What was that line by Death in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life? Something like, “You Englishmen…you’ve got no balls.” That’s how I feel, not so much about Englishmen at the moment, but about WXRT 93.1-FM, “Chicago’s Finest Classic Rock.” For those not from the Chicago area, this station, every April Fools’ Day, pulls a mostly unfunny prank on its aging listener base. This year the station announced it would be playing its entire music catalogue from A to Z, a format that would take it through sometime around Memorial Day. Well they started to do it, but pulled the musical rug on its listeners about half-way through the day. I think they realized if they actually did go A to Z it meant…
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The Asshole Book Club wasn’t your traditional book club. The Assholes didn’t all choose one book, read it on their own, and then return as a group to discuss it. That never happened. The Asshole Book Club would get together, drink some beers, and talk about something we read recently – whether it was a magazine article, love letter, diary entry, album/DVD linear notes or an actual book. The only rule was it had to be non-Web material. The Asshole Book Club was led by Chicago reclusive author Clive Javanski. In fact, I believe the name stems from a time when we were helping Clive set up a booth at a local festival. “Well look there, it’s the asshole book club.” I think it…
Friends of mine in Chicago have an associate who I’ll call Spider and is probably the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s the definition of a blue-collar worker, minus any assholeness. He’s a dockworker who can also work on cars. A true monkey wrench, this Spider. He fixes anything. He’s also part of our “Asshole Book Club” that was formed by Chicago reclusive author Clive Javanski several years ago. But more on that later. Spider has been catfished. Spider has been catfished long before catfish was the word to describe being catfished. You see, at the moment Spider is having Internet relations with an attractive white girl in Ghana. That’s right. Ghana. Which I just…
The Dodgy 