I'm torn.

The Regional Finals of the Berwyn-Cicero (Morton) Sectional are tonight and I don't know which game to attend.

No. 2-seed Whitney Young hosts No. 9 Morton just a few blocks north of my house while No. 3 Kenwood travels to No. 6 St. Ignatius just a few blocks south of me. Both games start at 7:00. The question is, which one will be the better contest?

Whitney Young, at 18-9 on the season, beat No. 15 Lincoln Park, 64-44, on Tuesday night to get here. Morton, 15-11, upset No. 7 De La Salle, 64-58, on the same court immediately afterward. The Dolphins (the Dolphins?) are ranked No. 36 in the state by MaxPreps while the Mustangs come in at only No. 80 (which is probably too low).

At the same time that tilt is going on in the West Loop, St. Ignatius, 21-8, will be hosting Kenwood, 19-6, on Roosevelt Road. The Wolfpack defeated No. 11 Proviso East on Wednesday night, 56-47, in a game that was much closer than the score would indicate. Just prior to that, the Broncos dispatched No. 14 Lane Tech on the gridiron, 38-30. If MaxPreps is any guide, these two squads should be pretty evenly matched: the high school sports website ranks Ignatius No. 45 and Kenwood right behind them at No. 46.

Now, I could conceivably go to one game and abort the mission at halftime if it's a blowout. But that's probably not a good strategy. I'd hate to miss a big second-half comeback, and besides, it would be too difficult logistically to change horses in the middle of the stream. Would I really be able to get a good seat at the other game, especially if it was better than the first? Not likely. No, I'll have to choose one or the other. Which will it be? Check back tomorrow for the answer and my recap of the game.

P. S. As always, I'll be live-tweeting the contest @BoringOldWhtGuy.

By the way, St. Ignatius...

...beat the bullies from Monday, Proviso East, 56-47, last night to set up a third-round game with No. 3-seed Kenwood, which defeated Lane Tech, 38-30 (in basketball, not football).

Tied at 33 at the end of the third quarter, it was a close contest until the very end. (Both teams are very young, incidentally. If nothing else, keep your eye on them both for next year.)

Whitney Young, meanwhile, bested Lincoln Park on Tuesday night, 64-44. The Dolphins will now face No. 9-seed Morton, which upset De La Salle, 64-58.

Will the Wolfpack meet up with Young next Wednesday at Morton East in Cicero? Bragging rights in the neighborhood will be on the line! (My fiendish plot is coming together nicely.)

P. S. That's the Ignatius mascot, above. Does he have a name? Wolfie? I saw him in the hallway after the game with his "head" off. He looked like he'd been hot under there.

Inspired by my new...

...favorite blog, A Chicago Sojourn, I snapped a few pictures yesterday when I was walking through Logan Square.* I was killing time while my dog, Stewart, was having his underwater treadmill therapy (or whatever it was).

As I turned back toward Integrative Pet Care, on Armitage just west of Western, I came upon what I thought at first was a church, above. (The crosses gave it away.)

But as I got closer, I thought it was a condo building which had once been a church. Here's a closer look at that spire on the corner. (I wish I knew more about architecture!)

An even closer look, at the northwest corner of McLean and California, shows "Salem Evangeliske Frikirke" over a door.

According to this, by 1910 the Norwegian community in Chicago had migrated north and west from Wicker Park into Humboldt Park and Logan Square. Originally named Salem Norwegian Free Church, it was later changed to Salem Evangelical Free Church. (Why "Salem?" I wondered.)

 As you turn the corner completely, you see two cornerstones, one which says "God is Love" and the other dating its completion to 1908.

And on the California side, there's a sign reading Good News Bible Church/Iglesia Evangélica Libre Salem. So it is an active church after all, not a condo building.

From the church's website:

Good News Bible Church is an Evangelical Free Church in the Humboldt Park/Logan Square community of Chicago. An urban community of believers, GNBC is made up of people of all ages and from all walks of life. Good News began in 1979 and worships in the historic facilities once populated by the Salem Evangelical Free Church, birthplace of TEAM Missions, and is one of two congregations that make up this church (the other congregation is the Spanish-speaking Iglesia Evangélica Libre Salem.) On June 3, 2003, Good News completed a merger with the existing English-speaking congregation.

There's also this undated picture on the "Our Story" page:

Where's that big steeple on the corner of McLean and California? It appears to be sawed off. (The one I took is on the far left of that picture, near the alley.) What happened to it? How do you lose something like that?

It's interesting how that neighborhood has changed. What was once a blue-collar part of town is rapidly gentrifying with hipsters spilling over from Wicker Park. One thing is for sure, though: you won't see any Norwegians there! They all decamped for the suburbs a long time ago.

* If you really want to be specific, it's actually Palmer Square, which is a "pocket neighborhood" within Logan Square.

Move over Jeb Bush and...

...Scott Walker, the GOP has found its 2016 candidate: Bibi Netanyahu!

(I haven't seen the Republicans this giddy since the beginning of the Iraq War.)

You know what's bush league?

Not the footwear worn by some of the Juarez Eagles in last night's game against Proviso East. (I know -- I'm old.)

No, what I thought was in particularly bad form was the way the Pirates ran up the score against the underdog Eagles. In the fourth quarter, Proviso East was hitting three-point shots en route to a 107-47 victory over the No. 22-seed Juarez.

Let's back up a little: why did I go to this game?

It was only my third high school basketball game of the year (for a partial explanation, read this), but it's playoffs time. And since I live midway between Whitney Young and St. Ignatius I thought I'd follow the Berwyn-Cicero (Morton) Sectional in the hope that the two programs would meet in the finals of the Regional next Wednesday. 

The Dolphins (Dolphins?), with a record of 17-9, are the No. 2 seed in the Sectional; the Wolfpack, at 20-8, are seeded No. 6. What's more, Young is ranked No. 40 in the state by MaxPreps while Ignatius is only two spots lower, at No. 42. That could be a heck of a matchup! (And for bragging rights in the neighborhood, too.) 

With that in mind, I plan on attending Young's game tonight with Lincoln Park and Ignatius's game on Wednesday with the winner of last night's contest. And, since I'd only seen two games this year, I thought I'd get an early look at the Wolfpack's opponent.

Got all that?

So I hoofed it over to Ignatius last night and caught the final minute or so of the Lane Tech - Roosevelt game which Lane won, 78-56. What a lopsided score! I thought. (Little did I know.) 

I had walked into the gym with a guy who works at Juarez (he pronounced it, Ha-wahr-ez) and he told me they were a young team who were surprised to even be in the tournament. I did a little quick research online (there wasn't a whole lot to be found) and discovered that Benito Juarez Community Academy is in Pilsen and is named for Mexican President Benito Pablo Juárez García. (Shouldn't it be called Benito Garcia? Oh, well.) 

According to Wikipedia, the Eagles' colors are grey and gold, although the team I saw last night wore brown and gold, as in the picture above. (And don't get me started on that whole dress thing!) The Juarez squad was 1-8 in their conference and 4-14 overall and ranked No. 626 in the state by MaxPreps. Which begs the question, What are these guys even doing in the postseason?

Proviso East, meanwhile, was 6-6 in the West Suburban Gold conference and 12-13 overall. The Maywood school, which once had a storied program, fired its long-time coach, Donnie Boyce, a few weeks ago after some altercation in the lunchroom. (Yes, you read that right.) According to MaxPreps, the Pirates are ranked only No. 125 in the state (how the mighty have fallen!) and I'll bet that had more to do with Boyce's firing than anything else. (Just a hunch, but they were probably looking for an excuse to dump him.) In the program they handed out at the door, under "Coaching Staff," only "Cedric McCullough, Assistant Coach," was listed. (Ironically, the back page read: DO WHAT'S RIGHT IN SPORTS! SPORTSMANSHIP BEGINS AND ENDS WITH YOU!)

So I'll assume it was McCullough who was responsible for the shameful display I witnessed last night, and if there's any justice in the universe, this guy will never make head coach anywhere. 

Up by 43 points at the end of the third quarter, 72-29, I wondered if Proviso East would end up scoring a hundred points. (But I wasn't serious, was I?) And in the fourth quarter the Pirates started shooting three-pointers in a deliberate attempt, I thought, to get to the century mark and completely humiliate their opponent. The Proviso East players were smiling broadly and celebrating on the bench as they closed in on their goal. I couldn't believe it! Was this the first time they'd ever dominated an opponent? It was one of the most disgraceful performances I'd ever seen. (The players are just kids, but the coach should have known better.)

Proviso East will now face St. Ignatius tomorrow night at 7:30. Guess who I'll be rooting for.

The New Yorker cartoon of the day:

“Is the hamburger innovative?”

Carly Fiorina is back...

...in the news, this time running for the Republican nomination for president. (The GOP already has its token black guy, Dr. Ben Carson; I guess the party of white male Christians feels like it needs a woman too.)

Ms. Fiorina has been taking a lot of shots at Hillary Clinton lately, including these crowd-pleasers:

“Like Hillary Clinton, I too have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe. But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something. Mrs. Clinton, flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.

"Mrs. Clinton, please name an accomplishment . . . She does not know what leadership means."

Fair enough; before too long, Mrs. Clinton will have to defend her record and make a case for her candidacy.

But in the meantime, let's have a look at Ms. Fiorina's record. I've written about it so many times (click here, here and here for starters) that I'm almost getting tired of it. (Not really.)

But don't take my word for it; read what CNBC had to say in a piece titled "Worst American CEOs of All Time" (my emphasis):

A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered. She paid herself handsome bonuses and perks while laying off thousands of employees to cut costs. The merger Fiorina orchestrated with Compaq in 2002 was widely seen as a failure. She was ousted in 2005.

THE STAT: HP stock lost half its value during Fiorina’s tenure.

(Honestly, could you or I have done worse?) Ms. Fiorina, it's your turn: Name an accomplishment.