Events

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to the US Treasury Secretary) Kwasi Kwarteng (Cons.) announced significant tax cuts along with £72 billion in new spending to forestall higher energy bills this winter. Unfortunately, this massive stimulus comes during some of the highest inflation the UK has seen in a generation, estimated to be nearly 10% annualized as of this week. Consequence? This, as of just a few minutes ago: Sterling hasn't gone below $1.10 since 1985, and it probably won't again during...

I'm movin' out. A lovely young couple have offered to buy Inner Drive World Headquarters v5.0, and the rest of the place along with it. I've already gotten through the attorney-review period for IDTWHQ v6.0, so this means I'm now more likely than not to move house next month. Which means I have even less time to read stuff like this: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) has withdrawn from the Daily Herald candidate forum after the Herald's publisher allowed a right-wing Republican group to use its mail...

I don't usually post anything too personal here, but in this case, I have a financial incentive to do so. For sale: one 18th-century armoire. Measures 82" H, 59" W, 20" D. Disassembles into four pieces. I believe it's walnut or similar European hardwood. $1500 or best offer. Also for sale: one mid-20th-century drop-leaf table. 27½" H, 42" W, 24" L leaves down and 47" W leaves up. Also walnut or similar (I'm not sure.) $150. If you're interested, leave a comment. You pick them up from the Uptown...

I've had two parallel tasks today, one of them involving feeding 72 people on Saturday. The other one involved finishing a major feature for work. Both seem successful right now but need testing with real users. Meanwhile, outside my little world: The XPOTUS seems to have backed himself into a corner by lying about "declassifying" things psychically, after the Special Master that he asked for called bullshit. Greg Sargent has thoughts. Pro Publica reported on Colorado's halfway-house system that sends...

Go hiking! It’s not “purple mountains majesty” for hiking, Jason King knows, but Illinois, Indiana and southern Wisconsin, are not without charm — they’re free, they’re close, their trails are uncongested and they offer a solace and beauty all their own. “I love Illinois, I’ve lived here all my life. If you like simplicity, if you like the feel of the wind blowing through the trees … there’s no place better,” King said. One of King’s favorite solo hikes to “get the world behind me” is about 90 minutes...

Wired examines the art and science of managing an 8-kilometer, 14-hour queue: At its peak, the queue has snaked 5 miles across the capital, with an estimated 14-hour wait. When it reached capacity and closed on Friday, people defied government advice and formed a separate queue for the queue. Such scenes are remarkable—but they’re not unprecedented. When George VI—Queen Elizabeth II’s father—died in February 1952, 300,000 people filed past his coffin in St. George’s Chapel over the course of three days....

I love this, but I have to ask: why did the Post do this, and not the Tribune or Block Club Chicago? As an adopted Chicagoan and longtime John Hughes devotee, I’ve always wondered whether it’s possible to do everything Ferris accomplished as he dodges school in the 1986 film. He knocks out a trip to the top of the Sears Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade, a fancy French lunch, a Cubs game, the Art Institute, the Von Steuben Day parade and the beach, then races on foot through his North Shore suburb to...

I do love traveling Saturday mid-days, because it's the quietest time at O'Hare. There was no line at the Pre-Check security gate, and I only have a backpack, so it took less than 3 minutes to clear TSA. Wonderful. Unfortunately, every single economy parking space has a car in it. (I would have taken public transit but I had a meeting run until 12:30, with a 3pm flight. Couldn't risk the 90 minutes or so.) In any event, my plane is here, it appears to be on time, and the latest weather is VFR the whole...

I'm heading to North Carolina this afternoon, so I probably won't post much this weekend. The forecast for Durham looks even better than for Chicago. I had hoped to (finally!) take in a Bulls game tomorrow, but it appears they will be in Gwinnett, Ga., which is a bit of a drive.

It happens every September in the mid-latitudes: one day you've got over 13 hours of daylight and sunsets around 7:30, and two weeks later you wake up in twilight and the sun sets before dinnertime. In fact, Chicago loses 50 minutes of evening daylight and an hour-twenty overall from the 1st to the 30th. We get it all back in March, though. Can't wait. Speaking of waiting: Buckingham Palace just warned people that the queue to see Queen Elizabeth's coffin has a 24-hour wait at the moment, so...dress...