Events

It's a beautiful fall Sunday in Chicago. Except the Bears lost to the Packers. Oh well.

Yesterday morning, someone set fire to the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in Aurora, Ill., effectively shutting down half the country's aviation: Brian Howard, 36, remains hospitalized with self-inflicted wounds following the incident that grounded nearly 2,000 flights in Chicago and wreaked havoc on air travel nationwide. He is expected to survive. The effects of the fire will continue to be felt at both Chicago airports through the weekend as stranded travelers scramble to find seats on...

And it's 5pm. And I'm still working on Thursday's work. Ex-cellent! While I'm figuring out what part of the week I missed, read about how a group photographers explored subterranean London.

Last night I got to see the Cubs win their home closer. I'll have photos this weekend. After the game I played a game of Euchre at a local pub, and got dealt an extraordinary: Right bower, left bower, trump ace, trump king, off ace. This hand is literally the second-best hand possible in the game. (Having trump queen instead of an off ace would be best.*) I made only one mistake: instead of slamming down all five cards at once and grinning stupidly, I slammed down the top four cards, grinned stupidly...

CityLabs' Laura Bliss wonders if straight-sided pint glasses should go away: Let's start at the beginning. A shaker glass was, and is, the 16-ounce glass half of a Boston cocktail shaker. They've been stocked behind bars for mixing drinks since the early 20th century, long before their takeover of American draft, as if waiting in the wings. Enter the post-War years, a time when American beer entered a long, steady decline. Prohibition had forced the vast majority of small breweries out of business...

A friend living in Greensboro, N.C., flagged a Times article about North Carolina's struggling to deal with the influx of northern progressives: Last year, aided by a new Republican governor, Pat McCrory, the legislature enacted one of the most far-reaching conservative agendas in the country, passing a “flattened” income tax that gives big breaks to the wealthy as well as new rules that limit access to voting, expand rights for gun owners and add restrictions for abortion providers. And yet, in a tight...

Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel explains, it depends: No doubt today (September 22) will be announced as the “first day of fall” because of the fall or autumnal equinox. However, that concept refers to the date when we get equal amounts of daylight and dark. Climatologists and meteorologists prefer to use calendar months to define the four seasons in the US. For example, fall would start September 1 and end on November 30. Not only is this more convenient, because you can use monthly data, but it...

Poor Parker. I picked him up from boarding yesterday afternoon, and he had to go back again this morning. I've got a one-day trip to Pittsburgh early tomorrow morning. So not a lot of time at home. Today's lighter at work than any last week, fortunately. Just prepping for tomorrow. I'm hoping for a more regular, Chicago-based schedule once my project kicks off again.

My friend is getting married in just over four hours, right around the time some weather is due to move in. So I'm going for a walk while I can. Yesterday I took the hotel desk clerk's recommendation for lunch at Greenbush Brewery in Sawyer, Mich. Yum, both to the food and to the beer. I'm looking forward to having more of the latter back home.

Via Scott Kelby: