A fella can dream can't he....

Go Bears

I took this picture on the way back from Vincennes last Sunday. Who would have guessed that somewhere over the rainbow was in Lawrenceville? 

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Rick

It ain't exactly my name up in lights, but it's close.

My son Ben carved this Pumpkin last night . It only took him a couple of hours. I have trouble cutting triangle eyes in the old-school Jack-O-Lanterns. I feel old. 

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Rick

I love this time of year...

The Tragedy of General Benjamin Von Kelsheimer

This long forgotten painting of General Benjamin Von Kelsheimer was found in the basement of a art galley in DerNoodlesheim in the Black Forest of Bavaria. The tragic General was said to have had the military skills of Henry the Fowler, but suffered from an affliction that gave him a horrific sense of direction due to being dropped on his head too many times as a small child  He was best known for his brilliant campaign against the the peasants of Alsace Lorraine in France in 1789. The only problem, was that Bavaria was at war with Switzerland at the time. Von Kelsheimer was sentenced to a castle prison on the Rhine River where he was forced to repair coo coo clocks for the remainder of his life.

Mother of the year

No wonder we Baby Boomers turned out this way!!! (Sorry Mom)

Alex Karras (July 15,1935-October 10, 2012)

I was sad to learn about the passing of Alex Karras this week. He was one of my favorites athletes, even though he didn't play for the Bears. His book, Even Big Guys Cry, is one of the best sports book that has ever been written. My favorite part of the book is where he gets into a knock down, drag out fight with Dick the Bruiser(Another one of my favorites).  His eyesight was so bad he claimed he played football by braille. He was quite a character and had a gentile side for a big guy. Rest in Peace, Mongo!

   

Fathom the Hypocrisy

The innocence of youth

This is a great video produced by a bunch of kids.

When Men Still Had Guts

Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon , jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4-engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-

 pilot's seat and off he went.

He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a copilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his copilot and off they went.

 They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas. Then they headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way, so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain

They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time, so late one Saturday night, he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.