The question just came up in an email exchange with a friend's friend's sister: what are my favorite pubs in the world?
After a couple minutes' thought, I got here:
1. Duke of Perth, Chicago. Obviously; it has been my remote office off and on for over 20 years.
2. Southampton Arms, London. If I ever live in the UK, this may switch places with the Duke. It's just hard to say a place is my favorite when it's 6,000 kilometers away and I only go there twice a year.
3. Tommy Nevin's, Evanston, Ill., my former remote office.
4. Nag's Head, Hoboken, N.J. Another that used to be my remote office—but in the days before Wi-Fi and ubiquitous laptops. I still visit if I have time while I'm in New York.
5. Guthrie's Tavern, Chicago. Since the Duke of Perth is halfway between my house and Guthrie's, I don't get there as often as I used to. But it's worth the trip.
Some honorable mentions:
- Bucktown Pub, Chicago. I'm starting to warm to the place, especially after many trivia nights there. Unfortunately, I don't live in Bucktown.
- Peddler's Daughter, Nashua, N.H. (A former temporary remote office.)
- The Bridge, Amberley, England. A real, live English country pub.
- Kennedy's, San Francisco. By day, on its patio, it's wonderful. At night, it gets a little too loud and crowded, and there are too many TVs. Still, I almost always stop in when I'm out there.
- Tigin, Stamford, Conn. My then-girlfriend lived right around the corner.
And some that are no more, and missed: Abbey Tavern, New York, where I hung out weekly from 1997 to 2000; closed in 2006. And The King's Head, Earls Court, London—which was really great before the new owners turned it into a trendy gastro-pub.
I'm always looking for suggestions.
I signed up for Divvy only a few days ago and got my key yesterday. This morning I zipped to work in 28 minutes, door to door, which is about 33% faster than taking the quickest public transit route. (Cabs are still the fastest, but also the most expensive.)
Of course, now I get the flipside. It's almost 5:30, and I have to contend with this:
At least it looks to end soon.
In honor of Constitution Day, I'll be spending time at the Cook County Criminal Courts at 26th and California. Jury duty starts at 9am. I couldn't ask for a more...appropriate...day to serve on a jury. (Of course, the part of the Constitution guaranteeing jury trials didn't come about until 1791.)
And I couldn't let such a personally-relevant Constitution Day go by without re-posting this:
The Cubs won on Friday, which pushed them over an important hurdle this season. After playing 147 games, it finally became mathematically impossible for them to lose 100 this season.
They've lost both games since then, and they're 63-86 for the season, putting them firmly in last place—but at least they can't lose 100.
Small blessings.
Temperatures in Chicago hit 35°C yesterday, tying the record set in 1983, and only the seventh temperature that high ever recorded in Chicago this late in the season.
And then, because it's Chicago, the forecast calls for a 14°C temperature difference by Friday.
In all, summer hasn't sucked too badly this year. I still wish it were already over. I guess I can hold out one more day...
For only the third time this season, I got to see the Cubs win at home. They started strong and...well, that was all that they needed to do, because the Brewers are just as bad as the Cubs this year. Both teams are now tied for last place with 60-80 records. Whoever wins the next two games will be solidly in fourth place.
It was a fun game, though. And really great weather. I think I have only two or three more games on my list this season, and I hope this starts a trend.
Chicago's answer to the New York Highline is the Bloomingdale Trail (now renamed the 606, a 5 km stretch of abandoned railroad on Chicago's near-west side. After much delay, the city broke ground yesterday:
Complete with shovels and dirt, the ceremony took place 16-feet above the ground, on the section of the trail adjacent to ''Park 567'' at 1805 N. Milwaukee Ave., just north of Milwaukee Avenue and Leavitt Street in Bucktown.
The park is one of five ground-level neighborhood parks that will link up to the 2.7-mile, multi-use path, which is named for Bloomingdale Avenue, the street the path runs along between Ridgeway and Ashland avenues.
The Bloomingdale Trail will serve as the centerpiece to a larger system that organizers have coined ''The 606'' due to the first three numerals of the zip code all Chicago residents share.
The 606 is scheduled to open next fall.
After lunch I thought Parker and I could pop around to my second-favorite bar in Chicago, Bucktown Pub, which is about 3 km away. It's a little warm (31°C), so by the time we got there, I was looking forward to cooling off with air conditioning and a gin & tonic.
We left home around 1:15 and got there at 2.
They open at 3.
Oops.
I will now take a shower, and Parker has installed himself directly below the air conditioner.
Chicago has recently rolled out a several hundred DIVVY bike sharing stations, similar to the Citi Bike scheme in New York. For a small annual fee, or a moderate per-hour charge, you can take a bike from any DIVVY bike station and ride it to any other station within two hours. (The two-hour time limit keeps the bikes in circulation.) The city has a hundred or so stations now, with a couple thousand bikes.
Of course, not everyone is happy about the bikes, which help cut pollution, reduce traffic and noise, and are greenhouse-negative. A three-unit condo association near Wrigley Field sued the city yesterday because they don't want Those People on their block:
David Kolin and his wife, Jeannine Cordero, learned Tuesday that the area in front of their North Side condo building soon would be home to a Divvy bike-sharing station, one of hundreds the Chicago Department of Transportation is installing across the city.
"We don't think it's appropriate in a residential area to have this thing set up," said Kolin, an attorney. "It's not a very attractive thing to have. It's led to crowds already."
"It's hideous," added Cordero, also a lawyer. "It's less than 20 steps from our front door."
"We are aware of the request from a few residents to relocate the Divvy station away from their building on Pine Grove Avenue near Addison Street," CDOT spokesman Pete Scales said in a statement. "This residential street location was determined to be the safest for customers near the busy intersection of Addison and Lake Shore Drive. It is located in the public way, close to the curb on the street, and not on any private property."
It would have to be a pair of attorneys, wouldn't it? You don't like the bike rack on the city street in front of your house...why?
All I can say is, Mr Kolin and Ms Cordero: STFU.
Yesterday the Cardinals spanked the Boys in Blue 6-1, and I got to see the whole thing. Here's Edwin Jackson:
I'll give him one thing, boy: he threw 117 pitches, the 113th at 160 km/h. Impressive.
Also, I got to sit in a different section than usual, because my cousin and I got our signals crossed on which games to sell. Apparently we broke even—including the extra fee for the better (section 430) seats.