25 edited things about me

"25 Random Things About Me" is so February 2009. But anyone who works in a newsroom knows that some information just sits in the queue till things get slow:


1. Brenda is God's most marvelous creation. Not that you aren't awesome too.


2. My mom studied communications. My dad studied logic. I'm studying them.


3. My bookshelves are flouting Zero Book Growth policy.


4. Newspapers will die when laptops are cheap enough to leave on the L.


5. Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio che ti fa mia.


6. Playing softball on asphalt, I couldn't understand why anyone would slide into home.


7. My 7th-grade chemistry class at St. Mary's: Watching the teacher handle test tubes.


8. I shot news stories on a Bell & Howell Filmo.


9. I wrote Fortran for a Univac 1110.


10. I played in a band with Clark Terry.


11. Why did I have to learn penmanship from Ditto but slide rule from Mimeograph?


12. Time to break for coffee.


13. If I don't cry at the opera, it's bad opera.


14. Brenda calls me a raisinholic, but I can stop eating anytime I want.


15. Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spirito tuo.


16. How did Tall become the small size? In clothing, I mean.


17. Best part of my desk set: My grandfather's pica pole.


18. I sang at Cardinal Cody's funeral.


19. I set type on a Compugraphic.


20. My studies changed from art to journalism because my paintings all had text.


21. My favorite color is gray.


22. Games are meant to be played, not watched. Except playing baseball is mostly watching.


23. Marvel Comics taught me Yiddish. That's meshuga.


24. Less Facebook time means more face time and more book time.


25. Sto lat, sto lat. Niech zyje, zyje nam.


26. The best part about the web is that it will count to 25 for you.

Prairie style: White Sox at home on the Phoenix range

Chicago red hots are a tasty mystery in Phoenix. As our kosher dogs were groomed at the White Sox' new spring training home, the vendors asked if they were doing it right. And except for the celery salt covering more pickle than wiener it was picture perfect, right down to the kelly green relish. An empty container was labeled "TIPS" in Magic Marker so we primed the pump. That's the Chicago way.

The White Sox are working to get it right at Camelback Ranch Glendale, the new park the team shares with the Los Angeles Dodgers on the northwest edge of Phoenix. Vienna Beef dogs and Connie's Pizza lend Chicago flair to an otherwise indifferent menu, but pub brews from Gordon Biersch and Deschutes Brewery are a heady reminder that you'd really rather be spending March in the Western sun. I'll pass on the Lemon Chill, thank you.

We saw the Sox as nominal visitors in a split-squad game with the Dodgers March 5. The A-team was squared off against the Cubs in Las Vegas, which gave us a good look at non-roster players, some of whom like lefty slugger Miguel Negron were playing without names on their jerseys. Jack Egbert struck out 4 in three innings as a starter before Adam Russell (wearing #46) came in and gave up two runs to make things too interesting. Kelvin Jimenez lost the game 5-4 in the ninth.

We returned with my parents the next day for a non-Cactus League exhibition vs. Australian minor-leaguers warming up for the World Baseball Classic. Neither game made the Phoenix papers, but the lopsided 10-3 WBC warmup put more prospects in play. Gordon Beckham got cooking in a potential bake-off at second base, as the hinge in a 6-4-3 double play, and Brian Anderson stroked a solid opposite-field homer to improve his odds in the center-field derby.

Despite the comfy scenery, the Sox risk being visitors in their new ranch home: L.A. fans show up in quantity no matter who's playing, and although the teams share a Playbill-size gate handout I was toning up my flabby scorekeeping in a Dodgers program, the only scorecard available. But home-plate seats were available and affordable, and the outfield lawn's up-close bullpen view was an $8 bargain. And while the Herbie Hancock sample from US3's "Cantaloop" became an earbug between innings, it could not beat hearing again the Sox' opening "Pirates of the Caribbean/Thunderstruck" medley.

Another day of third-base wind and sun would have been perfect, along with a chance to stroll the practice fields beyond the outfield wall, which include park-dimension facsimiles of both Dodger Stadium and the Cell. Sadly, that was not to be. One consolation: Sox season tickets were awaiting the return to Chicago. Spring, bring it on.