Very few weeks pass without some politician, businessman, or cleric doing something incredibly stupid.  These events become blog fodder, providing me an endless number of topics.  This week was no exception; naïve young people demonstrating and crying for socialism, continuing revelations of corruption with the Solyndra deal, potential European defaults, and potential American defaults?  Sometimes it’s all too depressing and I’m not ready for depressing this week.  Please allow me the liberty of writing about some good stuff going on in my life.

On June 24th our second grandson, Silas, was born in Minneapolis.  On December 1, my first grandson, Marek, will be 4 years old.  On December 18th my wife Deb and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  On January 7th, 2012 my daughter, Tara, is marrying a fine young man named Bob Venable from Chicago.  Best of all, Deb will be here to enjoy all of these events; pretty good for a woman who was not supposed to live more than a few weeks when diagnosed with cancer  15 months ago.

Enough for the important good stuff; not all good stuff needs to be important.  There is my favorite NFL football team, the Green Bay Packers and their incredible quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  This is the quarterback that every team wants, playing for the team that everyone envies.  The Packers should be playoff contenders again this year.  As an NFL owner (I own one share of Green Bay Packers stock) I’m proud as punch of the Packer organization.

There is the possibility that the Chicago Cubs will hire Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein.  Will the man who broke the “curse of the bambino” be able to break the “billy goat curse”?  If the Cubs win the World Series some year under Theo’s leadership, they will erect a statue of him in Wrigleyville right next to that of Ernie Banks.

Finally, it is time for NHL hockey; especially Chicago Blackhawks hockey.  My daughter has four Blackhawk season tickets and I’m hoping to get to a few games this winter.  They make a real nice Mai Tai at the United Center and besides, hockey is just plain fun to watch.  Oh, yeah, and if the NBA has to cancel its season this year (and for the next hundred years) it will be OK with me.

I’ll end with one “political” item.  The Minnesota Vikings, perhaps the worst organization in the NFL over the past 20 years, wants the taxpayers in this state to build them a new stadium.  They’ve threatened to move to another city if they don’t get what they want.   Let’s see….Los Angeles Vikings…I like the sound of that!