Walking Cassie to day camp took a lot longer than usual this morning because the freezing rain and near-freezing temperatures after a long cold snap laid a layer of ice over nearly every sidewalk and street in Chicago. She seemed very concerned about my ability to walk, and very disappointed that we didn't take our usual detour to the bagel place to get me some coffee and her a fresh dog treat.
The "wintry mix" has stopped and the temperature has risen all the way to 1.5°C at Inner Drive Technology World HQ, so the walk home may not suck as much as the walk there.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world:
- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for 2023 Oscars, with Oppenheimer leading the pack and both Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie apparently snubbed for their work in Barbie.
- Politico takes a deep dive into the psyche of a New Hampshire primary voter who supports the XPOTUS, and finds that he's angry about everything, but he has no clear idea what he's angry about.
- The New York Times Political Memo lays out how the adolescent, schoolyard behavior of the XPOTUS towards Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R).
- Walter Shapiro bemoans the misleading and pointless political reporting covering the Republican presidential nomination.
- Ruth Marcus asks the same question I've been asking (in shocking agreement with some of my Republican friends): What the hell was Fani Willis thinking?
- David Zipper has "spent a lot of time thinking about American traffic safety messaging," and has decided that the new Federal recommendations against funny highway signs make sense.
- The city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., a charming little town on the Monterey Peninsula where people have to go to the post office to get their mail, may soon get street addresses.
- Strong Towns describes in detail how the Texas Dept of Transportation prevents people from providing input into road projects, despite claiming to welcome it.
- Chicago-based United Airlines has started grumbling openly about Chicago-based Boeing's airplanes, stopping just short of suggesting they might buy an Airbus or two.
- Crain's has a look at how much the proposed Chicago real-estate transfer tax reform will save (or cost) home buyers in different price ranges. TL;dr: It will save money for transactions under $1 million.
- Do sleep aids work? Maybe, some of them, perhaps.
Finally, we might have gotten to Peak Rat Hole. Residents of the 1900 block of West Roscoe have gotten fed up with all the people coming to see the 30-year-old dead squirrel impression on their sidewalk. Perhaps the wedding took things too far?
Welcome to stop #98 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: On Tour Brewing, 1725 W. Hubbard St., Chicago
Train line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland
Time from Chicago: 6 minutes
Distance from station: 700 m
Of the three breweries my friend and I planned to visit last Saturday, On Tour was our clear favorite. It helped that her employer has done several events there, one of which I attended before the pandemic, so we were both happy to go back. And, because there were two of us, we could try a full 5-pour flight without overtaxing our livers.
Here are our tasting notes:
- Thalia Hall Pilsner (5%, 15 IBU): malty, lingering finish, not my cup of tea but well made.
- Sleepy Fire Berlinerweißbier (4.2%, 15 IBU): I personally do not like Weißbieren., but I recognized this is a good example of the variety. My friend wanted to order a full pint after tasting it.
- Apres black lager (5.2%, 10 IBU): Very interesting, and quite good. "Almost like a stout without the motor-oil feel."
- Half Step American pale (5.7%, 45 IBU). Really hoppy, but finishes nicely. We once again had opposite reactions: she said it had a similar feel and finish to Half Acre Daisy Cutter, which she does not like, but I like Daisy Cutter and so liked Half Step.
- Mercury hazy IPA (5.5%, 20 IBU): I wrote, "why can't I form an opinion of this? It's, I guess, good? I like it? Tasting notes are eluding me. But it's a good sippin' beer. Perfectly balanced, no one flavor dominating, does its job and steps back." She had a similar opinion.
We'll definitely go back this summer.
Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Two, avoidable
Serves food? No; BYOF
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Welcome to stop #97 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co., 1800 W Fulton St., Chicago
Train line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland
Time from Chicago: 6 minutes
Distance from station: 600 m
Given Chicago's long association with Goose Island Beer, and my own review of their (now closed) flagship brewpub on Clybourn almost exactly a year ago, I haven't got much to add. Since InBev bought the brewery in 2016 and expanded to places like Seoul and Shanghai, it almost doesn't qualify as a local brewery anymore. And hey, I loved Goose Island 20 years ago. But selling to InBev really did make a difference.
But the Brews and Choos Project doesn't discriminate, so we went back to the Fulton Taproom and tried their newest beer, the No Plans Tasty Time pale ale. I wrote: "not too bad, not awesome."
And that's pretty much my review of their only remaining Chicago taproom. They plan to open a new flagship brewpub at the Salt Shed in the spring, and I'll review it in due course.
Bottom line, with a couple of truly wonderful taprooms nearby like Midwest Coast and On Tour, you can skip Goose Island and not miss anything special.
Beer garden? Patio
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Two, avoidable
Serves food? No; BYOF
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Maybe
Welcome to stop #96 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Great Central Brewing, 221 N. Wood St., Chicago
Train line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland
Time from Chicago: 6 minutes
Distance from station: 500 m
Despite the cold yesterday, a friend and I set off to the West Fulton Corridor industrial area to visit a cluster of three breweries all within a few hundred meters of each other. First on the list: Great Central Brewing.
We liked the place, though it really leans into the "industrial" part of the corridor, with a cavernous interior and washrooms three flights up.
Still, we liked their beers. The dry-hopped Pilsner (5%) was nice: dry, not too malty, good finish. The West Coast IPA (6.5%) had a great hop mix and a long finish, with a hint of banana. We judged it "very good." And the Kick Push Hazy IPA (7.2%), a collaboration with Perch, was dryer than most hazies, with lots of banana, a bit of apple and apricot, and lingering bitterness.
We also liked that, by sharing three 150 mL pours, we barely dented our capacity for trying beers at our next two planned stops.
Beer garden? Rooftop planned, not yet open
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? One, avoidable
Serves food? No; BYOF
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
I grabbed a friend for a couple of Brews & Choos visits yesterday, and through judicious moderation (8-10 oz of beer per person at each stop), we managed to get the entire West Fulton Corridor cluster done in six hours. So in a few minutes I'll start writing four B&C reviews, which will come out over the next three days.
Before I start, though, I'm going to read all these stories that have piled up since Friday:
Finally, the Roscoe Rat (really a squirrel) Hole got its own NPR story this morning. And in my social media I saw a photo of someone proposing to her boyfriend at the rat hole. Color me bemused.
Wow, is this a Chicago story.
On January 6th, a local comedian posted a photo of what he thought was the impression of a rat in concrete on a Chicago street. (Local residents claim it's actually the death mask of a very unfortunate squirrel that fell from a tree into the wet concrete decades ago.) Quickly dubbed the "Chicago rat hole," it went viral, and so far thousands of people have made pilgrimage to 1918 W. Roscoe St. to see it.
Well, yesterday, some jagoff filled it in with "a plaster-like substance." But fear not! Locals rushed to its rescue in a way one can only hope they rescued the original artist:
NBC5 reported the rat-shaped sidewalk hole near near 1918 W. Roscoe St. was filled in with a “concrete-like material.”
t’s not clear who has a problem with the rat hole and doesn’t want us to have nice things, but Lakeview neighbor Johnathan Howell grabbed his license plate and went to work digging out the hole, NBC Sports’ Alex Shapiro reported. Other neighbors joined in, using other small tools to help.
By early afternoon, the hole looked mostly back to normal, though remnants remained of the filling, melted snow and slush.
The material used to fill in the rat hole appeared to be some type of plaster or modeling clay. Neighbors who had made a pilgrimage to the rat hole during their Friday lunch were relieved the desecration of the landmark was not permanent, they said.
The Lakeview Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce launched a contest last week to come up with a nickname. The five finalists:
- Lil’ Stucky
- Splatatouille
- Splat
- Roscoe Road-dent
- Dibs
You know, as a student of history, I always wondered why people spent most of the 1920s and 1930s chasing silly fads. (Woody Allen nailed this phenomenon in his 1983 film Zelig.)
So here we are: a beloved Chicago fad, defiled by a spoilsport (my money's on Streets and Sanitation), rescued by neighbors. That's us.
Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Olkd Stove Brewinig, 1901 Western Ave., Seattle
Train line: Sound Transit, University St
Time from Chicago: about 4 hours by air
Distance from station: 400 m
Except for picking the coldest weekend in years to visit Seattle, I enjoyed the Pike Place Market a lot. At its north end I found the Old Stone Brewing Co., with a view of the Puget Sound that would have knocked my socks off if doing so wouldn't immediately have led to frostbite. Even being inside a place with "Stove" in its name didn't help as Seattle buildings generally don't approach insulation the same way Chicago buildings do. Nice views, though.
Still, spending $18 and 90 minutes in the place kept me warm and got me an extra 75 pages through the excellent polemic I'm reading, Cory Doctorow's The Lost Cause. (I should finish it today on the plane.)
They have two brewer's-choice flight options plus a DIY option. I didn't feel like having 6 beers s I chose 5 from their long list and sipped. From left to right: the Old Stove Pilsner (4.2%, 35 IBU), the Streaker Citra pale (5.7%, 30 IBU), their flagship Two Pronged Crown IPA (6.66%, 53 IBU), the No One Knows hazy IPA (6.2%, 25 IBU), and the Dark Passage American stout (7%, 46 IBU). All tasted great, and I'd drink any of them if presented. I liked the No One Knows the best. The stout was less stout and more dry than anticipated, but still good enough to finish the 100 mL sample.
Next time I'm in Seattle, I'll choose a warm, dry day to sit outside this place with a full pint. Possibly my friend's dog, too.
Beer garden? Yes, looking over Puget Sound!
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Two, avoidable, but only showing 1950s through 1970s beer commercials
Serves food? Full pub menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Welcome to stop #95 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Revolution Brewery & Taproom, 3340 N. Kezie Ave., Chicago
Train line: CTA Blue Line, Belmont
Time from Chicago: 18 minutes
Distance from station: 700 m
Revolution's main brewing facility and taproom is the granddaddy of independent Chicago breweries. I've already reviewed their brewpub (about 2½ km from the taproom), and longtime readers know I like their beer a lot. So this Brews & Choos stop was more about checking in at an old favorite than trying new beers.
I had a Hazy Hero IPA (7.3%), one of my favorites and one of their best-sellers, and I think the same one I had when I reviewed the brewpub. My friend, however, ordered the Ryeway to Heaven barrel-aged rye wine (15%) along with one of their less-deadly beers. Wow. I would love to try that again, but only in small doses. So much flavor!
I only have one complaint, that the area around Belmont and Kedzie isn't really fun to walk through. The taproom is only a ten-minute walk from the Belmont Blue Line stop, though, so unless you're buying cases of beer, you don't need to drive there.
Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? None
Serves food? Snack menu
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Billionaire Bill Ackerman lobbied Harvard's board hard to get president Claudine Gay fired last month, harping on her plagiarism as a key reason she wasn't fit for the job. Business Insider then published two stories alleging what looks like even worse plagiarism by Neri Oxman—Ackerman's wife. So Ackerman did what any self-deceiving, childish, hypocritical billionaire would do: he leaned on the paper's publisher. Because of course he did:
At one point, Ackman wrote that a Harvard student who committed “much less” plagiarism than Claudine Gay would be forced out of the university. Gay resigned from the presidency last week.
But when Business Insider raised plagiarism concerns about his wife’s work, Ackman excoriated the publication, accusing it of unethical journalism, promising to review its writers’ work and predicting that it would “go bankrupt and be liquidated.” In one social media post, he implied that Business Insider’s investigations editor (whom he called “a known anti-Zionist”) may have been “willing to lead this attack” because Oxman is Israeli.
Neither Ackman nor Oxman, whose companies didn’t respond to requests for comment, have pointed to any factual errors in the articles.
Still, Ackman’s complaints seemed to get the attention of Axel Springer, the German media giant that owns Business Insider. On Sunday, the company released an unusual statement saying it would “review the processes” that led up to the articles’ publication, while acknowledging that the stories were not factually wrong.
While Ackman hasn’t raised factual issues with the articles, he has claimed that the outlet didn’t give him and his wife enough time to comment on the second story, about Wikipedia plagiarism, with a space of roughly two hours on late Friday afternoon between when his spokesman was asked for comment and when the story was published. But Ackman first went public with the Wikipedia allegations roughly an hour before the story was published by posting on social media about the impending article, which may have affected Business Insider’s publication schedule.
Cryptocurrency researcher (the good kind) and Wikipedia mega-editor Molly White the Tweet in question apart line by line:
What is it with these guys? I have to wonder if kvetching about how unfairly the world treats you is a prerequisite for amassing a huge fortune. They do tend to project a lot, don't they, these billionaires?
Part of me finds this sort of thing hilarious, another part finds it sad, and yet I have to remember that these whiny babies have a lot of money and the power that goes with it. Not being able to take criticism, especially when one is a public figure and one continually inserts oneself into public discourse, seems like weakness to me. Maybe that's why they get so agitated: deep down, they know the truth backing up their critics.
Welcome to stop #94 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Hopewell Brewing, 2760 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
Train line: CTA Blue Line, Logan Square
Time from Chicago: 16 minutes
Distance from station: 400 m
The second stop on the "research expedition" my friend and I took on Saturday didn't excite us as much as BiXi or Revolution. My friend decided that Hopewell is what you get when you tell an AI to design a Logan Square taproom. She's not wrong.
We tried six beers—well, I tried five, because I really don't like göse—and compared notes:
- Lightbeam hazy IPA (6.3%): nice, light, fruity, good finish; my favorite
- As If West Coast DIPA (7.5%: Pow! Huge hops, big flavor, a little banana, clean finish
- Long Shadows winter IPA (7.5%): a little syrupy, a bit heavy, not our favorite
- Ride or Die pale (5.5%): good balance, nice acidity, very drinkable; my friend's favorite
- Going Places IPA (6.8%): Lager, malty, syrupy, apricot, very good
- Table Salt göse (4.5%): A hint of saltiness, and the cardamom gives it a unique flavor
So, it's not bad, but it's not someplace either of us particularly felt like seeing again. At one point I mused that it would be much more welcoming if they lined the ceiling with anechoic tiles, but loud is in vogue these days. On to the next stop.
Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? None
Serves food? No, BYOF
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Maybe
Would go back? Maybe