Events

First, continuing the thread from this morning, (Republican) columnist Jennifer Rubin neatly sums up how the Republican justices on the Supreme Court seem poised to undo Republican Party gains by over-reaching: We are, in short, on the verge of a constitutional and political tsunami. What was settled, predictable law on which millions of people relied will likely be tossed aside. The blowback likely will be ferocious. It may not be what Republicans intended. But it is coming. Next up, Washington Post...

Even though the Court probably won't release its ruling in the Mississippi anti-abortion bill until June, just about everyone has the same understanding about how it will turn out. No one seems to believe abortion will remain legal in much of the US beyond the end of this term. My guess: Justice Amy Coney Barrett (R) writing the opinion for a 5-4 Court with an unusual number of concurrences and dissents. If the Court overturns or significantly curtails Roe v Wade, it will be one of the rare times that...

This is worth an hour of your time:

We've just completed Sprint 50 at my day job, which included upgrading our codebase to .NET 6 and adding a much-desired feature to our administration tools. Plus, we wrote code to analyze 500,000 emails from a public dataset for stress testing one of our product's features. Not bad for a six-day sprint. The sun is out, and while I don't hear a lot of birds singing, I do see a lot of squirrels gathering walnuts from the tree across the street. It's also an unseasonably warm 7°C at Inner Drive Technology...

Cassie and I took a walk by Montrose Harbor on Sunday afternoon at just the right time: And yesterday, at my downtown office, I also got the timing right: Winter begins tomorrow, but we can still enjoy the last few days of autumn.

Welcome to stop #66 on the Brews and Choos project—and the final stop on the Union Pacific North Line! Brewery: Cultivate by Forbidden Root, 4710 N. Ravenswood Ave.Train line: Union Pacific North, RavenswoodTime from Chicago: 19 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: across the street Until July 2020, Band of Bohemia occupied the space directly across from the Ravenswood Metra station that Forbidden Root has taken over. Band of Bohemia became the world's first Michelin-starred brewpub in 2018, so...

A group of pub-goers in Yorkshire got trapped with an Oasis cover band after freak snowfall made the area impassible: Dozens of people, mostly strangers, spent the weekend snowed in together at the remote pub after heavy snowfall blocked the exits. The Tan Hill Inn, which calls itself the U.K.'s highest pub, was hosting the band Noasis when snowfall made leaving the area dangerous for staff, musicians and pub-goers. So they stayed — and stayed and stayed — all weekend, waiting for the danger to pass....

Welcome to stop #65 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Public Craft Brewing, 716 58th St., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 800 m As our music director sometimes says with a pained look on his face, "there were a lot of good things in there." So with Public Craft Brewing, which seemed entirely the opposite in many ways from Rustic Road just around the corner. The high ceilings and well-lit seating area felt a...

I give you the Cut Stone pizza-oven fire truck: If I hadn't had a big Caesar salad, and (I admit) some mozz sticks, I would totally have grabbed one of their pizzas. They will return to Kenosha's streets in the spring.

Welcome to stop #64 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Rustic Road Brewing, 5706 6th Ave., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 900 m Kenosha, Wis., is the end of the line for the Metra Union Pacific North Line. It takes a while to get up there, longer than to any other Metra station. (The South Shore Line isn't a Metra railroad.) Plus, the weekday train schedules make a day trip nigh impossible Monday to Friday....