Events

What's the ugliest thing you can do to a downtown city? Cut down all the buildings and put up a parking lot: This seems kind of obvious, doesn't it? But then again, about 800 years ago someone cut down the last tree on Easter Island, so it's hard to underestimate the ability of people to make good decisions about land use.

Yesterday I mentioned three things that weren't connected except they all ended recently. This morning Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal has an op-ed about one of them: HomeMade Pizza Co. was in the right business and exactly the wrong place. We consumers indeed are buying more fresh prepared meals to eat at home or elsewhere, like the take-and-bake pizzas HomeMade hawked from 1997 until its abrupt closing Friday. These kinds of meals have become a $26 billion business in this country and are...

This is overdue, but I'm very happy about it: When Santa Barbara startup FindTheBest (FTB) was sued by a patent troll called Lumen View last year, it vowed to fight back rather than pay up the $50,000 licensing fee Lumen was asking for. Company CEO Kevin O'Connor made it personal, pledging $1 million of his own money to fight the legal battle. Now the judge overseeing the case has ruled (PDF) that it's Lumen View, not FindTheBest, that should have to pay [FTB's $200,000 legal] expenses. In a...

Three unrelated passings this weekend: Chicago's NHL Blackhawks ended their season last night, losing 5-4 in overtime to the L.A. Kings. It's always nice when a Chicago sports team makes it to the post-season, and also disappointing when they don't make the finals. The Kings will play the New York Rangers for the Stanley Cup. Chicago-based HomeMade Pizza Co., started in 1997, abruptly ceased operations Friday, closing all their stores and online presence without notice. When the chain first started, it...

My dad just sent me this. His comment: "This was done by somebody who either has Asperger's or way, way too much time on his hands." Yah, but it's cool, right? What is not so cool is that the Kings are up 4-3 with 17 left in the 3rd. If none of that makes any sense to you, clearly you don't care about hockey or Chicago sports.

It's the end of May, and the weather matches. I pushed some software into production this morning, which is already more productivity than necessary on a day like this. Forget it. I'm going outside. See you in June.

Since the Cubs' 8-4 win over the Giants on Monday, they haven't gotten a run in 20 innings. That may have something to do with them being the worst team in the MLB today. Yes, at 19-32, they're behind Arizona (23-33), Houston (23-32), and Tampa Bay (23-31), and 26 other teams. Hully gee. Only 105 games left to play this year...

Crain's reported this morning that the Divvy bike-share program lost $150k on $2.2 million in revenue last year: Though the operating loss is not unexpected, and the amount is relatively small, it comes at a time when Mr. Emanuel is under intense pressure to cut costs and avoid tax increases. The bicycle-sharing program has not yet reached many neighborhoods, reinforcing a view that Divvy is merely a toy for yuppies and tourists. With the program expected to ramp up this year, achieving profitability is...

I appreciate my friends getting 5th-row seats at AT&T park tonight. And yet, the Cubs still lost. So, voilà: To clarify: I was legitimately surprised that my friends got such awesome seats. I was not surprised that, having won yesterday, the Cubs lost tonight.

I enjoy a healthy dose of randomness when traveling, because it means sometimes you get a hotel room with this view: It's hard to see, but I'm looking directly at AT&T Park, where the Cubs are playing in about two hours. Since they won last night, I fully expect they've used up their allotted runs for the rest of May, but it will still be fun to see a baseball game.