Siftings
Sep
14
Prairie Echoes
“We kick ass and take names.” Someone, I don’t remember who, asked my boss why Vernon Hills was so stridently successful. Perhaps they were hoping for some nuanced theory of community building and organizational development. They got Larry Laschen, instead. Few words, and so huskily delivered,...
Aug
24
Cheetahs In The Mist
We lost Jimmy. The marine layer rolled over the dunes and enveloped the Seaside Spartan ball diamond in a fog so dense our centerfielder was no longer visible. As practice came to a ghostly end, the first thing we could make out were his fluorescent orange and yellow cleats trotting in from the...
Aug
19
Craig’s Friday Fill Up
Normal gas station. Abnormal place.
7. Range Rover
6. Dodge 200
5. Porsche 996
4. Jaguar XKE
3 "Levi's Edition" Jeep
2. Aston Martin DB5
1. Lamborghini Miura
Aug
16
Tables, Times
Some people scream. I’ve never found anything beyond an ebullient and brief “wooo!” much help at all. Raising your voice is for people with either a shortage of context and / or an abundance of self-importance. Children. Political candidates. People on the flight who go with “ohh noo!” and...
Aug
05
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Olympic Sports
The IOC announced the addition of six new sports to the 2020 Summer Games in Japan. Baseball and softball are coming back (as they should) and surfing, skate boarding and sports climbing are also joining the 2020 games, because … well, there are young people on the planet. I was surprised to see...
Jul
24
Postponing Autumn
I walk into the dugout and Dennis eyes me up. “I’ll put you in center", he says. “Really? … cool”, I say, not sure what to make of that. I’m a replacement player and I get to play the best position on the field? I thought there would be testing of some sort. Come off the bench and pinch hit or...
Jul
18
Spirit Animals
Don’t Google image search “torn hamstring”. It’s much better to be genuinely surprised when the event occurs. That’s the operating premise behind the “Sea Otter League”, as near as I can tell. A group of are you kidding me old ball players despoiling the Seaside High School diamond on summer...
Jul
17
Moving
Who knew. Surely not me. The phone rang at dear ol’ dad’s house, and there was a lovely young woman on the other end of it. Department Manager of Intimate Apparel. Through some incalculable kismet, I crossed her path and she took some note of the tall guy with the best (easy, because it was the...
Jul
15
Craig’s Friday Countdown Phoenix Hotels
Technically, Scottsdale.
But there's no point ranking anything after #1.
Not saying the Biltmore is bad. It's just #2.
Jul
13
The Black & Whites ...
They cruise by, and they watch us from the corners of their eyes…
The lines that follow in Springsteen’s “Out in the Street” resonated strongly in my ne’er-do-well youth. The black and whites are cruising by during Seaside’s Black Lives Matter rally, and there’s plenty more readily available...
