Events

After attending the ALS fundraiser (i.e., Lou Gehrig Day at Wrigley Field) last night, I decided to sleep past the normal play-group time and take Parker to day camp instead. Several bits of good news in this: first, the Les Turner ALS Foundation raised butt-loads of cash; second, even though the Cubs lost, so did the Brewers, so the Cubs are still only one game out of first place; third, Parker gets to hang out all day with his friends; and fourth, said hanging-out will make Parker sleep most of...

Parker and Goldie have started playing together mornings. Goldie, until recently, never had anything nice to say to Parker, so this surprised everyone: As a special bonus, I have some video of Parker (AVI, 10.3 MB) at my office. He has a new behavior: at the end of the day, when I pack everything in an get up to leave, he rushes forward with his paws stretched out front and slides across the terazzo floor. I have no idea why he does this, except perhaps because it's fun.

From this week's Economist, a strangely understated note: The British army officially ended Operation Banner in Northern Ireland, its longest continuous operation. Soldiers were sent to the province in 1969 in what was intended to be a brief stint to quell sectarian violence. A garrison of 5,000 men will remain to offer support to the police. More from the BBC about Tuesday's event: The British army's operation in Northern Ireland came to an end at midnight after 38 years. Operation Banner—the Army's...

The Cubs lost yesterday, but so did the Brewers, which keeps the Cubs in first place. Crazy.

Parker is fast asleep on my office floor, which is the first he's stopped panting since waking up this morning. Poor guy doesn't have sweat glands, and it's going to be another sticky day in Chicago, with heat indices approaching 38°C. Perhaps the unpleasant heat has led the Cubs into first place. Yes, somehow, slowly, steadily, yea even stealthily, they have ticked up more wins than losses and last night surpassed the Milwaukee Brewers to sneak into the top spot. Let's see if they're still there when I...

I admit that on occasion I've bought bottled water, for example on long road-trips. But I've also found it amusing that Evian backwards spells...well, you can figure it out. The Economist this week explains why, exactly, buying bottled water shows consumers are daft: The success of bottled water is in many ways one of capitalism’s greatest mysteries. Studies show consistently that tap water is purer than many bottled waters—not including those that contain only tap water, which by some estimates is 40%...

What?, he's thinking, I'm being good: Also, some sad news from the dog park. Last night, Andy, a six-year-old giant schnauzer, succumbed to liver cancer. He was a great dog, a little introverted perhaps, but always patient with Parker.

(Via Bruce Schneier.) I'm really not sure what to make of this, or what, actually, they're selling:

I recently started introducing Parker to some new foods that the dog walkers recommended, and what do you know? Parker cleans his bowl of every last kibble. There seems to be a side-effect, however: he's put on more than a kilo since his last weighing on July 4th, up to 26 kg. Back to a strict feeding schedule, dude. Sorry. Oh, and the ParkerCam is live today.

A coyote hanging out at Francis Cardinal George's mansion got away from Chicago Animal Control on Monday. Repeatedly: The wild animal played hide-and-seek with police officers and later the Animal Care and Control team for more than five hours. The last three hours were spent chasing the coyote back and forth from baseball fields at Lake Shore Drive and LaSalle Street to the yard of Cardinal Francis George's residence at North Avenue and State Street. The coyote seems to have sought sanctuary recently...