videotape punching out bar maids and businessmen.
As we have since 2009, we are only going to report and comment on what actually happens in Chicago. To make up stuff this weird would tax our inventive capabilities to the limit (or at least as high as the, highest-in-the-nation, Cook County sales taxes.)
We're somewhere between Burkean conservatives and bomb throwing anarchists depending on the mood of the moment and the amount of restorative libation we have recently consumed.
But we're usually able to couch our maunderings in some pretty good journalistic prose.
