The family known for the chewing gum and the namesake of the Chicago Cubs home Wrigley Field - and the family formerly owned the north side MLB franchise until the early 80s also has a namesake home which has recently been sold. It's strange to me to say that this mansion on the north side - specifically 2466 North Lakeview Avenue - was a foreclosure. And looking at the selling price $4.65 million it's still very much out of my reach.
Regardless I'll say when I'm finally ready to build my own house I have found the model. Perhaps scale it down and hopefully resembling a style of mid-century architecture. Just think perhaps as close to a Pill Hill style home as one could get built in the 21st century.
[VIDEO] If you've been following me on this blog, I have talked about wrestling from time to time. Pro-wrestling has been something of a past-time of my and is different from some of my other favorite fare such as Star Trek or even watching FOX News.
If I'm watching science fiction or cable news then where does wrestling fit? Wrestling is entertainment and has been described as a ballet of violence - yes I heard that somewhere. When I started watching it, my young mind was filled with this idea of men fighting to settle scores. That's essentially what wrestling is, a good guy settling a score with a bad guy.
Why are they settling scores? Well basically the bad guy did something the good guy doesn't like. Perhaps a bad guy cheating during a championship match. Perhaps a good guy has something the bag guy covets. My imagination couldn't run anymore wild than the imagination of pro-wrestling writers!
Well why am I writing about pro-wrestling? Monday Night Raw will celebrate 25 years on the air next Monday. And to be fair Raw is over due for another edition of old school Raw. And to reminisce it seems pro-wrestling has evolved to a high spot display of flash. Since maybe the WWF's Attitude Era wrestling has been a lot more fast-paced than it has been when I started watching wrestling.
Perhaps it's just a sign of how that art or that business has to adjust to new times. And while I wasn't there for Raw's first broadcast - as it replace another WWF program on the USA Network in 1993 Prime Time Wrestling - we see the changes to wrestling over the course of 25 years. Just got to sign up for the WWE Network and you can see archive footage of WWF programming over the years.
I can't believe we've arrived to the point where Raw is at 25 years. My favorite era of that show as the Monday night wars/Attitude era. We had two choices on Monday nights from 1995 to 2001 and we could see two different styles of wrestling from southern style wrestling to sports entertainment. And then it ended when the WWF bought their Monday night competition World Championship Wrestling. What an interesting end to a very contentious fight for dominance not just on Monday nights but in North American pro-wrestling.
This coming Monday we will reminisce. Long time fans and newer fans will think about their favorite moments. And I must say we're overdue for an episode of old-school Raw anyway..
BTW, I tend to use WWE interchangeably with WWF or World Wrestling Federation. I'm of the school of as opposed to the name change from earlier in the century which is "take the F out", my saying would be "take the E out". WWE will always be the World Wrestling Federation to me.
[VIDEO] Recently I watched a YouTube video with regards to the starship Enterprise. In passing the video noted an effort with a link - which was inactive - to a website that provided more information of a project to build a real live USS Enterprise. Then it gives me an idea.
Man I wish I had come up with this idea in time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary in 2016.
Anyway, my idea is for a real life Starfleet. The Enterprise - well all ships named Enterprise on Star Trek - serves an organization known as Starfleet. It is the diplomatic, exploratory, scientific and defense service of the galactic power know as the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet is not considered a military organization, but the service itself is built along military lines with a naval tradition.
Now a real life Starfleet - which wouldn't be a mere fan organization - would basically be a private organization dedicated to scientific & technological research & development in addition to exploration. From what I've casually observed with what's going on in space these days is there is a trend towards privatizing space. Who says government has to do all the work to send people and probes into space?
Perhaps this Starfleet could be the organization that is able to send people to the "red planet". Perhaps they also send people back to the moon. In both cases establish settlements or at the very least actual bases for scientific purposes. Of course this Starfleet could send astronauts around the solar system all the while developing better technologies - such as warp drive - to get our people exploring in shorter periods of time.
Of course to bring this back full circle, what about building the real starship Enterprise? Well the proposal I've heard involves using the design of a Constitution class starship - not clear if it's either the original series version or the movie refit version or even the one redesigned in 2009 - with nuclear reactors to power the ship, an ion engine for propulsion, & a gravity wheel in the saucer section. This proposed ship would get astronauts to the moon in three days - the same amount of time as the Apollo astronauts - and astronauts to Mars in 90 days. Mars in 90 days? OK worth a shot!
Of course using the Constitution class design seems like over kill. I always though a more practical design for today's spacecraft engineers is to use a design similar to the USS Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or the NX-01 Enterprise from Star Trek Enterprise. While I recognize conventional wisdom is no need to built a space crusier - hence no Constitution based design - I think a practical design for a real live spacecraft based on a design from Star Trek should start with the compact or submarine based designs of the Defiant & Enterprise.
In my mine Enterprise would be what I wish we could start building for that mission to Mars. I'm not an engineer, however, this design could incorporate that gravity wheel. As far as the nuclear reactors or ion propulsion the real engineers of the world can figure this out.
So here's the NX-01 Enterprise as portrayed in the prequel eponymous Star Trek series in action. [VIDEO] Meanwhile if it takes a few years to design, plan and build this advanced spaceship, what I will say now is let's get started!
BTW, this has got to be the geekiest post written here!
[VIDEO] It allowed me to come to some conclusions especially with the term "fake news" flying around since Trump ran for President in 2016 and during the administration of President Trump currently. It depicts a battle - mainly legal battle - between the press and the government.
Basically some documents were smuggled from the Pentagon analyzing the war in Vietnam and those papers which have been publicly released shows a history of deception by the government as far as their Vietnam policy. The papers apparently start well before America became involved with the Vietnam War and it's escalation. There was a court case NY Times vs. U.S. which allowed the Times and the Washington Post to publish government documents without an reprisal by the government. In other words, the gov't can't censor you because they don't like the fact that you published some documents they didn't want you to see!
Allow me to share the big picture of the movie. We have a free press in this country, and resultantly free speech. With that said and I tweeted this out during the course of the movie - not during the movie of course.
There is no issue with me if President Trump pushed back against the press - or least the press he refers to as Fake News. Among conservatives I've seen that they believe the press has a bias against them. They believe the press or mainstream media trends liberal and in their coverage of Republicans or conservatives is colored with a liberal slant. Thus perhaps for many on the right - or perhaps "alt-right" - it's refreshing that the President isn't going along with that and is effectively punching back.
Our nation is supposed to have checks and balances between the President, Congress and judiciary. Who checks the press? We do need a strong press to check the government and it's three branches. A strong press is worthless if it's unwilling to check the government. As addressed in the movie, there were occasions - and perhaps they still ocurr - that newspaper publishers & editors or producers, reporters, journalists, etc. can be chummy with politicians on occasion. Thus it's possible to think that perhaps the press would cover for the politicians that they are chummy with when things are found out about them.
With that said when Trump takes on CNN or MSNBC or the NY Times it's entirely OK with me if her refers to those outlets as "fake news". We should consume news or information, we need not think that everything they say doesn't have a bias. We need not believe they don't have an agenda and perhaps it doesn't always benefit the people who consume the news & information they publish.
So it's OK with me if Trump calls the mainstream media "fake news". It's also OK with me if the media pushes back against Trump. What we're seeing is healthy. Who says the politicians shouldn't challenge the press - of course without suppressing them legally? Also who says the press shouldn't challenge the politicians?
BTW, if you check hashtag #ThePost on twitter you may see mostly negative views of The Post. Many have opted not to even watch the movie thanks to the liberal politics of Tom Hanks and Merryl Streep. Indeed another tweet I saw connected this movie with the Harvey Weinstein scandal. And I've learned that the film has only earned a half-million dollars when it was released New Year's weekend. Although when I saw the movie it was almost a full-house in my theater.
It's still a great movie and yes I can separate the politics or even complicity in some social context i.e. Weinstein from the work of art. Then again that's the beauty of America, we have the right to support or not support whatever we want for whatever reasons we have. Besides, I gave that dreadful Al Gore global warming sequel a chance even though I'm not likely to ever want to see it again!
