Events

I'm not usually personal in this blog, but a combination of things have occurred over the past 24 hours that feel pretty good. First, my apartment is done. Done, done, done. The last door was hung on the last doorframe, the last stick of furniture found a good home for itself, the last drop of paint splatted on the wall. Done. Second—and this is, I'm not kidding, front-page news in Chicago—the temperature hit 21°C today for the first time in six months (it was 27°C on October 21st). And finally, I...

Living in Chicago, air travelers have two easy options: American and United, both of whom have hubs here (United is headquartered here), and both of whom are two of the top-ten airlines worldwide using just about any measurement. Astute readers will already know both airlines (accidentally just typed "airliens"—Freudian?) have made news lately. American is just getting around to applying an airworthiness directive to its aging MD-80 fleet, and United just announced serious fare increases that American...

Via Calculated Risk, the story of Maricopa, Ariz., in which we find Greed, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, and Pride, but surprisingly little Wrath (and only a brief cameo by Lust): In the early 1990s, Maricopa was a small farming community with a population of about 600, mostly longtime farmers and Hispanic laborers, along with a few American Indians. Local businesses included a low-profile Nissan testing site and the state’s largest beef-cattle feed lots — industries that chose Maricopa because it was out of...

That's MSNBC's headline on a story that shows how insane people are. Not the woman who let her kid ride the subway—no, I was riding the subway in Chicago alone at about that age during a far more dangerous era—but the people who think she committed some kind of child abuse: "It's safe to go on the subway," [the boy's mother said in an interview]. "It's safe to be a kid. It's safe to ride your bike on the streets. We're like brainwashed because of all the stories we hear that it isn't safe. But those are...

Requiem et cetera. Who pried out his gun? Just wondering.

Krugman points out on his blog today that, in numbers of new jobs, Clinton's worst year was better than Bush's best.

As I woke up this morning to Abby Ryan's traffic report on Chicago Public Radio, I didn't know what to make of this: "...Inbound Stevenson, it's 35; if you're going to Midway all ATA flights are cancelled today because it filed for bankruptcy; the inbound Edens from Lake-Cook, that's 42..." I'm just imagining what it's like to hear that your company doesn't exist anymore—on the morning traffic report. Unrelated to that: yesterday's Cubs game started with the first pitch launched onto Waveland Ave. Guess...

MSNBC is reporting that Robert Mugabe, who has, as dictator, destroyed Zimbabwe's economy, may be stepping down: Advisers of Zimbabwe's president and main opposition leader are discussing Robert Mugabe relinquishing power, The Associated Press has learned from someone close to the state electoral commission. Meanwhile, a projection by the ruling party, ZANU-PF, indicates that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will beat Mugabe, but be forced into a runoff vote in three weeks, Reuters reported. About...

Krugman's column today explains how Treasury's banking "reform" over the last week isn't, actually. And he concludes with a fear I've had for some time now: If we don’t reform the system this time, the next crisis could well be even bigger. And I, for one, really don’t want to live through a replay of the 1930s. It's a must-read.

After six cancellations due to weather, I finally got up in an airplane today. I flew 1.9 hours of just maneuvers and landing practice with an instructor. I'm a little rusty, but they can use the plane again, so that's all right. Long-time readers know that I have a GPS-enabled bike speedometer. Today, I brought the little bugger along in the airplane, so you can see where I flew. (Google Earth 4.x required to view the file.)