Death seems certain
McSweeney's channels Lovecraft—at Olive Garden:Cheese RavioliA homogeneity characterized its flaxen cast. Bubbling sacks of slime upon a platter scorching. Beware! Doused in the pureed remains of a...
View ArticleThe last post of the summer
Meteorological summer ends in just a few hours here in Chicago. Pity; it's been a decent one (for us; not so much for the Western US). I have a couple of things to read this afternoon while waiting for...
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Bog-standard August
Despite record temperatures in late spring, Illinois had a perfectly average August, which the state climatologist for some reason refers to as "mild:"May kicked off summer early in Illinois with a...
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A 43% marathon?
As I feared, yesterday my body really did not want to walk a full 42.2 km marathon. In fact, around 14 km, I decided to turn around and get a beer:I maintained a great pace, though: 8'54" per kilometer...
View ArticleIs it Monday?
I took Friday off, so it felt like Saturday. Then Saturday felt like Sunday, Sunday felt like another Saturday, and yesterday was definitely another Sunday. Today does not feel like Tuesday.Like most...
View ArticleFine dam friends in the West
A farmer in northeastern Nevada has capitulated to the "highly skilled environmental engineers" beavering away on his property:Last year, when Nevada suffered one of the worst droughts on record,...
View ArticleLong live King Charles III
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96:Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, has died.Prince Charles, heir to the throne since the age of three, is now king, and...
View ArticleGod save our gracious King
With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the British National Anthem has changed back to "God Save the King" for the third time in 185 years. In other news:The Guardian explains Elizabeth's funeral and...
View ArticleBut her emails!
The Washington Post Fact Checker digs deep into the allegations of mishandling classified material against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and finds, nah, she good:The Justice Department...
View ArticleNotable Friday afternoon stories
Just a few before I take a brick to my laptop for taking a damned half-hour to reformat a JSON file:The King has a long history of meddling in architecture and urban planning, with the divisive planned...
View ArticleThe BUSINESS of baseball
Major League Baseball owners, over the objection of players, have made more rules changes trying to turn America's Pastime into something it never should become:Major League Baseball passed a sweeping...
View ArticleProcess crimes vs intentional crimes
Writing as a guest of James Fallows, former defense official Jan Lodal outlines how subparagraph (d) of the Espionage Act should be a slam-dunk in prosecuting the XPOTUS:This paragraph makes a...
View ArticleGood thing there's an El
My commute to work Friday might get a little longer, as Metra has announced that 9 out of its 11 lines (including mine) would likely not operate if railroad engineers and conductors go on strike...
View ArticleRail strike more likely
Chicago's heavy-rail commuter district, Metra, started cancelling train service that would extend past the midnight-Friday start time of the planned nationwide rail strike. Well, taking the El to work...
View ArticleStrike averted
The President announced this morning that negotiators have reached a tentative deal between the railroads and their engineers and conductors, averting tonight's planned strike:Freight rail companies...
View ArticleHappy Friday, with its 7pm sunset
It happens every September in the mid-latitudes: one day you've got over 13 hours of daylight and sunsets around 7:30, and two weeks later you wake up in twilight and the sun sets before dinnertime. In...
View ArticleNot a perfect queue, but a great queue
Wired examines the art and science of managing an 8-kilometer, 14-hour queue:At its peak, the queue has snaked 5 miles across the capital, with an estimated 14-hour wait. When it reached capacity and...
View ArticleWhere to go in cooler weather
Go hiking!It’s not “purple mountains majesty” for hiking, Jason King knows, but Illinois, Indiana and southern Wisconsin, are not without charm — they’re free, they’re close, their trails are...
View ArticleHow is it 5:30?
I've had two parallel tasks today, one of them involving feeding 72 people on Saturday. The other one involved finishing a major feature for work. Both seem successful right now but need testing with...
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Furniture for sale
I don't usually post anything too personal here, but in this case, I have a financial incentive to do so.For sale: one 18th-century armoire. Measures 82" H, 59" W, 20" D. Disassembles into four pieces....
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