John Greenfield of the nifty Vote With Your Feet Chicago blog about getting under one's own power in my fair city has done another one of those "Walk the entire length of a Chicago street, stopping occasionally at interesting looking restaurants and bars" things. This time he walked Kedzie Avenue, which runs about a hundred feet from my back door ( Read more... )

It's a slow Friday afternoon, and most of the civilized world appears to be off at a convention in the Bay Area anyway, so any blog entries made now are in little danger of being read. It's a liberating feeling, and I guess this would be a good time to confess to a few crimes or make a sullen and pouty post about politics, but since I don't have ( Read more... )

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Not that anyone will see this, but just to put a post-it note on this for myself for later reference...

The Duke Of Perth has whiskey flightsThe Duke is noteworthy for its fish and chips and impressive collection of Scotch to begin with, but the opportunity to try a few whiskies without breaking the bank argues in favor of dropping by there soon ( Read more... )

So I've finally motivated myself to get my garden planted, such as it is. I live in an urban environment, yo, so when I say 'garden', I mean 'a few plants in flowerpots on my back porch'. Minor though the effort may be, it's oddly satisfying on some deep level to have growing things around. This year's crop ( Read more... )

And here it is, your five uncomfortable minutes of zen:

Click to view

Meh. The Tower is half empty, our nearest campus is closed, but things here are officially open, and I'm here. The commute was fugly, particularly the getting out of the alley part, but not as bad as last night's 150 minute suckfest. Well, it gave me a chance to listen to the debate, at least ( Read more... )

I like food. Besides being the crux of certain of my problems in life, that fondness translates into something of a hobby, and an excuse for diverting the occasional road trip. It doesn't even need to be particularly good food, as long as it's interesting or significant in some way.

Case in point:


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I forgot to post this earlier, but the week Charles Nelson Reilly died, I found myself at an encased meats emporium, which was offering the following special:


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