Events

Northbrook, Ill., has always been a suburb. Until the end of the last century, no one had developed large hunks of the village, because two entities controlled several square kilometers of land around it. One entity, the U.S. Navy, operated an air station until 1994; the other, the Catholic Church, had a smallish farm, a convent, and a dairy barn well into the 1990s, and still owns Techny Towers, a religious retreat. A conversation with a friend this week turned to a discussion of the Whole Foods Market...

Tuesday night, after the House of Representatives approved the deal ending the government shutdown, the House Stenographer...well, she added some commentary of her own: As the House finished their vote to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling, a House stenographer decided it was a good time to let everyone know her feelings about God, Congress, and the Freemasons. “He [God] will not be mocked,” the stenographer, apparently named Molly, yelled into the microphone as she was dragged off...

The Chicago technology scene is tight. I just had a meeting with a guy I worked with from 2003-2004. Back then, we were both consultants on a project with a local financial services company. Today he's CTO of the company that bought it—so, really, the same company. Apparently, they're still using software I wrote back then, too. I love when these things happen. This guy was also witness to my biggest-ever screw-up. (By "biggest" I mean "costliest.") I won't go into details, except to say that whenever I...

From WBEZ's Chicago History blog: Chicago had actually started building two subways, with another tunnel following Milwaukee-Lake-Dearborn. Then the war came, and construction materials became scarce. The second subway would not be completed until 1951. But on this glorious Saturday morning--October 16, 1943--the city was ready for a party. Starting at 9:15, ten special trains were dispatched from ten different outer terminals along the "L" system. They carried various dignitaries to a rendevouz in the...

The American Idol 2010 runner-up Crystal Bowersox played City Winery Chicago last night: Another: Anna Rose opened for her; I was impressed: Tough shooting conditions. I forgot my seats were right against the stage. I wound up shooting everything with a 50/1.8, trying to get around the enormous monitor just to my right. It sounded great, though.

Via Sullivan, Reuters' John Judis points out Thursday's deadline doesn't matter: The best way to look at this, I think, is that there’s a spectrum of default severities. At one end, you have the outright repudiation of sovereign debt, a la Ecuador in 2008; at the other end, you have the sequester, which involves telling a large number of government employees that the resources which were promised them will not, in fact, arrive. Both of them involve the government going back on its promises, but some...

Two clients, both alike in dignity, yadda yadda yadda...so no time to read these yet: The shutdown (Ted Cruz is an ass) The shutdown (Ted Cruz is a ridiculous ass) The shutdown (Ted Cruz and all his friends are asses) Lake Shore Drive gets 3400 meters longer this week More about the American-US Airways merger, partially involving that ass Ted Cruz's home state Hello, "Read Later" button...

My first order of business upon returning from watching the marathon was to get this guy out of my apartment: That appears to be a silver-haired bat, one of the most common species, but one usually found in more forested areas. He got into my apartment because, after taking the screens out last week for the window washers, I didn't feel a crushing need to put them back in. (I do now.) I didn't hurt the little dude. I opened the bottom half of the window and then encouraged the bat to go through it with...

This is one of the best parts of living in Lincoln Park: After watching one group of runners go up Stockton Drive, I can catch them going the other way down Clark. Even Parker gets into the action—sort of: We had perfect running weather today, 12°C with light winds and plenty of sun. Kenyan Dennis Kimetto set a new course record at 2:03:45, which is just about 3 minutes per kilometer.

Really interesting analysis from No More Mr Nice Blog. Key grafs: The Republican Party at this point in time is entirely made up of Punishers who think they are entitled to treat the government--and especially the government of Barack Obama--as waiters who need to be shown their place. This should surprise no one. At heart the entire Republican Party is made up of winners and losers and they are united in just one thing: they think that money is the only way to tell who is who. If you have money, you...