Daily Limerick
Friday, November 21, 2008
and Sloop (Biederman) Central

dailylimerick for info on performances, show Webcasts, the Internet radio gig, songs, the Stand-Up Poem of the Month and the low-down on Sloop! Or e-mail Sloop, for all we care!

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Contains Mature (and immature) Content; If You’re a Minor, Go Away!

With Slappin' and Yappin' commentary, Letters to the Idiot (e-mail Sloop), Mike's Accursed Verse (Sundays), Friday "Entertain Yourself" and more!

Delightfully Offensive since 1999; updated DAILY , 'round midnight (usually), U.S Central

Kind of a “blog” since before the term “blog”—except it’s edited, done by the vaguely “qualified” and doesn’t totally suck ass (most days)! (Led by Chief Limericist Sloop Biederman, comedy writer from MAD Magazine to the Chicago Tribune's RedEye and performer from L.A.'s Comedy Store to the Chicago Comedy Festival.)

Daily Limerick has entered our TENTH YEAR and is counting down to a DECADE OF, ER, "SERVICE"! Send in your Daily Limerick Memories, Most Offended Moments, Congrats, Threats... TICKER: 233 Days to Go...

So lottery tickets are now being advertised as a holiday gift option--and we shouldn't even be mentioning this yet, pre-Thanksgiving; don't forget to go up to a retail manager and/or advertising/marketing pro, kick 'em in the nuts and tell 'em Daily Limerick sent ya'--which has us wondering:

Why not just flush a couple buckets down the toilet in your gift recipient's honor? After all, it's the lack of thought that counts...

I'm a newspaperman. Sure, contrary to my rough-and-tumble aura (ahem), I've mostly covered artsy stuff rather than chasing down city hall sleazeballs, but still.

While I didn't become a habitual, "serious" newspaper reader until pursuing a journalism degree in college, I've been a reader of columnists for most of my life. When I've moved away from Chicago, interned elsewhere or otherwise traveled, I've checked out the local newspapers, from New York and L.A. to all sorts of small towns. I read that later works of legends in my youth, including Bob Greene and Mike Royko, and followed a number of columnists who've come and gone.

My favorite column of all time is Quick Takes, by Zay N. Smith, in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Actually, my favorite column, at this point, WAS Quick Takes. Zay was downsized, or had his employment bought-out or whatever. In case you haven't noticed, the newspaper industry is dying a hideous, torturous, protracted death right now.

It's so bad that I'm about to stop renewing the subscription. I try to support the industry I'm allegedly a part of--despite the fact that they're not employing me in any tangible way--and I prefer to read a physical paper but... Well, at some point I'm gonna have to start getting my MAIN news, as opposed to just the supplemental, from the Internet.

Funny that, in saving money, newspapers are giving us less reason to read the paper and... Losing subscriptions and thus more money. Leading to...a toilet spiral.

Years back, Smith and another Chicago journalism guru, Pam Zeckman, were behind what's described as the biggest investigative journalism accomplishment in Chicago history. They opened a bar called "Mirage" and then just let Chicago happen. Needing permits for this or that, or inspections for that or this, bribery and other crimes went down with city officials left and right.

The Mirage investigation was celebrated and Smith and Zeckman could virtually pick their career rewards. Zeckman went into investigation for TV news. Smith started writing a daily column, Quick Takes.

Quick Takes was so named because it was composed of a bunch of mini-columns. (Seems to have influenced some modern humor columnists, such as... Hmm, nobody comes immediately to mind...) It focused on wacky news, political correctness gone amok, putting politicians from all sides of the spectrum in their places... Consistent in that an edition ALWAYS elicited a chuckle.

While Quick Takes could indeed qualify as a "silly" column, it also made some pithy, original and ingenious point along the way. And it featured Daily Limerick in a couple nuggets, after putting me to a test of including Nantucket in a non-dirty Limerick, and was/is a DL reader.

Interesting side note: I pulled a rare blow-off of a college class that happened to be the day when our guest speaker was Zay N. Smith. Pffft.

I could go on describing Quick Takes, but the best thing to do is go a'Googlin' or whatever. I ideally would have featured Smith while his column was still running but... Well, what can I do now?

If you are still reading, Zay... Thanks for the daily dose of delight that was QT.

I don't know where Zay will end up. Maybe in another town? Maybe exclusively on the Web? For now, here's all I've got:

See also our sister site, or whatever you call it: http://www.giftoflimerick.com... Where you can order a custom-writtten Limerick!

Click on "Sloop Central" below and/or see http://www.myspace.com/dailylimerick for info on performances, show Webcasts, the Internet radio gig, songs, the Stand-Up Poem of the Month and the low-down on Sloop! Or e-mail Sloop, for all we care!

Now with RSS feed! (In case, you know, your RSS is starving.)

With Slappin' and Yappin' commentary, Letters to the Idiot (e-mail Sloop), Mike's Accursed Verse (Sundays), Friday "Entertain Yourself" and more!

Delightfully Offensive since 1999; updated DAILY , 'round midnight (usually), U.S Central

Send your own Letter to the Idiot and/or e-mail Sloop! (And attach sexy pics, if you insist. Sigh.)

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