More stuff to read
Even though there are about 58 hours left in the year, I still have work to do. Meanwhile, a few things to read have crossed my RSS feeds:Maybe I should retire to Ecuador?538.com lists the best and...
View ArticleRats
I spent an hour and a half this morning dealing with an engine failure light on my car. Since I just got it back from having a repair done yesterday, the warning light ("Engine malfunction! Get to a...
View Article2016 in numbers
Welcome to another of my annual traditions: the stats dump.In 2016:Traveling was way, way down over previous years. I only visited one foreign country (the UK) and took only 15 flights all year. That...
View ArticleNot entirely surprising real estate news
The first brick-and-mortar Sears store, which closed this past fall, will become apartments and a giant liquor store by next year:Chicago developer Springbank Capital Advisors has purchased the old...
View ArticleKilling Sears and selling the parts for scrap
Now that Eddie Lampert has killed Sears almost with his bare hands, he's selling the best bits off. The Craftsman brand of tools is probably the most respected piece of the formerly-august company, so...
View ArticleLong day...
The last two days, I've been in meetings more than 7 hours each. I'm a little fried. Meanwhile, the following have popped up for me to read over the weekend:Making people reveal their real names stops...
View ArticlePity the poor Trump investors
You know, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone who invested in this charlatan's buildings, but still:Two signs of a slowdown in Trump's signature building have emerged: a decline in sales of condos and a...
View ArticleMandate? What mandate?
Since records began with Eisenhower's inauguration in 1953, no incoming president has had an approval rating below 50% at the start of his administration. Reagan and George HW Bush came in at 51%, and...
View ArticleHow Eddie Lampert benefits from destroying Sears
Via Crain's, Business Insider explains in detail how Eddie Lampert has structured his financial holdings so that he may benefit more from Sears' destruction than from its success:For all the problems...
View ArticleAmerican authoritarianism
I grew up in Chicago, so I have some recollection of how things were before Harold Washington's mayoral administration. Particularly under the first Mayor Daley, large sections of the city lived under...
View ArticleThanks, Obama!
Two big Obama stories today.First, the president has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence. She'll be freed in May:In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering...
View ArticleLong day, so much to read later
Tabs open but not read in my browser:Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee for Education Secretary, knows almost nothing about public schools.Trump probably knows almost nothing about NATO, but is still a...
View ArticleThird time running: warmest year ever
Not that the incoming administration cares:Marking another milestone for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016 — trouncing...
View ArticleAlready 5pm?
And I haven't fully read any of these:Amazon and BBC are co-producing a 6-hour miniseries of Good Omens. Sweet!There's a proposal in Springfield, Ill., to replace the 32-year-old Thompson Center with a...
View ArticleEven on a day off
Welcome to February, in which I hope to increase my pathetic blogging rate (currently 1.23 per day for the last 12 months). Of course, even taking a day off to catch up on things doesn't seem to be...
View ArticleLunchtime links
Stuff I'll read before rehearsal today:Senior administration officials are re-thinking their strategy after doing almost nothing correctly in their first two weeks.The "bucket with no bottom" that is...
View ArticleA few things have happened
Not exactly a slow news day:Former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions won confirmation as Attorney General of the U.S. on a 52-47 party-line vote.Meanwhile, the Senate told Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth...
View ArticleWe may know where the leaks are coming from
Diners at Mar-al-Lago overheard the President talking with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the latest in a string of idiotic security breaches he's made all by himself:As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy...
View ArticleNot posting much lately
Since December I've been the technical lead on an 18-person project at work, which has tanked my blogging frequency. I may return to my previous 3-posts-in-two-days velocity at some point. For now,...
View ArticleOpen tabs at lunchtime
Sigh:Your neighborhood affects how you age.My neighborhood is on its 6th day of record warmth.Sean Spicer demonstrated some of the administrations worst problems in one exchange.A top Blagojevich aide...
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