First Tuesday in October
Starting in March, this year has seemed like a weird anthology TV show, with each month written and directed by a different team. We haven't had Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme yet; I'm hoping that'll...
View ArticleVP debate tonight
While I'm waiting for Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris to face off at 8pm Central, I have other things to occupy my thoughts:The First Lady has had a remarkably charmed pandemic...
View ArticleVP debate reactions
Generally, reactions to last night's debate follow three patterns: Vice President Mike Pence mansplained to Senator Kamala Harris; Harris told the truth significantly more than Pence did; and the fly...
View ArticleI feel for Julie Nolke
Let's start with the good news: Julie Nolke has a new video.OK, ready for everything else?The president called Kamala Harris "this monster" in an interview Thursday, because of course he did.The New...
View ArticleMore Chicago businesses killed by Covid-19
City Lit Books in Logan Square will close December 1st, a sad addition to a lengthening list of Chicago shop and restaurant closures due to the pandemic. I also found out today that Fountainhead, a...
View ArticleYour morning ugliness
Three items, somewhat related:The president's doctor, Sean Conley, released a memo pronouncing the president "no longer considered transmission risk to others," without providing any information on...
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Graceland Cemetery this evening
We have some decent fall colors this year. They should peak sometime this week, but I didn't want to waste perfect weather this evening, so I took the drone over to Graceland Cemetery and...
View ArticleChaos at Pearson
After a 10-hour flight from Spain to Toronto, a rescue Podenco named Crystal discovered that someone had failed to properly secure her crate, and she was off:Over the next 12 hours, a highly...
View ArticleEvening news stories
A cold front pushed its way through Chicago this afternoon, making it feel much more like autumn than we've experienced so far. And it got pretty chilly in Washington, where Senate Republicans began...
View ArticleWhat the Barrett nomination is really about
The Senate Republicans will force through Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court before the end of December, and there's nothing the Democratic Party can do to stop it.OK. They win this...
View ArticleLunchtime incompetence, history, and whisky
Someday, historians may discover what former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker—I don't have to remind you, a Republican—got in exchange for the ridiculous deal his administration made with FoxConn. After...
View ArticleWhy Facebook can't fix itself
From Andrew Marantz at The New Yorker:In retrospect, it seems that the company’s strategy has never been to manage the problem of dangerous content, but rather to manage the public’s perception of the...
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Then and now, a creek in Northbrook
I took these two photos about 35 years apart. The top one is Winter 1985:Here's the same location on a walk I took over this past weekend:Looks like they've re-lined the banks of the creek in the interim.
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Evening news roundup
I dropped off my completed ballot this afternoon, so if Joe Biden turns out to be the devil made flesh, I can't change my vote.Tonight, the president and Joe Biden will have competing, concurrent town...
View ArticleFriday evening news roundup
It could be worse. It might yet be:Covid-19 cases have started to climb once again in the US, passing 8 million just three weeks after passing 7 million. In Illinois, we hit a second consecutive...
View ArticleRearranging things in a pandemic
McSweeny's gives you the person "in charge of the deck chairs on the Titanic, and they absolutely did need rearranging:"I am aware that the phrase “like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” has...
View ArticleLate in the evening...
I did a lot today, so I've just gotten around to these stories:The Commission on Presidential Debates announced a rule change (that, of course, the president hated) for Thursday's debate: only the...
View ArticleSure Happy It's Tuesday
After finishing a sprint review, it's nice to reset for a few minutes. So after working through lunch I have some time to catch up on these news stories:Faced with rising Covid-19 infections and...
View ArticleLong but productive Wednesday
I cracked the code on an application rewrite I last attempted in 2010, so I've spent a lot of my copious free time the past week working on it. I hope to have more to say soon, but software takes time....
View ArticleJonah Goldberg goes there
With apologies to Radio Netherlands, Goldberg hits Jeffrey Toobin's latest HR incident with frequency until it hertz:There’s been a lot of handwringing—so to speak—about Toobin, the New Yorker’s legal...
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