While a good time was had by nearly all last Friday evening, mostly at the expense of yours truly and Flannj, the Cubs convention remains just short of your nearest Star Trek convention in terms of the attendees. Just walking through the lobby suffices for the experience and buying a ticket is completely unnecessary.

The Inauguration of Barack Obama, a White Sox Fan, did bring a few e-mails to the in tray. One of them showed a graphic for the new Presidential Limo. Some interesting quirks.



Under the box "Defence Accessories" is this bizarre factoid: Bottles (plural) of the President's blood are kept on board the car. Now, how do you have this conversation with the President? "Sir, we need to take two units of your blood for the car." And how often do you refresh what's kept in the car? Do they siphon him like Hawkeye and Trapper did to Frank?

The other fun one is in "Driver's Window."

The only window that opens - by just three inches - so the driver can pay a toll or talk to agents.

Excuse me, but "pay a toll"? We spend $500 million a year on the Executive Office and they don't have a fricken' I-PASS or EZ-PASS?

I see a Sonny Corleone scenario in some terrorists future.

Maybe in the age of all working together we can get tollway bureaucrats to band together to waive tolls for the President. We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.