Jake's shared items in Google Reader

Broccoli Bin Laden

2009-11-06T01:31:00Z

Here's something you should never do: Never put cooked, leftover broccoli in your refrigerator vegetable bin. It slips underneath the celery, then gets buried by all the new groceries you bring home each week, and before long, there's a nasty, unidentified smell.

This has gone on for weeks. It took us several days to even connect the stench with the fridge. We kept checking baby diapers. Eventually, we thought we had pinpointed it to a casserole I made. A week after that was gone (and the smell stayed), we were certain it was the homemade chicken soup Rob made last weekend. Chicken Fart Soup. Yum.

Yesterday, Rob actually asked me if I passed gas. I acted horrified, then reminded him that he had just opened the fridge. "Oh yeah," he said. "Sorry." He went on a rampage, throwing away anything that was more than a day or two old. Our sink was half-filled with emptied Gladware containers.

But the smell bit my nose off again this morning when I got out the milk for oatmeal. My turn to go on a bender. Ah-hah!! The innocent little plastic Ziploc, filled with broccoli that was once green. Hidden and lurking like Bin Laden in the dank caves of Afghanistan.

Save your broccoli; that's fine. Just don't let it slip away. Or else the finger pointing begins....

Mundelein, Illinois: Bill's Pizza & Pub

2009-11-04T20:15:00Z

Serious Eats Chicago contributor Daniel Zemans checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. --The Mgmt.

[Photograph: Bill's Pizza & Pub; remaining photographs: Daniel Zemans]

Bill's Pizza & Pub

624 South Lake Street, Mundelein, IL 60060 (map); (847) 566-5380
Pizza Style: Cracker crust and Double Decker
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Classic tavern cut pizza and the innovative Double Decker are served up in a dive bar/family/taxidermy museum
Price: 12" cheese thin crust is $12.75; 12" cheese Double Decker is $16.25
Website: www.billspizzapub.com

In 1957, seventeen-year-old Bill Kwiatkowski opened a pizzeria in a converted garage in the small town of Mundelein, Illinois, a decidedly rural community about 40 miles from downtown Chicago. Over time, Mundelein has become decidedly less dependent on farming, the town's population has more than quadrupled to about 33,000, and the reach of Chicago's metropolitan area has expanded to the point where Mundelein is, if not a suburb itself, at least within the reach of the Chicago metropolitan area. One thing that hasn't changed is the pizza at Bill's Pizza & Pub, which still operates on the same site as the converted garage. The old garage still stands and serves as the base for their carry-out and delivery operations. The restaurant has moved into a large building next door and is run by Bill's kids and grandchildren.

Walking into Bill's is a bit of a surreal experience for the first-time visitor. The place is a cross between a family dining restaurant and a dive bar, with a bit of a hunting lodge thrown in for good measure. It has a large bar, peanuts on every table (and all over the floor), a small arcade, a couple of televisions turned to sporting events, and a wall covered with taxidermy mounts of various animals and fish. Bottles of beer are served without glasses, food is served on styrofoam plates, and, keeping the peanut theme alive, the table tops are covered with peanut shells embedded in some kind of lucite or acrylic.

Bill's serves up two styles of pizza, a thin crust tavern cut pie and a "Double Decker," which is two thin crust pies on top of each other. Operating under the theory that if one is good, two is better, I opted for a Double Decker with sausage and mushrooms. There are a few tricks to making the Double Decker, a style that Bill claims to have invented. First, all vegetables only go on top of the pie. According to our server, Bill learned the hard way that if he put the veggies under the crust, explosions occur. Second, sauce only goes on the bottom crust because the combination of cheese under the top crust and sauce on top of it would be too much for the crisp crust to handle. And third, Bill's adds a large cornicione of twisted dough that holds the two decks of the Double Decker in place.

Like a fresh stuffed pizza, the most noticeable feature of the Double Decker is the massive amount of cheese that oozes out when the first slice is cut. In fact, the Double Decker is, in a way, an excellent combination of two of Chicago's native pizza styles - stuffed and tavern cut. The pie has the heft of a stuffed pie, but the cheese sit between and on top of a crisp cracker crust (times two!) that adds great texture and some nice toasted bread flavor. But to be fair, Bill's Double Decker precedes the introduction of stuffed pizza, so it's quite possible that full credit for this pie goes to Kwiatkowski's gluttonous imagination.

The mushrooms were fresh and had a nice extra bit of chew thanks to sitting on top of the pizza as it baked. The sausage, which had some good fennel flavor, was not particularly good, but it was a step above factory produced sausage nuggets. To the extent I could get a feel for the regular tavern crust while enjoying my Double Decker, Bill's seems to serve up a very good example of the style. I wouldn't say either that or the Double Decker is worth the drive out to Mundelein for city dwellers craving a tavern cut pizza fix, but if you find yourself in the area, whether with drinking buddies, your family, or your hunting party, Bill's is definitely worth checking out.

Pat's Pizza: House-made Sausage and a Perfect Crust Make One Great Pizza
Thin-Crust Pizza in Chicago? Yes, and It's Outstanding at Vito & Nick's
Candlelite: Enjoy the Pizza, Fall in Love with the Garlic Fries

Comic for November 3, 2009

2009-11-03T08:00:00Z

Can't get the vaccine? Try Snap! Crackle! Shot!

2009-11-02T17:52:43Z

Kellogg, the nation's largest cereal maker, is being called to task by critics who object to the swine flu-conscious claim now bannered in bold lettering on the front of Cocoa Krispies cereal boxes: "Now helps support your child's IMMUNITY." ... USA Today

The One that Went Away

2009-10-23T21:45:26Z

The One that Went Away

A fascinating article about the University of Chicago and the decision to leave the Big Ten. One can only wonder what would have happened if the Maroons would have stayed in the league.

A neat little tidbit: when Jay Berwanger won what is now known as the Heisman Trophy, it was given to the best football player East of the Mississippi. At least then, East Coast Bias was in the rules...

Brooke Hundley Gets The Lewinsky Treatment [Media Meltdowns]

2009-10-26T18:45:27Z

"The biggest reason this is in the news," CBSSports.com's Gregg Doyel said on CNN yesterday, apropos the Steve Phillips saga, "is because she's not real good looking." She isn't? I hadn't heard. People are usually so delicate about such things.

I mean, other than the New York Post's dubbing Brooke Hundley "the shlubby seductress," "the tubby temptress" and "the portly production assistant," of whom the press got its first glimpse when she "waddled" out of her apartment; and other than the Post's general habit of calling her "shlubby" and "portly" to draw a contrast with the "handsome Phillips" and the "handsome married baseball analyst Phillips," whose wife is the "beautiful, blond, green-eyed" Marni, a "stunning, green-eyed blonde"; and other than Doyel's going on Howard Kurtz's useless Reliable Sources and calling Hundley "not very pretty," "not very photogenic," "not real good looking" and adding that all the people Googling like mad for her image have come away "not impressed"; and other than that one guy on Joy Behar's CNN show who compared Hundley to Jack Black and Danny Devito and declared that Marni Phillips had every reason to be nervous about a "woman with an 18-inch neck"; and other than Joy Behar's mistakenly referring to her as "this guy Hundley" and then correcting herself by saying to her panelist, "You got me so crazy that she's so not attractive, I think she's a man" — other than that, I'd say that, yeah, the media have been pretty mature about the irrelevant matter of her looks.

Seeing Red, in All Its Wide Variety

2009-10-21T12:21:22Z

As most of you know, I’ve been trying to compile a visual catalog of hockey red line designs. It’s an interesting project, because the blue lines are always solid blue, but red line styles are all over the map. It’s sort of a stealth design element on the sports landscape.

How did we end up with such a multiplicity of red line designs? A hint comes from reader Matthew Clement, who recently sent me the following note:

The red lines were originally broken up with white in order to differentiate the red line from the blue line on black and white TVs. Perhaps this is common knowledge, but I only figured it out last year when Montreal played in Colorado and the local sports station broadcast the second period in black-and-white as a tribute to the old days of hockey.

I had never thought about that, but it makes perfect sense. Interestingly, now that we live in a color TV world, some red lines have gone back to solid red. You can see that in some of the photos linked in the following alphabetical list of arenas, which features all of the current NHL rinks along with some minor league and college facilities. I’ve tried to show current designs as much as possible, although I probably missed the mark in a few cases. And that’s fine — I’m mostly interested in showing the range of red line possibilities, past and present.

So:

• Air Canada Centre (Toronto): Checked.

• American Airlines Center (Dallas): Red stars on a white background. A few years ago it was checked.

• BankAtlantic Center (Sunrise, Florida): The home of the Panthers uses white panther pawprints on a red background (here’s another view), which is a reverse-field version of their previous design.

• Bell Centre (Montreal): Checked.

• General Motors Place (Vancouver): A diagonal check.

• Giant Center (Hershey, Pennsylvania): The home of the Hershey Bears is using little white Calder Cup outlines on a red background. You can see the arena’s crew actually creating the red line in this video clip.

• Gwinett Center (Duluth, Georgia): This is the home of the ECHL’s Gwinett Gladiators, so the red line features little white gladiator swords.

• Honda Center (Anaheim): This season they’re going with large, inward-pointing white arrows. But in the past they’ve had smaller outward-pointing arrows (or are those supposed to be duck footprints?), interlocking triangles (additional views here and here), and solid red.

• HP Pavilion (San Jose): Checked.

• HSBC Arena (Buffalo): Checked.

• Jobing.com Arena (Phoenix): Worst arena name ever, but I really like their northwestern-striped red line.

• Joe Louis Arena (Detroit): Checked>

• Kohl Center (Madison, Wisconsin): This year it’s white diamonds on a red backgound. Last year it was target circles.

• Madison Square Garden (New York City): Checked.

• Mellon Arena (Pittsburgh): White diamonds on a red background.

• Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, New York): Checked.

• Nationwide Center (Columbus): Lots and lots of little white stars. A few years back it was a simple checked treatment.

• Olympic Center (Lake Placid): When the Miracle on Ice took place in 1980, the red line featured red diamonds on a white background>

• OSU Ice Rink (Columbus): White stars on a red background. That’s the fourth design in as many years, because the past three seasons have featured white parallelograms (2008-09), block “O” logos (2007-08), and solid red (2006-07).

• Pengrowth Saddledome (Calgary): Diagonal checks. Used to be standard rectangular checks.

• Pepsi Center (Denver): White diamonds on a red background.

• Philips Arena (Atlanta): Remember that row of arrowheads that used to run along the bottom of the Thrashers’ jerseys? They’re not on the jerseys anymore, but they’re still on the red line.

• Prudential Center (Newark, New Jersey): Checked.

• RBC Center (Raleigh, North Carolina): Black dots on the red background, just like their lower-jersey pattern. Used to be solid red.

• Rexall Place (Edmonton): Red diamonds on a white background.

• St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa): White lightning bolts on a red background.

• Scotiabank Place (Ottawa): Checked. Used to have a different design, although I can’t make out what it was.

• Scottrade Center (St. Louis): Solid red.

• Sommet Center (Nashville): Looks like it’s diagonally checked. Used to be solid red. And I’m not sure what was going on here — are those diamonds?

• Staples Center (Los Angeles): Checked, but it used to be solid red.

• Tate Rink (West Point, N.Y.): The home rink of the Army hockey team uses white stars on a red background.

• TD Garden (Boston): This year they’re going with lots of small white diamonds on a red background. Other designs in recent years have included solid red, checked, and a modified checked pattern in which the white checks alternated with spoke-B logos. I’m not positive, but I think the white checks have also been shaped like the NHL shield.

• United Center (Chicago): Last year solid red, this year long rectangular checks.

• Verizon Center (Washington, DC): When the Caps play, it’s white stars on a red background. But they apparently use a more conventional treatment for non-Caps games.

• Wachovia Center (Philadelphia): Three parallel red lines.

• Winnipeg Arena (Winnipeg): Back when the Jets were still playing, the red line was more white than red.

• World Arena (Colorado Springs): Three red parallel lines.

• Xcel Energy Center (St. Paul): Long, rectangular checks.

And that’s it for now. Do you know of other designs floating around out there? Let’s have ’em.

And it seems to me that we have a few questions worth answering:

1) Is Matthew Clement’s info about white-checked red lines being a response to black-and-white TV accurate? If so, were red lines routinely solid red in the pre-TV era?

2) And if that turns out to be true, which was the first team to go with a non-solid red line?

3) Were there any solid-red holdouts, even in the black-and-white TV era?

4) Which team was the first to use a non-checked design?

I love this — more than 10 years’ after Uni Watch’s debut, we’re just now exploring a whole new branch on the athletics aesthetics tree.

(Big thanks to everyone who contributed photos and info, including Daron Jones, Rob Leavell, Kyle Speicher, Jeff Emhuff, J.D. Vercett, Mike Vanne, Ryan Yanoshak, Rich Canulli, Jon Strauss, David Kendrick, Philip Krawec, Matt Hiett, Mike Bielen, Zak Kapotes, Michael Kearney, Vincent Vignola, Kevin Zdancewicz, Nicole Haase, and Bryan Grupp.)

Culinary Corner: I don’t drink coffee — never learned to like the taste. But I love the smell of coffee, I love coffee ice cream, I love coffee shakes and malts, I love coffee milk (the official state drink of Rhode Island, don’tcha know), I even like making coffee for Kirsten in the morning. Basically, I like everything about coffee except coffee.

Maybe that explains why I like instant espresso powder so much. I’m told it makes crappy espresso, but that doesn’t matter because that’s not what I use it for. Here’s what I do with it:

• I put about a 1/4-cup of it in my brownie batter, thereby transforming my brownies into mochies. (This pretty much works with any chocolate-based baking recipe — cupcakes, cookies, frostings, whatever.)

• I dust it on ice cream, where it provides a nice bitter counterpoint and a hint of micro-granular texture. (Kirsten actually keeps some in a salt shaker for this purpose.)

• I put a few tablespoons of it into the spice rub I use for steak, pork, and chicken. Adds a complex undercurrent to the proceedings.

I’ve read that espresso powder is also good in stews, but I haven’t tried that yet (maybe this weekend). Anyway, just get some and mess around with it — it’s surprisingly versatile, sort of like Joe McEwing.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As a few thousand of you informed me yesterday, Maryland and South Carolina will be wearing camouflage-accented uniforms (and cleats!) for their games on Nov. 14th (not against each other), as a post-Veterans Day gesture. Lots of additional info and photos here, here, here, and here. … Packers kicker Mason Crosby went to high school in Georgetown, Texas — which, as it happens, uses the same helmet logo as the Pack (good spot by Ken Singer). … What’s worse than a lacrosse team dressed in pink? An opposing team dressed in lime green plaid (blame Jim Atherton). … Latest step in Nike’s nefarious world-domination scheme: a robot that graffitis the roadway (thanks, Kirsten). … Yesterday I said that the Broncos’ yellow striping looked like the lone color element in an otherwise black-and-white photo. Nathan Haas decided to take that concept literally. … Best Halloween costume ever? (As submitted by my ESPN colleague Dave Schoenfield.) … Remember this photo of Boomer Esiason with a No. 63 helmet? Steve King says it was a tribute to veteran Bengals tackle Joe Walter, who was waived during that season. Esiason also wrote the number on his helmet with a marker. … Who’s that in the helmet hat? It’s Doug Keklak’s brother, with a young Kek himself in the background, circa early 1980s. … Expect to see lots of Kinesio tape in Boston this season (with thanks to AJ Chalifour). … “While at the farmers’ market in Los Angeles, I happened upon a small exhibit in a glass case about Gilmore Field (home of the Hollywood Stars) and Gilmore Stadium,” writes Patrick Woody. “Both buildings were located adjacent to the Market, and Gilmore Stadium sat on the site of what is currently CBS Television City. Anyway, there were some cool items in the case. Sadly, there were no Stars shorts.” … Mark Maxwell says this poster has been appearing on campus at Ohio University — looks like an upgrade from last year’s road uni. … “Not sure what this is, but it was on the camera in the dugout during Yanks/Halos,” says Matt Harris. … “Meet the Raiders of Rider High School in Wichita Falls, Texas,” writes Andy McNeel. “You’ll notice the gorgeously simple and strong ‘ROHO’ logo on their helmets, which stands for ‘Ride On, Honorable Ones.’” … Andy also sent along this photo — note the unusual NOB. “It makes my brain hurt to try to think about what ‘P.R.I.D.E.’ stands for, or why it deserves NOB status,” he says. “I swear, all of these high schools are within about a 70-mile radius of Wichita Falls. Fans of uniform oddity-watching (much like bird watching) need only go to Wichita Falls on any given Friday night, point their wagons any which direction toward any given set of stadium lights on the horizon, and they will not be disappointed.” … The term “in perpetuity” is almost never a good thing, but it seems particularly depressing here. … Here’s another high school that uses Bucco Bruce — with one slight modification, as Matt Lanzoff explains: “I attended that school in the late ’90s and was a junior the year of Columbine massacre. In the wake of that incident, the school chose to remove the sword from the logo (in order to fight school violence) but keep Bruce.” … And here’s a college that uses Bucco Bruce. Background, from Ben Teaford: “In fact, they got into trouble with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the use of the logo. Tampa Bay told them they couldn’t use it anymore, so the school’s president challenged Tampa to a game to decide who got to use the logo. Tampa refused the challenge and soon after changed their logo. I remember reading about it in Sports Illustrated at the time (just one of those small blurbs towards the front).” This account is confirmed in the fifth graf here.

You ignored it before, you can ignore it again: I’ve put another big batch of old indie and punk singles up on eBay, including some serious rarities. You know what to do.

Herman Resigns

2009-10-20T13:22:46Z

In the least surprising development ever, UIUC Chancellor Richard Herman has resigned.

Speculation about Herman's future has been rampant since White announced Sept. 23 he would step down at the end of December. Former UI President Stanley Ikenberry will serve as interim president until a permanent replacement is found, likely by next fall.

Herman's departure means the UI will be searching for a new president, chancellor and provost, with a board of trustees composed mostly of new members.

We are now long, long past the point where the damage caused by the overreaction to the admissions "scandal" is greater than any and all damage caused by the scandal itself. We now have a lame duck President, a lame duck Chancellor, no Provost, a Board of Trustees that has no idea where the University is even located, and a BOT President who was selected as part of a corrupt, cynical bargain to keep him from running for Governor.

We desperately need new leadership in this state.

Happy Anniversary! 3 years later...

2009-10-14T01:17:57Z

October 13, 2006. Three years ago today, was possibly the darkest moment in recent Illini basketball history. The decommitment of Eric Gordon from us to Indiana after months of denying rumors that he was headed to IU. He finally announced it just weeks before signing day and on the week of our Midnight Madness (if I remember correctly). At that point the Weber haters came out in full force. We lost Gordon. Derrick Rose just left us out of his top 5. Weber had still not landed the top in-state recruit to silence his critics. Many people were ready to jump ship and fire Weber. It was hard to see any light in the situation.

But I'm glad all that happened. I can't say I wasn't thrilled when we had EJ committed and DRose had us listed as a favorite. But seeing what those two have brought to their respective programs, I'm glad Weber took the high road. What's happened to IU since then? A season of disappointment with EJ only to have him choke in the final stretch, a fired coach, disgraced reputation, and a team that's so bad they promoted an equipment manager to the team. Weber has addressed his recruiting issues, we are nabbing top in-state talent, and this program is definitely on its way back to where Bill Self had it. Optimism hasn't been this high since the 2005 season for the Illini program. Not only do we have top talent coming in, but our core players are only juniors this upcoming season. Whatever the starting 5 is this year, expect them to be back for next year.

So three years later, I'd just like to say: "Eric Gordon: thank you for f*cking us. It was exactly what we needed."

Senator Dillard's pro-life credentials

2009-10-14T22:03:29Z

by Sen. Chris Lauzen

About a month, ago, my dear friend Jill Stanek, whom I deeply respect and admire, harshly criticized Governor-candidate and Senator Kirk Dillard’s pro-life credentials. I remember being very surprised at the virulence of the attack using words like “his overt act of treason”, “tried incoherently to explain”, “betrayed the pro-life community”, “I am actually insulted”, etc. While I can understand that Jill supports a different candidate for Republican nomination, there are so few of us left who defend the sanctity of innocent life, I would ask for a more gentle consideration of our friends’ candidacies for higher offices.

Although Senator Dillard does not have a “perfect” pro-life voting record, he has repeatedly demonstrated his staunch pro-life beliefs. I will never forget the late night, after personally witnessing Dillard’s effective advocacy on the Senate Floor for Parental Notification before a minor's abortion (we prevailed with a majority vote), when Senator Dillard and I came out to the Capitol driveway, we discovered that the tires on both of our cars were slashed. This was reported in the Chicago Tribune several days later.

In addition to being the chief sponsor of the “real” Parental Notification Law where Peter Fitzgerald was a co-sponsor and Peter Roskam was the House sponsor, Senator Dillard was the Chief Sponsor of SB2025 which banned all funding for enforcement against pharmacists who refuse to dispense the morning-after pill.

Senator Dillard has been an effective co-sponsor for the successful ban of partial birth abortion, the Senate Resolution to communicate the abortion-breast-cancer link, and the law requiring parental approval of tattoos for minors. He was the lead sponsor for the “Choose Life” License Plate bill and Religious Ceremony for Unborn Children Cremation bill. Senator Dillard has led the fight for abstinence education, helps the Thomas Moore Society (Pro-Life Center), and Illinois Citizens for Life which is headquartered in his Senate district, opposes public funding for embryonic stem cell studies and E.R.A. (if it affects abortion policy). And, most importantly, he helped those who finally closed the Westmont Abortion Clinic.

Dillard’s clear record supporting traditional family values includes voting “No” on homosexual special rights, leading the crackdown on sex offenders, and his work as Illinois state chairman of the National Conservative Legislators Association (ALEC).

Senator Dillard has honorably served Illinois taxpayers and citizens for thirty-one long years. He knows where the skeletons are buried and would be an expert strategist, ally and friend for the pro-life movement in the Governor’s Office. Other candidates, who have never cast a vote in public office nor ever carried a piece of legislation, either successfully or unsuccessfully, should be careful and sensitive to not misrepresent his complete record.

It is so easy to be a victim of tactics from pro-abortion advocates that we need to be more generous to our friends. For example, despite his consistent practice of not responding to Planned Parenthood’s questionnaires, Senator Dillard received a misleading score on Project Vote Smart because he voted “Yes” to have insurance companies provide birth control pills as part of pharmaceutical coverage - - this was the only bill on the P.P evaluation that year.This caused an unfair skewing of Senator Dillard’s pro-life record for political opponents to use against him.

Regarding the Obama commercial, it was obviously an error in hindsight to even dare to say 21 positive words about “working with a colleague in a bipartisan way on ethics legislation” which has always been one of Senator Dillard’s top concerns. This was before the Oprah endorsement and I would ask “Which one of us thought at that time that decent and intelligent Iowa voters would choose a Chicago politician over either of the Clintons?” When Republicans work to win a General Election to have a pro-life Illinois Governor, this liability in the Primary will become an asset as proof of a willingness to reasonably reach out, based on traditional principles (anti-corruption), to those who may still hold majorities in the General Assembly in a currently Blue State . . . despite our best efforts to prevent it.

And, in the end, it was only Senator Dillard who offered his services and reputation as Senate Minority Leader when there was grave concern that our caucus members would elect a pro-choice, pro-gun-control, pro-homosexual-special-rights candidate who eventually prevailed. He was also the only statewide candidate to stand, defend and help restore Republicans’ right to vote for their party leadership on SB600.

Like all of us, Senator Dillard is not perfect, but he is reliably pro-life, pro-Constitution including 2nd Amendment, and pro-traditional values. He enjoys the respect of Establishment and Conservative Republicans and represents our best opportunity to unite this Party voluntarily, based on shared principles, and to beat Democrats.

Chris Lauzen - 25th District

Album review: Bob Dylan, 'Christmas in the Heart'

2009-10-08T01:47:01Z

Rating: 2 stars (out of 4) The first few seconds of Bob Dylan’s first Christmas album, "Christmas in the Heart" (Columbia), sound like something off a Ray Conniff Singers record: sleigh bells, chiming marimba, a choral vocal as smooth and...

Cable Boxes And Their Fisher Price Remotes Are Junk. Demand Better.

2009-10-08T09:59:48Z

About a year ago, I had enough. I was so sick of putting up with Comcast’s ridiculous rates for terrible service that I decided to cancel everything but the Internet. Truth be told, I kept basic cable only because it was cheaper to keep it with my Internet package then to not keep it. But I never watched it. For all intents and purposes I was cable-free. Most importantly, that meant removing the cable box from my life as the filter between me and content on my television. I thought I would miss it. I did not. At all.

Fast forward to now: I recently moved, and luckily enough my apartment isn’t held captive under Comcast’s dominion. So I decided to try cable once again, just to see if it was as bad as I remembered it. My new service is substantially cheaper, so that’s nice, but all in all, the song remains the same. It’s absolute crap from an end user perspective. And yet we put up with it.

The Box

Almost all of us likely have a cable box. Turn it on. Just look at that user interface. Yes, it’s probably more or less the same one you’ve been looking at for the past 10 years, if not longer. It probably has some blue in there, probably some green, maybe a little red if they’re rebellious. The icons look like crap and the text is often hard to read.

I would make a joke about our phones having nicer UIs, except that our phones now have UIs that must be a thousand times nicer. Maybe a million.

In fact, I can’t think of any digital device today that has a worse UI. And this is probably many peoples’ most-used device. And it’s not just that it looks awful, it’s slow. There are delays that simply shouldn’t be there when moving between channels or navigating the menus. We’re talking half-seconds to multiple seconds, but all of that time adds up and severely hampers the experience.

I don’t think I’m going to get much disagreement in saying that Motorola, which makes many of these boxes that cable companies use, should have been fired a long, long time ago for these miserable things. But of course, the cable companies don’t care. Most of them have strangleholds (shhh don’t say “monopoly”) over their communities, and know that consumers have very little choice, and so the cable companies go for these cheapest option boxes.

The Remote

As bad as the cable boxes are, their remotes may be worse.

Most TVs nowadays are slick pieces of hardware, and their accompanying remotes are also pretty slick. I’d love to use one someday, unfortunately they’re all pretty useless because the cable company forces their cable box on you and then makes you use their awful remotes. I’ve seen a lot of cable boxes in my time, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a remote for one of them that doesn’t look like it was developed by Fisher Price.

Those huge, ugly, rubbery buttons. The cable company branding. The absurd number of extra buttons. These things are nightmares. And while there are some nice universal remote solutions, let’s be honest, most people are never going to get those. Others will say, “Get a TiVo.” It does have a great remote, but again, why would people get yet another box for the living room when the DVR through the cable company is cheaper (though much, much worse)? So they are stuck using the Fisher Price variety. Like I am. Look mom, I can use TV too!

The Offerings

I’m not going to go into the various aspects of why cable companies overall content offering are bad. That could be a number of posts all by itself. I will say that it’s an absolutely joke that we still have no a-la-carte options. That is to say, no way to pick just the channels you want to get without being forced to have literally hundreds now that you could care less about.

The Catalysts

If the cable companies had their way, none of this would ever change. Just look at Comcast. We’re in the midst of a horrible recession and yet Comcast’s profits increased by an amazing 53% last quarter. Why? Well a small sliver may be attributed to the fact that in tough times people turn to entertainment to get away, but the real story is that Comcast jacked up prices. Again, because they could.

But I’m going hold out hope that services like Verizon FIOS and others can continue spreading, and put pressure on these cable companies to actually work towards improving their offerings, rather than improving their bottom-lines.

While Apple’s iPhone is not everyone’s cup of tea, there is no denying that it significantly changed the wireless landscape in this country. Just a couple of years ago I was using a RAZR phone, and that was considered fairly high tech for the U.S. Today, that would be considered laughable.

The iPhone and the subsequent smartphones that followed have forced change to improve the state of the industry from an end-user perspective. Before it, the carriers ruled with an iron fist. Now, companies like Apple and Google are starting to have a say.

I hope the same thing is possible in the cable industry. It will be harder to initiate this change because various providers do have many areas on lockdown. In wireless, most consumers had a choice of which provider to go with. In cable, most don’t have that choice. Sure, some opt for satellite, but again, that’s not an option for a lot of people.

The Compromise

But forget the service, let’s even just improve the cable boxes. It’s no secret that the Apple TV hasn’t exactly been a big success for Apple. Maybe it’s time for them to stray from the go-it-alone approach and instead talk with cable providers about making boxes for them. Do I believe that will actually ever happen? No, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility as it is a similar idea to what they’ve done with the iPhone in wireless.

Apple could use its box to get a foot into the cable business. The box could have a DVR, full access to a cable company’s content, but also access to iTunes. Would the cable companies ever go for that and give up their pay-per-view business? Probably not, but maybe a smaller one would be willing to take a gamble on it. An maybe that in turn would force others to at the very least improve their rubbish hardware.

It’s a pipe dream, but it’s one that I’m going to keep on dreaming every time I turn on my TV. I look at my cable box’s UI versus the UI on my Apple TV or my Xbox 360 and I just shake my head. Two of them look like modern, sexy services, the other looks like it was designed in the 70s or 80s — probably because it was.

And why on Earth do cable boxes have to be so big? There is technology now to use CableCARD (even though no one suspiciously seems to be using them), and yet we need these gigantic boxes?

Myself and others have ranted about this topic before, with elaborate plans to bring about change, but nothing ever seems to change. That’s why I think now a very simple goal is important — Cable companies: Get decent cable boxes with non-Fischer Price remotes, or get out of my living room, again.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Photo of the Day: “Why People Sag Their Pants”

2009-10-08T00:36:22Z

And to think, I always thought it started in jail.

Via: Reddit

Iowa defensive line runs over competition

2009-10-07T20:16:28Z

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

A seed of doubt crept into Adrian Clayborn's mind as Arizona lined up for first-and-goal at the Iowa 1-yard line in a Sept. 19 game. The odds favored an offensive touchdown. Most likely a rushing touchdown.

What came next? A Nic Grigsby run for a loss of two yards followed by two incomplete passes. Field goal. Thanks for playing.

Surely the streak would end two weeks later at Penn State, as the Nittany Lions entered Iowa territory five times. Penn State never got closer than the 11-yard line and wound up with only one Collin Wagner field goal.

"They had us back down in the red zone and we came up big with stops," said Clayborn, Iowa's star junior defensive end.

At least Penn State running back Evan Royster knows what it feels like to notch a rushing touchdown against the Hawkeyes. He had a 2-yard scoring run in the second quarter of last year's game in Iowa City. One quarter later, his teammate Derrick Williams ran one in from nine yards out.

Since then? Nothing.

Iowa has painted its own goal line in black and gold. If an opponent wishes to cross it, they had better not try on the ground.

The Hawkeyes haven't allowed a rushing touchdown for 33 consecutive quarters, the final 13 last season and the first 20 of 2009. The amazing streak epitomizes a defense that ranks 10th nationally in points allowed (13.4 ppg) and is the biggest reason for Iowa's first 5-0 start since 1995.

Iowa puts its streak on the line Saturday night when its hosts Michigan at Kinnick Stadium (ABC, 8 p.m. ET).

"It’s astounding," Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Normally, you maybe get a quarterback sneak or something in the goal line where you get in there. To have 33 straight quarters, an eight- or nine-game span, is really quite remarkable."

Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz added, "I’m not a good one on streaks and records, but I know this: it’s a good thing."

(Read full post)

tigers v. twins

2009-10-07T05:13:42Z

There isn't a division that I have less connection to than the AL Central, but from the highlights and stories I wish I could have seen the game today. Twins shortstop Orlando Cabrera: "This is the most unbelievable game I've ever played or seen." Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge: "No matter what we did, it seems like it wasn't meant to be. This is the best game, by far, that I've ever played in no matter the outcome."

And I love this game note from ESPN:

Seven members of the Metrodome's cleaning and maintenance crews were honored on the mound before the game for the work of those groups in converting the field back and forth from baseball to football in light of Monday's Packers-Vikings game.

Fall is good.

Nationwide Shortage of Canned Pumpkin Threatens Thanksgiving Pies

2009-09-29T16:00:00Z

If you see canned pumpkin in your grocery store, stock up now ahead of Thanksgiving. Cold days and too much rain the last few growing seasons have led to a shortage of the Turkey Day pie ingredient. Says one grocer, "We order so much during the thanksgiving season that we can't get rid of it after the thanksgiving season. This is very rare, something I've never seen before."

Quote of the Day

2009-09-22T20:22:53Z

"I understand the president's concern and I understand concern of staff members at the White House. If you look at it from their perspective, they haven't exactly been able to govern in the first year of their administration in the way that other administrations have, where you would have, theoretically, a period in which the new administration is allowed to pass the needed pieces of legislation."

-- New York Gov. David Paterson (D), quoted by Politicker NY, on the White House not wanting him to run for re-election next year.

Historical Quote of the Day

2009-09-22T18:51:54Z

"I'm up to my ass in alligators."

-- President Bill Clinton, quoted in The Clinton Tapes, in December 1993.

Million Dollar Hole-In-One

2009-09-21T22:10:09Z

This is literally what dreams are made of…

50 Kitchen Ideas from Ina GartenHouse Beautiful

2009-09-21T12:11:24Z

OK, 50 is a liiiittle bit of an overstatement, considering many of the "ideas" are product placements from the House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year that was on display in Rockefeller Center. However, it was a replica of Ina Garten's actual East Hampton kitchen, and she does have some good ideas we could steal.

Read Full Post

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Photo of the Day: “Why People Sag Their Pants”

Iowa defensive line runs over competition

tigers v. twins

Nationwide Shortage of Canned Pumpkin Threatens Thanksgiving Pies

Quote of the Day

Historical Quote of the Day

Million Dollar Hole-In-One

50 Kitchen Ideas from Ina GartenHouse Beautiful