Here's the story that appeared in last Sunday's Chicago Tribune. The reporter calls my reading "especially touching."

And here's the story from Friday's Elgin Courier News.

I was asleep. For a full precious hour. Until the 4-year-old made his way from his bedroom to the parent's bedroom and sent Daddy packing. When he first landed on our bed, I was disoriented and didn't know where I was. What hotel room am I in? What city am I in? That's what happens when you sleep in five different beds over two week's time. 

Twenty hours, two cabs, three trains and two airplanes it took us to get to our first destination, Okayama, Japan, where my mother-in-law lives part of the year.

In Soja, Japan, we slept in futons, in a Samurai house. From that house, we walked to the graves where the ancestors of my wife are buried.

A short train ride took us to a real-life castle, something that my son had previously only seen in storybooks and in the toys he plays with at home.

Then we took the Shinkansen, or bullet, train to Tokyo, where we stayed in a four-star hotel with surprisingly two-star rates. Everyone tells you that Japan is too cost-prohibitive, and it is pricey, but not everything. The luxury hotel we stayed at was $200 a night and we would easily have paid double or more for the same quality in Chicago.

Tokyo DomeIn Tokyo, we caught a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. I'll probably write more about this at another time, when I'm a little more lucid, but baseball in Japan seems so much more fun than most games here in the states. Every game is like a Friday night highschool football game, with cheering sections and team bands. As a baseball purist, I kept thinking that this is how the game is supposed to be: fun.

Totoro at Ghibli MuseumMy wife's aunt and uncle also took us to visit the Ghibli Museum just outside of Tokyo. Ghibli features the Japanese anime work of Hayao Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japan. His films are pure magic for children - and for parents. Miyazaki is best known in America for his Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, but he should be known for so much more. I've seen several of his films including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky, and all of them are better than most of the stuff being churned out here in the states for kids. The museum is not like Disneyland but is more like a magical garden filled with surprises at every turn. My favorite is at the entrance where a giant Totoro character greets you inside a ticket booth.

There are more stories to tell but a toddler bed beckons me.  Oyasumi for now.

I'm in tonight's lineup, batting near the end. Gametime is 7:30 at the Loser's home base, El Jardin Restaurant, 3335 N. Clark St., 3 blocks south of Wrigley Field.

You can read the essay in its entirety at the Lovable Losers Literary Revue. 

Or you can just show up at El Jardin's Restaurant, 3335 N. Clark St., Chicago, on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m., and you can listen to me read it.

Well, nothing came of it through the entire Cubs 2007 season. I'd pretty much figured the idea was dead and buried, never to be dug up.

Then, out of the (Cubbie) blue, I got a call from Don earlier this year. Guess what? He was digging it up.

He had a rough idea for a literary series that would play against the 100^th anniversary of the Cubs last World Series championship, in 1908. From there, the two of us started brainstorming and out of our many talks and emails, The Lovable Losers Literary Revue was born.
Logo design by Roberta Richardson (aka My Mom)

I must confess that I had my doubts about whether we'd be able to pull it off. But Don was determined to make it happen, and, as a result, we now have a website, created by yours truly, with a lot of direction from Don. We also have a venue, a seven-date schedule, and some serious media interest in the project.

So, just what is it? I'll let Don's words explain it all.

The Lovable Losers Literary Revue, a hootenanny of Chicago writers, musicians, filmmakers, actors and bums, will celebrate and mourn the Cubs’ long losing streak. The evening will begin with a toast and end with a prayer, and in between there will be literary readings, historical reenactments, trivia contests, singing, sacrifices and general rooting.

We’ll dredge up all those old memories: Lee Elia’s tirade, Steve Goodman’s A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request, Franklin Pierce Adams’ Baseball’s Sad Lexicon, as well as a smattering of disgusted Harry Caray commentary. We’ll laugh at some. We’ll cry at others. And then we’ll laugh at all the criers.

A cross between Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast (with the Cubs as the roastee) and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, The Lovable Losers Literary Revue will explore the relationship we all have to our team.

Our opening celebration takes place on April, 9, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., at our home base, the back room of El Jardin Restaurant, 3335 N. Clark St., three blocks south of Wrigley Field.  The evening's lineup: Featured guest Dave Hoekstra, Sun-Times writer extraordinaire, leading a Cubs prayer; Donald G. Evans, batting leadoff, with an opening toast; Dummy belting out a punk rendition of "Hey, Hey Holy Mackerel;" Randy Richardson (yep, little ol' me) stepping up to the plate to read his essay "Of Fairy Tales and Felix Pie;" and Heather Haneman and some of her drag queen friends guest conducting "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."  We'll be throwing Cubs trivia at you, too, with some prizes for the Ws.

Join us while the Cubs play the Pirates at PNC Park. (6:05 p.m. start). Sneaking peaks allowed. We will update the game throughout the reading.

If you don't know me, this is a way to get to know me. If you do know me, well, this is a way to get to know me a little better.

Thanks, Joyce, for getting to know me.

Actually, it's about Vain Magazine, a quarterly print lit zine whose spring issue (its 2nd overall) just came out. And if you look at the Table of Contents, you'll see that the first piece listed under Short Fiction is "A Man's Home is His Kid's Castle," by Randy Richardson.

Yep, that's me. My first foray into the world of "literary" magazines.

Yeah for me!

Oh, sorry, got a little carried away with that vain stuff.