Bears bye week curbs his "Enthusiasm"

Area resident Bruce Wolf was disappointed in Sunday's Curb Your Enthusiasm  episode but he was quick to temper his criticism by saying he may have been having an off day.

"I think it might have been the fact it was the Bears bye week," said Wolf, who has watched every  Bears game since Congress lifted the blackout rule in 1973. In fact, Wolf became a sportscaster because one Sunday in 1973 his then girlfriend Caryn (now wife of 34 years) said, "What are we doing today?" and Wolf responded, "Well, I was going to watch the Bears game." And she said, "Didn't you watch the game last week?"

He figured becoming a sportscaster was his only avenue. Then he would be required to watch the games.

"So, with no Bears game I was lost. And I guess I was investing way too much of my being into Curb," Wolf said through a megaphone at the corner of Michigan and Lake Tuesday afternoon.

Among the flaws cited by Wolf in Sunday's  Curb episode:

--Larry's rip on his fellow passenger's shorts wasn't that funny even though the bit was somewhat redeemed later when Ted Danson ripped Larry for the same thing

--Christian Slater's overindulgence with the caviar at the food spread paled in comparison with the "Seinfeld" bit about dipping twice

--Larry's over-the-top boorishness in interrupting Jeff's daughter while she was singing wasn't even as good as  the more subtle disapproval displayed by Patricia Heaton and her husband in the new ABC comedy Middle over their own daughter's attempt to try out for her school's show choir

"It's not like the show was bad. Even a bad Larry David show is good. Telegraphing to his date that he was going to make a move on her later ('Babe Ruth calling his shot'), Larry's chutzpah in reminding the doctor of the Hippocratic oath, all good," Wolf said. "And Mary Steenburgen hasn't looked this good since 'Melvin and Howard.'"

As passersby at the downtown corner yelled at Wolf, "Where's your saxophone? At least play Misty for us and we'll give you a buck," Wolf continued:

"I wouldn't say Curb has jumped the shark. But it's like Borat. By now everyone in the world knows Larry is a boor. Even the actors on the show. In fact, it looks like the actors are laughing through their lines like Dean Martin used to. I mean, gee whiz, Kafka and his friends laughed aloud when he would read his stories. But the characters in his stories didn't schmaltz it up.

"And I'm all for willing suspension of disbelief and artistic license, but it strains belief  to have Jeff and his wife humiliated when Larry interrupts their daughter and then, what, the next night they're all smiles at Larry when he approaches them at the restaurant table."

As one of Chicago's finest told him "Big fan, but please move on, Mr. Wolf," Wolf added that he didn't think the much-ballyhooed ad libbing on the show was all that great. "You can tell when they're ad libbing. Usually they're just yelling. That show is so tightly scripted, I think a child's dot to dot numbered drawing allows for more artistic freedom.

"They should have ended that show after the second season. Remember the chef who had Tourette's? Larry rescues him by swearing and getting everyone else to swear. Larry, who himself has emotional Tourette's, saved the Tourette's sufferer.  The end. But no one knows when to stop."

Wolf ceaselessly mused over the show's merits while he walked down Michigan Avenue and then came upon a woman selling Streetwise and said to her, "But you know. Who am I to say? I fell asleep in the movies during Caddyshack.  Well, I was tired that day. Anchorman, now that really was bad because Hollywood is always fighting the last war. Studly newsmen? Come on. Just about all the anchors with longevity at any particular station in Chicago now are women, with a plurality of Allisons. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"Do you want a Streetwise or not, mister?" said the woman, who did remind him that
next week's Curb will be up against the Bears, who will resume action in Atlanta on Sunday night. Wolf said, "No problem. I'll watch the Bears and then Curb on On Demand the next day. Did you see the way Jeff's wife yelled at Larry 'you piece of shit'? I love that stuff. It never gets old. And the conversation with Jeff over whether after a 15-year hiatus you're allowed to pick up sexually where you left off with a woman? Priceless."