Diary of a Newspaper Hawk

I sat in a restaurant watching the Cubs. It occurred to me how often I do this now. It helps the Cubbies are winning, but the places are smoke free now. I'm sinking my cash into joints I'd never go to five years ago. No griping from the tobacco addicts. No one says you can't smoke. Just do it outside. Chicago needs more pollution if we're going to beat Beijing in the Olympics. Smokers, you go ahead, light up until the clouds are dark, and windows are covered with a yellow dinge. We can't do this alone. Of course, we need to get the Olympics first. Daley's on it. And, more importantly, Cubbies are up 5.5 games and the White Sox are clinging to a 0.5 game lead. We'll take it. The News Meanwhile, nepotism is hitting the streets again. Barack Obama mentor Illinois Senate President Emil Jones is trying to get his kid into politics . Cook County boss John Stroger (now deceased) put his son into office too. There's a new political machine in town, and it looks ...

The news is sad. Although the Olympics started amazingly (Mayor Daley cameos throughout), the morning's joy is squashed by the death of Bernie Mac . He had his ups and down. The Bernie Mac Show was a class act. His support of Barack Obama gave us some low notes. But, he was through and through a Chicago man. White Sox fan to the hilt. Rest in peace, Bernard Jeffrey McCollough. Bernie Mac, I'll miss you.

Big news. Not exactly fresh, but it should be. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died. A real man, and real writer, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 because of books like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , and later wrote The Gulag Archipelago . To the punks who think they know what freedom is, read what not having freedom looks like. The News Two words: World Series. We dream it. Two teams, one city, one series. Let's duke it out. Might be. Could be. But will it be? Hopefully, if Harry Caray is in Heaven (and no one is taking bets on that one), I hope he whispers to God to let it happen. Democrat Arenda Troutman. What Chicago be without a corrupt Democrat in the news? Speaking apparently of herself as well as others (Clients? -- I hope not), she was recorded on tape saying, "Most aldermen, most politicians are hos." The Chicago Sun-Times writes that she guilty , having "admitted to taking bribes and extorting developers seeking zoning preferences....