Why I love these Bears

I know that the Bears season is over (and the dynasty has yet begun) but we do have the coolest team in a long time. Here is an article from the Bears website:

" Dipping into his own pocket, Vasher will provide a fan and a guest roundtrip airline tickets, four nights in a luxury hotel and two tickets to the Pro Bowl game. The winner, who will be chosen in a random drawing Feb. 2, will also dine with the cornerback in Hawaii.

With fans accounting for one-third of the vote (along with NFL players and coaches), Vasher knows that he would have had a difficult time making the Pro Bowl without their support.

"It's just a way for me to show the fans how much I appreciate them," he said. "There's no way I could have had an opportunity to go to the Pro Bowl if it wasn't for their votes.

"It's just a way for me to get a chance to hang out with a couple of them and have a good time out there in Hawaii.

"It was really important to me to show the fans how important they are."

Bless you, Mr. Vasher. Now if I could only stomach listening to Mike North.

Podcasts

I have recently been introduced to this phenom that is called Podcasting. It is very similar to just a simple download or streaming audio except that it is updated through an RSS feed "automatically." The name stems from people downloading these things onto their iPods. Anyone that has Sirius can listen to Adam Curry's show on ch.103 to hear various and random podcasts. The main thing about these (and I admit I have not done it myself) is that you can subscribe through various services and have content automatically updated for you. They are a lot like college radio to me. Not very professional, much more creative than regular radio, and if you find a good one . . .

Anyway, I was hunting around for these things and found some interesting ones. Check them out. Leave addresses to your favorites in the comments so I can check them out.

The Beatles Chronicles: Long. Very long. Very informative. Even if you are a Beatles "expert."

Head up your ass headlines: A lot like News of the Weird.

Cubs Cast: Chicago Cubs. Very funny. Check out the picture of Rodney "Woo woo" on the front page.

I have more that I may add to the comments myself but have not listened to them all the way through.

Open Thread

Have time? Here are some fun things to do and learn.

Who named the planet Pluto?

What do the voice actors for your favorite look like?

Where has your money been?

Why does it hurt when I pee?

When will you die?

What questions do you have?

Caption

Shouldn't have had all that cough syrup before the game.

There's a new sheriff in town, Benny.

Many of you in the Chicago area are familiar with Benny the Bull, the chubby, happy-go-lucky mascot of the Chicago Bulls. He is not to be mistaken with Da Bull, the pot-smoking, leather-wearing team instigator. I saw a few days ago that Benny was having a birthday party. Seriously, here is an official link. As you can see from the picture (which is from the actual event) that things seemed to have gotten a little heated. And how could it not be with the likes of Squatch(Seattle), Crunch (Minnesota), and Clutch (Toronto) to name a few fellow celebs in attendance. In fact, the "Caption This" pic above is also from the same event. (It's Stuff (Orlando) by the way.)

Anyway, I had once heard that Johnny "Red" Kerr had drawn up the idea for Benny the Bull on a napkin while coaching the team. I do not know if this is fact. Commenter Xavier GrassStain (x.g.s.) told me that once. I was looking this fact up for a little "Happy Birthday, Benny" post when I came across other Benny the Bull news and what kind of a blogger would I be without relaying my findings to you.

It seems that Benny has recently been replaced by Barry Anderson. Well, Benny hasn't been replaced but the guy inside Benny has been. Don't tell your kids.

Barry won mascot of the year two out of the last three years as Monte the Bear for the Montana Grizzlies. It seems that Bulls management lacking a big name on the court decided to get a big name anonymously tucked inside a bull outfit. I think it is a good move.

Barry specializes in break-dancing. Seriously. That's his specialty.

Anyway, just a quick announcement. There is an interview with Barry here. I am a little concerned. Here are a few quotes from the interview:

1) "I can touch them and dance with them. I can bring girls from courtside out on the floor and make them dance with the ref. It’s really cool." - Nope. Not cool. Not cool at all. Many of the girls are known to respond with a "Oh, no, you din'n't"

2) "I could go out there and light a roll of toilet paper on fire and they’d love it." What? You were lighting shit on fire on a basketball court and people loved it?? F'in' Missoula. Here there would be a stampede. Bull style. My brother-in-law was the Tulane Green Wave guy (Before the pelican when it was a Gumby looking thing) and he said there was a rule about starting things on fire inside.

3) "The two times I’ve been to Idaho State, I got beat up the first time and got the head broken on the costume. The second time a security guard tried to arrest me for being where I wasn’t supposed to be. Those are two memories of Idaho State." Luckily there are no NBA teams in Idaho.

Anyway, if you are going to the UC it's now BYOFE. Bring Your Own Fire Extinquensher.