The Daily Parker

I took the dramatic beagle and Cassie to Spiteful* yesterday afternoon. Butters got more pats than Cassie did. Perhaps it's this face?

This afternoon we took a half-hour walk through the local park because the weather is absolutely perfect. Whenever I stopped to try to photograph the two dogs, they immediately went in separate directions, so this is the best I could do:

The girls are now sunning themselves on my front porch, I'm up in my office coding away, and I've got chicken soup going in the slow cooker. It's definitely autumn.

* I really ought to update that Brews & Choos review...

I just got back from a 45-minute walk with Cassie, in which we covered 4.95 km (just over 3 miles) at a pace that Butters could never in a dog's age keep up for that long. According to my doorbell camera, Butters raised four objections to this at roughly 10-minute intervals, fortunately none of which lasted longer than 40 seconds. And she appeared to forgive me when we got back.

We're now heading to Spiteful for a little while. All of us will go. It can take 20 minutes to get there if Butters so desires.

I would apologize to my immediate neighbors, except the one to the north moved out recently, and the one to the south has a 4-year-old boy. Let's compare Butters bellowing for 4 minutes against the little boy refusing to eat for an hour, shall we?

I also made some progress this morning on the replacement for this blog software. Some of the fiddly bits are behind me, but some, including how to handle images, are ahead of me. But I hope to have the minimum viable product in a public test environment before the end of the year. Here's hoping.

So many things passed through my inbox in the last day and a half:

• The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that an assistant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was observed over the weekend discussing plans over Signal with an aide to Reichsminister Stephen Miller to send the 82nd Airborne to Portland.
• Paul Krugman breaks from his usual economics beat to lambast the OAFPOTUS and his Reichskabinett der Nationalen Rettung for the horrifying ICE raid* on a Chicago apartment building last week: "What do we learn from the Chicago apartment raid plus the growing number of incidents in which ICE agents have physically attacked people who posed no conceivable threat? To me, it says that even 'alarmists' who warned about the threat a Trump administration would pose to democracy underestimated just how evil this administration would be."
• Adam Kinzinger draws a straight line between the OAFPOTUS really, really not wanting anyone to read the Epstein files and the Republicans' not caring really one whit about "protecting kids."
• Jamelle Bouie suggests that if Hegseth and the OAFPOTUS want to see "the enemy within," they should glance at the nearest mirror. Jen Rubin concurs.
• In his latest column on the OAFPOTUS's bullshit, Glenn Kessler mocks the TACO King for "crying 'witch hunt' while stirring the cauldron."
• Josh Marshall applauds California governor Gavin Newsom and Illinois governor JB Pritzker for being willing to use the power they have to prevent the rending of our nation.
• Matt Yglesias wants to shake some sense into the "groups" who have clearly learned nothing from Kamala Harris's embarrassing loss last November.
• Pilot and journalist James Fallows once again reminds people that it's safe to fly during a government shutdown. Of course, since all the air-traffic control trainers were furloughed...
• The Times has yet another essay about craft breweries shutting down because there are just too darn many of them. (Since the Brews & Choos Project started in February 2020, 22 of the 146 breweries I've visited have closed—plus another 7 I didn't get to.)

Finally, Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford goes over the numbers: September was warm and very dry. October is shaping up to be as well, despite the forecast calling for rain tonight and cooler temperatures through Saturday.

* Seriously, doesn't anyone in ICE realize that people will talk about them 30 years from now the way we talk today about the Schutzstaffel?

I spent yesterday afternoon reading and relaxing with Cassie. As we had near-record warmth (31°C at O'Hare, 28°C at Inner Drive Technology WHQ), we spent the day mostly outside. The highlight for Cassie may have been the woman who gave her a couple of fries before her partner and toddler arrived. Cassie's lowlight might have been unsuccessfully trying to psychically will the toddler to toss a couple of fries in her direction:

Back home, I've inadvertently taken in a boarder. This orb weaver has been hanging outside my kitchen window for the past week or so:

For scale, she's about 12-13 mm (½ in) fangs to spinner, and about 25 mm (1 in) all spread out as above. She looks like a neoscona crucifera, which is very common in the area. I hope she's getting all the food she needs. I'll let you know when her eggs hatch, though I haven't yet located her egg sac.

Tomorrow is, quite unexpectedly, October. Though the official temperature at O'Hare has not hit 32°C since August 16th, our weather has remained stubbornly summer-like. The 16-day forecast suggests the weather will continue as far as the model can predict, and may see 32°C as early as this weekend. That will make my Friday plans a bit more challenging as my Brews & Choos buddy has gotten over Covid and we're all set to walk to Lake Bluff then.

For my part, I am experiencing a very rare side effect of the Moderna MRNA vaccine: a persistent, metallic taste on the tip of my tongue. Its incidence is apparently something approaching less than 1 in 10,000, but it appears to be harmless and to clear up on its own. I have never had this side-effect from the Pfizer vaccine. I will request Pfizer again next year. Bleah. I'll let everyone know if I start growing a giant spike protein on my forehead.

Meanwhile, the OAFPOTUS has threatened to send 100 more troops to Chicago, a city which has something like 12,000 sworn police officers already. But it's kind of hard to take the regime seriously when this sort of thing happens. Or this sort of thing. Or this sort of thing.

As Joe Biden said five years ago yesterday, "Will you shut up, man?"

Welcome to stop #133 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Pilot Project Brewing, 3473 N Clark, Chicago
Train line: CTA Red Line, Addison
Time from Chicago: 18 minutes
Distance from station: 450 m

Even though Pilot Project doesn't actually brew beer at their new Wrigleyville location, thus technically not being eligible for the Brews & Choos list, I liked the place enough and found it a little oasis in the maelstrom surrounding Wrigley Field, so I'm overruling my own rules. It helped that my Brews Buddy and I had just come up from the Guinness Brew Pub Experience in Fulton Market so were ready for interesting beer and a less-corporatized environment. It also helped that the Boston terrier at the next table kept making googly eyes at me. (Of course, Boston terriers don't really have any other kind of eyes, but I digress.)

Pilot Project, like District Brew Yards, operates as a contract brewery for startup breweries. As such, they don't really do flights, and some of the beers they produce only come in cans. Consequently my Brews Buddy and I only tried one beer each. The Brewer's Kitchen Two Falls New England IPA (6.5%) looked and tasted more like a hazy, but hoppier. My buddy also liked the lack of dank notes and the almost-spiciness of the beer. (Only on checking links for this review did I remember (a) Brewer's Kitchen is Pilot Project's own brand, and (b) we already tried the Two Falls Hazy when we visited the Logan Square taproom last November.)

We also tried the Cerveceria Paracaidista Zicatela Sunset American IPA (5.6%), a cool IPA with crisp hops and a clean finish we both would drink again.

We'll be back, just not on one of the 81 days a year when the Cubs are in town. They also have a chill cocktail lounge in the basement that might have sufficient remove from Clark Street to enjoy after dinner nearby. I expect we'll be back.

Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Yes, avoidable
Serves food? Full menu
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Welcome to stop #132 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Guinness Open Gate Brewery, 901 W Kinzie, Chicago
Train line: CTA Green Line, Morgan
Time from Chicago: 6 minutes
Distance from station: 300 m

Somehow, I pictured the second US-based Guinness experimental brewery differently, having seen their original brewery in Dublin, Ireland. The building Guinness renovated just north of the Fulton Market District has existed for a century or more, though from as far back as I can remember until last year it was a derelict hulk covered in graffiti. (The whole area used to be a post-industrial wasteland, in fact. Check out historical street views even from 2007, double the wabi sabi, add more abandoned railroad tracks and free-floating trash, and you'll have it as I first saw it in the 1980s.)

Guinness took over the decaying structure and, with the help of consultants and marketing professionals, made it into the forgettable Brew Pub Experience it is today. I did not have high hopes for the place. As my Brews & Choos Buddy and I entered through the gift shop (merch! merch! merch!), the shrug got shruggier.

Fortunately, we had perfect weather, so we sat outside. The patio has glass shielding on the street-facing side, except there's nothing to shield because Kinzie Street rises about 4 meters above the patio at that point. All the shielding did was to reflect every sound back to us, making it one of the loudest patios we've ever sat on. The consultant-approved energetic electronic music (I'm sure there's a better name for it) gave us the comfortable feeling of a Starbucks or a Chipotle. At least they allow dogs out there.

The brewery has two flight options, neither of which appealed to us, so we each got two 175-mL pours. The Near Post ESB (5.7%) had an earthy nose with a very sweet and malty body that almost tasted treacly to me. My Brews Buddy liked it as it went with the also-very-sweet brown bread we ordered. The Kinzie Street Pale Ale (5.5%) was OK, with a good hop balance and a long finish, engineered to perfection for consumption by trendy Millennials. (My Brews Buddy: "It's fine, it's drinkable, it's moderately complex, it's moderately bitter.")

The Lake Effect Haze (6.7%) was also OK, drinkable, unchallenging, and well-balanced with fewer of the dank overtones that I enjoy in a hazy IPA and my Brews Buddy does not. Finally, the Pineapple Coconut Stout (5.3%), while not a style I would ever order for myself, had only light hints of the offending fruit flavors and more of a feeling of them. BB: "I like it more than I expected."

Were we disappointed? No. Were we surprised? No. Were we excited to tell all of our friends and go back tomorrow? No. We agreed that we'd be fine meeting there if friends suggested it, but given its proximity to some pretty great places on Fulton just two blocks away, we might gently persuade them to go elsewhere.

Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Yes, avoidable
Serves food? Full menu
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Maybe

The forecast today looks perfect: 21°C under sunny skies. Perfect for a Brews and Choos trip! And while one of the stops will be to a brewery that could under no circumstances be called "craft," the other stop will take us to a brewery incubator suspiciously close to Wrigley Field.

Fitting, then, that Crain's reports today about how craft breweries have had to evolve to stay in business:

After a decade of unbridled growth, the industry hit a rough patch in the years following the pandemic. Ten percent of the state’s roughly 300 craft breweries closed between 2022 and 2023. Consumers did not return to taprooms after COVID restrictions lifted. Retail beer sales sagged as people turned toward wine, spirits and canned cocktails. The price of ingredients, like grain and aluminum cans, skyrocketed, but people will only pay so much for a beer. Craft breweries that took out big loans to survive the pandemic could not pay them back.

The moment proved to be a crucible. In need of additional revenue, the survivors evolved. They rolled out non-alcoholic options, food menus and THC-infused beverages. In aid, Illinois introduced a new brewer license category that allowed breweries to sell wine and spirits in addition to beer. To stay afloat now, craft breweries must look a lot more like Brother Chimp and a lot less like the taprooms of the 2010s that sold nothing but their own beer.

As craft breweries’ business models have evolved over the past couple of years, their numbers have improved, said Ray Stout, executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. Only four craft breweries in the state closed between Jan. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. In that same period, 16 breweries opened or expanded.

By Stout’s count, Illinois now has 308 breweries. That’s a record high for the state’s almost $2.9 billion industry.

Beneath those improving numbers, though, the headwinds remain. Craft beer sales in stores are down about 4% compared to a year ago, according to data from market research firm NielsenIQ. The average price for a case was up about 2%.

And would you just look, the article goes into detail about our second stop!

Welcome to stop #131 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: GoodTimes Brewery, 3827 N Broadway, Chicago
Train line: CTA Red Line, Sheridan
Time from Chicago: 20 minutes
Distance from station: 500 m

Metropolitan Brewing closed in November 2023, just a few months after brewmaster Raybird Gonzalez decided to found his own brewery. The Smylie Brothers flame-out freed up a turnkey brewing facility right at the north end of Boystown, which he grabbed. The new owners didn't change the interior dramatically, though they did remove some TVs and create a more inviting foyer.

Also, the beer got a lot better.

Because Friday was still really too hot for its own good, I didn't feel like having a lot of beer, so I only tried one small pour for myself and I tasted my Brews & Choos Buddy's selection. The Dynomite! IPA (6.5%) wasn't bad at all: crisp, refreshing, with a balanced bitterness/malt/hop profile I enjoyed. The Primitive Love hazy IPA (6.2%) was a decent, juicy hazy, with a long orange finish, though a little sweet for my palate. (My buddy found it sweet as well, but balanced by the hops, and not overly strong.)

I did not try the food, though my buddy has had their pizza and pronounced it acceptable. As she is very particular about pizza, I would take this as a solid endorsement.

It's not really the vibe I seek out for chillaxing on a lazy afternoon, but it's a good addition to the neighborhood. I expect I'll go back—particularly in the winter when I don't feel it insults nature by spending time inside.

Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? Yes, avoidable
Serves food? Full pub menu
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Welcome to stop #130 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co. at the Salt Shed, 1221 W. Blackhawk St., Chicago
Train line: Union Pacific North and Northwest, Clybourn (Zone 1)
Time from Chicago: 9 minutes
Distance from station: 1.5 km

The Salt Shed is a new entertainment complex built inside the former Morton Salt storage facility in the Clybourn Corridor industrial area of Chicago. Goose Island Beer Co. moved there in 2024 after closing its original brewing facility 800 meters northeast.

The new facility takes after other industrial building reclamations the B&CP has encountered over the years. It's basically a big room with a kitchen on the south end and a patio along the river to the east. My Brews & Choos Buddy and I found it perfectly acceptable when we visited yesterday, though we stayed in the air conditioning as I vetoed sitting out in the 33°C heat index.

Altogether, I tasted 5 beers, including the one my buddy didn't like at all. The Hazy Beer Hug IPA (6.8%) has long been my Goose go-to, with a good malt-hop balance and a lot of Citra juiciness. The River Bird West Coast IPA (6.5%) had a brightness I liked, with some decent hops and a clan finish. I was OK with the Return of the Mic WCIPA (7.3%), a collab with Mikerphone Brewing, though I probably would have preferred a bit less alcohol given the heat. (My buddy did not like this one, find it "like Daisy Cutter only worse," but I like Daisy Cutter so we didn't agree.) I also tried my buddy's Draftwerk Berlinerweiße (3.5%), which she loved and I gagged on. I do not like weißbiers, and she does not like WCIPAs, but we'll both try them.

We both didn't like how far the brewery is from civilization. The walk from the Clybourn station to the brewery takes you past metal finishing factories, a cavernous fitness center, and railroad infrastructure that isn't attractive or clean. I understand Anheuser Busch's rationale for closing the old restaurant by North and Sheffield, because they had the opportunity to provide beer for thousands of thirsty concert-goers at the Salt Shed. But the difficulty getting to the place is a definite negative for us. So while it qualifies as a "would go back," it's not a place anyone would make their favorite hangout spot.

Beer garden? Riverside patio
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? No
Serves food? Full pub menu
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes