Events

Over the weekend, Parker and I played "bring it, give it, drop it" (aka "fetch") for hours. Occasionally—and this is why I'm not even good enough for the Cubs—the ball somehow wound up in the next yard. Fortunately Parker didn't, but not for lack of trying:

Parker and I saw this dude hopping in the brush next to a parking lot. By "saw," I mean Parker got close enough to give him a good sniff (but not close enough to chomp on him), which elicited not more from the bird than a disdainful look and continued pecking at the ground. I think he's a fledgling, though I'm puzzled by his coloring and by the tag on his right leg. Any ideas?

I apologize to anyone who, like me, had Parker withdrawal today. He was at day camp, and I was in meetings all day, so not only am I late getting TDP out today but also there was no ParkerCam. As a reward for your patience, I present two portraits of the holy terror himself:

Check out this short (3-minute) video from Talking Points Memo.

Parker didn't seem to mind much when Ron picked him up: A moment later, though, I think he wanted to get down: Poor guy, doesn't get any respect. Parker, I mean.

(Via Romanesko.) Indiana University's Journalism School has released a paper demonstrating that Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly uses significantly more propaganda than the infamous 1930s radio commentator Fr. Charles Coughlin: O’Reilly is a heavier and less nuanced user of the seven devices developed by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in the late 1930s than the notorious radio commentator of that time, Father Charles Coughlin. O’Reilly also employs other propaganda techniques, identified by...

When Parker first discovered this ball Sunday morning, it was round: And yesterday's note from the dog-walking service made me laugh: "He's a good walker, but I can't get him to crap for me." I suppose Parker is a one-human crapper, because he performed beautifully both going to and coming from the dog park yesterday. Finally, no ParkerCam today because he's at day camp.

The weather this past weekend precluded posting to TDP. We simply spent too much time not in front of a computer. Actually, Parker doesn't spend any time in front of computers that he knows of anyway, though sometimes he seems dimly aware of the ParkerCam. Parker did, on the other hand, get a chance to stick his nose out the window of a moving car a few times. Like at this stoplight, when I suddenly felt whiskers and a cold nose on my earlobe: (I have to say, it's a little disconcerting to have a dog...

After some trial and error, and even though he's still unclear on the concept, Parker finally got down and dirty with the tug toy yesterday: Did I mention the "trial and error?" He did, eventually, put all four paws into it: He also killed one of his oldest toys last night, the lion-head tennis ball he's had since he couldn't even get down the stairs by himself. Yeah, once he started working on it, he spent less than five minutes scattering stuffing all over the floor. So now he has a tennis ball that...

Oh, dear. I can't wait until they start building this, just one block from my office: Developers went public Thursday with their plan for another race to the sky, this one in downtown Evanston: A proposed condominium tower that would crack the 500-foot barrier and become the tallest building in Chicago's suburbs. Sure to incite heated debate in a suburb already in the throes of a high-rise building boom, the plan calls for tearing down a two-story retail building on a triangular block bounded by Church...