iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

My 11-year-old tonight. ❤️ Nice job kiddo

kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Oh it was clearly legal, at college level anyway. The Indiana faithful saw Brendan Flakes graze Turbo Richard out of bounds on same play & cried “Dirty!” Had Flakes not pulled up, certainly-but he did pull up, & again barely grazed Richard. The injury on the same play was unfortunate coincidence.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Well the Indiana faithful said that we played dirty, based on the (legal at the college level, and it’s such a hard call to determine anyway unlike a horse collar) hip drop tackle, which they also claimed was out of bounds (it wasn’t).

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I mean, is collecting and then redistributing resources really socialism?! (Oh, wait…)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

After Northwestern’s domination of Penn State last night, you’re basically playing with house money. (So am I…and right now my undergrad Alma Mater, FCS Holy Cross, is up big on William & Mary, which will help ease the disappointment of starting the season 1-4.)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Our view for Northwestern’s 3rd (out of 4) rushing TD last night.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

How it started/how it’s going. I loved the decrepit old relic on Central Street (first went there around 1980, & my 90-year-old dad first went there around 1950!), but wow, the new digs are amazing. The football last night was also amazing, ran all over one of CFB’s most storied programs. Go Cats!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Cool fact that I discovered (unfortunately after my “Eckie” biography came out): JJ McCarthy’s grandmother’s maiden name is Eckersall…and her grandfather was Walter Eckersall’s first cousin. So McCarthy and Eckie are 1st cousins, 4x removed.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Steam Roller player-coach Jimmy Conzelman is one of my all-time favorite NFL dudes, partly because he played at Great Lakes during WWI, but mostly because he was just so damn interesting.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

After reading this, I have to agree with Rahm: I like fake Ari better than real Ari, too.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

(Although in my mid-20s, for about 2 years I had what was basically “in case you get hit by a bus” insurance with no preventive care coverage. And when, 18 months into that 2 years, I broke my arm badly enough to need surgery, I was damn glad to have it!)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I mean, you’re really cheating yourself if you don’t get some sort of preventative care occasionally, so that’s self-fraud in a sense?

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The three books that I’ve written have basically been collections of (sometimes loosely, sometimes tightly) related term papers that all magically tie together at the end. So far, so good…

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

He probably thinks “free press” means the Chicago Reader or the Village Voice.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

They can explain away two turnovers. They can’t explain away four. Also, they can’t explain at all going for it on 4th three times (one of those in FG range) and making it no times. Go Cats!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I think I’ve seen this dystopian movie before.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I’ll be there tomorrow, both selling my own books and shopping for others’ (and also sending myTween daughters on their own treasure hunts). Very much looking forward to it!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

“The Endless Summer” vibes. (I swam about 1,000 yards in the lake yesterday, as I try to do every Labor Day, sort of a goodbye to the season…and while it was slightly choppy with the SE winds, I don’t think there was enough for even the most skilled surfer to “hang ten.”)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Literary-minded Chicagoans: Come see me at Printers Row Lit Fest on Sunday 9/13, from 2-6pm. I’ll be at the Chicago Writers Association’s tent JJ, on Dearborn just north of Polk. “Eckie” & “War Football” will each be available at the deep discount price of $25. I’ll throw in my autograph for free!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Go Cats!!! I decided to “punt” on this one and will watch at home instead of in person-had a ball at the temp stadium these last 2 seasons but now I’m ready for the real deal vs. Penn State. I would’ve loved to go on 9/19 to boo Deion (long story, even longer grudge) but I’m working that night.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Duly noted, though in not sure if I can make it down to the Art Institute this week.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

When I was a lifeguard in Rogers Park, if I was working one of the street-end beaches at night during bitey-fly season I would make a campfire to keep them away, with mixed success and at great personal risk of getting caught. They wouldn’t have fired me, but they would have slashed my “break” time.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Once dated a girl from Portage Park, on one of our 1st dates we drove by & she said Portage would open soon. About a year later I met my now-wife, whom I’ve been with for 20 years. Progress moves slowly, but really, this slowly? Would love to take my Tween daughters to shows at the Portage soon.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I just finished reading it last week because I’ve almost given up hope on Volume 5 of Caro’s LBJ saga. It’s terrific but it’s SO long, took me almost 3 months. (Granted, summer is my busiest season personally since my wife and kids are off school, so I have the least leisure reading time then.)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

(And I know Carter has a submarine named after him, which is fitting since he was a submarine officer. But as one of only 6 presidents to serve in the Navy, and the only one to go to Annapolis, doesn’t he deserve a carrier?!)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The weirdest part is that the 1st Trump admin named this carrier after Doris Miller in the first place! IMO this was partly to say “See? We’re not racist!” and partly to avoid naming a carrier after Bill Clinton, which Biden later did anyway. (Which begs the question, why not a USS Jimmy Carter?!)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“Well, well, let’s get on with it.”

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Isn’t this basically how James Patterson writes so many books? The ideas, guidance, and editing parts, not the AI.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I don’t think he even understands what a private company is, given his personal financial history.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

As a fire chief, one of the most bizarre moments is when my co-workers of similar age and experience have sons and daughters who graduate Fire Academy. Whereas my own kids are ages 11 and 12. I did get a late start but dang, did those other guys start early…

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Sir, I need you to walk across the street in a straight line. Ok, now recite the alphabet for me, please. All right, now I need you to blow into this little straw…

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The stupid look on Benny Johnson’s face in all these interviews is pure gold. He so desperately wants to be taken seriously. But he never will be. He’s an absolute clown. (As indicated by the people he chooses to interview.)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

One week away! Join me Aug. 6 as I discuss my book "Eckie" - which, I'm proud to say, made the Short List for the 2026 Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award, honoring a book that "transforms public understanding of Chicago, its history, or its people." www.chicagohistory.org/event/author...

chicagohistory.org

Author Talk | Chris Serb - "Eckie: Walter Eckersall and the Rise of Chicago Sports" - Chicago History Museum

Author Chris Serb discusses his recent book Eckie: Walter Eckersall and the Rise of Chicago Sports (2025).

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Nah, out of respect for the great Sam Leone, who ran Rogers Park Beach (at Touhy Avenue, not Rogers, although Sam ran Rogers Avenue Beach too, and in fact, everything from Juneway to Foster) for 40 years; in tribute, Rogers Park Beach was renamed Leone Beach in 1966, one year after Sam’s death.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Huzzah!!! I couldn’t love this more. Did you watch the recent Little House reboot? There was some form of baseball played towards the end of the last episode!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

If you’d like, I can still recite the intro in the original Greek…thank you, Mr. Raispis! “Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polutropon, hos mala polla planchthee, epei Troiees hieron ptoliethron epersen.” And I can keep going for a few more lines. (It looks prettier in the Greek alphabet.)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Today’s ride. I have to navigate city streets for about 1 1/4 miles before I connect to the trail at Devon & Milwaukee, which is just under 5 miles northwest of the trail’s terminus at Foster and Kostner. Instead of heading that way I rode up to Skokie Lagoons today. 27 miles total.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Hortus in urbe. (Technically not “in urbe,” the deer and I were about 400 yards over the border in Niles, but on a trail that runs 5 or 6 miles into the city on its south end and all the way up to the Lake County border on the north.)

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

@rogersparkman.bsky.social After your excellent talk at Art Institute, I took a stroll to check out “The Dugout” for myself. The mob scene reminded me of the time I went to see Mona Lisa at The Louvre in 2004. As a writer of sports myself, I’m thrilled to see sports and art intersect this way.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Was hoping to see you there! I was about 8 rows back on the right side. A full house!

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Took a bike ride along the North Branch Trail. I passed 3 or 4 golf courses and at every one, it looked like Bagger Vance was about to emerge from the mysterious mist.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Because we put 300-square-foot American flags over the gas stations. Duh.

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kelloggfireman.bsky.social @kelloggfireman.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Or, back in your hometown, “The Death of John Stroger.”

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