Day: March 27, 2003

That boy ain’t right

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

The Cubs’ second baseman of the future will retain that status for now, as the club sent Bobby Hill down to Triple-A Iowa to somehow find the form that deserted him this spring, when he hit .154 and made five errors.

It’s a shame, because the Cubs’ needs all the help it can get. Hill was supposed to be a catalyst, a guy who could get on base ahead of Sosa, Alou and Choi.

But sending him to Iowa is the right move. Give him a month or two there to regain his form. I just hope Grudzielanek doesn’t show a sudden spark that might make Baker hesitant to play Hill most of the time when he gets called back up.

teens.progressive.com

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I don’t know if you’ve seen the ads for Progressive Insurance Co. targeted at teens, but they (of course) accompanied by a Web site.

It’s actually a very good site, with lots of helpful information about auto insurance, coverage quizzes and other interesting stuff. Well, interesting to an insurance geek like me, anyway.

Originally, I found the ads puzzling. After all, most teen-agers are insured through their parents’ policy, where they get better rates. And auto insurance is not exactly the kind of things kids see as a status symbol (“Oh, mah Gawd! I cannot believe she is insured with State Farm. What was she thinking?!”).

But Progressive knows that very few teens who explore their site will actually wind up buying insurance from then, at least now. What they are doing is trying to explain the basics and help teens figure it out for themselves. The site even talks about the pros and cons of going solo.

So, even if this target market cannot afford Progressive now, it’s a name they’ll know and perhaps look to get a quote from three or four years down they line after they’re finishing up college. At least, that’s how a Progressive rep. explained it to me yesterday.

I have no idea whether it will work or not, but it’s another example of Progressive’s thinking outside the proverbial box. As the kids might say, “Kewl.” (Yes, I know I’m only 25 years old.)

The only danger will be if the anti-tobacco folks might start persecuting Progressive for pursuing the teen target market. “Look at all the kids you’ve hooked on insurance!” I could imagine them howling on “Nightline.”

Empire Carpet, why hast thou forsaken me?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Chicagoans who watch TV are doubtless familiar with Empire Carpet, a shop-at-home carpet service that for years has had a catchy jingle, “588-2300 … Empire!”

And now they’ve gone and changed it. Now, the slogan is, “800-588-2300, Empire Today!” It just doesn’t sound right, not to these ears which have for lo these many years been comforted during many a dark moment by that catchy jingle.

Sure, the new jingle better imparts Empire’s quick service, but at what price, I ask you. At what price?

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back …

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

It’s only since I began regularly walking our dog, Sport, that I’ve realized how much discarded food winds up the sidewalks and gutters of your average city street — or at least, our average city street. And of course Sport seems to find every scrap.

Now, I understand how a french fry might fall out of a McDonald’s bag in the rush home, or how some bread crumbs the birds weren’t interested in could be hanging around. But on our walk last night, I saw Sport had found something.

It was dark, but I could see the outline of this massive object hanging from his little mouth. I bent down to get a closer look, and it was a damn half slab of ribs!

Not a rib. An entire half slab of discarded ribs. How does this happen? In what alternate universe are people randomly leaving half slabs of ribs on the sidewalk?

Happy birthday, Karen!

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

The wife is celebrating her 30th birthday today. She was delighted with her presents and we’ve got an adventure to go on tonight.

The only sad thing about Karen’s birthdays is they mean that there’s another year with her that I’ll never get back — but I guess that’s what memories are for.