[This entry is from 3/18/05. Today's entry and pictures of AJ with the Easter Bunny forthcoming.]

Last night as I collapsed on the bed to zone out in front of the TV, I was elated to find the following film on the sci-fi channel: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you MANSQUITO!. �They were looking for a cure; now they�re looking for a monster.� One presumes he�s half man, half mosquito. Our satellite dish�s synopsis read as follows: �Seeking a cure for West Nile virus, a woman accidentally turns herself and her husband into mutant insects.� Oops. Television just doesn�t get any better than this.

Shortly after I moved to Chicago, I was riding the bus from Hyde Park to downtown with a friend. It was a hot day and we�d been for a long bike ride and kicked back a couple of beers before heading to a movie at the Fine Arts (R.I.P.). We�d had a fun day and were no doubt discussing our mutual maniacal love of really bad sci-fi movies a little bit too loudly. As I recall I was elaborating on why Night of the Living Dead was one of my favorite movies ever in terms of pure schlock value, an argument that required a certain amount of reenactment. An older man across the aisle leaned over and joined our conversation. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, was irreverent as hell and pointed us toward a few movies I�d never even heard of. We thanked him as we got off the bus. As we walked toward Michigan Avenue, my friend said, �Don�t you know who that was?� I shook my head. �I�m pretty sure that was Studs Terkel.� I stopped dead in my tracks.

So Studs, if it was indeed you, I just thought you might like to know about Mansquito. Thanks for making my bus ride a few years ago.

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