Events

I mentioned that the weather today is amazing, but yesterday's was also pretty good (if a bit humid). Cassie and I walked about 18 km throughout the day and spent most of the rest of the day outside. But Cassie's day started pretty well even before we set out: Sadly, neither of us could get to the last little bit of peanut butter at the bottom of the jar. (I labeled it "dog" because no one wants to get her peanut butter confused with the jar for people.) We trundled off to the Horner Park DFA early in...

The Democratic National Convention opened today here in Chicago, so naturally that's the main topic in today's lunchtime roundup: I can barely wait until Thursday when I get to see the sparkling-clean O'Hare CTA station, freshened up for the convention. The DNC projected fun messages onto the XPOTUS's eponymous Tower from their hotel across the river. (No comment from the XPOTUS.) Vice President Kamala Harris continues to climb in the polls as people come to realize that she's the real deal and the...

Some of us chorus types went to two outdoor performances this weekend. The first, at Ravinia Park in Highland Park, was a Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Mark Knopfler's score for The Princess Bride: Then last night, many of the same people went to the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park to hear the Grant Park Symphony and a lot of other musicians perform Mahler's 8th Symphony: The only problem? Rain. At both performances, we got rained on. The rains ended early, fortunately, and at Ravinia...

Last weekend, California governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced that the San Francisco-San Jose heavy commuter rail line had entered the late 19th century (in a good way): On Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority named its new CEO, Ian Choudri – and today, Choudri joined Governor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco to help celebrate the debut of Caltrain’s new electrified train fleet that will transform rail service in the Bay Area and play a key role in California’s high-speed rail system. The...

Jennifer Rubin adds her voice to the growing chorus warning that the XPOTUS doesn't seem to have even a full Euchre deck: Trump seems unable to handle reality. His opponent is beating him by multiple metrics, especially crowd size. In response, he posted several obvious lies on Truth Social, claiming that “nobody was there” and that photos and video of Vice President Kamala Harris’s crowds were AI-generated (our own reporters were eyewitnesses to the event). Trump might be conditioning voters for...

As I wait for a build pipeline to run, I'm reading these: Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus argues that the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity doesn't shield the XPOTUS from the most serious charges he faces. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a professor of Thai politics, sees recent events in Thailand as heralds of the coming end of the monarchy's control. Why do people just stop dating? Finally, author John Scalzi doesn't want you to idolize authors—especially not him: Enjoy the art...

National Geographic examines the characteristics that make some cities better bets than others for surviving climate change: Immigrants tend to migrate to neighborhoods that meet their cultural and linguistic needs, but the exodus of climate migrants to Buffalo wasn’t solely due to that established community. Months before Maria struck, the city’s mayor declared Buffalo a “climate refuge city,” noting that Buffalo has, “… a tremendous opportunity as our climate changes.” Since then, the city has...

I had painters in my house yesterday and today, and this morning I finally got chased out of my office for a bit. That meant I had more to do this afternoon, which meant I didn't get a chance to read much. Which is only to say, regular posting resumes tomorrow.

I have painters painting and I'm coding code today, so I'm just noting a couple of interesting stories for later: The New York Times explains how the warming climate could send seven systems over the tipping point into unrecoverable damage. Bloomberg CityLab climbs through the $80 million effort to make Chicago's Merchandise Mart last another 90 years. National governments trying to protect their own railroads have derailed private cross-EU night-train service, hurting passengers. The City of Chicago...

Yesterday, Cassie and I walked 16.4 km (just over 10 miles), including a 10 km walk that I'd planned only to be a bit less than 7 km. I wanted to stop by Ravinia Brewing's Logan Square taproom, but alas, when we got there, the patio was closed. So we went to Burning Bush instead. In all, we spent most of the day outside in the perfect weather. We'll do more of the same today, just not quite as much walking. Another brewery that didn't make the cut for the Brews & Choos Project—it's too far from the...