I first heard it as a child, watching on television or hearing it on the radio. “Chicagoland.” It was used in commercials: “Your Chicagoland Ford Dealer!” or “Chicagoland jewel stores!” They said it on the news: “Chicagoland was stunned by striking union workers today.” The word made it sound like a mystical, magical, fantastical place …
Category Archives: blog
The Road Less Taken
I’m busy. Start here: I’m booked at the Hilton in New York City, the one in mid-town, the convention hotel with the high prices and endless hallways and conference rooms that stretch for a couple of blocks. My client is a lobby, an on-the-way-to-extinction energy industry group (guess which one!) and I can safely use …
Zootopia
I just watched the latest Disney Studios major motion picture release, “Zootopia.” It’s great. Maybe one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last couple of years. Go see it. Before you say, “Taylor, you’re a homer for Disney,” allow me to defend myself. Yes, I work for Disney (in a very minor capacity). …
Saving Daylight
Let’s get this out of the way first: it is “Daylight Saving Time.” Singular. It is not “Daylight Savings Time.” We’re not talking about banking sunlight, or investing some non-dark hours that we can reclaim next winter. When someone calls it “Daylight Savings Time” it has the same affect on me as when I see …
60 Is My Favorite Number!!!
My mother had a collection of sayings and clichés, she’d call them colloquialisms, which my brothers and I actually numbered because she used them so regularly. So that at dinner, when she’d begin one, for example, “Let your food stop your mouth!” we’d laugh and say “number 11!” before she got to the word “stop.” …
Fine Line(Man)
My defensive line coach, sophomore year at The University of Illinois, was a man named John Nelson. The Illini were coming off a winning season (a rarity in Champaign to this day!) and much of the team’s success came from a hard-nosed defense, anchored by a future NFL All-Pro named Scott Studwell – possibly a …
Hack Attack
I am, in comedy terms, a hack. It’s a derogatory term, meaning that even though I’m a “professional,” I’m not worthy of mainstream exposure. Good thing for me I don’t care. I’ve worked with just about every kind of act there is: stand-up comics and cabaret singers; Broadway actors and rock ‘n’ roll bands; directors …
Laundry Day
I do my own laundry. I do my own laundry because I am a nice guy and I won’t subject anyone, most of all my wife, to the once-a-month kluster kludge of insanity that is my soiled, used and sometimes still-damp-from-the-gym clothing. My travel schedule has been laughably out of control for two months so …
Turn on, Tune in, Too dumb
I missed the turbulent, riotous demonstrations of the 1960’s, so I’m eagerly watching what’s happening on college campuses today. I’m taking for granted this is kind of a callback to those thrilling days of yesteryear when peace and love (and the occasional bombing or call to the National Guard) were commonplace at good ol’ State …
Here Come the Holidays
Yeah, it’s gray and rainy on the East Coast, the temps are dropping and it gets dark around 5:00 p.m. With the holidays approaching, some folks are already feeling the stress and strain of the party-and-hubbub of the season. Some of us get the blues around this time of year. But I’m not fuss and …