Jim Flanigan Looks at the World
Wasting Your Time & Mine Since 2015
This will be an unusual blog post in that it won’t be funny.
Editor’s Note: Not unusual at all for this blog.
Anyway, I’m blogging today to promote the debut of Chicago Party Aunt on Netflix today. Here she is in all of her splendor.
Continue reading “Party On, Chicago Party Aunt”
I was invited to the Chicago Bears home opener this coming Sunday by a rich friend that takes pity on me from time to time and invites me to various sporting events to sit in very good seats and eat very good food. I was flattered by the man-date invite, but also torn and took a day to make the decision. On the one hand, I want to go to the game and don’t want the man-date invites to stop. On the other hand, COVID! I would be one of 60,000 plus people in Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday. I really wasn’t sure of what to do.
I was leaning toward going, but maybe upgrading my choice of mask. There is now a mask mandate in Chicago, so I would need to mask up when I’m in enclosed areas at the stadium. I thought I should get one of the fancy N95 or KN95 masks for upgraded protection over my normal cloth or surgical mask.
I met a couple much less rich friends for brunch on the day I needed to make the decision about going. One of my friends told me that he went to two Chicago White Sox baseball games unmasked, and it was fine. Still, I felt I needed a sign, and boy, did I ever get one.
As we were walking in the parking lot, I looked down, and this is the sign I spotted.
Continue reading “Mask Mandate for my Masked Man-Date”
Sales of my award-winning, side-splitting book of short stories about the afterlife do not appear like they will be sufficient to fund a lifestyle for me of champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Therefore, this notice from WordPress caught my eye.
As I clicked the link to start making money, I guessed that I would be instructed to offer to shut the blog down in exchange for donations. But, no. This popped up next.
I can’t imagine any scenario where the internet’s top ad suppliers bid for ad space on this blog. Bidding to stay off this blog? That I can believe. Anyway, adding ads sounded pretty good and easy to me, but this is the first ad that was suggested.
Continue reading “Adding Ads?”
As I start to plan for my retirement, albeit a bit late,
Editor’s Note: Way, WAY too late.
As I was saying, as I start to plan for my retirement, I’m beginning to think that counting on income from sports gambling winnings may not be the best plan.
Editor’s Note: You can bet on that.
You may recall that we enlarged and renovated our bathroom earlier this year. It turned out great. Now my wife claims that although the bathroom walls are painted, the other side of the new walls in our bedroom need more than just white paint. In addition, she insists that if we paint the new walls, we need to paint ALL the walls in the room. Sounds crazy to me, but she’s got the artistic eye … or does she? It looks like she has started painting. I have to say, I’m not thrilled. Take a look and tell me if I’m wrong.
Continue reading “Another Edition of … Am I a Bad Guy?”
How many pounds of weight lost is too many? For me, I’m not sure that number exists. If you recall from my post about July weight loss, I had made my original weight loss goal. It took me over a year to lose 20 pounds. I still felt puffy, so I figured I would continue on. But continue what? I’m not on a diet. I just eat right. I had even cut back a bit on exercise from last year, although I still posted a respectable average daily step/bike crank total in August.
After swimming 9 miles in July, I scaled back to 7 miles in August. So how did I lose 3 more pounds in August? I don’t have COVID or any other deadly disease. I’m starting to think it may have to do with one of the two mystery supplements I started taking at the beginning of June. They weren’t a mystery to me, but I have been teasing them a bit in this blog. Well, it’s time for their big reveal.
Continue reading “Weighting for More”
If you recall, I came in 4th in the April elections, but still won a seat on my local township board. Well, here we go again, but this time I did even worse and still won. I entered my book of short stories in a competition, mainly to get a “professional” review. Well, I’m not sure how professional the review is, but I can’t argue with its accuracy. See what you think. Here’s the review.
Continue reading “Once Again, I Lost but Still Won”
Yesterday, the mites delivered an anti-Ivermectin cartoon on this blog that blew up the internet. No, wait, I may have gotten that slightly wrong. I’ll try that again. Yesterday, the mites delivered an anti-Ivermectin cartoon on this blog that blew. That’s more like it. Anyway, the mites joined a legion of others that are begging people not to take livestock dewormer Ivermectin for Covid. Here’s known cable news smarty-pants Rachel Maddow trying to explain why people are taking a livestock dewormer for Covid.
Oh, right, Fox News. There are potential side effects, like death. And take a look at what has happened to conservative pundit Ann Coulter after taking Ivermectin.
Continue reading “Ivermectin? No, I Don’t Vermectin. You Shouldn’t Either.”
I have been blogging about swimming a lot recently, hence the title of this blog post. Clever, huh?
Editor’s Note: No.
Anyway, I have been blogging a lot about water since I have been swimming across Lake Michigan this summer in my backyard pool. After swimming more miles than expected in July, it became mathematically apparent that I would likely make my mileage goal by the end of summer. I started to think about finishing with a flourish or grand gesture, and I had one in mind.
I was aware of this event as I had considered competing in it in my younger days.
I certainly couldn’t finish the 5K (3.1 miles) unless I was being towed by a boat. But I had done a mile open water swim in July, so I am pretty sure I can slog slowly through the 2.5K (1.55 miles) course. Oh, you’re asking why it is called the Big Shoulders swim?
Editor’s Note: Nobody asked.
Well, Chicago was called the City of Big Shoulders by poet Carl Sandburg. Of course, he also called Chicago the Hog Butcher for the World. I think the swimming race organizers chose the better name.
And there’s another reason.
Continue reading “Waterblogged!”
I was moved by the passion of this speaker in this video tweet. You may have already seen it. When someone speaks with such passion, I feel there has to be some truth to what is being said. Well, let’s take a look before we unpack what is being said.
Such passion. Such raw emotion. Such an apparent lack of facts. There’s so much to unpack, so I did just that because if I’m anything, I’m helpful. Oh, and I like to poke fun at people like the speaker. Come join in as we take a deep dive together into this video.
Continue reading “Pack It Back Up”
As owners of a new puppy, we are trying to teach him some things like sit, stay, walk on a leash, and to stop stealing our shoes, the smellier the better. But look how sad he is after being confused by one of his toys.
He was chewing on his Chewbacca toy yesterday. Hey, why is it that when people mention Chewbacca, they often say, “Chewbacca from Star Wars?” Has there ever been a Chewbacca from anywhere else? It’s Chewbacca. Period.
Anyway, our little puppy was chewing on his Chewy when this happened …
Continue reading “It’s Not Nice to Confuse a Puppy”
I received an email with this pic from an extended family member.
My immediate reaction was to reply with, “Thank you. Amazing. I’ve never seen a picture of birds before.”
Am I a bad guy?
Sorry to get you all excited, but this is NOT a bonus Mite Be Funny cartoon, the universally shunned Sunday morning cartoon. But I was surprised amazed shocked stunned aghast that yesterday’s Mite Be Funny cartoon was actually reblogged by someone. Sure, it was hilarious when compared to other mediocre Sunday funnies like the Nancy comic strip. Take a look …
