53 Comments - MP - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:28 pm: Thanks for the heads up on the hair/beard situation…;) - 47th Ward - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:30 pm: There’s always radio Rich. Maybe Rod can have you on sometime, I’m sure you two would have lots to talk about. Did you lose a bet or something? If they don’t adjourn this week, you’ll look like the Sasquatch before it’s over. - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:32 pm: ===Sasquatch=== More like the Unabomber. See? Proft was right all along! - downhereforyears - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:35 pm: You have the perfect face for radio! - FillB - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:36 pm: Oooh, playoff beard. Like it! - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:36 pm: I am painfully aware of that, dhfy. But thanks much for reminding me. lol - Pat collins - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:37 pm: You might end up like that company VP who vowed not to get a hair cut until the stock price was above 20. Right now he is on his 4th year with no hair cut, if he stuck to it. - OneMan - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:38 pm: I can just hear Phil Ponce say…. “For the latest on the state budget we go to Grizzly Adams” or Just claim it’s your playoff beard. - steve schnorf - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:39 pm: Just a pale imitation of me - unspun - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:40 pm: Adonis lives. - Oswego Willy - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:41 pm: “And now, the all-powerful blogger, “Sampson” … - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:41 pm: Schnorf, you should go on with me. We’d really wow ‘em then with that hippie hairdo of yours. - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:43 pm: Making things worse is that, as usual on Sunday night, I tossed and turned all night and now I just noticed bigger than normal circles under my eyes. I’m gonna give Fester a run for his money, apparently. - Vote Quimby! - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:43 pm: ==face for radio== I have a face for radio and a voice for newspapers - Dead Head - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:49 pm: Hey Rich, Let It Grow! - Betsy - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:50 pm: How do you account for special sessions in your haircut/beard trimming, Rich? - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:51 pm: DH, I may get a crewcut when this is over. Betsy, if there’s a special session, I may just go postal. - VanillaMan - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:52 pm: Just ask Ponce to refer to you as “Herr Professor”, and your grooming appearance would be understood. Wear old yellow cardigan and funky eyewear. - Ron Del Festo - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:52 pm: “Ladies and Gentleman of the WTTW audience, I’m just a caveman…” - Anonymiss - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:54 pm: What will y’all be discussing, besides grooming in Springfield, or lack thereof? - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:57 pm: Just grooming, I think. Maybe that little budget situation, McCormick Place, etc. But mainly grooming. - Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 3:57 pm: It would be a really long trip if you went Northwest…considering that Chicago is NorthEAST of Springfield…just sayin’ - Secret Square - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:01 pm: Well, Rich, it could be worse… you could be threatening to not change your socks or to wear only one “lucky” shirt until the session ends. Maybe THAT would get them moving, eh? - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:03 pm: CiI, yes, I’m aware, but my frame of reference to that studio is always from downtown, where I once lived. - Small Town Liberal - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:03 pm: I submit that in the interest of austerity all Illinois politicians forego haircuts and donate the money that would be otherwise spent on said haircuts to the general fund. At least it would give people something to laugh at Illinois legislators for besides corruption and incompetence. - OneMan - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:04 pm: August 22nd, 2010 State Capitol Police today had to subdue a bear today who was growling something about ‘you idiots make Rod appear sane’… - Anonymiss - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:04 pm: It’s a hairy situation at the Statehouse … let’s hope there’s a secret, er, ’stache of money somewhere. (Tip your waitress, try the veal.) - sparky - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:04 pm: Don’t sweat it too much Rich - it’s Skype. It gets so compressed that no one will be able to discern the image from your real life visage. That’s why I spent $1500 on a high definition television - so cheap ass interviewers can bring in guests via webcam. Oy. - OneMan - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:06 pm: sparky…. I don’t know about you but with all due respect to Rich I don’t want to see him in HD on my big screen, do you? - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:08 pm: Hmmm. Big screen HD. Maybe I should run out and get a trim. Nah… - Jak Tichenor - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:10 pm: Oh look, a yeti! - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:12 pm: Hey, Jak! Did my interview wind up on the cutting room floor? Was it the hair or the incoherent rambling? Just asking… - sparky - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:12 pm: No, I really don’t want to see Rich in HD. I’m sure he will put up a YouTube clip tomorrow which will add another layer of compression and it’ll probably look “just right” on my ‘puter screen by then. - Jak Tichenor - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:19 pm: Your interview was indeed used on Illinois Lawmakers as the headline act….after just a wee bit of trimming for time constraints. A DVD is on its way to you. - D.P. Gumby - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:21 pm: Rich, I can give you names of the theatre hair and make-up crowd in Spi who can make you look however you want w/ whatever you’ve got…then you’ll be ready for your close-up! - shore - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:22 pm: I did call for this 6 months ago. make sure your background is not awful and you don’t have any awful sounding noises in the background. hopefully this will become a recurring thing with you. - OneMan - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:24 pm: Perhaps I can get a Jak/Rich beard contest in HD on WTTW…. - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:24 pm: Thanks, Jak. I must’ve missed the beginning. - Rich Miller - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:25 pm: shore, you’re right. Once again, the power of the blog is on full display! - Say WHAT? - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:26 pm: Not you too Rich! My son wont shave until the Chicago Blackhawks bring home the cup. His wife complains. lol It will do no good, so I just clam up and hope they win. I imagine if he did what you does, he wouldn’t shave until session ended either. Blackhawks might win before session ends. lol We all love ya anyways! - Jak Tichenor - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:26 pm: Perhaps I can get a Jak/Rich beard contest in HD on WTTW…. Sorry, I used the weedwacker on mine this morning. Rich has got too much of a head-start on me. - Oswego Willy - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:46 pm: “Getting the state legislature to pass a budget is so easy … a caveman can do it …” - Justice - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 4:57 pm: Stay away from state Fairs. I let my beard grow one year and a kid told his sister I was the Bearded Fat Lady! Of course, there’s the possibility you’ll be mistaken for ZZ Top? - shore - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 5:14 pm: the first nice thing in 2 years of commenting. I fear however you will look something like the gentleman on the left http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zztop_halloffame.jpg - Doug - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 5:36 pm: As one of the few people that remember Rich without the beard, just be thankful he grew one in the first place. - Gregor - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 6:35 pm: “…and tonight from the Maintenance Mode web site, we have.. cousin Itt…” Rich you are a living testament to the journalistic ideal of substance over style, and may it ever be thus. I learned from Ed Rooney long ago that Crime and political reporters are both always to be looking scraggly and unkempt… from the company they keep. - Levois - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 7:46 pm: I missed it, will you post a video of that appearance? - Responsa - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 8:28 pm: A former restaurant critic used to use the bread and circuses ratings model. In adapting that model to your WTTW appearance I would say that for bread you seemed uncharacteristically subdued, Rich, but of course very competent and informative as always. Your facial hair rates you very high in circuses. Nice job! - Scott217 - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 8:54 pm: You’re always welcome to come out to Chatham. We can put you on the bird from there. - The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 9:59 pm: Um, just in case: If your “new look” gets picked up as the latest trend for men across the State, will CapFax bloggers have to pretend we’re proud? - The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 10:10 pm: Not that most of us wouldn’t want to, I’m sure. I just want to be prepared. - wordslinger - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 10:27 pm: Dude, you just should have said it’s your playoff beard. It’s a lot better than that peach fuzz that Toews and Kane are showing. But then again, you’re not 21, a recent multimillionaire back from Olympic success on his way to the Stanley Cup. All in the last 12 months. Those young Blackhawks are living large. - Techboy - Monday, May 24, 10 @ 11:30 pm: Skype looks better if you use a better camera as well as correct lighting and a non-busy but good-contrast background of just one color like a medium gray or blue bedsheet or curtain, solid, no patterns. If you use a cheap webcam and prison-interrogation lighting, or no proper lighting at all… it will look like Fischer-Price time. Go to Pier One and buy a cheap plain white Chinese/Japanese paper lantern globe, put a nice 60-100 watt full-spectrum type bulb in it, hang that behind the camera and just off to one side, and you’ll turn into George Clooney for the next skype session. Well, almost. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.