At the outset of the NHL free agency period, for the second consecutive year, the Chicago Blackhawks came away with the number one free agent on the market. Last year it was defenseman Brian Campbell; this year it is forward Martin Hossa. Yes, Martin Hossa, the scapegoat from this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.
Hossa, you may remember, turned down a large, long-term contract from the Pittsburgh Penguins last summer to sign a 1-year deal with the Red Wings because they had a better chance to win the Cup. Well, the Penguins went out and beat the Red Wings in the finals, holding Hossa scoreless in the final series. I suggested here that the Penguins should parade the Cup in front of Hossa’s house until training camps open in September.
Now he’s on my favorite team. The price: the team won’t resign Martin Havlat, the team’s leading scorer last season. While I am sorry to see Havlat go, it was a calculated bet – Havkat has played 80 games in a season just once, last year. Every other season, injuries has held him back. Giving long term money to a player with such a history is a risk. And Hossa is a 40 goal a year scorer, doesn’t get injured often, and best of all, hurts the Red Wings with his defection.
Some are asking this morning if the Blackhawks are the team to beat in the Western Conference of the NHL? Not so fast, bucko! Nikoli Khabbibulin, as expected, was not resigned; he moved on to Edmonton, but he is 38 years old, and again, it doesn’t make sense to sign someone that old to long term money. But we can’t be absolutely certain Christobal Huet is a Stanley Cup caliber goaltender yet. Again, there is considerable reason to feel good about the Blackhawks, but the proof will come next Spring.
Hossa is a big time scorer, and I sincerely hope that he breaks his string of two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals on the losing team. But, all I can say is; after spending most of this season hating Hossa, it’s going to take some time for me to root for him.

There are just so many Michael Jackson stories flying around. There’s more press about the singer than he’s had since his child molestation case. Here are my thought on the latest:
• The people that live around Neverland Ranch will never let it turn into Graceland West. They already nixed allowing him to be buried there, and plans to have Jackson lying in state at the ranch starting tomorrow have died as well.
• Jermaine Jackson has been interviewed saying that he wished he had died instead of Michael. There’s something very sick in that statement, unless you admit that the family’s money situation would be stronger if the older Jackson brother had died? I think that some members of the family would have sacrificed Randy Jackson rather than have Michael die.
• Who really cares about the DNA make up of the Jackson children? Jackson was “raising” them (or at least feeding, clothing, and keeping shelter over them). Isn’t that parenting?
• The main concern should be for those children’s well-being. Not for whatever inheritance they get, but for them. I hope that they go to a secure stable home, but I’m not sure that’s possible.
• Speaking of lack of sentiment, Joe Jackson, father of the clan, is reportedly upset that he wasn’t named in Michael’s will. Considering that Joe put his children through rigorous rehearsals and reportedly beat his children, forcing them to be terrified of him, he should be lucky they didn’t grow up and have him arrested. The senior Jackson is the poster boy for abusive, live-vicariously-through-your-offspring parenting. Joe Jackson should be glad that he didn’t die first – I have a feeling his reception in the hereafter is going to be very WARM

I work about 2 blocks from Sears Tower, and typical of a lifelong Chicago resident, I have been up to the Observation Deck on the 103rd floor of the building twice in my 49 years: both times with friends from out of town.
In an attempt to bring more visitors to the deck, the new owners of the building have erected several ledges made of see-through glass on all sides, which gives you the effect of being suspended in the air, over 1,300 feet above the ground.
As a large man, I don’t trust most ladders that suspend me 5 feet above the kitchen floor, much less being suspended over ½ mile over the pavement and certain death.
Call me a coward, but no thanks!

Former lightweight boxing champion Alexis Arguello was found dead in his home the other day with a gun shot in the chest. Arguello was one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen, and like another of my heroes, Bjorn Borg, he meticulously and systematically dismantled opponents.
Everyone remembers Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini mostly for the death of Duk Ku Kim in the ring, but Mancini was being pushed too quickly too soon, and Mancini was pitted against Arguello. Arguello beat Mancini mercilessly, and I thought that Arguello was going to kill Mancini that night.
But through it all, Arguello was one of the most gentlemanly of fighters. He didn’t do the chest-bumping, crap-talking, like the other fighters. He seemed like he was going to work, picking up a paycheck.
But boy could he fight! In 1999, a panel of experts assembled by The AP voted Arguello the best junior lightweight and sixth-best lightweight of the 20th century. He never lost at 130 pounds, and his popularity in his own country was so great that he carried the flag for Nicaragua at the Beijing Olympics. It wasn’t enough. Arguello reportedly suffered from depression and there are many reports that the boxer’s death may have been suicide.
After 2 bruising fights with Aaron Pryor, Arguello retired, returned, got beat up, and retired again. He Arguello retired in 1995 with a record of 82-8 with 65 knockouts and was a champion in three weight divisions.
After retirement, Arguello fought against the Sandinista government in the 1980s when it seized his property and bank account (a natural thing to do in my opinion), but he later joined the party and was elected mayor of Nicaragua’s capital last year.
He was a great fighter.

Maybe it’s the “dumbing down” of America, but the second Transformers film raked in the second most money in a five day opening week: $201.1 million, second only to a much better film “The Dark Knight.” All this occurred DESPITE almost universally bad reviews.
What does this mean? Are Americans too stupid to recognize a bad film? I would say yes except for the terrible showing of “Land of the Lost” just a few weeks ago. Maybe kids just like the machines beating on one another like one huge video game.
The truly sad part is that director Michael Bay, the worst film director currently working, can, once again, sit on his laurels, not try to improve or make better movies, just by saying “look how much my movies make.” This is reportedly his attitude when particularly upset by his films’ bad press.
Last week, Bay was quoted that he would not be doing “Transformers 3” or any more action films because of the bad reviews. But Bay can once again sit on his burgeoning wallet and ignore the reviews, and with his track record, certainly some producer (like Transformers executive producer Steven Spielberg – a much better filmmaker, but not as good as he thinks he is) will find some mindless action extravaganza and offer Bay a truckload of money to direct.
Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Michael Bay or the Transformers.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know who Michael Jackson was. It was certainly before the age of 9, when the Jackson 5 put out their first single. To those of us who are around the same age (Jackson was a little less than 1½ years older than I), he was the local kid with unparalleled talent. His music was all over the radio; we kids played it incessantly; and all of the little girls loved him (which was OK, girls were still yucky).
So, I was stunned when I heard he died, but at the same time, I wasn’t. I didn’t find out until I arrived at my guitar lesson about 8:30 PM and one of the other students suggested that we not play any British Pop like we usually do, and play some Michael Jackson songs. Perplexed, I asked why and he told me that he died.
Locally, we had the three celebrity deaths: television journalist John Calloway, Charlie’s Angel and pin up girl Farrah Fawcett, and now Jackson. The most press coverage goes to Jackson, due to his star power and the suddenness of his death. But, to many of us, Jackson’s death, while sad, is not surprising.
Michael Jackson, to many black people of my age group, was like your VERY weird cousin; you appreciate him, but you just hope he doesn’t do something else bizarre. Yes, he suffered from an abusive relationship with his father, and along with the incredible fame, all of the Jackson kids have turned out warped, and Michael, arguably the most talented and richest of the family took the weird level past 11 to somewhere near 23 (on a 1-10 scale).
As a musical artist, Jackson lost his relevance many years ago. As the Chicago Sun-Times rock writer Jim DeRogadis corrected wrote, as popular as “Thriller” was (the most popular selling album in history), 1979’s “Off The Wall” was the superior achievement and his finest music. By the time he released “Bad” in 1987, Jackson was an overplayed superstar who had nothing left to surprise us with anymore. In many ways, the success of Thriller was a positive to his bank account; but was to be a bane to his recording career as Jackson constantly tried to outdo Thriller, which was impossible. Thriller was a once-in-a-lifetime, lightning-in-a-bottle type of event.
It’s all being reprinted today: the success, the plastic surgeries, the dalliances with children, the strange marriages (including to Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ only child); his own children; living in Bahrain; the money problems. Even in death, Jackson will remain in the news: liquidating his reported $1 billion in assets to repay nearly $500 million in debt.
Now, the next side of the freak show begins: the fight over assets, the fight over the kids, the people I feel for the most. Their Jackson grandparents are old, and besides, they screwed up their own kids. The other brothers and sisters are weird in their own ways. Will Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of the three kids, come out of the woodwork? Is any grab for the children in their best interests, or just an attempt at what remains of Jackson’s money?
More important, how many non-related children will come out now and say that Jackson took unlawful liberties with them? Will Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono make another attempt to buy the Beatles’ song rights? Will Jackson be buried and people start visiting like Jim Morrison, or will he be created and his ashes spread someplace, or stored somewhere? Or will his death create another bizarre story: like being frozen like Ted Williams?

There are television shows that you watch because they are good. Some you watch because they are well written. Others because the show is a geek show – the broadcast version of a train wreck – you don’t want to look; you’re embarrassed to look; but you have to look. “The Jerry Springer Show” is one of those train wrecks. “Jon and Kate Plus 8” is another one.
Long time visitors know that my knowledge of this show is solely because of The Indignant Wife and The Indignant Elder Daughter, who would watch this before going to sleep. Because I like spending time with them on occasion, I would hang out and watch too. My impressions were twofold: first, I was amazed with having eight children, all very young. The Indignant Oldest child is 4-years-old and is a diva in training; The Indignant Baby is 8-months old and still not sleeping through the night. I can’t deal with the 2 kids I have; if I had six more, I’d be checking into the insane asylum.
My second impression, as I wrote in an earlier piece, was what a shrew the wife was. She would put her husband down on the air to a point that was well beyond normal bitching. Jon was a world-traveled man with an education; Kate was older then he, but had never left her hometown until he came along.
First they had twins, and with the magic of fertility drugs, they had six more at once. Some smart television executive decided that coping with eight children would make for interesting television (I was bored), so the phenomenon that was “Jon and Kate” was born.
Until last night, when the couple’s highly publicized “big announcement” was, expectedly, that they would divorce. Of course, since Jon quit his job to be a full time dad and reality show participant, and Kate had no job, the couple had chosen to keep on doing the show with the kids staying in the house, but the parents rotating in and out. However, the show has reportedly gone “on hiatus” in light of the divorce.
Personally, I give less than a damn about either of the adults; I just wish that the kids will be alright: physically, mentally and emotionally. That is the one thing that I have learned about being a parent – empathy for the children who never got a say in whether they wanted to be born.
But I also want to give a cheer to Jon who finally grew a pair of balls and stood up to that vicious woman he married. “I don’t hate Kate but I have to do what’s best for me and my kids,” Jon said on last night’s show. “I was too passive. I just let her rule the roost. Now I finally stood up on my own two feet and I’m proud of myself.”
I’m proud of you too. Now go away.