Events

Due to a problem between chair and keyboard, the ParkerCam today will be showing the guy who's working on my house, and later on, either a bookshelf and closed door or a dining room and open door: Parker will return to the ParkerCam either Sunday afternoon around 4 or Tuesday morning at his regular time. Today, he's at day camp.

Fully 63% of Americans want a timetable for our withdrawal from Iraq. This percentage includes me, 42% of registered Republicans, every member of my immediate family who can vote, Parker (who agrees with everything I say except "down, stay!"), the Speaker of the House (who is also my father's Congresswoman), and both of my U.S. Senators. Unfortunately for the free world, majorities of both houses of Congress don't. So sad. Correction, 9:00 CT Friday: Crap. One of my U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin, voted for...

Now concluding the massive attack of pithy posts this morning, last night developers unveiled revised plans for the Orrington-Sherman-Church block in Evanston that will preserve the Hahn Building's façade and lower the proposed tower's height to 37 stories: The proposal, from developers R.D. Horner & Associates and HSA Commercial Real Estate and the architectural firm Daniel P. Coffey and Associates, calls for the developers to rebuild the public plaza at Fountain Square and slip two levels of...

Today is the Brooklyn Bridge's 124th birthday.

Parker's brand-new friend Harper showed up at the dog park this morning: Harper (named after author Lee and therefore destined to become friends with Boo) was the runt of 13 puppies born 15 weeks ago. Her owner reports that Harper has nearly doubled in weight over the past three weeks—a phenomenon I know all too well. And despite my inherent bias towards my own handsome pooch, I have to say Harper is the cutest thing to hit the park since Paris left for Milwaukee in March.

Got one. Here's Parker in full-stealth mode: This time the intended victim was Key, one of the enormous labs Parker has known for most of his life. (I confess, this may be a photo of Buck. I'll have to take a look at Key's nose tomorrow morning...) No ParkerCam today or Friday.

From our visit to the park Saturday Morning: Parker sees an old friend. I just missed catching him in his "no one can see me" crouch, in which he, a black dog with a wagging tail on short green grass, completely fails to surprise anything he thinks he's stalking. Late correction, 12:45 CT: "Old" was exactly the wrong word for two reasons, now that I remember who was there. A 10-week-old golden retiever moved to the neighborhood recently; Parker met her for the first time moments after I took this photo....

This little piggy went to hell: Parker disembowels yet another toy, decapitating it in the process. So sad. This was one of his very first toys: a little squeaky pig that I got at the adoption event back in September.

Via Andrew Sullivan, Senator Obama's remarkable address to the graduating students at Southern New Hampshire University yesterday: There is a verse from the Bible that is sometimes read or recited during rites of passage like this. Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.” I bring this up because there’s often an assumption on days like today that growing up is purely a function of...

Steve Benen at Talking Points Memo nicely sums it up: The AP had an interesting item today, highlighting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' perspective on being close friends with the president. As the embattled Gonzales sees it, his close relationship with Bush, which spans decades, is inherently "a good thing" for everyone. "Being able to go and having a very candid conversation and telling the president: 'Mr. President, this cannot be done. You can't do this,'—I think you want that," Gonzales told...