The White Sox won their makeup game against the Detroit Tigers yesterday, which left them in a tie with the Minnesota Twins atop the AL Central division. So tonight there will be a one-game tiebreaker for the AL Central title. The winner, of course, gets to go to the playoffs where they will meet the Tampa Bay Rays on October 2. The loser will go home for the rest of the year, and unlike game shows, won’t get any Guess watches or other consolation prizes for their efforts. The long, arduous 162-game season comes down to a head in game 163 tonight!

I’ll definitely be watching the game and cheering for the Sox. I grew up as a Cubs fan and used to hate the White Sox (since all good Chicagoans are only supposed to like one of the baseball teams), but in recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the quality of play in the American League. So I would like to see the White Sox advance tonight. However, if it came down to a crosstown World Series, I would be rooting for the Cubbies all the way!

First of all, I agree that there was absolutely no reason for the Cardinals to be throwing the ball trying to score a touchdown in this situation, since there was only :36 left in the game and they were down by three scores. They should have just taken a knee and called it a day.

But aside from that, Eric Smith laid a horrific cheap shot on Anquan Boldin, and should be fined and/or suspended. Helmet to helmet? Are you kidding me? He could have paralyzed Boldin with a move like that. Fortunately, Boldin has full movement of all his extremities and is recuperating at home after spending time in a NY area hospital getting checked out. He probably has a concussion from that dirty hit, but I haven’t read/heard about other injuries.

Check it out:

Out of all the various [insert product name here] of the month clubs available, I’ve never really been interested in any of them for myself. I’ve bought a few memberships as gifts for others, but have never received or purchase them for my own family.

However, that could change in the near future since I just discovered that there’s a bacon of the month club out there. I’ve never heard of bacon being available as part of a monthly club, and honestly had no idea that there were even enough varieties of bacon to allow for the existence of this type of club, but hey, I’m all for it!

We love to eat bacon on weekends when we have our pancake breakfasts, so a bacon of the month club would work out well for us. I’m off to The Pig Next Door to check on prices!

The Bears managed to sneak away with one tonight! After losing their last two games due to various miscues and a tired fourth quarter defense, Chicago managed to overcome 4 second-half turnovers to hold on for a 24-20 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

As with every single game this season, the Bears looked terrific in the early going, then did everything in their power to self-implode. Fortunately, the defense came up with an amazing goal-line stand, stopping Eagles’ second-string tailback Correll Buckhalter (playing in place of the injured Brian Westbrook) twice from less than 1 yard out.

I was on the edge of my seat for the entire fourth quarter, hoping and praying that the Bears didn’t find some way to blow it. Frankly, I’m surprised that the Eagles, who just two weeks ago got into that high-scoring shootout with the Cowboys, couldn’t take advantage of those turnovers. That was definitely a break for the Bears.

Anyway, I’m just thankful that the team is 2-2, as that’s a world of difference from being 1-3. Bring on the Lions!

(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Does anyone want to win the AL Central? Apparently not, as the White Sox and Twins both lost again, extending the pennant chase to the last day of the regular season. The Twins dropped another one to the lowly Kansas City Royals, while the Sox got clobbered 12-6 by Cleveland.

The Sox have now lost 5 in a row down the home stretch here, and by all rights should have been making offseason plans tonight. But who would have expected that the Royals, of all teams, would be able to help them out? KC is the only reason the Sox are still hanging in there at this point.

The remaining AL Central scenario boils down to this: if the Twins win tomorrow and the Sox lose, then Minnesota will be the division champs, and Ozzie Guillen can go watch the postseason from his hammock chair.

If both teams win tomorrow, if both teams lose, or if the Sox win while the Twins lose, then the Sox have to play a makeup game against Detroit on Monday to determine what happens next.

But really, with the way Chicago’s pitching staff has been performing, what’s the point of making it to the playoffs? I foresee an early exit anyway!

(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Legendary actor and entrepreneur Paul Newman died yesterday at his Westport (CT) home at the age of 83. Although an exact cause of death hasn’t been cited, Newman had been engaged in a long battle with cancer. Plus, age was also a factor as well.

Newman had major roles in more than 50 films during his lifetime, including classics such as Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and many more. He was nominated for 10 Oscars, bringing home a win for his portrayal of pool shark “Fast Eddie” Felson in the 1986 film The Color of Money.

Unlike most actors in this day and age, Newman managed to stay out of the limelight. He lived in an 18th-century farmhouse in Westport, not a 1,000-acre French estate. He didn’t stop at giving money to charity, but also developed the Hole in the Wall Gang camps for children with catastrophic diseases. In short, he was a down-to-earth humanitarian who didn’t get caught up in the fame game.

Newman lived a long, full life, which helps temper the sadness of his passing. But the world definitely lost a great one today….

I was at the mall today when I noticed something a bit odd. Most stores still have fall/Halloween related decorations and products on display, but a few are taking things a step further by reminding consumers that the holiday shopping season is just around the corner. Yep, I saw several notices encouraging people to get their shopping done before November 28, which is the 2008 Black Friday date.

I know these early reminders bother a lot of people, but I actually like them. They force me to start thinking about my Christmas shopping budget now, which is a good thing since I’d ordinarily put that off as much as possible. Plus, when Black Friday falls as late as it does this year, getting a head start is even more important.

Time to start crunching numbers to figure out how much I can spend on presents this Christmas!

So we had a cockroach in the house last week, which of course completely freaked me out. The thing was HUGE — at least as long as my finger — and disgusting. Even so, I was relatively certain that it had just come in from outdoors and wasn’t indicative of a larger problem. Hey, granted I’m no Martha Stewart when it comes to homemaking, but my stuff is clean, ya know?

Of course, being as paranoid as I am, I just had to buy a couple of roach traps from the store and set them around the house. There were five in the pack I bought, so I put two in the kitchen, one in the food pantry, one in the bathroom, and one in the hall closet.

At first, I was scared to check the traps because I was afraid that I’d see like 10 dead roaches in each one, which would make me absolutely sick! But I eventually did it, and, as I suspected, none of the traps caught a single bug.

I’ll leave them out for a few more days just in case, but I’m definitely feeling much more at ease right about now!

This week’s Booking Through Thursday is called “Well, That Was Different”. I found that I really had to think long and hard about this question, but finally did come up with an answer. So pull up your chairs, grab your pens, and get ready to supply your own responses!

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

I don’t really go out of my way to read “different” books. I have a few genres that I like, and I tend to stick to those. Even so, one novel really stood out as different to me when I read it — but not in a good way. It was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

I know so many people love this novel and rave about how wonderful and insightful it is, but not me. I read it in college, and absolutely hated it. I hated the violence, the language, and the pervading negative tone of the whole thing.

There are some books out there that I disliked when I was younger, but want to read again as an adult to see if I possibly missed some of the details or ideas that make other people consider the work great. Middlemarch by George Eliot is one of these; For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway is another. But I never want to go near Clockwork Orange again.

(And for those who would say that I didn’t like CO just because I didn’t understand it, save your breath. I read it for a class, so I had the benefit of lengthy discussions with a knowledgeable professor and intelligent students, as well as supplemental study materials, guides, etc.)

Well, if John McCain has his way, it will be. The Republican nominee has asked that Barack Obama consider delaying the upcoming debate that is scheduled for tomorrow night so that McCain can go to Washington to participate in meetings and negotiations regarding the current economic crisis, with an eye towards putting a package into place before the markets open Monday morning. McCain is suspending all campaign activities until this happens.

Obama, meanwhile, has taken the other tack, saying that the future president will have to deal with more than just one task at a time. Apparently, he wants to continue on with the debate as scheduled, while also dealing with the economy.

Sorry, but I’m with McCain on this one — and I don’t care if his move is simply “political maneuvering” or not. I’m not interested in seeing either of these blowhards get up on stage and spout promises and crap that they have no intention of following through with. I’d rather have them doing their jobs as Senators first, especially since things are so precarious right now.

As for Obama saying the prez has to deal with more than one thing at a time? Well, no shit, Sherlock. But when you’re talking about stuff that can easily be rescheduled, like a freakin’ debate, then what’s the BFD???