A hot time in the old town tonight

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, which burned for two days and left 100,000 people homeless. But only for a short time; by 1874, when the city had a second big fire, our population had already grown by about that number.

Flash forward to now:

• Time Out rated Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood second-coolest in the world, after Nørrebro, Copenhagen, and beating out Leith in Edinburgh; Chelsea in New York City; and Dublin 8, just to name three.
• A pre-pandemic article from the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) provides some context about why the Australian Navy decided to sink its deal with France in favor of buying submarines from the US and UK. Hint: Australians do not like people coming 15 minutes late to 30-minute meetings.
• CTA Red Line service paused briefly this week when a huge crane toppled into an alley. One person had minor injuries. No word on whether the mishap will set back the RPM project at all.
• David Brooks warns against the essentialist mindset, but of course someone like him would. (That was a joke, y'all.)
• Andrew Sullivan defends Dave Chappelle.

Finally, last night I attended an actual live theater performance for the first time in 19 months, and it was amazeballs. If you live in Chicago, right now you need to go to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater website and buy tickets to As You Like It, which plays through November 21st.