Not Just A Hat Rack

End of an Era in Chicago Suburb

Thanks to Peter in Milwaukee for this obituary on Rosemont Mayor Don Stephens, I've come face-to-face with countless personalities (particularly in government) in 16 years in professional sports, but my trip to Mayor Stephens' office is one of the most memorable. Invited by Peter during our multi-year quest for the place that became Toyota Park, we discussed building an outdoor stadium and concert venue to complement the Rosemont/Allstate Arena.

Mayor Stephens calmly asked us how we would have outdoor concerts with jets landing at neighboring O'Hare Field every four minutes. It's one of the only times I remember Peter at a loss for words. Fire announcer Kenny Stern tells a story of negotiating the old Chicago Sting's lease at Rosemont Horizon in the early 80s, while a displeased Stephens patiently polished one of his guns throughout the entire conversation. Stephens left the guns and the armor, in place during my visit.

Make sure you follow the obit link above and make your own decision about whether Stephens was part of the Mob (Outfit?) in Chicago. Also, I wonder if they have a succession plan? Stephens is the ONLY mayor in Rosemont's 51-year history. (Even Bridgeview has had two!)

20 Years' Passing

She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry

It was 20 years ago, in 1987, that Guns N Roses released the album Appetite for Destruction and the mega-hit Sweet Child O' Mine. I've never been into metal bands, but even I was singing along to the lyrics as Salt Lake's Paul Green School of Rock Music students performed it at Gallivan Center last night. The teens were merely the warmup band for Young Dubliners, but the 'Hat Rack boys loved it. I think they enjoyed sitting close to stage and seeing all the instruments with kids -- including the 5-foot-tall, female, 12-year-old lead singer -- cranking out the ballad in very impressive fashion.

She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder
And the rain
To quietly pass me by

Did you know (according to Wikipedia)?
* This song was ranked #196 on Rolling Stone's greatest songs of all time...
* The opening guitar riff was voted the number-one riff of all-time by readers of Total Guitar magazine...
* The week after this song reached #1 on the Billboard charts, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" displaced it. Too funny.

The two bands performed in post-race concert for the little ol' Salt Lake City Marathon - a well-intentioned, economically struggling and ultimately mediocre race. Congrats to Mrs. 'Hat Rack who ran it and thinks she may have tallied a PR (personal record). Look out - Ms. Endurance is becoming Ms. Speedy.

Anyways, kudos to the kids. More info here: School of Rock - SLC

More on Young Dubliners & the marathon tomorrow.

Run On, Bob

For me, it is the most inspirational story to come out of a Monday where sorrow prevailed over much of America. Bob Marshall ran the Boston Marathon.

As a 54-year-old runner last Fall, Marshall qualified for Boston last October by running Utah's St. George Marathon in 3 hours and 34 minutes. The Boston Marathon is the only marathon in America that sets qualifying standards. Saying you ran Boston is to runners what signing a professional contract is to a high school athlete. Marshall earned his way to the start line with his impressive time in St. George. He also made it to the finish line in Boston yesterday. Barely.

Still a 54-year-old runner yesterday, Marshall trudged and sloshed his way through the rain-soaked course in 6 hours and 12 minutes. Did Heartbreak Hill and the weather alone account for this race being 2 hours and 38 minutes longer than his St. George Marathon?

No, ALS did.

Geriatric Giants Again

It's so bad, I find myself watching the Rockies - and asking myself if I could become a Troy Tulowitzky fan. Byung Hyun Kim throws for them - which is only relevant in that I teased Pop Hat Rack that we would name our first child after the Korean submarine-style pitcher back in 2002. Worse still, the Rockies were playing the Dodgers. And I was watching. Why?

1-6. Ugh. The Giants are off to their worst start since the Alan Hargersheimer era. Vida Blue was the aging hero of the '80 pitching staff that also started the year 1-6. That was the year Willie McCovey retired, a spry Jack Clark hit 22 home runs and Jeff Stember pitched his one game in a Major League uniform as a Giant.

This year's team ranks with last year's in degree of difficulty - as in "it really is difficult" to watch and like this team. I also think it is more likely to lose 90 games.

Stubborn, Not Stupid

At about 6:30pm tonight, I threw on a pair of running shorts and a very “Training for Moab” long-sleeved running shirt for what I hoped would be a long run (90 mins.?) as soon as Mrs. ‘Hat Rack returned from a Computrainer cycling gig.

A little while later, with no word from the IronWoman of the house, I switched to a yellow reflective long-sleeved shirt, as it was starting to get dark due to the hour and the imposing clouds coming over Salt Lake.
After taking the trash out, I added running pants, and then a reflective jacket. It was starting to look nasty. Mrs. ‘Hat Rack finally arrived at 8pm having made an impromptu stop at her friendly cycling shop for some minor adjustments on this nifty bike she purchased last month.

She probably thought I was mad at her, but I just wanted some fresh air on what had started as a nice night – and now looked like Rorschach assault on the radar.

Rather than navigate the well-lit streets of our east bench neighborhood, I went up above the University of Utah, where the Bonneville Trail cuts across the lowest part of Red Butte Garden. I figured I might as well get as high in the foothills as safely possible for the best vantage point to watch the storm roll in – and it’s only a matter of yards to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah Hospital, Moran Eye Center and various other businesses in the event of a severely sprained ankle or some other malady.

However, by 8:30pm it was totally dark and I had barely run a favorite portion of easily accessible trail before being forced by darkness to wind my way down to asphalt roads that link and surround the medical campus. I had seen the reddish tint of looming nighttime storms in the Wasatch Valley. I saw the last pockets of broken cloud sunset give way to enveloping nighfall. I felt the stiff winds out of the North and East that ricocheted down the canyons and buffeted my run. Only a few drops were intruding on a perfect, blustery dusk run.

I had passed my car and headed South on surface streets to stretch the run for another 30+ minutes when the rain began to fall. Wearing some of my most reliable Nike running gear from my humble running nascence in the late 90’s in Chicago, I thought about some of my worst weather runs. Certainly few have been as wet as the 2001 Dublin Marathon where I qualified for Boston. Dublin lived up to its reputation with 17 miles of steady dreary cold downpour, followed by the final hour of direct sunshine which greatly warmed me and let me to remove two of three layers. And I remember a sub-zero evening run in Chicago, with several inches of new snow on the ground. Hardly a soul moved in the cutting windchill, but my bank-robber-issue mask, several layers, warm gloves and the peace of the sound of my footsteps in the fresh snow kept me mentally and physically content.

Tonight was a walk in the park relatively speaking until three blocks South of my car, I witnessed a double bolt of lightning knife across the valley sky. I turned on a dime and commenced a 800-meter sprint to my Accord. I’ll run in rain, darkness, snow, wind and worse, but I won’t go anywhere near lightning.

Run done in 35 minutes… I sloppily careen towards the Ogden Marathon on May 21 – but a decision and registration could be due within the next two weeks. We’ll see if the weather here allow me another shot at a long run this week.

Breaking News...

Our local TV stations take great pride in starting the 10pm newscast with dramatic music and the graphic, "Breaking News!"  It's usually a car crash or a horrible crime - typical local news stuff.

Like them, I resort to the cheap trick to get your attention, when actually I want to check in on some "old news."

1) Hundreds gather on campus to protest or support Cheney's BYU visit.  Cheney's coming to BYU to give the commencement address on 4/26.  About 200 students, faculty and utterly lost left-wingers found their way to the library at BYU today to stage a "silent" protest about Cheney's visit.  That will rattle the ivory towers there.  "We're not happy!  But we're not talking, either."  Some protest. 

Energized, Campus Republicans counter-demonstrated across campus in support of the VP (Ok, of his office) with the following (no joke!) enticements to come to the rally... Free Food!  Flag Football!  Face-Painting!  I'm serious.  They felt a need to counter the 200-ish protesters with their own public statement... Imagine the signs...

"If you support Cheney, throw a tight spiral!"

"John Beck. Glenn Beck. We love Cheney! What the Heck!"

"Free Pop Tarts, War Paint & Camouflage Here"

Berkeley, Boulder, this ain't. And I thought I went to a docile school when it comes to political protest.

2  Utah Doctors Say Our Air is REALLLLY Bad!  As the 'Hat Rack reported earlier this year, the air here is atrocious - some of the worst in the nation - for 1-2 months of the year.  This article compares the hazards of smoking cigarettes to breathing in Salt Lake City.  It's that bad.  I don't even know what to say or where to start.

3. Holly's Back  How does the Tribune have a story on Holly Mullen, who left the city's main daily in an editorial dispute, starting at the independent City Weekly as Editor?  How upset is Ben Fulton that he's being cast aside by a bigger name?  Will she write?  Because I can't stand her replacement at the Tribune.  In This recent column about the statewide debate over school vouchers, she takes the approach that if she could graduate from our public schools and evolve into a 3x/week columnist for the states' biggest paper, what's wrong with the system?  (Umm, Mississippi spends more $ per student thatn Utah.   Oh, I'm sorry, all 49 other states do.)  Whatever. Can't wait to see Holly in the Weekly.

The Muse Visited Often...

The 'Hat Racks drove to Las Vegas and back and the 800 miles behind the wheel of the great grape minivan yielded a several thoughts, if not much revelation.  In much of America, it was Final Four weekend or the Opening Sunday of baseball season, but here in Utah, it was General Conference weekend - a semiannual ritual gathering of LDS members in Salt Lake City.  Doing my best to steer away from anything sacriligious, here's what the muses shared with me this weekend, in no particular order.

* Why are all the towns of central Utah valley built on the east side of I-15?  Think about it... Provo,  Springville, Nephi, Fillmore, Beaver - until you get to St. George, which originated on the West side of what is now I-15.  Seems to me that if the storms came from over the mountains to the West, being closer to the mountains and foothills on the West side of the valley might provide some shelter/protection (think Denver?).  Seems like all the residents on the East side of valley just sit there, watch the storm come across the plateau and tremble, "yup, here comes the snow."

* Speaking of St. George, its LDS temple predates the Salt Lake one.  It's the first one built in Utah, if I have my history right.  Not sure I understand why/how the satellites would be built before the Mother Ship was constructed.

* Speaking of temples, the original Mormon Tabernacle was rededicated here at General Conference - and it pre-dates the Salt Lake temple as well.  I was wondering if they built the temple because postcards of a tabernacle resembling a an old rodeo building wouldn't be nearly as compelling as the sparkling, marble temple SLC has today.

* Which led me to wonder whath the difference is between a tabernacle and a temple... to which Dictionary.com says the following:

TABERNACLE - 1. Any place or house of worship, especially one designed for a large congregation

TEMPLE -  (in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) a building devoted to administering sacred ordinances, principally that of eternal marriage.

Another website claiming to be religiously neutral backed up the assessment that Mormon temples are all about sacred ordinances (a fairly contemporary rite in a very modern religion).  Tabernacles are just places to congregate and worship.

* FAVORITE DISCOVERY of the weekend... The Dinosaur Discovery exhibit at Johnson Farm in St. George is really cool.  Less than seven years ago, Farmer Johnson was clearing topsoil to build some houses when he came across one of the largest concentrations of dinosaur tracks and fossils of all time.  He stopped the development, threw a roof over the site and now thousands visit weekly to learn how Dilophosarus and Megapnosaurus (a Grallator, I think!) came to the sludgy old swamp for a drink, and left behind impressions for us to find 200 million years later. 

* FAVORITE PROTEST of the weekend... Apparently, some Baptists showed up outside General Conference this weekend, to counter-protest against an inflammatory group claiming to also be Baptists who were harrassing Mormons about their faith.  The Baptists-who-don't-have-a-problem-with-Mormons were protesting against the Baptists-who-have-a-problem-with-Mormons in front of one of the largest gathering of Mormons-who-are-just-genuinely-excited-about-their-faith-and-their-new-tabernacle.

And to close, with the closest thing to sacrilege this column will probably ever post... Although the kids fell asleep after/during the RSL 0-0 snoozer vs Colorado and missed the Strip in Vegas for the third consecutive time in two years, we adults did catch a glimpse of Caesar's Palace on the way back to the Palace Station... and we decided the angels trumpeting over the entrance to Caesar's actually look a lot like Moroni - he's the angel on all the LDS temples. 

In the words of my two favorite (suddenly released in a Clear Channel vs Free Press vs White House series of stories over the Divine Strake bombing) anchors used to say, "Hmmmmmhh!"  Interesting.