Events

I'm sitting in Heathrow Terminal 5 watching planes take off and hoping space opens up in the pay-as-you-go lounge. Wow, do I miss having airline status. Obviously posting will be light today. Tomorrow I hope to get my annual Parker Day photo, just a few days late.

Apparently Josef Ratzinger, who resigned from being Pope, seems not to understand how resignations actually work: Ever since Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in six centuries to abdicate the papacy, transitioning to a life of near seclusion in a Vatican City monastery, there have been questions about how the notion of two living popes would impact the Roman Catholic Church. The events of last week offer something of an answer. Although many people hoped to hear from Benedict amid new...

This is how I spent an hour of my holiday today: It's beautiful out: 21°C, mostly sunny, with a gentle breeze. But I walked that far in less than an hour, so I'm now back at my hotel to shower. Still, this is exactly how I needed to spend today.

In late 2016, someone apparently attacked American diplomats in Cuba and China with a device that caused people to hear loud sounds and experience concussion-like brain damage. Now, doctors working with the attack victims may have figured out what it was: The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the...

I mentioned earlier today (yesterday BST) that I sought the Source. Here it is: That monument marks the official head of the River Thames, though in September after a long, dry summer, there isn't a lot else that would convince you. Still, boundaries and origins have always fascinated me, so I just had to see it. Naturally, the closest pub to the monument capitalizes on its notoriety: Also just as naturally, my trip to Kemble required a totally unanticipated hour and 20 minutes in Swindon, which...well...

Today's plan is to hop a train for about an hour and 20 minutes and look for a specific monument in a field. One hopes that today I'll remember to put sunscreen on my face. It is, in fact, possible to get a sunburn in the UK in September. Details and photos tonight.

I had thought about going to see the Chelsea v Bournemouth match at Stamford Bridge today, and even tried to get tickets online for weeks. But getting an English Premier League ticket when you're not a club member is a bit like trying to get a Yankees-Red Sox ticket at Fenway day of game. I did, however, (a) see Stamford Bridge and (b) buy a shirt, so I feel a bit like I participated. On the way back, I walked through Brompton Cemetery, which, like Graceland Cemetery back home, is something very close...

My strategy of sleeping until noon (i.e., 6am Chicago time) to avoid shifting my body clock didn't exactly work this trip. That's because, unfortunately, my hotel's air conditioning is being replaced. Fortunately I'm here now, when it's 23°C, not a month ago when it was 34°C. And fortunately, my windows open. That means I had the windows wide open last night, which, unfortunately, meant the sun poured in starting around 6am. Fortunately, I have this view: And the hotel left a couple of big fans in the...

A couple of streaks ended today. First, the good one: after 221 days, I finally got to fly somewhere. That's the longest I've gone without traveling by air since 1980, or possibly earlier. Second, the bad one: after 82 days, I finally missed 10,000 steps, owing to the above-mentioned flying. That's the longest stretch of 10k-plus days I've had since getting a Fitbit. (I would have made it, too, if it weren't for those meddling time zones.) Finally, there is a crushing disappointment that I will share...

Most people starting college this year were born in 2000. Let that sink in. Then read this: They are the first class born in the new millennium, escaping the dreaded label of “Millennial,” though their new designation—iGen, GenZ, etc. — has not yet been agreed upon by them. Outer space has never been without human habitation. They have always been able to refer to Wikipedia. They have grown up afraid that a shooting could happen at their school, too. People loudly conversing with themselves in public...