The Chicago Cubs play 55 home games during the day in the 2005 season. The rest of baseball has an average of about 27 day home games.

It's really rather special that the Chicago Cubs play a majority of their home games during the day. Is there another team in professional sports that have such a drastic time change from the rest of their competition? Any sport. Football, basketball, hockey, etc.

I think the Cubs are the only team in professional sports that has such a different schedule from the rest of their counterparts.

What song did you have to sing for grade school/junior high graduation?

That song "Wind Beneath My Wings" made popular in 1989 by Bette Midler was the official graduation song for my 8th grade class. We had to vote on our class song. I don't recall what it beat out though... probably some nice traditional Lutheran hymn.

The debate between that pop song and a Lutheran hymn caused quite a stir at this nice Christian grade school. All the dippy girls wanted to do that song and they won out (I was all for the nice hymn). Some of the students were afraid that twenty years from then we would be embarrassed that was our class song. It was quite the drama. Now it's just funny that our class had to sing that lame-o song at graduation.

--UPDATE--
Thank you to everyone who left song recommendations. As of March 2010, there have been 303 song recommendations. Here's the top 27 songs mentioned the most times in the comments.

Mentioned 17 times:
-- Graduation by Vitamin C (iTunes)

Mentioned 9 times:
-- Time Of You Life by Green Day (iTunes)

Mentioned 8 times:
-- Here's To The Night by Eve 6 (iTunes)

5 times:
-- Good Riddance by Green Day (iTunes)
-- Photograph by Nickelback (iTunes)
-- Whenever You Remember by Carrie Underwood (iTunes)

4 times:
-- Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson (iTunes)
-- Do I Make You Proud by Taylor Hicks (iTunes)
-- Goodbye To You by Michelle Branch (iTunes)
-- I Will Remember You by Ryan Cabrera (iTunes)
-- In This Diary by The Ataris (iTunes)
-- My Wish by Rascal Flatts (iTunes)
-- One Year Six Months by Yellowcard (iTunes)
-- Please Remember by Leann Rimes (iTunes)
-- Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield (iTunes)

3 times:
-- Changes by Tupac (iTunes)
-- Don't Stop Believing by Journey (iTunes)
-- Forever Young by Youth Group (iTunes)
-- Goodbye by Spice Girls (iTunes)
-- I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack (iTunes)
-- I Will Remember You by Sarah Mclachan (iTunes)
-- It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday by Boyz II Men (iTunes)
-- No Such Thing by John Mayer (iTunes)
-- The Night Before (Life Goes On) by Carrie Underwood (iTunes)
-- There You'll Be by Faith Hill (iTunes)
-- Time Of My Life by David Cook (iTunes)
-- Wonderwall by Oasis (iTunes)

I'm so geeked out, spudart.org is now on a new server. Hopefully the site shouldn't be down as much as it was in the past.

Nothing was posted this past weekend, so my blogging streak has ended. I was thinking of back-posting to fill up those days, but oh well. Such as the nature of this. I'll miss some days. But I am still going to try to make a new post everyday, so you can visit and find something new daily.

Here's the records for most consecutive posts on spudart.org:
5/31/2005 - 7/22/2005 (53 days... 1 month, 23 days)
3/14/2005 - 5/13/2005 (63 days... 2 months, 2 days)
7/4/2004 - 7/16/2004 (13 days)
6/19/2004 - 7/2/2004 (23 days)
2/14/2002 - 7/11/2002 (148 days... 4 months, 28 days)

If you have a blog, what your streak for most consecutive days posting?

Stickers come in so handy and every loves getting a sticker on something... an envelope, at the end of a letter, on a memo, birthday cards, on a gift wrapping, on their nose! Stickers can go anywhere. Anytime you find some on sale, nap 'em. Then get a sticker file for both work and home.

Whenever someone has a birthday in my department at work, we pass around a birthday card for people to sign. It's so much more fun when you can add a cute sticker inside. Ideally, it would be so much fun if everyone put their own sticker inside. So far I got one other person at work on the sticker bandwagon for the cards. (by the way, you can download a hi-res wallpaper of the photo that runs with this article. It looks really cool blown up)

In the past three months (April 21, 2005 to July 21, 2005), I have made 1,643 searches on google. That's about 18 searches a day. You can tell google to save all your past searches. It comes in quite handy, you can look up all your previous searches too!

I wish you could export and download your google search history.

Can you pay someone in coin wrappers? Amazon sells 1000 wraps for $4.18. Each wrap holds 50 pennies. So it'll cost ya $4.18 to wrap $500 of pennies--the wraps will cost less than 1% of your money (0.836). Not bad.

So 1000 wraps will hold 50,000 pennies. Stack 50,000 pennies up and you will end up with one cubic foot solid of pennies weighing over 300 pounds. Or instead of you wish to carpet your home, it will take up 192 square feet.

(whatever you do, don't get 'em from Office Max, they cost $1.99 for a pack of 48 wrappers. That's 9% of your money!)

On July 19, 1999, spudart.org was reserved. Although I used the name spudartearlier than that when I first came up with it for my hotmail address back when I was graduating college in 1997. For the meaning on spudart, go here: www.spudart.org/thoughts/potato.

Thanks to all the readers who come to spudart.org. :-)

I was talking with a friend about how I've been dating my girlfriend for one year now. She thought it was a long time. Which it is (and wonderful too). And it can seem like yesterday as I said,

"One year ago from yesterday
is more like yesterday
than today."

That's like one of them quotes that you'd see in a book somewhere. To explain, think about last Friday. Let's say the sun set at 8:30pm on last Friday. Take the same day one year ago. The sun set at the same time. Now take Saturday. The sun would set at something like 8:27pm. A different time than Friday. As far as sunlight goes, a day exactly last year would be more like a day one year later.

That would make yesterday more similar to a day from last year. So one year doesn't end up being very long. It ends up seeming like the same day.

Yesterday I explained why the simple standard 57-year-old classic is so delicious. Now here's a tutorial on dine a hamburger from McDonalds:

1) Do not order a cheeseburger
Order a hamburger. Not only because it's ten to twenty cents cheaper, but it's also not as bad for you.

	Hamburger	Cheeseburger
Calories	260g (-)	310g (-)
Total Fat	9g (14%)	12g (19%)
Saturated Fat	3.5g (17%)	6g (28%)
Trans Fat	0.5g (-)	1g (-)
Cholestrol	30g (9%)	40g (14%)
Sodium	530 (22%)	740 (31%)
Iron	3mg (15%)	3mg (15%)
Protein	13g (-)	15g (-)

The cheese adds nothing in flavor or texture. It's just a slimy piece of plastic that coats the flavor and texture of the meat.

(side note: wow, the hamburger has 13g of protein, that's good!)

2) Do not order the combo meal
You're already eating a fatful burger. You don't also need the fries and soda. You may say that you made the decision to go to McDonalds and since you are there you are gonna go all the way and enjoy it. But that one burger is already indulging.

The medium fries tack on 350 calories, 16g fat, 5g sat fat, 4g trans fat. The soda adds 310 calories and 86 grams of sugar. 86 grams! Take 34 pennies, and that's the weight of sugar in one large soda.

My brother simply eliminated 2 daily sodas and went from 200lbs to 175lbs. By drinking a daily soda we take them for granted and drink them like water. It has become a standard drink, not a special treat.

3) Order a side salad
No dressing. Introduce some nice variety and nutrition. If you're thirsty get a water.

4) Eat the bottom bun first
Now that we have a hamburger, side salad, and water, let's sit down and enjoy our meal. Take the bottom bun off and eat that first. You'll notice that the delicious taste of the burger has seeped into the bread. It's interesting to see how McDonalds split out the nutrition parts of the hamburger. The buns have 150 calories vs. 100 calories in the beef. The buns also have 260 grams of the sodium vs. 25 ams in the beef patty.

By eating this bread separately:
A) You're taking longer to eat your burger which will make you less likely to want to eat more.
B) You'll go through the physical motions of eating two burgers by eating the bottom bun and burger separately. You will see two objects disappear instead of one. This will fool your brain into thinking that you've eaten two burgers instead of one. Therefore, you'll be less likely to eat more.

5) Eat the burger and enjoy
Eat the other part of the burger with the meat face up (or face down, the ketchup should keep the meat from falling off). Without the bottom bun you'll notice that you can taste the meat more!

6) Don't eat it all right away
Eat about one-third or half of the burger and then set it down. Have some side salad. We get in such a rut of eating things so fast that we don't remember what it is like to eat. A burger gets just eaten completely and before we know it, the burger is gone. There is no sweet memory of this delightful burger. True, this is not a filet mignon or something fancy that we eat for intrigue of variety. This is a comfort food. Let's get comfy and take the time to enjoy it.

I find by putting your food down often helps you to eat it slower and enjoy it more. By taking a mini-break, it will digest better. You'll taste more. By picking your food back up every time you'll use your tactile sense more to feel your food. Plus, you'll be more aware of how much you've eaten.

Plus, the light and healthy taste of the salad will offset the greasy taste of the burger. After eating some salad, you'll come back to the burger and enjoy its texture and flavor more.

Disclaimer:
Ok. This post is not for people who hate McDonalds. It's also not for people who look down on McDonalds. You can read through this list and make fun of how I say that the McDonalds burger is delicious. Hey, you might even make fun of how I say it's made of meat. (it really is pure beef, their site says: "100% pure USDA inspected beef; no additives, no fillers, no extenders." You know they can't lie about that, they'd get their whatoozies sued.)

I enjoy the McDonalds hamburger, and so do billions of other people. Yes, eating McDonalds all the time can be really bad for you, but so would eating candy bars all the time. Having a burger once in awhile can be ok. This list is to help people slow down and enjoy their food.

The McDonalds hamburger is delicious. How is it so good? Here's how:

1) It's proven
So many people have eaten a McDonalds hamburger so many many times.

2) Practice makes perfect
McDonalds has made billions of these burgers. You try doing something one hundred times. After a hundred, you'll have something really good. Now trying doing it a BILLION times.

3) Same burger every time, taste is guaranteed
McDonalds has been making this for so long in so many locations. They have perfected it. All the burgers are made exactly the same and there's a good reason why--because it's so TASTY!

Tomorrow we cover Six steps on how to enjoy a McDonalds hamburger

The alternating floor tile pattern looks like a weaving. I wonder if this was the intention when alternating tiles were first invented.

To see what a I mean, look at the floor pattern and look at just one pair of rectangles going in one direction. Then continue to look horizontally across and watch how that line connects across. Imagine how the pattern would continue underneath the other tiles going vertically.

Here's some clips from an article Tom Saaristo wrote on Tart Cherries.

"Additionally, cherries contain a compound called super oxide dismutase, or SOD, which is a "super scavenger" of dangerous free radicals in the body."

"t's hard to find fresh tart cherries, sometimes called pie cherries or sour cherries, because they're very sensitive to heat and light "

"Their season is short - essentially the month of July - so when you find them, buy in bulk and freeze them"

Here's my comment:

Da Nananana! SUPER SCAVENGER!: The Sensitive Version. He doesn't like to be in the light or heat. He only appears one month out of the year. But something so grand and powerful surely cannot be around all the time, except for now...

Da Nanananaaaaaa! FREEZING! YES! You can now dry freeze your favorite superhero and make him last for 8-10 months! Want SUPER SCAVENGER in the fall? Just unfreeze him from the fridge to unlock his mighty powers!

Look! A bird! A plane! No, it's SUPER SCAVENGER!

SUPER SCAVENGER is here to save the day and destroy the dastardly dangerous free radicals!

Remember kids, visit Tom Saaristo's blog, "Confessions of a Foodie" every weekday for great tips, articles, and recipes on the world of food.

On July 8, 2005 just three days before Major League Baseball hosted its Home Run Derby with 12 players from 12 different nations, the Olympic Committe voted to eliminate baseball and softball from the 2012 Olympics.

Among the reasons cited, according to the Associated Press, is "a perceived lack of global appeal and participation." MLB has been trying to prove baseball as an international sport, so this is indeed a huge slam against baseball.

Sources:
ï Montana Standard
ï Arizona Central
ï AP

At about 8:30pm (CST) during the 2005 baseball all-star game FOX showed a "renegade" banner hung in the outfield that said hhrya.com. The broadcasters even pondered what it could mean. Joe Buck said something like, "Someone just unfurled a banner with the letters HHRYA... Whoever did it must have gone through a lot of effort. What could it mean?" Tim McCarver then said, "It makes me think of the word hooray."

hhrya.com wouldn't load at the time. A google search for hhrya lead to a Horse Slaughter Awareness Campaign by "Harness Horse Retirement & Youth Association."

When I finally got hhrya.com to load a couple hours later, it was a site promoting the new Chevy HHR, not anything about protecting horses from becoming glue. At hhrya.com you can upload your digital photos of the letters HHR and enter to win a custom Chevy HHR. As of 10:50pm a few hours later, there are no new photos on the site.

Maybe people are out there composing their photos now. Or maybe Chevy is counting on bloggers to talk about it (just like here).

But gee, guess who is the advertiser for the All-Star Game? It's Chevrolet. Nice guerilla marketing there, Chevy. Pulled the wool over our eyes. How does this affect your trust in Joe Buck and Tim McCarver?

Apple just regeared their iPod line. The iPod photo is now the standard iPod. So all standard iPods now have a color screen that can display photos. Why buy them from Apple, when you can get them cheaper from Amazon?
ï iPod 20GB: Amazon $284.99 vs. Apple $299.00
ï iPod 60 GB: Amazon $379.99 vs. Apple $399.00.
Plus, you get free shipping and no tax. Woosh!

I've been thinking about getting an ipod, and was considering the ipod mini silver 4GB: Amazon: $189.05

But the new regular ipods would be handy on vacation, and be able to upload a ton of photos for storage on the ipod. There's 20GB of space, plenty of room to dump photos and be able to clear your memory card. You just have to get:
ï the Apple iPod Camera Connector (Amazon $28.49)
Just remember this connector only works with the new ipods (with color display) and the old ipod photo. And it will work with certain cameras.

The ability to dump off photos shot with my digital camera onto the ipod is really tempting.

(post updated, read comments)

This nutcracker figure speaking out nuts is a neat idea. How about this for an extension... Write out some words on a piece of paper, draw a word balloon around it, cut it out. And then photograph the figure as like it's talking. That's like old school photography before photoshop.

Want the inside scoop on baseball's scoreboard challenge? I've taken all the box scores from every All-star game, compiled the data, entered them into a spreadsheet and database. There's even seven graphs illustrating how to pick the right score. Click here to check it out.

Here's the official info about the Challenge:

Win $76,000 if you can guess the total number of runs scored in each half inning of the All-Star Game, as well as the final number of hits and errors for the American and National Leagues, respectively.

Get every inning, hit and error totals correct for your chance to win $76,000. If no one predicts the entire game correctly, the person with the top score will win four tickets to the 2006 All-Star Game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. To make your guess or for more information, click here.

Or if you want complete analysis of the historical records of the all-star game, click here.

Does $1.25 in nickels equal the same weight as a soda pop? That handful of nickels sure has a nice hefty weight.

It was fun putting all 25 nickels all into the soda machine as fast as I could. Next time I'll time myself. I dare anyone to post their fastest time to put 25 nickels into a soda machine. Here's one hint, don't put two in at the same time, it'll jam the machine (that's why they have that nifty coin return button--the first time I actually ever used it other than to get free change).

There's a site called "The best brands of the world" and they have a ton of logos available for download including some cool Transformer and G.I.Joe logos from the 80s and today.

G.I.Joe	G.I.Joe	G.I.Joe cartoons new logo	G.I.Joe logo TV version	Cobra Emblem
G1 Autobot logo black and white	G1 Autobot Logo	G1 Decepticon Logo	Transformers Armada	Transformers Classic

If anyone is looking for a custom-printed pen with your logo and/or phrase, here's the place: Office Depot. For real.

A couple days ago someone in the MCA asked me for a pen. I let him borrow one thinking it woulda been really cool if I had a spudart pen. The next day I looked at a bunch of places for logo pens, but I don't want to spend alot of money and I don't want like 500 pens running around.

Most places make you pay an extra $40 for "imprint charges". Whoa doggy, that's about how much i would pay TOTAL for the pens. And then most places have a minimum of 250, 500 or 1000 pens to start with. Slow down there tiger!

But good ol' Office Depot no only has a small minimum of 150 pens, but there's no set up charge or screen charge! It's only cost me $55.50 to get 'em made!

Office Depot
minimum: 150 per pen: 0.37 total: $55.50

In case you're wondering, here's some of the other sites I looked at. The first number is the minimum quantity, the second is the price per pen. I'm pretty sure all these places charge extra for screens. But they don't list it on their site.
Stop-n-GoM* 250 .21 screen:$30 setup:$40
Pacific Line 150 .38 screensetup:$50
e-promo 250 .25 setup:$40
All-In-One Aero Stick 300 .38
All-In-One Aero Stick clear 300 .38
Graphco Line 200 .36
Graphco Line 200 .36
Jornik Stick Pen 250 .27
Journik Twister 250 .27
The Grafix Guy 250 .33 $18setup $18art
Bay Promo 250 .33

Every year Chicago has their fireworks a day early on July 3rd. It gets millions of people gathering to the lakeshore resulting in a very packed event. Here's six tips I realized this year:

1. Don't get there early
   Yes, this is counterintuitive. You want a good spot, so you stake out your land early. Let's say you do that. Inevitably the place becomes packed. People start infringing on your "space" either by sitting too close or even walking over your blanket. Getting there early only stresses things out. If you have just a couple people just get there right before and find yourself a tiny little spot. How do you find that tiny little spot when it seems everything is covered?...
   
   
2. The two best places to sit are:
   A) Lakeshore:
   Finding a spot right on the lakeshore is tough, because it's such a small area and so densely packed unless if you go to the hill by the Shedd Aquarium.
   
   B) Butler Field:
   Butler Field is nice because they have nice loud speakers playing classic American symphonies. The trick to Butler field is to not stay on the fringes of the walkways. About 15 minutes before the fireworks, gingerly walk to the center of the field and you'll find some little spots to plop down on. Make sure you ask the adjacent people if it's okay to sit there. Don't want to be rude.
   
   
3. Farting
   If you have to fart, make sure to do it when there's a lot of noisy fireworks. And if someone does hear you fart, you can just you got so excited, that you made your own fireworks!
   
   
4. Who to sit by
   Depending on what mood you are in, you might not want a rowdy group near you. Then again maybe you do. But one thing, be careful about the old people. This year I sat next to this old guy thinking he will be nice and peaceful. Well he was, but he whistled to all the music. It was kinda cute at first, but I kept telling myself that it was cute.
   
   
5. Walk around
   Before you sit down, take the freedom to walk around and be amazed by the sheer number of people. Of course this only works if it's just you and someone else. Any more than three people, and you get too stressed out about getting separated.
   
   
6. Beforehand watch movies and documentaries
   Even before you go to the fireworks, make sure you watch some good American war movies like Saving Private Ryan. It will make you appreciate the fireworks even more.
   
   

Estonians rule, this is our 8th year in a row winning the World Wife-Carrying Competition. I'm proud to be Estonian. Long live Estonia!!! This was the FOURTH victory for Margo Ussorg and the third in a row for his family. Brother Madis Uusorg won in 2004. The Uusorg's are my heros!

Here's some photos of Margo Uusorg through the years:

2000	??	2003	2005

And some news clippings about Margo Uusorg:

Clipped from 2005 Reuters

Uusorg, 25, completed the course in 59 seconds with friend Egle Soll, 23

"We don't have a secret, we just try to run fast and hope the legs work," said Uusorg, who works in Stockholm as an embassy driver.

He warned that the family would be even stronger contenders next year when brother number three, Urmet, takes part. "He holds the Estonian record for the 800 metres," Uusorg said.

clipped from 2003 Seoul HASH House Harriers

Take it from a world champion: The best way for a man to carry a woman is to dangle her upside down over his back, with her thighs squeezing his neck and her arms around his torso.

"That way, your arms are free to help with balance. It's more stable. There's less shifting of the weight," says Margo Uusorg. He has just carried Egle Soll, her pigtails flapping against his back, around a 278-yard oval track that includes a 3-foot-deep water trough and two hurdles of wooden logs. In just over one minute, they won the Estonian championship here, and qualified for this coming weekend's Wife Carrying World Championship in Sonkajarvi, Finland, where Mr. Uusorg is a heavy favorite to win his third world crown.

"When you carry this way," he says, "it's much easier."

Ms. Soll, upright again and flushed by the experience, if not the victory, says, "It's not so bad. But you don't see much."

Besides, says Mr. Uusorg, "she's too heavy. Wait, that sounds bad. She's not fat, she's just too heavy for the competition." His girlfriend is nearly six feet tall and weighs about 127 pounds. Ms. Soll, his carrying partner, is barely five feet tall and weighs just 101 pounds.

Mr. Uusorg, a 23-year-old administrative officer at the Estonian embassy in Sweden, arrived in 2000 carrying Birgit Ulrich, a college student weighing about 80 pounds. They won in the record time of 55.5 seconds. Then they won again in 2001.

But even carrying the heftier, 21-year-old Ms. Soll, who wears a weighted vest to bring her up to the weight limit, Mr. Uusorg looks tough to beat. He is tall, muscular and a regular runner. After winning the Estonian title last month in a time of one minute and 34/100ths of second, he said, "That was pretty easy."

Fastest Wife Carrier - Guinness Book of World Records:

The fastest time to complete the 235 m (771 ft) obstacle course of the World Wife-Carrying Championships, held annually in Sonkaj”rvi, Finland, is 55.5 second by Margo Uusorg and Birgit Ulricht (pictured) of L””nernaa, Estonia, on July 1, 2000.

How about seeing a team in the area you haven't seen before? Where tickets are cheap. Where the players aren't paid millions. Here's a list of professional indepedent and minor league teams in Chicago. Since these teams play at different times of the year, you can look up in this chart which teams are playing this month.

Sport

Team

Months Played

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

National Women's Basketball League

Chicago Blaze

Jan - Mar

X

X

X

National Lacrosse League (Indoor Lacrosse)

Chicago Shamrox

Jan - Apr

X

X

X

X

Arena Football League (Indoor/Arena Football)

Chicago Rush

Jan - Jun

X

X

X

X

X

X

International Basketball League (Men's Basketball)

Elgin Racers

Mar - Jun

X

X

X

X

International Basketball League (Men's Basketball)

Chicago Heights Soldiers

Mar - Jun

X

X

X

X

Continental Indoor Football League (Indoor/Arena Football)

Chicago Slaughter

Mar - Jul

X

X

X

X

X

Racing

Chicagoland Speedway

Mar - Sep

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Independent Women's Football League

Chicago Force

Apr - Jun

X

X

X

International Basketball League (Men's Basketball)

Windy City Dawgs

Apr - Jun

X

X

X

Major League Soccer (Outdoor Soccer)

Chicago Fire

Apr - Oct

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Major League Lacrosse (Outdoor Lacrosse)

Chicago Machine

May - Aug

X

X

X

X

Women's National Basketball Association (Women's Basketball)

Chicago Sky

May - Aug

X

X

X

X

Minor League Baseball

Kane County Cougars

May - Sep

X

X

X

X

X

Minor League Baseball

Schaumburg Flyers

May - Sep

X

X

X

X

X

Minor League Baseball

Windy City ThunderBolts

May - Sep

X

X

X

X

X

Minor League Baseball

Joliet JackHammers

May - Sep

X

X

X

X

X

National Pro Fastpitch (Women's Softball)

Chicago Bandits

Jun - Aug

X

X

X

Junior Hockey

Chicago Steel

Sep - Apr

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Major Indoor Soccer League

Chicago Storm

Oct - Apr

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Minor League Hockey

Chicago Wolves

Oct - Jun

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

American Basketball Association (Men's Basketball)

Chicago Soldiers

Nov -Mar

X

X

X

X

X

Wrestling

Windy City Pro Wrestling

All Year

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Sport

Team

Months Played

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Other resources:
• Chicago Athlete (running, cycling, mountain biking, swimming, skiing, triathalon)
• Chicago Independent and Minor League Sports on oursportscentral.com

Looking for a fun unusual sport to play or watch in Chicago? I'm not talking about the typical basketball, volleyball or football. How about archery, croquet, bocce and more? Here's a list of links to calendars for less popular sports in Chicago.

If you see any sports or links missing, please leave them in the comments below.

Underdog Sport Event Calendars in Chicago
Sport	National Calendar	Local Calendar
Archery	USA Archery (homepage)	Chicago Bow Hunters
Pigeon Racing	American Racing Pigeon Union	Rockford Pigeon Club
Badminton	USA Badminton	Midwest Badminton Association
Bocce	United States Bocce Federation	?
Boomerang	?	?
Croquet ("offical")	US Croquet of America	Chicago Croquet Club
Croquet (backyard)	?	Chicago Croquet Squirearchy of Gentlefolk (not updated)
Darts	World Dart Federation	Windy City Darters
Disc Golf	World Flying Disc Federation	Disc Golf Club of Northeastern Illinois
Flutag	Red Bull Flugtag USA (no events until 2006)	--
Footbag	Footbag Worldwide	?
Handball	United States Handball Association	?
Laser Tag	--	Illinois Laser Tag (list of links, no specific events)
Paddleball	American Platform Tennis Association	?
Racquetball	USA Racquetball	?
Scottish Games	--	Illinois Sain Andrew Society
Skateboarding	?	?
Table Tennis	USA Table Tennis (not updated)	?
Ultimate Frisbee	?	Ultimate Chicago
Whirlyball	--	Whirlyball Chicago (homepage, no specific events)

With Sandra Day O'Connor retiring, everyone is freaking out about how George W. Bush gets to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice. But c'mon people, it's about time we get a new justice. The last one chosen was in 1994--nine years ago! The only longest appointment drought was from 1812-1823--eleven years.

Plus George W. Bush is the only two-term president who hasn't made a court appiontment yet. There's only been four presidents who have not made a Supreme Court appointment:

• William H. Harrison who was president for less than one month.
• Zachary Taylor who was president for only two years
• Andrew Johnson who got shafted by Congress who lowered the number of Justices in 1866 and 1867 so he couldn't appoint any
• Jimmy Carter who just had bad luck

Here's graph featuring the complete listing of all the associate and chief justices on the Supreme Court of America. Click to view a chart of U.S. Supreme Court Justic appointments



Sources:
ï U.S. Supreme Court Justices on MSN Encarta
ï Presidents of the United States on whitehouse.gov
ï Supreme Court on wikipedia.

The Chicago Tribune is offering this new subscription deal, called Employee Advantage, for all friends and family of Chicago-area Tribune employees.

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