In an unexpected turn of events, the ChicagoBears were able to acquire Justin Fields in the 2021 NFL Draft. Rumors swirled that Fields would be snatched up in the top 5 picks, a price that would be too steep for Bears GM Ryan Pace to jump into. The Bears had just enough draft capital […]
Can the White Sox use the next 13 games against the Twins and Royals to create separation in the division? Patrick Nolan from Sox Machine joins us to talk about this and all things White Sox!
Susan Catherine Edgerton is suing Shedd Aquarium over alleged sexual discrimination while she worked aboard the Coral Reef II. | Shedd Aquarium
Susan Catherine Edgerton alleges in a federal lawsuit that she was subjected to inappropriate comments, extra duties and double standards while working as the hospitality coordinator aboard the aquarium’s research boat.
A woman who worked aboard the Shedd Aquarium’s research vessel has sued the aquarium for sexual discrimination.
Susan Catherine Edgerton alleges in a federal lawsuit that she experienced sexism and was subjected to inappropriate comments, extra duties and double standards while working as the hospitality coordinator aboard the Coral Reef II.
The 80-foot Coral Reef II is used as a basecamp and laboratory for Shedd Aquarium field researchers. It is based in Miami and travels along the Bahamian archipelago, allowing scientists to conduct open-water studies.
Each year the boat takes college and high school students from the Chicago area to the Bahamas to study reef and island ecology.
Edgerton, of North Carolina, was hired in April 2018 to oversee food service, housing and hotel operations on the boat and help with its departure, arrival and maintenance. She was the first female crewmember hired to work on the Coral Reef II.
She was fired in May 2019 without being given a reason, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago.
“This is one of many examples of a very male-dominated industry that my client had a really bad experience in with respect to her gender, and her treatment as a woman was really sexist and inappropriate,” said Jennifer Salvatore, a partner at Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter.
Edgerton alleges her male co-workers used derogatory words like “b——” when referring to women. They also allegedly commented about her appearance. Edgerton alleges she was disciplined for her dress while a male coworker wasn’t for the same infraction.
The lawsuit says Edgerton was injured when she was ordered to jump from the deck to the concrete dock 15 feet below and help anchor the boat. She wasn’t allowed to seek medical attention for three days and needed to take off several months, the lawsuit states.
In an email, the Shedd Aquarium said it cannot comment on pending litigation but takes “all allegations of this nature seriously.”
“For decades, Shedd Aquarium has adhered to and acted upon its rigorous policies and procedures related to harassment and discrimination,” the aquarium said “Moreover, we also perform annual prevention training for all employees. We do not tolerate conduct inconsistent with these policies and our values, including aboard our research vessel.”
Rodgers has beaten the Bears a mere 22 times in 27 tries. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
OK, so Green Bay has owned this rivalry for nearly three decades. But hear this: It won’t be much longer (will it?) before the cheese dries up and crumbles.
On the first Sunday of December in 1993, both the nascent greatness of the Packers offense and the spitting-into-the-wind futility of the Bears’ offense were on display at Soldier Field.
The visitors had a 29-10 advantage in first downs gained. They possessed the ball for a season-high 38:14. They piled up 466 yards — 402 spun off the fingertips of 24-year-old quarterback Brett Favre — to the hosts’ meager 210.
A mismatch? But of course. Three Bears intercepted Favre, two of them — Jeremy Lincoln and Mark Carrier — returning their picks for touchdowns. Dante Jones also scooped a fumble and scored. The Bears, in their first season under Dave Wannstedt — Year 1 post-Mike Ditka — won 30-17, and though the math within the game was wonky, the sum of the equation was not. Owning the goofballs from Green Bay was just what the Bears did. It was their 14th win in the last 18 games of the NFL’s most-played, most-celebrated and most commonly one-sided rivalry.
You probably don’t need — or want — to be reminded of how dramatically Favre and the Packers turned things around after that, but we’ll remind you anyway. Former general manager Ron Wolf has admitted he didn’t fully appreciate the size and scope of the rivalry until that appalling 1993 defeat — the fan base blew a gasket — and it became an organizational mission then and there to beat the Bears above all else. The Packers wouldn’t lose again at Soldier Field until 2005. Favre would finish 22-10 against the Bears as a Packer. Aaron Rodgers is 22-5, and the Packers 42-13 over the last 55 meetings. Owning the schnooks from Chicago is just what they do.
Sometimes it seems the Bears won’t ever regain the upper hand, but they will. Won’t they? When, over 202 games, rivals trade momentum like it’s a Rocky Balboa fight, you just have to learn to wait, no matter how grotesque the action gets. The Bears were 16-4-1 in the 1940s and 14-5-1 in the ’50s. The Packers were 15-5 in the ’60s. Ditka pounded on the Packers. Wannstedt — and every Bears coach since — got pounded on.
Right now, the entire football world is waiting on the disgruntled Rodgers to decide if, among other things, he has enough Bears blood on his knuckles to last a lifetime. If he refuses to continue to play for the Packers and forces a trade, the NFL will be in for another Tom Brady-size shakeup and the Packers will instantly reek of weakness. If Rodgers, 37, stays put, the Bears — rejuvenated by the drafting of quarterback Justin Fields — might be emboldened enough to pick themselves off the canvas anyway.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter told the “Dan Patrick Show” Thursday that he doesn’t believe Rodgers will “soften his stance.”
“Right now, [the Packers] don’t have to make a decision,” Schefter said. “The fact of the matter is they wouldn’t trade him until after June 1 anyway.”
For Cheeseheads everywhere — and for Bears fans — it’ll be agonizing to wait that long. Meantime, we can ask which scenario is more reasonable: that Fields will become the proverbial white whale — an actual franchise quarterback for the Bears — or that the Packers will eventually find, in Jordan Love or someone else, their third first-ballot Hall of Famer in a row at the one position in football that can make a rivalry lopsided for an extended period all by itself. We’re cynical here about our Bears, but the latter scenario seems a lot more far-fetched to me.
We could ask, too, by the way, if Bears-Packers is even much of a rivalry. The answer is no. For nearly three decades, it has been more like Jets-Patriots — Tom Brady was 30-8 in that series — than, say, Ravens-Steelers (22-22 against each other from 2000 to 2020) or Cowboys-Eagles (26-25 in favor of Philadelphia starting in 1996, the year after Dallas’ last Super Bowl win). Bears-Packers is a shell of its reputed self until the Bears string some victories together.
Like the Packers did in a pair of horrifying games in 1994. They won the first 33-6 on Monday night at Soldier Field and the second 40-3 at Lambeau Field — the first two of 24 Packers wins by double digits over the Bears since ’93. The average score over all 55 meetings: Packers 25.4, Bears 17.3. Give the Bears an extra touchdown and two-point conversion per game and they’re still on the short end.
But it can’t just go on and on like that, defying logic and reason in perpetuity. Can it?
It can’t. Give any cheese enough time and it’ll dry up and crumble.
Tiffany Haddish and director Billy Crystal watch footage on the set of “Here Today.” | Sony Pictures
In addition to starring in ‘Here Today,’ the veteran funnyman directs and coaxes a ‘very loving’ performance from Tiffany Haddish.
Billy Crystal hasn’t directed a movie since 2001’s “61*,” the story of the 1961 home run race between the New York Yankees’ Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle — but he’s behind the camera again and is the co-writer and star of the bittersweet comedy/drama “Here Today,” based on a short story by his longtime friend, the veteran comedy writer Alan Zweibel.
“I saw Alan on ‘Letterman’ telling this story,” said Crystal in a recent video chat. “There was this horrific charity lunch he had with somebody who bid on him and he was the prize, and he finds out she only paid $22 for him. Then she proceeds to have an allergic reaction to seafood salad, he then has to call an ambulance for her, he has no idea who she is and she doesn’t have insurance, so this charity luncheon cost him $2,300.
“So, I actually emailed him as they were going to commercial, and I said ‘Alan, this is the beginning of something, this is a great way for these two to meet, it’s hilarious. But then, who are they?’ ”
This was the foundation for “Here Today” (now in theaters), in which Crystal plays Charlie Burnz, a celebrated TV/movie/stage comedy writer in the early stages of dementia, and Tiffany Haddish is Emma Payge, a brassy but warmhearted street singer who becomes unlikely friends with Charlie and sticks with him through funny times and moments of true pain. (And yep, in the movie their first meeting is at lunch, where Charlie learns he was a $22 prize at a charity auction, and Emma has a terrible reaction to seafood.)
“The reason it was so long [between directing gigs] was I never found anything else [until this project] that I loved to the point I really wanted to give up a year or two of my life,” said Crystal. “During that time, I was on Broadway twice and touring, and doing things that were very satisfying, things I didn’t want to give up. Then when we started talking about [this movie] and we started to drill into, ‘Who are these two people?’ ”
“When Alan I discussed somebody for me to play, we both hit on this guy who was a mentor to both of us, his name was Herb Sargent. [Note: Sargent was a longtime writer/producer on “TheTonight Show” and “Saturday Night Live,” where he co-created “Weekend Update” with Chevy Chase.] He was a wonderful editor, writer, bon vivant and such a lovely guy, and so I thought of him [in creating the character of Charlie].
“And then, I was taking care of a relative who had the onset of dementia. She wrote six books and was the editor for the Book of the Month Club. And one day she came to me and said, ‘I need your help, I’m losing my words.’ I thought it was so powerful that somebody whose currency is words was now going broke.”
In “Here Today,” when Charlie begins to lose his words, he can’t turn to his grown children for help because his relationship with them has been strained ever since his wife, their mother, died under tragic circumstances. (Charlie’s daughter, in particular, blames him.)
It’s Charlie’s relatively new friend Emma who says she’ll help him as much as she can, for as long as she can. Although Haddish has a couple of her signature, over-the-top, big-swing comedic scenes, she also plays gentler notes in the more serious moments — something we haven’t seen her do in a lot of roles.
“She was very open to stretching herself into what Emma needed to be,” said Crystal. “That’s why I think it’s a fantastic performance and a very loving one. She had to get very emotional in one scene where she hears about the darkest moment in [Charlie’s] life, and she needed to cry, and she was really scared about doing it, because she hadn’t onscreen — and in her own life, she’s very protective of her emotions.
“So I cleared the set, it was just [the two of us], and the cameraman shooting over me, onto her, and she’s not getting there, and then I just started talking to her about her life and not be afraid. … It was almost like landing a plane with someone who’s not a pilot, ‘And with the left pedal, ease it down, ease it down,’ and then she gave me the moment and it was a beautiful thing.
“That’s the beauty of movies and the frustrating thing about making them. They’re forever. They’re forever. And you have to get it, as an actor, you have to stay in those moments, no matter how uncomfortable it can be with all those people around you. You have to find that space to … stay in that character.”
In addition to his Wikipedia-bursting biography as a writer, filmmaker, actor, Broadway star, etc., etc., Crystal has hosted the Oscars nine times, so I had to ask: If the phone rang and it was the Academy asking him to come back one more time in 2022, what would he say?
“Oh, this was going so well, Richard,” came the reply, accompanied by laughter and followed by the dodge of an old pro.
“If they called, I would say, ‘I don’t know, why don’t you watch “Here Today” first?’ ”
Jake Arrieta landed on the injured list with a thumb abrasion, but the Chicago Cubs pitcher is confident he won’t be sidelined for long.
Brought back on a one-year deal with a club option for 2022 as well, Jake Arrieta has been one of the best surprises in the Chicago Cubs rotation this season. His history with the club is well-documented – a remarkable second half in 2015 that earned him the NL’s Cy Young Award, throwing two no-hitters, and helping the Cubs end their 108-year championship drought in 2016.
Arrieta walked in free agency following the 2017 season, taking a three-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, but things didn’t go as smoothly for the Plano, Texas native. Injuries plagued his three seasons with the Phillies, and Arrieta posted a combined 4.36 ERA in 64 starts.
After his first start back in a Chicago Cubs uniform, a visibly excited Arrieta told the media via Zoom call that he had been waiting for this day for quite some time.
“I’ve been anticipating this day for a while,” Arrieta explained. “It felt really good. Even though there’s only 20 percent capacity, I’m very thankful for the fans showing up the way they did. Before the first pitch, even before the pitch, they were ready to get after it. It’s just like I remembered it.”
While his velocity is down from his prime years, Arrieta had a terrific month of April. The 35-year-old right-hander posted a 4.31 ERA in six starts, fanning 28 batters in 31.1 innings. His only blemish, a 3.1-inning effort in Cincinnati in which he allowed seven earned runs.
We later learned that Arrieta was dealing with an abrasion on his right thumb but tried to play through it.
“The start in Cincinnati was rough, you know, I tried to battle it out,” the 35-year-old admitted. “I was adjusting the way I threw pretty much everything, so it’s the right way to go. Miss one [start] and be back there for the first game in Detroit.”
The Cubs placed Arrieta, along with Nico Hoerner and Dan Winkler, on the injured list earlier this week, but the big righty sounded confident that he would return when the Cubs face the Tigers on May 14. With three off-days until then, manager David Ross has some flexibility in using a four-man rotation.
The option was there for Arrieta to continue to battle through his injury, which has given fits to other Major League pitchers in the past – Kerry Wood as an example – but both he and the team felt it was best to let the thumb fully heal before rejoining the rotation.
“I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to throw a bullpen tomorrow, which is the plan,” Arrieta noted on Tuesday. “I didn’t want to miss the start, but if I were to go out there today and reopen it, or aggravate it further, then it just sets us back to where we were.”
The Cubs host the Pirates on Friday before heading to Cleveland for a two-game set next week.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – APRIL 06: Alex DeBrincat #12 of the Chicago Blackhawks shoots against the Dallas Stars at the United Center on April 06, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. The Blackhawks defeated the Stars 4-2. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
The Chicago Blackhawks are officially eliminated from playoff contention. They were in the race much longer than people anticipated before the season began which is nice but it could have been better. The coaching staff and players should mostly be proud of themselves for getting the most out of a lesser group but the management team should be ashamed of themselves. Despite all of that, they were able to win a very fun game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
The ChicagoBlackhawks pulled out a very nice win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Hawks went down 1-0 to the Canes at 9:49 of the first period and that score would remain for most of the game. That was until Riley Stillman scored his first NHL goal at 16:59 of the third period. The Hawks literally snatched victory from the hands of defeat when Alex DeBrincat’s snipe in overtime won the game for Chicago.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a very good team so it was great to see the Hawks beat them. They showed perseverance in a game that they really had no business even winning. Collin Delia was outstanding in goal as he made 36 saves on 37 shots to give his team a chance.
Alex DeBrincat deserves a lot of credit for the way that he has played this season. That was his 29th goal of the season which would be a lot even in a full season. It would be nice to see him get that 30th over the Hawks’ last two games. He is probably going to be a big piece going forward as this team looks to get things back going in the right direction.
Add 23 assists to those 29 goals for 52 points in 50 games that DeBrincat has played. He is a top-20 NHL scorer for his efforts which is really nice to have in your team’s second-best forward. He slumped a little bit in 2019-20 so it is so good (and important) to see him play this well in 2021. The sky is the limit for a player like this.
The Chicago Blackhawks are (more than likely) not going to be in the lottery conversation so they might as well try and close out this season strong. Certain players having some confidence going into the offseason is just what they need. Their last two games of the season will come this weekend at the United Center against the Dallas Stars.
