So, RedEye, this piece of crap the Tribune has tried to sell us as “better than looking out the window” doesn’t even have any news content on its Web site.
Apparently, they’ve decided it’s not better than looking at a porn site.
Ponderings
I am a very wise sort
Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz.
Better than looking out the window
Chicago magazine’s Steve Rhodes has a nice round-up of the first day debut of the Tribune’s RedEye and the Sun-Times Red Streak, both aimed at the coveted 18-to-34-year-old market.
I picked up Red Eye yesterday and it is truly awful, but at least it is laughably bad. In the editor’s note, they actually write, “So instead of spending your time on the ‘L’ or the bus just looking out the window, pick up a RedEye.” Ha! It’s better than looking out the window. Rhodes picked up on that too.
Given the other popular pastime of CTA riders, how about: “RedEye: It’s better than shut-eye”? Rhodes and I are thinking along the same lines on another point. He writes, “And here’s a question for the Tribune Company: If RedEye or Red Streak succeeds in creating a newspaper habit for younger people, won’t the habit be to read a light tabloid on the train? And wouldn’t the natural progression be to ‘graduate’ to the Sun-Times?”
The Sun-Times is already a very good tabloid. It’s clever, attractive, has good entertainment and sports coverage and provocative columnists. It costs only 10 cents more than RedEye. And while I haven’t read Red Streak yet, I can’t see why anyone would want it. The Sun-Times already is a trashy tab. A tab by any other name would still stain your fingers as badly.
A sad, sublime moment
I don’t have much to say about Paul Wellstone. It’s a very sad thing, of course. But that’s neither here nor there.
I was coming home from doing some errands and arrived home just as “A Prarie Home Companion” came on. The show opened with a Guy Noir bit which was somewhat funny and sweet, in the show’s usual style.
Guy and friends in a bar are commiserating over Wellstone’s death when they find a Bob Dylan song on the jukebox, “Forever Young.” Only, it’s done by Ron and Luanne Swanson and the Eveleth Lutheran Youth Choir. Hyuk, hyuk. Of course, that means Keillor and friends do the honors.
Their version of the song was just sublime. After the second verse of “Forever Young” they transitioned into the second verse of “I Shall Be Released” (“They say every man needs protection / They say every man must fall / Yet I swear I see my reflection / Somewhere so high above this wall”). And they finished up with the last verse of “Forever Young.”
It was a truly sublime moment. The harmonies on the song were gorgeous and were a truly fitting tribute. After all, Dylan’s just a little Minnesota boy. Listen to it here.
Boo, or whatever
Halloween decorations seem to get wussier and wussier every year. Is anyone really scared by all the skeletons, witches and faux spider cobwebs? What’s the point anymore?
It’s probably just me.
Virtual journalist
This is exactly what it’s like to be a journalist. How uncanny. Thanks to Liza for the link, as well as for the previous Buy Bush a PlayStation 2 link.
Can a fish be petted?
It can’t be a pet if it can’t be petted, and I don’t think it can. Am I wrong?
This sounds familiar
According to The New York Times’ Gina Kolata, “Abortion Pill Slow to Win Users Among Women and Their Doctors.”
Well, I could have told you that. Oh, wait a minute. I did!
Who’s Cliff?
That seems to be the reaction many people have when they see the Aviation Integrity Project‘s newly constructed Web site. Take a look. You may remember Cliff as the subject of a story I wrote back when I was at Columbia and writing for the Chronicle. Oops. I now recall that as the one story of mine that did not get put online. Oh, well.
Enjoy!
Movin’ on up
Or movin’ on in … to my new home with Karen. Which means that my computer is still not set up there and thus the lack of blogging. Hopefully I’ll be up and running by next week.
Update
The wedding went wonderfully, and the honeymoon was a blast. I’ve been very busy with work since getting back and so haven’t had much time to blog or update the site. The fact that I have not yet moved my computer into our apartment has not helped. At some point there may be pictures from the wedding online, though I shouldn’t make any promises.
No HTML in e-mail, please!
The whole point of e-mail, after all, is that it’s plain text. It doesn’t take up a lot of bandwidth and can be read by any computer no matter what kind of software’s on it. By dressing up e-mail in HTML, the whole point of e-mail is defeated.
Worse yet, when I try to respond to an HTML-coded e-mail, it’s almost impossible for me to quote the original writer. I usually wind up deleting the original e-mail, since I’m not going to spend 15 minutes navigating code just to write a response. So for those of you who are sending HTML-coded e-mail, please stop. It’s annoying, and doesn’t do anyone any good. Thank you.
What I missed
In D.C., not only was I away from home and my soon-to-be wife, but from cable TV as well. Here’s a list, then:
- Karen
- The lakefront
- Wrigley Field
- ESPN’s “SportsCenter”
- Fox News Channel’s “Special Report With Brit Hume”
- My parents
- My mom’s cooking
- 24/7 access to a computer and to the Internet.
- Privacy
- A comfortable bed
- Karen
- Our little dog, Sport
- The lake breeze
- Pat Hughes and Ron Santo calling the Cubs games on WGN Radio
- Oh, and Karen
kboreilly.com 
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