Diary of a Newspaper Hawk

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:14 a.m. They are gone. Rush hour is over, so far. Not so wet today. Cold, though. Real cold. The sun's been up, but it has been cold. Tomorrow won't be any warmer. Kathy was selling StreetWise on Randolph this morning. Good, sweet kid. Nicest of the vendors. I don't remember her ever not being there. Her wheelchair kind of hides her, though. I wonder what she's got to do to get out of that racket? Smart, you know? I don't know what she can do. I just got back from Macy's on State. Coffee. Large. I don't see the big huff about Field's selling out. It is a department store. They sell. So they sold themself? It is what they do. Instead of selling in chunks, they sold the whole lot. Good for them. Let me tell you, if I sold all my papers at once I'd call that a good day. Someone retired nice thanks to the Macy's thing. Speaking of papers, the Sun-Times had a section on the Bears today. Benson is so full of hot air. He...

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:42 p.m. Finally home. Just had dinner. Had to hit the store and grab some food. Papers barely sold, and my socks weren't enough. All wet. Bought a spare pair at Walgreens. Ran into Jim, who was on the way home today. Fired. He rides, or rode the West line that headed back and forth from Olgivie to La Fox. He wanted it to be political. His gripe is always moaning about politics. Blame the president. Blame his coworkers. Jim is one of those. The fact is, as a Metra ticket taker, he stunk. He was slow, and flirted too much and too long with every short skirt heading to the western suburbs. He says the boss thought he was taking money on the sly, but who knows? It is pretty cheap to steal train fares. What's Bush got to with the train anyway? Clinton, same thing. Nothing. Maybe Daley, but it isn't the mayor's fault Jim's brain is stuck in high school. He forgets about the long term, like his boss is against him, like he thought the teacher ...

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 3:00 pm The rush hour commuters are just about here. I’m cold, and it has begun to snow. It has been cold all day, and I’m not selling enough. No one buys on days like this. My papers are wet, and it is hard keeping the plastic on them. I lost one of the Trib and the Sun-Times this morning. The first few pages were soaked. Chris came by this afternoon. He stunk like he was drinking, and he was. Sober enough to tell me about the Bears . He’s no fan of Grossman. I am. Grossman will get us the ring. Besides, if not him, then who? Griese? Give me a break. There was an accident up the corner. No one died. Fender bender. The taxi wanted too much space, you know? Same old same old. A tow cleared it up pretty quick. Sammy’s back into baseball. Texas Rangers think he can still play (at least as a minor leaguer). I don’t. He is 38, but if he is playing with a cork-free bat, my confidence in him is zip. He played with the Rangers back in ’89. Must be 'roid free, or e...