Lazy Weekend, Lazy Start To The Week

The restaurant’s employees, of course, like almost every place of business in Chicago, have a betting pool. They bet on the game by picking squares on a matrix that align with the potential score at the end of each quarter. The bartender was frustrated by the score at the end of the first quarter, because if New England had made a touchdown, he would have won $500. I gave him a big tip in consolation.

I’ve been feeling cold and fluish since Friday morning, when I woke up to blizzard conditions, but that’s ok, because I could rest on my laurels from the past week. This blog had its highest traffic week ever, with consistently high page views ever day and an overall January ending month page view total that exceeded any other month’s total by more than 20%. The inception of the blog was October 2006 .

I could say it was my “bold choice” to publish some salary information on Thursday the 31st. Or maybe it was the incredible story that I practically liveblogged with the help of a hot tip. Or just that I have been writing consistently. But the trend started at the beginning of the month. All I can say is that the Big 4 are the gift that keeps on giving. Every day there are more than a few stories I could choose to write about. And, so, by design or default, I have been choosing stories of interest to you, the readers.

My request is only that you subscribe to the blog via Feedburner, and in that way I can gauge the interest in what I’m writing about. I can generally see who is reading what based on my other tools, but there’s nothing like a real email address to make a blogger’s heart very warm, even in the middle of winter in Chicago.

Halftime entertainment for the Super Bowl was an unexpected surprise, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. My readers who were born in the 80’s may not appreciate the virtuosity of Mr. Tom Petty, but he is a legend, much like Archie Manning, father of the back to back Superbowl quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. I don’t like Tom Brady. He’s a cheater, who dumped his pregnant girlfriend for Giselle Bundchen. I can’t wait for some of you to comment that you would do the same…

Anyway, Tom Petty played four very good songs, some of which I remember listening to when I was in highschool, on an 8-track player in my 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

But I digress…

Archie Manning and Peyton/Eli’s mother must be very proud. But you also wonder how they handle all the fawning and kow-towing. My mother, having four athletic sons who are also good sons and fathers and successful in their respective endeavors, is very uncomfortable when people compliment her. She is of the old Sicilian variety who thinks effusive compliments hide envy, the evil eye, and can only bode ill for her family. Imagine how often Mr. and Mrs. Manning have to respond graciously to, “Oh, you must be so proud…”

Whatever the final score, I have already enjoyed the best part of the game and promise to follow up early tomorrow with some additional info regarding my Big 4 salary post, based on the comments and private emails I have received.

But who knows? As I look out my window, I see it’s snowing again…