Caught my flight after work and red-eyed it to Cleveland this morning. I got flashbacks to 40-below-zero January mornings in Chicago when I stepped off the plane there. Then it was a quick jump from Cleveland to Baltimore and a SuperShuttle van ride in to downtown DC where I’m staying. Meanwhile, Obama made his way to the Capitol on a whistlestop tour from Philly to Wilmington to Baltimore and then to his new home.

I watched some of it while catching up with friends and was annoyed by the wall-to-wall coverage and non-stop punditry. At the very least it was mostly ridiculous hyperbole, at its worst there were crawlers that let viewers know “when it’s cold you have to ‘go’ more” during a piece on a shortage of port-a-potties for the inauguration festivities. Yeah, thanks, MSNBC, I needed to know that.

Tragically, it’s looking grim that I’ll be able to see “The Big Shoulders Ball” Monday night. We were supposed to get tickets for the show which features several Chicago bands, including longtime favorite Eleventh Dream Day, but it was sold out before we got any. But I’m aiming to catch the big concert at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow. Hoping Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder perform there.

By the way, if you get a chance, check out a reminiscence about my Dad and his role in the “Blues Brothers” movie. One of our former copy editors, Craig Howie, did a superb top 10 list of famous cop cars in Hollywood and asked me to contribute the anecdote about my Dad.

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