Only Saps Click on Rogue Facebook Apps

Sorry for the lack of posting, all you readers out there ... all almost none of you. Been meaning to revive the blog -- for one thing, it's a refuge from the increasingly intrusive and, frankly, disturbing Facebook (and aside from the title and this parenthetical gripe, that's the only relation this post has to The Blob That Swallowed The Internet) -- but my excuse du jour is that I'm nursing a cold or some other form of yucky virus. And, uh, laziness.

Tomorrow is the first televised White Sox spring training game, if I recall correctly. So maybe I'll throw together a pre-season post, including some thoughts on the PECOTA software's dire predictions for the '09 season.

But for now, I'm gonna keep it simple and play another game of "Books the Cats Knocked Off the Shelves Last Night." Without further ado and in no particular order, here is a list of the books that the cats knocked off the shelves last night:

• Ape and Essence - Aldous Huxley
• Letting Go - Philip Roth
• The Roar Devil - Kenneth Robeson
• The Partridge Family #5: Terror by Night - Vic Crume
• The Toynbee Convector - Ray Bradbury
• Island - Aldous Huxley
• The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
• Incident at Exeter: UFOs Over America Now - John G. Fuller

I suspect the only one they were really after was the Partridge Family novel:

DOWNBEAT FOR DANGER!

The Partridge Family is all set for a great vacation.

But fun soon turns to fear when night comes to their lonely beach house on the New England coast.

Somebody or some thing is out to get them ... and when Keith tries to find out why, the rock stars' vacation becomes a nightmare ...

Eff yeah ... I bet you want to read it now.

Finally, this blog has something in common with Joe Biden -- Plugs!

Well, a couple plugs for other people. Which Biden might have, too.

Pitchers and catchers have reported, which heralds a new season with the crew of the Palehose, as imagined and rendered by Carl Skanberg. There's also ordering info on the site for Carl's new book, Three Years on the Palehose. I already ordered mine, so get going! and now it is sold out. Better luck next printing, slowpokes.

Next, not to be outdone, Otis Ball has a Cafe Press store up and running. T-shirts and caps, you bet! Including new new new merch promoting YouTube phenoms Uncle Tiny Tim and Gilly. Woooooo!

Blogging? Nobody blogs anymore. These days, all the cool kids are over by the Book Face

Yeah, I know it's dead here. In the meantime, here's a Chicago joke.

Man's sitting at a table in a Chicago restaurant. Calls over the waiter, sez, "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup."

Waiter bends over to look. Straightens up and sez, "I'm sorry, sir, but that fly is a real estate developer, and he's allowed to go wherever and do whatever he wants."

"But that's my dinner!"

Waiter leans over to look at the bowl again. "Well, it is a TIF district, sir."

"I'm paying good money for that soup!"

"Now, sir, you know you can't stop progress."

The argument continues for a while, until finally the waiter subpoenas all the man's friends and relatives, who convince the man to give up and go home.

All right, my friend. Now you laugh. Or my associate Rocco here maybe stops over by yer house for a little chat later on tonight. Maybe he brings his pal, Louisville Slugger.

OK, that's better.

Harry Subterranean Homesick Nilsson Blues

More Luv for Lux

Fine rendition by Gus and Fin of my favorite Cramps tune:

Boogie Stop Shuffle

OK, so I didn't blog for a week, got kinda perturbed by cosmic vapors, thought about kicking it in entirely, but let's do non-that, let's just blog every crazy thought that creeps toward my skull bone, such as, as follows ... a fine rendition of a Charlie Mingus classic by Chadbourne and Zu, by the title of "Boogie Stop Shuffle." It enjoys me, and it might enjoy you as well.

Hot Rock n Roll Obits Stove Report

Lux Interior of the Cramps has died.



Also passing this week, Chicago radio legend, Ed Schwartz. More to come on Ed soon.