The Electron Pencil

The Mountaintop

Now whadda you think I was doing all last night and into the wee hours of the AM?

Yep, I spent the historic eve/morn with a motley crew of Cubs fans and revelers at, first, the Uptown Cafe and then our entire gang moved over to the venerable Nick’s English Hut where we cheered our boys on to victory. Our little army started out with B-ton fixture Kelly Wherley, attorney Amelia Lahn, international student exchange matchmaker Michelle Bird, Hoosiers, Rudy and Hill Street Blues director David Anspaugh, and a couple of visiting lawyers from Evansville who had the good fortune (misfortune?) to be sucked into riding our emotional roller coaster with us.

Eventually, Farm Bloomington chef Bob Atkins joined us, and then we lost Anspaugh and the Evansville barristers. The remainder of us dashed over to Nick’s around the sixth inning, where we watched with knotted stomachs and gaping mouths the Cubs cough up a seemingly comfortable three-run lead in the eighth inning. Tall Steve Volan was the master of ceremonies at Nick’s and we were joined by dancer and 4th Street Arts Fest volunteer coordinator Tamara Loewenthal. Our crew experienced severe emotional distress as the game seemed about to be lost, then won, then almost lost again before my beloved Cubs finally emerged victorious in the Cleveland rain in the 10th inning.

[BTW: Tall Steve had missed the first part of the game attending to his duties on the Bloomington city council. That august body had the effrontery to meet as usual on Wednesday night even though Game Seven was scheduled and the chance for world history to be changed loomed. I advised Tall Steve to quit the council and watch the entire game with me but he declined, the fool.

Still, Tall Steve escaped council chambers in good time to watch the meat of the contest. This after he was able to move a significant piece of legislation along — his proposed local parking commission was given the thumbs up by the council in a preliminary straw poll. The commission idea now will be tweaked and written up as law for eventual passage, Steve hopes, by the council at a later date.]

A Confident Tall Steve & A Fretting Tamara

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Baseball fanatic and theater man Eric Paris Van Gucht writes on his blog this morning: “[L]et me tell you – it does feel like heaven.”

Oh, it did — I think.

Josh Timmers writes on Bleed Cubbie Blue:

The only words I have are THE CHICAGO CUBS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! [His caps.]

No one has ever typed those words on the internet. No television announcer has ever said those words. No radio broadcaster has ever said those words.

Kirkwood Avenue was transformed into one long block party from Indiana Avenue all the way down to Walnut Street after the final out was recorded. Our little crew poured out onto the street where we met Herald Times photog Jeremy Hogan. I seem to recall Kelly Wherley joyously grinding his hips into mine as Hogan snapped away. Sheesh, if I ever run for office those negs’ll torpedo my campaign forthwith.

I’m a tad iffy about my memories and feelings because I’d begun self-medicating after Cleveland’s Rajai Davis tied the game with a home run in that terrifying eighth inning. I tell you, Ketel One oughtta be dispensed only by prescription. And speaking of prescriptions, I wonder what might shrink this throbbing skull I’m experiencing this morning.

Me, Before The Roof (Almost) Caved In

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Carsful of happy collegiates cruised the boulevard, the strains of Steve Goodman’s “Go, Cubs, Go!” pouring out of them.

My hand still hurts from slapping so many high fives.

As for my feelings, even now, as I type some eight hours later, I can’t describe them. I’m still numb. Yeah, I thought about Ma, the Cubs fan who’s responsible for my 50-year heretofore unrequited love affair with the team. She handed in her lunch pail in early 2014 just before this current iteration of the team began to become dominant. She’d have loved every minute of last night. Bad timing, Ma — you should have hung around a couple more years. I didn’t cry this time, though. I cried like a baby a week and a half ago when the Cubs finally made the World Series. Tall Steve can attest to that. This time? I suppose stunned is the best descriptor I can come up with. And I’m still stunned.

I’d like to say, as Lynn Schwartzberg wrote, “So, this is how it feels, wow!” but I can’t.

I know this, though: Now that my Cubs have won a World Series, I can let sports go. Yeah, no sporting event or achievement will ever be able to top this one. Beginning in 1969 when the Cubs broke my heart for the first of many times, I’ve been obsessed with seeing that wrong righted. Now it has been.

As the famed ancient sports writer, Paul the Apostle, once observed, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Last night’s triumph was my graduation. My only-now-unknotted stomach and my aching head will thank me.

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Election Night Coverage

It’s set: I’ll be covering the doings at the Democratic Party’s Bloomington election night HQ Tuesday night for WFHB radio.

The Dems will gather at Opie Taylor’s on Walnut St., hoping to bring their national, state, and local banner carriers home to victory. WFHB will have a live remote table at the bar/restaurant where we’ll do live reports and interviews. A mess of folks will be responsible for the coverage, including tech geeks, runners, remote producers, executive producer Joe Crawford, Ass’t News Director Sarah Vaughan, and vols at the station making sure our words get to your ears. I don’t know the names of all the on-scene, behind-the-scenes staff but as soon as I get wind of them, I’ll flog them herein.

I dunno about you, but I’m pumped for Tuesday, November 8th.

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Big Talk

Speaking of interviews, it’s Big Talk Thursday. My guest late this afternoon will be hand-crafted puzzle maker Marc Tschida. Marc has been an arts advocate and tireless worker in the music and theater scenes locally for eons. Now, he’s going full-time into jigsaw-puzzle making. His distinctive, collectible puzzles feature images of Bloomington and South Central Indiana as well as pix of works by local artists.

Big Talk is a regular Thursday feature of the Daily Local News. Tune in at 5:30 late this afternoon. If you miss the broadcast, don’t fret — you can catch the podcast on the WFHB website. And the mostly-unedited, full-length original interview will be posted on this communications colossus immediately after air-time (or, more accurately, as soon as I get around to posting the audio track.)

Talk to you tonight!

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