Events

In the spirit of Harper's Index: Number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq as of yesterday: 2,500 Maximum remaining time in Bush presidency: 950 days, 3 hours Number of U.S. House seats Democrats need to win in November: 27 Number of U.S. Senate seats Democrats need to win: 6 Polls open in the East: 144 days, 20 hours

I meant to write yesterday about the Illinois Democratic Meetup I attended Tuesday evening. American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois Communications Director Ed Yohnka spoke, as did a staffer from the Rod Blagojevich re-election campaign and a spokesperson for one of the city's aldermanic campaigns. A group of Chicago democrats meets every Wednesday for Drinking Liberally. Beer plus politics? I am so there.

I'm a private pilot. Every two years, I'm required to go through a flight review with a flight instructor that, except for the absence of an FAA check airman, mirrors almost exactly what I had to do to get my certificate. So I've been studying the plane's manual and the regulations, and this morning I got a formal weather briefing and started planning the flight. It's a big deal: my last BFR was in June 2004, so at the end of this month, I'm not allowed to fly as pilot in command of any aircraft until I...

Yesterday I sent Illinois Senator Dick Durbin an email asking him to support S.2917, the "net neutrality" act currently working its way through the Senate. His office responded quickly, but I have no idea from reading it what his position is. Can anyone help? Thank you for contacting me about network neutrality. I appreciate having your thoughts on this issue. Net neutrality is a principle holding that Internet access providers should not be permitted to engage in favoritism when configuring their...

Today's Chicago Tribune story on sodium in our diets begins with just about the stupidest lede I have read in a long time: Sodium, one of the planet's oldest substances, may be the American diet's newest enemy. I imagined it continuing: Only sodium, of all 90 naturally-occuring chemical elements, has expressed any hostility toward the American diet. In separate news conferences, spokespeople for hydrogen and helium, the planet's two oldest substances, stressed that they are essentially inert and take no...

Anne will hate that I know this now: Coffee may counteract alcohol's poisonous effects on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, researchers say. In a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent. The coffee effect held true for women and men of various ethnic backgrounds. Not that I was ever a candidate for cirrhosis, of course. But it's nice to know that both vices work together to keep...

From the "Jeez, People, They're Not People!" category in yesterday's L.A. Times (by way of the Chicago Tribune (reg.req.): Fido Party of Four, Your Table Is Ready By P.J. HuffstutterL.A. Times Staff WriterPublished June 12, 2006 CHICAGO—Chef Didier Durand has spent months testing his restaurant's new menu on his most finicky customer: Princess, his 2-year-old French poodle. The ostrich country pate? To drool for. The bone marrow gateau? Delightfully crunchy. The grilled steak hache? Gone in a gulp....

Talking Points Memo has a list of the Senators supporting, opposed to, and dithering over S.2917, the "Net Neutrality" legislation currently winding its way through the Senate. Illinois Senator Obama is a co-sponsor; I've just sent our Senator Durbin an email asking him to do the same.

The City of Chicago has floated a plan to designate more than 800 km (500 mi) of bike lanes and paths by 2015 (reg.req.): [W]ith a strong track record of delivering for cyclists, the city is thinking big: a bike route within a half-mile of every resident; a 50-mile circuit of bike trails, with some off-road paths to be announced later this year; 185 miles of new bikeways altogether. By 2015, planners hope, 5 percent of all trips shorter than 5 miles long will be made by bike. Now, if only Mayor Daley...

Welcome to the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Our first guest: Tropical Storm Alberto, now churning in the Gulf of Mexico.