Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I am writing this on American Airlines 1624 and the dudes behind me are sneezing and coughing. Janet says that we will both get sick. I refused to get sick the last time I was on an airplane was a flight from Fort Lauderdale back to Chicago, the guy behind me on that flight was coughing and sneezing and I got really sick. The guys behind me on flight 1624 are at least covering their mouths. The guy behind me on my way back from Florida was spewing snot in my direction like there was no tomorrow (I hoped for that him there wasn’t one). I did have a delightful blood orange and tangerine juice for breakfast at the hotel this morning. I will mega-dose myself with vitamin C on Tuesday morning.

While we were in Los Angeles this weekend, I got the chance to go back to Dodger Stadium. That was my go-to stadium when I was kid. While it was fun being back, I have to say that it’s nothing like going to a baseball game in Chicago. I don’t have a lot of Wrigley Field experience, but I do have hundreds of Sox games under my belt. As baseball fans, L.A. fans make Chicago fans look like George Will or Peter Gammons. Yes, there were the inevitable Dodger Stadium beach balls, and The Wave during key moments when the Dodgers were bating, but the most irritating thing that they did was start up “Let’s go Dodgers!” chants while their team was in the field.

Friday night we accidentally ended up at a “hot” restaurant, which happened to be right in my hotel. I didn’t even want to go to it until the concierge told me he couldn’t get me in. I just thought it would be a convenient place to eat dinner on Friday night if we were tired. It turns out Cut is Wolfgang Puck’s latest place and it’s the happening L.A. steakhouse. Our JACK FM program director knows Claus Puck (Wolfgang’s brother), so I had him pull a few strings and we got in. I also think my early afternoon pleasantries with the manager, Patti, didn’t hurt either. I think she ended up being quite taken with my Midwestern charm. We saw Kiefer Sutherland outside the restaurant having a smoke. He’s a shrimp. I have lost all respect for Jack Bauer.