Maslov's Rag

Another year without blogging

2009-12-30T22:01:00.002-06:00

2009 -- a year in which The Rag has been utterly neglected, and not for lack of anything to write about. The big news is that the son was born this year, a result of the wife's pregnancy that I mentioned in the previous posting. I really wanted to write about it when it happened and the memory was fresh, but that only would have made me even more sleep deprived.

My wedding anniversary happened to fall on President's Day this year, and I happened to have a job this year that let me take President's Day off. It was two days before the son's due date, and the wife had had quite enough of the whole pregnancy thing, but we still made plans to get out, have lunch at R.J. Grunts in Lincoln Park, and take a nice walk through the Lincoln Park Conservatory.

The traditional gift for the first anniversary being paper, I left home after breakfast to get some paper goods from the dollar store -- a deck of cards, a journal, construction paper. Upon returning home and presenting these gifts to the wife, we got ready to head out for lunch. At some point, the wife mentioned that there seemed to be something going on with the pregnancy. She wasn't quite sure, but maybe her water broke? She decided to call the doctor.

The wife made an appointment, but we still planned to go to R.J. Grunts afterward. She really, really wanted that salad bar, and whatever was going on with her body was probably nothing. False alarm. It could at least wait until after lunch! (Of course, you, the reader, know what happened. I mean, if her water hadn't broken, it wouldn't make a very interesting story, would it?)

And of course, as we entered the building where her doctor's office was, the floodgates opened. It should suffice to say that it was hardly necessary to get the doctor's opinion at that point. And R.J. Grunts would have to wait. However, there was one other thing that wouldn't wait.

Let's back up a few hours to when I was shopping for paper. As I was browsing the dollar store's collection of journals, my phone rang. It was Performers' Music, located in the Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Avenue, and they were calling to let me know my tenor recorder had arrived at long last! I could pick it up any time. I said I wasn't planning on being downtown that day, but I could stop by on my lunch hour the next day.

As the wife and I were leaving the doctor's office, I realized that there was no chance I'd make it to the music store the next day. Or any day that week, for that matter. But I had been waiting so long. I had ordered the instrument around New Year's, and the first one that was shipped was defective. Now it was waiting for me, just a few miles away, but the only way I was going to have it any time soon was if I picked it up right away. So yes, we drove down to the Loop, and I left the wife, whose water had just broken, in the car while I ran up to the ninth floor of the Fine Arts Building to pick up a recorder.

It was already late in the afternoon when we arrived at the hospital. The midwife was called, labor was induced. An exhausting twenty-six hours later, still not much progress. Cesarean, after all that. Sigh.

I joined the wife in the OR, and I don't know how I managed to stay conscious and upright. It was such an intense experience, I have a hard time organizing my memories of it. The wife was given an epidural that made her shake all over. There was activity behind a screen -- something I did not want to see. Then a baby crying. There he was over on the far side of the room being examined. My own tears obscured my vision. And then he was there in front of me, held up by a vague figure in scrubs. Wet. Hairy. Tongue quivering. Did I want to hold him? Are you kidding? Do I look like I'm in any condition to hold a newborn?

I'm sure everyone wonders, before their first child is born, what would their progeny look like? Would he have long eyelashes and thin eyebrows, or short eyelashes and bushy eyebrows? Short arms and long legs, or long arms and short legs? I had tried to create an image in my mind, but nothing I imagined came close to the real thing. The instant I first saw my son, wailing in the operating room, there was a flash of recognition -- this was my son, and he really did look like me, as much as a newborn could. My son. Wild.

A year without blogging

2008-12-30T21:34:00.001-06:00

In this year, now almost over, I've hardly updated the blog at all. A lot of things have happened in my life that are blog-worthy, but the more there is going on, the less time I have to blog. A rundown of the year:

- In January, my employer did something I found to be unforgivable. I started updating my resume.
- In February, I got married. (Still no regrets.)
- The bride and I spent the latter half of February on our honeymoon in Italy, Spain, Morocco, the Canary Islands, and Madeira.
- In March, back in Chicago, I found myself commuting to work 60 miles every day through a minefield of potholes. About every week I was taking my car into the shop to get tires, wheels, brakes, suspension, etc., fixed. I started sending my resume to recruiters.
- In May, we went to Orlando and went to the Fringe Festival with my father-in-law.
- As soon as we got back to Chicago from the Fringe Festival, we went into the bedroom. I will not disclose details of what took place, but some time later, the wife emerged from the bedroom pregnant.
- In July, my cat turned 15.
- Also in July, I got a job offer and gave notice at my old job.
- The wife and I took a trip to New York City in August before I started my new job.
- In September, my grandfather passed away, which I wrote about.
- In October, the wife and I took a trip to Philadelphia to visit my brother-in-law and his family.
- In November, I voted. Change happened -- I voted for the winner, for a change.

Grandpa Heddie

2008-09-22T22:36:00.004-05:00

Grandpa Heddie. (Or should it be spelled Headie?) When I was first learning to talk, I had a little trouble with my grandfather's name. Everyone got a chuckle out of my way of saying it, which probably only added to my confusion. Eventually, I learned how to spell "Heddie" and discovered it did not start with an 'h'. E-D-D-I-E.

My last remaining grandparent died a little over a week ago, on September 13, a day that is also notable as the rainiest day in Chicago history. A blog posting is hardly the medium to do justice to the whole of a man's life; but let me attempt a small piece of it.

After my grandmother died, Grandpa Eddie started spending his winters with his older sister in California. I took a trip out to visit the two octogenarians in 2002. While my grandfather was remarkably healthy for a man in his late eighties, I was a little concerned to see his belly protruding much more than I had remembered it. I wasn't sure what to make of it at the time. He had it checked out on his return to Chicago in the spring, and the news was grim. He had an enormous tumor in his abdomen.

The doctors were reluctant to operate on a man of his age. They decided in favor of it on account of his extraordinary health, apart from the tumor. But it was a major operation, and no one knew if he would recover.

Eddie lost a kidney in that ordeal, but he made as full a recovery as we could hope for. Without the surgery, he would not have had long to live. In the six years following surgery, he lived at home indepedently. He got back on the golf course. He attended the weddings of five of his grandchildren and saw three great-grandchildren come into the world. At my wedding this past February, he got out on the ballroom floor and danced.

Still, he was left with just one kidney, and that kidney never quite took over the work of the one that was lost. His health gradually began to decline. (You can read about one harrowing episode in my posting titled Reviving Edward, from the summer of 2005.) This spring, my grandfather's remaining kidney failed. He went to the hospital a couple of times, but there wasn't much they could do. After the second time, he was so weak that he needed physical therapy before he could go home. Then he went home, but the swelling in his extremities made it impossible for him to take care of himself. We knew the end was near.

I remember when I visited my grandfather when he was in the midst of one of his setbacks -- I think it was about two years ago. He lamented, "You can't stop it. You can't stop the decline."

The day before my grandfather died, I got a phone call from my mother. He was not doing well. My wife suggested that we visit him in the nursing home that evening, and that we pick up my sister on the way. We arrived in my grandfather's room just as my Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe were leaving. My grandfather was wide awake, and he greeted us with a broad smile. He looked better than I expected, and his voice was stronger than it had been when I had visited him the week before. He told us an amusing story about a woman who, in her state of dementia, would frequently wander into his room and try to get in his bed. But he also told of his discomfort -- his swollen, numb hands with their phantom pains. He held his hands out in front of him and looked at them, and I was reminded of his earlier lament.

As visiting hours were ending, my sister stood behind his wheelchair and rubbed his back. He leaned forward. Closed his eyes. And his breathing changed. Does it feel good? Yes. I told him that I hoped I would see him again soon, and as I left I remembered to look back at him one last time. He was still smiling.

Natalie

2008-01-05T15:25:00.000-06:00

If you're one of the three people who read my blog, you might be expecting me to write something about the Iowa caucuses. But I have something happier to write about. Yesterday, my niece Natalie was born.

Poor Natalie -- she's already being compared to her big sister Ella. When Ella was born, she had long, dark eyelashes, but hardly any hair on her head. Natalie is just the opposite; she has lots of dark hair on her head, but hardly any eyelashes.

Bryn Mawr update

2007-12-26T16:44:00.000-06:00

I took a walk around the Bryn Mawr Historic District today for the first time in quite a while. This past July I had heard, straight from the owner, that a new Sweet Occasions location was within weeks opening up at 1038 W. Bryn Mawr, Now, if by "weeks" he meant 30 weeks, then okay -- he still has a chance to make good on that. But as of today, it is still not open for business.

A bit farther west on the same block is the notorious Nookie's property. Still boarded up. I first heard about plans to open a Nookie's restaurant on this site more than five years ago. Because the previous occupant, a dry cleaner, had left behind toxic chemicals, years of environmental remediation ensued. Early this year I heard that the project was on the verge of moving forward, but there is still no visible sign of it.

I also thought I'd see if Habeebi's, of which I gave a lukewarm review at the beginning of this year, had managed to stay in business. It came as no surprise that they did not. Already, there is a new Japanese restaurant named Shinobu occupying that location. (It might be a good idea for them to take the old Habeebi's awning down.) Shinobu is not open for lunch; otherwise I would have taken a peek inside.

After finally getting a tuna sandwich at the reliable Flourish, I headed back east. I stopped to take a look at the bricolage mural at the Bryn Mawr underpass beneath Lake Shore Drive. The bricolage was completed this past summer by Edgewater community members and the Chicago Public Art Group. Composed of brightly colored fragments of tile, glass, and other materials, it is a striking work, well worth seeing. But there is no getting around the fact that it is in a highway underpass. Pedestrians will only see it if they are on their way to or from the lakefront via Bryn Mawr, though precious few will want to take a stroll along the lakefront this time of year. And I think the unadorned Berwyn pedestrian viaduct, three blocks south, is still more appealing, since there you don't have to contend with the on and off ramps.

Good-bye, temporary cat, my friend

2007-12-22T18:19:00.000-06:00

After a year and a half with Grendel, the temporary cat, I had to face the fact that I'm not so good at placing homeless animals. So today, I drove him to a local no-kill shelter and left him in their care. In all likelihood, I will never see him again.

During his stay at my home, he never exhibited the misbehavior that compelled his previous owner to give him up. Lucky for Grendel that he kicked the habit -- it makes him much more adoptable. I hope he finds a good lap to sit in soon.

Old stuff

2007-12-16T16:39:00.000-06:00

I'm going through my stuff and finding all kinds of things like my old paperback copy of George Orwell's 1984. It was in bad shape when I first acquired it; even then it was missing pages, and the spine was so brittle I could hardly open it. But the cover art was way better than what they put on the new copy I bought a few years ago:

What that last post was about

2007-11-21T17:01:00.000-06:00

Lately I haven't had much time to write. And even so, not everything I jot down gets into the blog. Sometimes I write a couple paragraphs on a scrap of paper, and it gets tucked away in a notepad, never to be read again. Maybe I throw it away. Here's something I wrote on November 9, but I was in no mood that day to post it:

Tonight I attended the wake of a friend. One of my college buddies. As Vonnegut would say, "So it goes." Except it should have gone another way. I'm old enough now where, if I still had a beard, parts of it would be gray, but I'm still young enough that I'd be more likely to be standing up at a friend's wedding than to be standing over a friend's grave.

At the wake, there was an open casket. In my religious tradition, that's just not done, and I had managed to get all gray-bearded without ever having been to a wake with an open casket. So I go into the funeral home, and there's my friend, sort of. His face was heavily made up, and to be honest, he looked like a wax-museum model of himself. Had I actually been in a wax museum, I would have said, "Yeah, that's him, but they didn't get it quite right." My friend had an expressive face, and the expression they left on him was utterly blank.

X

2007-11-05T20:06:00.000-06:00

Bad day today, and I'm all out of thinking.

A good day to think

2007-10-20T18:51:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful fall day in Chicago. The kind of day of which, at this point in late October, Chicagoans might feel undeserving, but we don't complain.

(click to enlarge)

Not too far from where I live, there is a block on which is situated a row of two-flats.

(click to enlarge)

A story (I hope I get it right)... On this block, many years ago -- long before I was born -- there lived a certain insurance salesman. On one occasion, he had a client who was unable to pay his premium, and so this client offered the salesman a parcel of Florida swampland as payment. The salesman decided to drive down to Florida to look at this property, and on the way, he stopped in a place called Orlando, which no one had ever heard of in those days. It was a Friday night -- Shabbat -- and there happened to be a small synagogue in town. The congregation welcomed this newcomer with open arms. What friendly people, he thought -- and some of them might even need to buy insurance! So the salesman called his family in Chicago and told them to pack their belongings and join him in Florida. As for the parcel of land, it was not worth much.

This salesman had a daughter, whom I had the good fortune of meeting. She enjoyed telling this story. May her memory be a blessing.

Two weeks after the big storm

2007-09-06T19:16:00.000-05:00

I've been busy lately. I'm looking at the recent activity on the blog, and I made all of one posting for the entire month of August. So much for my rule of writing at least one entry a week.

I wasn't affected too much by the major outbreak of storms we experienced in the Chicago area on August 23. "The Girlfriend" (now "The Fiancee") had an umbrella on her back porch that was lifted out of its table by the wind and hasn't been seen since. The damage in her neighborhood was much worse than in mine.

Many large trees were uprooted or otherwise destroyed by strong winds along Irving Park Road between Clark and Sheridan. While waiting on the Sheridan Red Line platform, I used to admire a 60-foot-tall cottonwood tree growing in a back yard adjacent to the north side of the tracks. Its trunk was covered with ivy that grew into its upper branches, and I thought it was remarkable that the vines climbed so high. The day after the storm, I stood on that platform and saw that this tree had fallen over into the back of a two-flat. It knocked some bricks off the top of the back wall and absolutely crushed the enclosed back porch, converting a window into a skylight.

Also, sadly, the awning over the entrance to the taqueria Caminos de Michoacan, a landmark at the Sheridan stop, was blown down.

The two Ellas

2007-08-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

About two and a half weeks ago, my sister, her husband, and their daughter were dining at a sidewalk cafe in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, when an elderly woman approached their table. "I have something to give to your little girl," she said. She cupped her hands and extended them toward my niece. "Brrrr twee-twee brrrr. Here is a bird for you."

There was something in the voice, the face, and the musical quality of the bird call that my sister thought she recognized. She asked the woman if she was Ella Jenkins. She was. And she was kind enough to have her picture taken. Here they are -- Ella Jenkins (on the left) and Ella, my niece:

Ella Jenkins celebrated her 83rd birthday this past Monday. Happy birthday, Ella!

O'Reilly, meet Godwin

2007-07-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

I've been taking a bit of a break from blogging lately, but I just saw something I couldn't let pass. Before you watch the YouTube clip, you should be aware that Bill O'Reilly is 99.44% full of shit. The other 0.56% is either hot air or methane. (I haven't done a chemical assay of the gaseous portion.)

O'Reilly is talking about Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos website. I should disclose that I know Markos personally, although I haven't seen him in years, and it's really my sister he's friends with. When I was in college, he was a Republican -- actually campaigned for Republicans. I guess their tough anti-Communist stance appealed to him, but somewhere along the line, he decided that the GOP doesn't really care about people like him, and he found some of their values repellant. Today, Markos is a Democrat and the proprietor of Daily Kos, currently the world's largest political blog.

Going back to the embedded YouTube clip, I thought it was an interesting tactic for Fox News to ambush David Barger, the CEO of JetBlue, at his apartment. Clearly, Barger had only the foggiest notion of what he was being harassed about, and he was rightly peeved. It kind of reminds me of something Michael Moore does. And speaking of unlikely comparisons...

Around the four-minute mark, Bill O. compares Markos to Hitler, and here is where we invoke Godwin's Law. Godwin's Law originally applied to Usenet newsgroup discussions and states that as the number of postings on any given topic increases, the probability that someone will make a comparison to Hitler approaches 100%. Later corollaries were added that assert (a) once Hitler has been mentioned, there is no point in continuing the discussion, and (b) he/she who made reference to Hitler has lost the argument.

We don't really need Godwin's Law to see how wrong O'Reilly is. There are too many inaccuracies in yesterday's segment to enumerate. A particularly egregious one is his portrayal of a few offensive comments (repeated ad nauseam) as being representative of what you will find at Daily Kos. There are over a hundred thousand registered users at Daily Kos, each with the ability to post comments on the site. Daily Kos has some nice features that allow this large community of users to moderate themselves, and it generally keeps the discourse on a pretty even keel. But are we to believe that not a single user will ever post something offensive? (See Godwin.)

The Geometry of Irregular Forms: Part 3

2007-06-21T18:49:00.000-05:00

(Introduction to this series is at this link.)

Let's return to my experiment with the calculator's square root key. Although I didn't know it at the time, what I had stumbled upon was an iterative algorithm. That's fancy words for a process that's kind of like hitting a nail with a hammer. Every time you hit the nail, you drive it into the two-by-four a little bit. That's one iteration of the process. Then you take the output of that iteration (a nail that's part-way into the board), and you do the same thing to it. You do this over and over, until a terminating condition is met -- in this case, when the nail is all the way into the board.

When you start an iterative algorithm, you need an initial condition. From my square root experiment, 0.0000001 and 99999999 are examples of initial conditions. If we take the variable x to be the number on the calculator's display, then the initial condition is x₀.

For the first iteration, we plug x₀ into the process, and it yields the next x, or x₁. And the second iteration of the process yields x₂, and so on. In general:

the next x = do-something-to( the current x ), or
x_n+1 = do-something-to( x_n)

In my square root experiment, the "do-something-to" is the square root function. In the hammer-and-nail example, the "do-something-to" is striking the nail with the hammer. Using the x_n notation, the sequence from Part 1 looks like:

x₀ = 0.0000001
x₁ = 0.0003162
x₂ = 0.0177828
x₃ = 0.1333521
x₄ = 0.3651741
x₅ = 0.6042964
x₆ = 0.7773650
x₇ = 0.8816831
x₈ = 0.9389798
... 15 more ...
x₂₄ = 0.9999990
x₂₅ = 0.9999995
x₂₆ = 0.9999998
x₂₇ = 0.9999999
x₂₈ = 0.9999999
x₂₉ = 1

After hitting the square root key 29 times, I arrived at a terminating condition -- the calculator read 1, and the value was no longer changing -- and so I stopped.

The Geometry of Irregular Forms: Part 2

2007-06-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

Suppose I lived on a country estate on which there lived a predator population of foxes and a prey population of grouse (the example given in Stoppard's Arcadia). On this idealized estate, this is the extent of biological diversity. If the foxes were numerous, they would eat most of the grouse, which would become scarce in the short run. But then the foxes would have nothing to eat, and their numbers would decline. With fewer foxes around, the grouse population would recover. In the case of a marginally stable ecological system, the numbers of foxes and grouse would be cyclical and experience population explosions and crashes. An unstable system would have the foxes eat all the grouse to extinction, followed by their own extinction from starvation. But if the system is stable, the fox and grouse populations would eventually settle to an equilibrium state.

I first learned about this interaction between predator and prey populations when I visited Epcot Center (now just "Epcot") in Orlando at the age of eleven. One of the Future World buildings had an interactive computer exhibit, which was pretty futuristic at a time not far removed from when a Pong game console represented the pinnacle of home computing. The exhibit had a bank of computers each running a simulation of a predator/prey system. It let you enter initial populations, and possibly other parameters such as reproductive rate, and then it would display a graph of how the populations would change over many years. Usually, the graphs would have either an exponential-decay shape or a sine-wave shape. I thought this was very cool.

The Geometry of Irregular Forms: Part 1

2007-06-14T18:53:00.000-05:00

(Introduction to this series is at this link.)

I was about seven years old when I discovered the square root key on my father's calculator. This was back when electronic calculators plugged into the wall outlet, and a square root key was a real novelty. I'd pick a number, hit the square root key, and then multiply the result by itself -- I'd get the original number back. But the most interesting thing about that square root key was that, unlike the basic arithmetic operations ('+', '-', etc.), the square root is a unary operation. That meant I could hit that square root key over and over again without having to enter other numbers or the '=' key.

In my experimenting, I identified four cases: (a) I enter '0'. No matter how many times I hit the square root key, it stays at 0. (b) I enter '1'. No matter how many times I hit the square root key, it stays at 1. (c) I enter a number between 0 and 1. Every time I hit the square root key, the result gets larger and approaches 1, until the calculator reads precisely 1. (d) I enter a number greater than 1. Every time I hit the square root key, the result gets smaller and approaches 1, until the calculator reads precisely 1.

I would try extreme cases. What if I put in the smallest positive number the calculator would allow (0.0000001)? The largest (99999999)? I would count the number of times I had to press the square root key before the calculator read 1. Yes, I was a strange child, but in my defense, they didn't have Nintendo back then. Here is the sequence when I started at 0.0000001:

0.0000001
0.0003162
0.0177828
0.1333521
0.3651741
0.6042964
0.7773650
0.8816831
0.9389798
... 15 more ...
0.9999990
0.9999995
0.9999998
0.9999999
0.9999999
1

Twenty-nine times. Same as if you start with 99999999.

So far, the most difficult mathematical concept we've encountered is the square root. And everything described above can be done by a seven-year-old with a simple calculator.

The Geometry of Irregular Forms: Introduction

2007-06-11T16:17:00.000-05:00

It's been two weeks since I posted my last update. I'm still here.

Last week I saw the play Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Stoppard, with Terry Gilliam of Monty Python, co-wrote the screenplay for the movie Brazil (one of my favorites). That alone sets an expectation for genius. And just last night, the Broadway production of his trilogy The Coast of Utopia won the Tony award for best play.

I enjoyed Arcadia, even if it is not perfect. I'm still trying to figure out why some of the characters were even necessary (the mute child, for instance). But I was interested in how Stoppard works in some mathematics and science and uses some of the same themes as The Coast of Utopia dealing with the conflict between the Enlightenment of the 18th century and the Romanticism of the 19th century. Enlightenment philosophers, building on the discoveries of Galileo and Newton, thought that all problems, and all questions about how the world worked, could be solved by the application of reason. This was a great step forward from earlier periods dominated by superstitious thinking -- when women were being burned as witches, and lightning was seen as a sign of God's wrath. However, it became clear that not everything that happens in the world is as deterministic as a simple equation. Arcadia contains a tale of modern chaos theory being developed -- and then forgotten -- in the early 19th century as a synthesis of both Romanticism and the Enlightenment, even before such pioneers in the field as Sir Arthur Cayley were born.

One of the characters in Arcadia wrote a book titled The Geometry of Irregular Forms (which exists only in the play). I can't make any promises -- this is merely a blog, after all -- but I'll try to do a series of postings on this subject: the geometry of irregular forms.

Diversions in Bumblef**k, Illinois

2007-05-27T18:34:00.000-05:00

This past winter, my girlfriend (a.k.a. The Girlfriend) was driving to Decatur, IL, on an unexpectedly snowy night. A few inches of snow accumulated on the highway, enough to make for hazardous driving conditions. The Girlfriend decided to stop at the nearest motel. And that motel was Sunset Inn & Suites in Clinton, IL. No ordinary Motel 6, this place advertised "fantasy suites" on their sign. It's like Clinton's very own little Madonna Inn! Alas, The Girlfriend was traveling on business and got herself a non-fantasy room, described by her as a perfectly ordinary hotel room.

As if it weren't enough that such a place existed out in the middle of the cornfields, they also have a website, apparently authored using Notepad or some other text editor. Check out that retro mid-'90s web design. I'm only half mocking it; while the web page's spartan appearance might be an indicator of a spartan budget, it also serves a purpose. (See the works of Russian artist Olia Lialina to find out why.)

[02 JUN 2007 18:09:00] UPDATE: The Girlfriend is wondering, if I were to stay in a fantasy suite, which one would I choose? It's a tough call. Some of them I can rule out as being too cheesy. (Space Odyssey has too much Dr. Who, and not enough Star Trek DS9.) Some of them didn't seem to get the theme quite right. (I don't care how comfortable it is -- does a Scandinavian Modern lounge chair belong in Roman Retreat?) Cabin Fever looks cozy. Also, I think Pearl Under the Sea might be cool with its aquarium and its clam shell bed.

Clark vs. O'Reilly, Soros vs. VRWC

2007-05-21T21:23:00.000-05:00

It was already more than a week ago when I saw a clip of Bill O'Reilly interviewing Wesley Clark (link at crooksandliars.com). Now, it's my understanding that an interview should shed light on the interviewee. But the main thing we learn from this interview is that O'Reilly, the interviewer, hates George Soros. O'Reilly compares Soros to former head of the KKK David Duke and calls Soros "the most radical individual in the United States of America." Dang -- Soros must be one bad dude, right? But when pressed by Clark to explain his animosity, O'Reilly can only muster a vague reference to Soros' investment activities in France and the UK.

George Soros is not a very public figure, so I don't think a lot of people have much with which to form an opinion of him, other than smears against him. He is, at the least, a complicated man. For instance, his father was a notable academic who did work in Esperanto, and George is one of the few native speakers of Esperanto. How cool is that?

A lot of conservatives like to point to President Reagan as a major factor in the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, but you can't ignore the funding Soros provided to opposition, pro-Democracy groups. As much as his detractors like to paint him as a wild-eyed commie, Soros has a solid anti-Communist record. Where Soros stands out is that a lot of anti-Communists are more against socialism than they are against authoritarianism; with Soros, it's the other way around.

Conservatives also make much of Soros' funding of progressive organizations such as MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress, portraying Soros as this shadowy figure working behind the scenes to buy public opinion with his billions of dollars. This he does to some extent, but what he spends is a drop in the bucket compared to his counterparts on the political right. The Bradleys, the Scaifes, the Coors, and many others all have the resources of Soros, and they are all as politically active -- on the other side of the issues. Their money goes to right wing organizations such as the AEI, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute, and they support the careers of think tank denizens such as Dinesh D'Souza and Victor Davis Hanson.

I've written about think tanks before. The vast majority are right wing; their fellows are paid to promote the party line. Even in media outlets that have a reputation for being left leaning, the "expert" commentators are mostly from these conservative or conservative-libertarian think tanks. It's not for a lack of experts with a different viewpoint -- the think tanks are simply more active in getting their message out.

When you're listening to a news program, and they bring an expert on the show, they might not tell you anything about the organization this person represents. I would encourage you to pay attention to who is paying this expert's salary, and look it up on the internet. There are a few places you can do this... RightWeb by the International Relations Center is a good resource. As of last year, I wasn't so impressed, but since then they've been busy updating their database. Still better than RightWeb is MediaTransparency.org.

On the MediaTransparency site, not only can you find out where any particular "expert" is getting their paycheck from, but you can also find out the size of the foundations from which they draw said paycheck. You can find, for instance, that the Bradley Foundation alone has more than $700 million ready to spend on conservative causes. How about H. Smith Richardson's foundation? (H. Smith who?) Nearly half a billion in assets. And so on. So when I hear moaning on the right about George Soros' contributions to his pet causes, please forgive me if I roll my eyes.

[22 MAY 2007 08:40:00] UPDATE: I forgot to mention FAIR's annual study of think tank references in the media. You can find last year's report (for 2005) on their website. The 2006 results should be posted in the next few weeks.

Have they lost their minds?

2007-05-17T18:57:00.000-05:00

I missed the latest Republican debate, but saw some pretty hair-raising clips afterward. Some of these candidates still look a little psychologically traumatized by 9/11, and that's not a good quality in a commander in chief. When asked how aggressively he'd interrogate a hypothetical group of terrorism suspects, Giuliani said the interrogators should use "every method they could think of." But not torture. But every method they could think of. But not torture. It reminded me of George Tenet's recent 60 Minutes interview where he spoke of using "enhanced interrogation techniques." Tenet would not deny that waterboarding was employed, but in his words: "Lalalalalala! We do not torture! Lalalalalalala!" (OK, I made the lalala part up.)

But Giuliani has nothing on Mitt Romney when it comes to disregard for the U.S. Constitution. Not only does he want to keep Guantanamo open, he would like to see it doubled in capacity, and he wouldn't extend to detainees any access to lawyers and due process. Habeas corpus is for wimps! Oh yeah... he's also a fan of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (unlike Giuliani, he asks for it by name!) -- but not torture. Lalalalalalala!

Can we impeach yet?

2007-05-16T22:40:00.000-05:00

It's been about a year and a half since I wrote about the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program. I took the trouble of actually reading the FISA statute, from which I learned that there appeared to be no legitimate reason for the President to act outside that law. Furthermore, by performing searches without warrants, President Bush was violating the 4th Amendment of the Constitution he has sworn to uphold.

Yesterday, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey gave testimony before Congress about the events of March 10, 2004. It was like something out of a soap opera. Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the hospital suffering from pancreatitis, which I hear is painful enough to make you wish you were dead, and he had temporarily transferred his authority to Mr. Comey. It so happens that Bush's wiretapping program needed to be reauthorized by the very next day, but Comey et al were of the opinion that the program was illegal and would not sign off on it. Since Comey was acting A.G., that should have been the end of it -- the program would not have been reauthorized. But the Leader of the Free World can't let a little thing like the law get in his way!

Comey testified that he learned Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to visit Ashcroft (how sweet). I know I'm not the first to make the observation that what happened next bears a vague similarity to a scene in the movie The Godfather. Basically, Bush and company were trying to get an incapacitated Ashcroft to sign off on the wiretapping program -- over the objection of the acting A.G. Comey raced to the hospital with emergency lights flashing and beat Card and Gonzales to Ashcroft's bedside, and with that heroic act, the rule of law was saved. (There is more good stuff in the transcript, but I'll wrap it up for brevity's sake.)

In summary... President Bush had this program that was of dubious legality and violated basic civil rights. Then he and others in his administration went around the law to reauthorize this program. What does he have to do before it is considered high crimes and misdemeanors? Now can we talk about impeachment?

[17 MAY 2007 08:40:00] UPDATE: I looked for this story in Wednesday's Chicago Tribune. Apparently when we find that the U.S. Attorney General has perjured himself before Congress, when we find he has abetted the President in committing misdeeds -- this isn't front page material. Instead, we got an article about a hairdresser ("Is offbeat stylist cut out to be a 'Shear Genius'?") and an obituary for Jerry Falwell. The Gonzales hearing was tucked away on page 4 ("Ashcroft ex-aide details wiretap infighting").

[17 MAY 2007 18:05:00] UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald wrote an article about this on his blog at Salon.com and really nailed it. It's a must read. Also, when I was discussing this at lunch, one of my coworkers tipped me off to a Frontline episode titled "Spying on the Home Front" that aired on Tuesday. It deals with the NSA wiretapping program and related 4th Amendment issues. I missed the broadcast, but it is available for viewing online at Frontline's website.

Too much music makes the concert go long

2007-05-02T22:11:00.000-05:00

My band had its spring formal concert this past Saturday. When I broke my wrist, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to play, but I managed. Here is a photo from the concert (note: copied from the band director's flickr page without his permission):

The guy in the lower right of the picture is me. If you look carefully, you can see the brace on my right hand.

I think the concert went fairly well. As usual, the program was probably a little longer than it needed to be, and I think it was the most difficult program we've ever played. The band director wants to keep pushing the band to do more, but he should realize that we're just volunteers. We did have a couple professionals play for this concert: Gene Pokorny, principal tuba of the Chicago Symphony, and Gene's wife Beth Lodal, both played with us in the tuba section. Pokorny and Buffalo Grove Village President Elliott Hartstein were the featured soloists in our performance of Tubby the Tuba.

Too much heat makes the roof go up in flames

2007-05-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, I was coming back from the mailbox one morning as I was about to go to work. I noticed an unusually large number of people milling about the building to the south of mine. Then I noticed there was an alarm sounding. Then I noticed there were fire truck sirens off in the distance. Then I recalled there had been a fire in that building just a few years ago, and I broke into a sprint through the gangway to the back yard.

Were those wisps of smoke rising from the roof? It only took a few seconds for the tiniest signs of smoke to develop into impressive flames. Then, when the fire truck came, it only took a few seconds to douse them. The fire was apparently confined to the roof and was started by roofers heating tar.

Too much business makes the restaurant go open its doors

2007-05-02T22:07:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how I found AJ's Grill closed in the middle of the day when they'd normally be open. At the time, I wasn't sure what their status was and thought they might have closed for good, but I went there again this past weekend, and they were open. (I plan to correct my earlier entry when I get a chance.)

Too much soup makes the lid go pop

2007-05-02T22:05:00.000-05:00

A few days after I started wearing the brace on my broken wrist, I decided to make a can of soup for dinner. Progresso has recently started putting pull tops on their soup cans, but after this last experience with one, I think I'll stick with the can opener. Because of the wrist, I tried to open it with just my left hand, curling one finger through the tab while gripping the sides of the can with the other fingers. Pop! The whole lid popped off at once, and one end of it sprang up and embedded itself right into the side of my pinky. Reflexively, I flung the can away from me, spilling its contents all over the kitchen walls, counter, and floor. Blood was streaming from my left hand, and my right hand was still pretty much out of service. Oy vey. Stay away from those pull tops. That's all I can say.

Too much falling makes the wrist go snap

2007-05-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd save the condo association a little money and prune the crabapple trees in the front yard (the same ones mentioned in a small Chicago Tribune article last fall -- they're still alive). This was April 14. Coming down a seven-foot ladder, I missed a rung and fell. The first thing to hit the ground was my right hand, and while it made a troubling snapping sound and hurt afterward, everything still seemed to work. It wasn't until three days later that I saw a doctor, who sent me to the hospital for X-rays. Turns out I cracked the end of my radius. Fortunately, it's very minor fracture.

Too much X makes the Y go Z

2007-05-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time lately to update my blog much. That means it's time for another blitz round of blogging. In the vein of the Neo-Futurists' long running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (TMLMBGB), I'll attempt to write as many entries as I can in as short a time as possible.

Trouble for Catalpa Gardens developers

2007-04-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

There is a man named Reza Toulabi who, if I am not mistaken, lives in a walled compound in my neighborhood and owns a restaurant and a good deal of property on Chicago's North Side. One of his parcels is a narrow strip along the west side of the Red Line between Catalpa and Bryn Mawr, on which, several years back, he decided to develop a mid-rise condominium complex -- Catalpa Gardens. Mr. Toulabi hired a well-respected architect who produced a design that was interesting from an aesthetic point of view, but I had some concerns about the project's size. After the proposal was approved, the original architect was removed from the project, and they made some changes to the design that, in my opinion, harmed its aesthetics. I became even more concerned. Then they started building it, and it is a big, concrete building -- and I know I shouldn't pass final judgment on a building still under construction, but it doesn't look as nice as first advertised.

Somewhere along the line, Mr. Toulabi teamed up with developers Charles Cornelius and William A. Lockhart on this project, and I'm not even sure what his role is anymore. A recent article in Crain's describes Cornelius and Lockhart as "equal partners" and doesn't even mention Toulabi -- probably a good thing for him given the subject of the article. Mr. Lockhart was arrested last month, accused of cocaine possession. The following week, Lockhart was sued by Cornelius for mismanaging the project. I don't take any pleasure in their troubles. If you find yourself on the 5500 block of N. Broadway and look up over the roof of the alderman's office, there you will see an unfinished Catalpa Gardens looming eleven stories over the street, and it's not going away. I hope it gets finished, and I hope it will someday be an asset to the neighborhood.

More changes near the Berwyn El stop

2007-04-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Berwyn stop area losing a couple businesses. It looks like I might have a couple more to report. I hope this isn't the start of a trend. Saturday I went over to AJ's Grill (on the 5300 N. Block of Broadway) for a nice, cholesterol-laden lunch, but they were closed. I ended up taking out from Subway two doors away (a healthier choice, anyway), and as I was leaving, I saw several other disappointed AJ's patrons tugging on their door. There was no sign outside the eatery explaining the closure, so I can't say whether this is temporary, or if they've lost their lease. [7 MAY 2007] Update: I went back on April 28, and they were open for business.

South of Foster, the Brown's Chicken (formerly Chicken Delights, formerly Burger Delights, formerly Burger King) on the 5130 N. block of Broadway that had opened last year is gone. The building is designed for fast food, complete with a drive through, but it seems that no one is able to make it work at that location. I wouldn't miss it all that much if they tear it down. The drive through just encourages people to stay in their cars where, for instance, they'll never have a chance to browse the baked goods at Chiu Quon Bakery on nearby Argyle Street. Regardless of what happens to the Brown's property, its vacancy contributes to a dead zone on Broadway that starts near the Aon building on the 5030 N. block and extends north to the middle of the 5200 N. block.

On a brighter note, the former taqueria at 5424 N. Broadway has a new awning up. It looks like a French bistro is moving in. (Fans of a good taqueria can still get their fix at El Norte just a block and a half north.)

Metapost: Comments policy

2007-04-12T19:12:00.000-05:00

Don't feed the trolls. Words of wisdom that go back to the good old days of the Usenet newsgroups.

Most of the time, I welcome visitors to this site. I don't go out of my way to encourage visitors, but if you care to read what I've written, that's OK with me. Whether you agree or disagree with me, go ahead and leave a comment if you are so inspired. I won't shy away from a reasoned argument. But I won't tolerate people using the comments section to abuse other commenters. Do that, and you'll find your comment deleted.

Grouse

2007-04-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

Last week I was going down the back steps when I startled a strange-looking bird. It was a bit larger than a dove, and it was rounder and had short wings. It landed in the yard and began strutting around with its tail feathers turned up and fanned out like a turkey. Later, I looked it up and discovered that I had seen a ruffed grouse -- which, like turkeys, chickens, quails, and pheasants, is a member of the Galliform order of birds. Chicago is at the very south edge of their range, but as they normally inhabit forest, I think it's interesting that one found its way to my neighborhood.

Calatrava Spire, if that's what you want to call it

2007-03-29T18:09:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, updated designs were unveiled for Santiago Calatrava's gigantic Chicago skyscraper. The Calatrava Spire, according to the current plan, will twist more dramatically than Calatrava's Turning Torso building in Sweden, and previous versions of the Spire have been compared to drill bits and birthday cake candles. Early designs were topped by a tapering needle; later ones widened the top to accommodate more floor space. Now the design calls for a rounded dome. Which suggests a different comparison. I won't be the one to say what that is, but maybe the reader will be interested in a blurb I wrote a while back about Barcelona's La Torre Agbar.

The white-haired poet said that Chicago was the city of big shoulders. If the Calatrava spire gets built, we'll have to amend that to "city of big spires" (wink wink). But aside from the resemblance to a certain body part, there is much reason for concern. Most worrisome is its gargantuan size. At 2,000 feet, it would be more than a third taller than the Sears Tower, Chicago's current tallest building. From an aesthetic point of view, the Calatrava spire will transform a harmonious skyline, which prominently features a building that actually has shoulders, into one that is dominated by a single, oversized column.

From a functional standpoint, its size might be an even greater liability. Early designs called for a mixed-use building (a good thing), including a hotel on the lower floors. But the economics didn't work. The developers (Shelbourne) decided it needed more residential condominium units, which eventually displaced all other uses (a bad thing). What was once expected to be a 500-unit building is now designed for 1,300 very expensive units. To fill this one building, they'd have to absorb 0.1% of the city's population.

We might expect problems with too many people and too many cars and ask: where is the benefit to the public domain? Yes, the developers have committed to redevelop DuSable Park immediately to the east of the proposed building. But the park is across the Outer Drive from the Spire, and if they build it, will they come? Green space does not, by itself, attract visitors. This harks back to an old vision of cities that was popular two or three generations ago. The modern city would be vertical, separated from the ground. And the vertical towers would be separated from each other by a spaghetti bowl of expressway ramps, and beneath them would be acres of green grass. Maybe the inhabitants of this city would even wear white coveralls and orange-tinted goggles -- that would be cool. But people don't live like that.

Edgewater slasher suspect in custody

2007-03-20T22:06:00.000-06:00

This past week, a man was going around my neighborhood attacking people at random with a knife. He'd attack them from behind, and then run away. Fortunately, none of the four Edgewater victims was seriously hurt, from what I've heard. The news was rather alarming since Edgewater does not have a very high rate of violent crimes, and random violence like this is rare.

The Chicago Tribune reported today that a suspect was caught following a fifth attack in a different neighborhood. Assuming the police got the right man, we can breathe a sigh of relief that he's off the streets. So why did he do it? From the article:

[Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Heather Weber said that the suspect] attacked the people because they looked at him "weird" or on other occasions the "victims allegedly jumped up and down from across the street."

Berwyn Red Line stop and vicinity

2007-03-19T19:55:00.000-06:00

Last month Dr. Wax's used record store near the Berwyn station closed. For several years, it was located in a fairly large space just west of the station. Then last year, they moved to a very small space right under the tracks. The new store seemed like such an undesirable location for a record store, and I was doubtful they'd survive there. One day last month, I noticed a sign on their door inviting customers to their store way down on the South Side. I never bought anything at Dr. Wax, but it was something unique that I'm sure will be missed by a lot of people in the neighborhood. Their business, no doubt, has been badly hurt by the popularity of the iPod.

In the old, larger Dr. Wax location, an new furniture store is opening up. Their grand opening banner reads "DCI Furnitures," which doesn't seem like such a good name to me. Sounds like a place where you might order three dozen office chairs. Later, I found out the correct name is DCI Home Furnishings. Still not a great name, but a step in the right direction.

At the corner of Broadway and Foster, there used to be a Del Ray Farms produce market that catered mainly to an immigrant and minority clientele. The building itself is pretty much a cinderblock box on a parking lot, and it doesn't do much for the corner. Not long ago I passed by it, and the parking lot was completely filled up with taxi cabs. I can safely assume that the Del Ray is no longer in operation.

With the loss of Dr. Wax from beneath the 'L' tracks, two of the four storefronts belonging to the CTA are empty at the Berwyn station. The other one has been empty for at least three years. It doesn't help that the property is falling apart (and this despite fare increases!). Water has been leaking into the station itself to the extent that a portion of the ceiling has come down and is now patched with sheet metal. Water damage in the other commercial spaces makes it less than ideal for prospective tenants.

Earlier this month, the Edgewater Development Corporation (EDC) and the University of Illinois at Chicago held workshops for "a potential redesign of four CTA Red Line stations." This might have been interesting, but from what I have heard, it mostly involved a what-if scenario where pretty much the whole of Broadway (not just the CTA properties) between Foster and Granville gets demolished and rebuilt -- new and improved! I was appalled to hear this. I think it should be common knowledge among urban planners these days that you can't save a neighborhood by destroying it.

My steaks were marinated

2007-03-17T14:33:00.000-06:00

"My steaks were marinated." That's what I heard Gonzales say. Later, on a Spanish-language station, I think I heard them saying something about 93 avocados. Why all the fuss over some carne asada? And suddenly everyone's all in a lather about the passive voice -- I, for one, have never been a purist in this regard. The passive voice has its time and place. To me, it is not important who marinated the steaks, only that they were marinated. Now, if the marinater of the steaks made mistakes, that would be a different story. Then we might need to point fingers. And if it turns out those mistakes involved firing Justice Department prosecutors for political reasons, then I think we need a new Attorney General.

Lake Michigan in March

2007-03-05T21:34:00.000-06:00

Here is another picture from when I went down to the lakefront the other day. (Click to see a larger version.)

Springtime in Chicago

2007-03-03T16:24:00.000-06:00

The calendar says March, but it's as cold as the dead of winter. I don't know why these pigeons are hanging out at Foster Beach on a day like today -- maybe wondering why I'm at Foster Beach?

No to Madigan's Crosstown Expressway

2007-03-03T14:29:00.000-06:00

The last time Chicagoans were talking about the Crosstown Expressway, I was too young to notice. But the generation before me already understood that the urban expressway was a thing of the 1960s, and they had the wisdom to kill the idea.

Two weeks ago, Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan dusted off the 28-year-dead proposal and tried reviving its corpse. This had a lot of people scratching their heads, since the Crosstown Expressway proposal would compete with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's Mid-City Transitway. While I've been known to criticize Daley on occasion, in this case I feel that Daley's idea is the better one.

When the Interstate highways were first built, we lacked the experience to see how, in urban and suburban settings, they would create a positive feedback loop that leads to ever increasing sprawl and traffic congestion. Traffic engineers would look at the mess they created and then decide that if only we build this one more highway, we'll all be sailing along at 55 miles an hour. But of course, the new highway will soon be just as congested as all the others, and the others will be worse than before. And I won't even get into the destruction of neighborhoods through which the highway passes.

Development of transportation infrastructure along the western edge of Chicago does make sense, just not in the form of a six-lane highway. For the most part, Chicago's streets are laid out in a north-south and east-west grid. Superimposed on that are a number of angled streets (Milwaukee, Elston, Lincoln, Clark, etc.) that radiate from downtown like spokes. CTA rail lines are also laid out like spokes that converge in the Loop. What is lacking is a quick way to get from the far end of one line to the far end of an adjacent one, something that could be provided by mass transit on a Mid-City Transitway.

Daley wins reelection

2007-02-26T09:02:00.000-06:00

I hope no one minds my declaring the projected winner of the Chicago mayoral race 36 hours before the polls close.

As I've written before, I'm not that enthusiastic about the incumbent mayor. But Mayor Daley's opponents (Walls and Brown) have been struggling to get even a little visibility. I just don't see either of them overcoming Daley's organization.

The Chicago Federation of Labor has declined to endorse Daley, partly in reaction to Daley's veto of the Big Box living wage ordinance, but they don't seem to be taking on the mayor head on. Instead they are opting to back opponents of the aldermen who helped Daley's veto stick, in hopes of strengthening opposition in the City Council.

In my own ward, the 48th, this election provides voters discouragingly few choices. Not only does Daley seems certain to win the mayoral race, but all three opponents of the incumbent alderman have been knocked off the ballot. Last week I was listening to British P.M. Tony Blair being interviewed on the BBC News' radio show, and the interviewer asked why Blair doesn't consider Iran's government a legitimate democracy, since they have an elected president and a parliament and so on. Blair's response was that two thirds of the people who would run for office are disqualified; therefore the people are not given a real choice. In Chicago's 48th Ward, three of four aldermanic candidates were disqualified for minor errors in their paperwork. By Tony Blair's standards, this puts Chicago's version of democracy about on a par with Iran's.

The mean streets of suburbia

2007-02-17T15:05:00.000-06:00

It's conventional wisdom that you're more likely to come to a violent end in a dense, urban place than out in the suburbs. I haven't seen any statistics, but I've come to question that idea. In the past year, a 21-year-old woman met her demise on the street right outside the window of my suburban office. Two months later, two teenagers were killed a few miles down the road.

None of this had anything to do with shootings or gang violence or anything like that. These three fatalities were all due to automobile accidents. All the news media in Chicago have been reporting this week on a particularly horrific accident in Oswego in which four of nine occupants of a single vehicle were killed, and this comes after the Chicago Tribune has spent the last several months editorializing on fatal car accidents involving teenagers. While the driver in the Oswego incident was 23, the victims were all teenagers, and so the story has been made to fit the narrative that teenage drivers are dangerous.

It is true that teenagers, more so than people well into adulthood, are inexperienced drivers and may be prone to lapses in judgment. But how do we explain why a large majority of fatal accidents involving teenagers in the Chicago area occur in the suburbs rather than in the city proper? I suspect that the differential owes much to the design of the streets; suburban roadways are designed to be dangerous. In some cases they might be built to allow for traffic moving at sixty miles an hour, and then we wonder why people won't limit their speed to the posted thirty-five. On these streets, it is much more possible to drive at high speed.

In the city, on the other hand, narrow streets, frequent intersections, cars parked along the curb, the occasional double-parked car, as well as a number of traffic-calming devices (speed humps and traffic circles) all make it harder to drive fast. The city still has its drivers who exhibit poor judgment, but they don't attain lethal speeds as often as they do in the suburbs.

Hot Ducks

2007-02-17T12:46:00.000-06:00

I thought it was interesting that Doug Sohn made the front page of the Chicago Tribune today. His brother Andy, a real estate agent, helped me find my current home (and he still owes me a bottle of wine). The Tribune article is about Hot Doug's, Doug Sohn's high-end hot dog restaurant. It seems that Sohn is sort of blatantly disregarding the City's new foie gras ban, and the City isn't too pleased about that.

The last time I wrote about foie gras was almost two years ago, when I praised Charlie Trotter for taking it off his menu. I still believe that foie gras is produced through inhumane means. I wouldn't order it myself, and I'd like to see Mr. Sohn comply with the ordinance. That said, I wouldn't go so far as to boycott Hot Doug's... Their hot dogs are too good.

Sweet Occasions on Bryn Mawr

2007-02-09T20:35:00.000-06:00

Last month I wrote about the slow progress being made on Bryn Mawr. I've since learned that another good place to eat will be opening up there: Sweet Occasions. I actually wrote a few words about their Andersonville location in an October, 2005, posting. The new one will only be about a mile northeast of the one in Andersonville, but I'm sure there will be enough business for them both.

The Trout

2007-02-03T17:54:00.000-06:00

I just found this good YouTube on CrooksandLiars:

The film is broken up into 9-minute segments. The full set of links:

Part 1 :: Part 2 :: Part 3 :: Part 4 :: Part 5 :: Part 6

It's a film from 1969 of Daniel Barenboim (piano), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Pinchas Zuckerman (viola), Jacqueline Du Pre (cello), and Zubin Mehta (bass) performing the Schubert Piano Quintet ("The Trout"). The first thing that struck me was how young they all looked. Barenboim, who recently left the Chicago Symphony after a 15-year stint as artistic director, still acts the same way today as he did nearly 40 years ago. The performance might be a bit long for casual viewing, but I love the clowning around backstage in Part 2. Did Perlman call Pinchas Zuckerman "Pinky?" It's like Spinal Tap with classical musicians.

Aside from Daniel Barenboim, there are some other Chicago connections... Zubin has a brother named Zarin who was once the executive director of the Ravinia Festival, where the Chicago Symphony performs during the summer. Both Perlman and Zuckerman have performed regularly at Ravinia, and I've seen the now white-haired Zuckerman conduct there. Alas, I was too young to ever see Du Pre perform before multiple sclerosis ended her career, but the cello she plays in the 1969 film now belongs to Yo-Yo Ma, founder of the Silk Road Project, which is in the middle of the yearlong Silk Road Chicago program, a collaboration with various cultural institutions in Chicago.

The crown fish

2007-01-27T14:22:00.000-06:00

I went down to Chicago's old Chinatown neighborhood two weeks ago (not the one near me along Argyle St.) for some dim sum with The Girlfriend and another couple and their infant son. After eating, we went to some of the little shops where they sell inexpensive tchotchkes. Often the items are irregular in some way -- such as a misprint in the logo. For a couple bucks, I couldn't resist a flashing-LED Nemo (from Finding Nemo) necklace:

The packaging is attractive enough, except that Nemo isn't a crown fish -- he's a clownfish. It might not be the most hilarious example of Engrish, but I was amused. I also thought it was interesting that even though this was clearly a depiction of Pixar's Nemo character, nowhere on the packaging does it explicitly identify it as Nemo, and it doesn't appear to be licensed by Pixar. Hmmm...

And then there's the fact that my scanner was unable to detect Nemo's bright orange color. To my scanner, he looks a drab gray. Should I be concerned about this? What about the warnings printed on the back of the packaging?

Thank goodness, it has the CE mark (printed incorrectly). There is a symbol indicating the product is not for children 6 and under, but then Warning #1 says it is for ages 5 and up.

Surrounding Nemo's flashing LED core is the same kind of elastomeric material from which super balls are made. I can't imagine anyone deliberately trying to swallow it, but you are warned against it just in case. And then there is Warning #3. Nemo may stick to or stain various kinds of surfaces. So don't let him come in contact with anything. After reading that, I put Nemo back in his packaging, where he will stay for a good long time.

Chicago (anti-)Democratic politics

2007-01-26T20:27:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned a couple times that I've been doing some volunteer work for Chris Persons, a candidate for 48th Ward Alderman. Make that former candidate. To appear on the ballot, candidates must submit a number of documents to the Chicago Board of Elections. Among these are nominating petitions containing a sufficient number of valid signatures (at least 167 for aldermanic races), but there is a laundry list of other nomination papers that must be filed: Statement of Candidacy, Statement of Economic Interest, receipt for Statement of Economic Interest, etc. When Chris Persons filed his papers, he was told by the clerk that all his papers were in order, when in fact one of the documents had been mistaken for another. For this error, he was struck from the ballot without any recourse to get his name reinstated.

Chris Persons was not the only candidate to make a minor error such as this. In fact, both of the other two candidates running against the incumbent Mary Ann Smith were also removed from the ballot under similar circumstances. The other candidates were Christopher Lawrence and Rosita Spane. I don't know much about Ms. Spane. As for Mr. Lawrence, I've heard some good things about him, but I felt that Chris Persons was the most capable alternative to Smith. In any case, now there will be no alternative to Alderman Smith this February 27.

I first heard about all this around three weeks ago, but since I've been so close to the campaign, I decided to hold off on writing about it and allow Chris Persons to communicate this information to the public himself. For two weeks, he contemplated mounting a write-in campaign, but in the end, he realized that without his name on the ballot, he would be at a huge disadvantage. This past Monday, he announced that he was throwing in the towel.

For the time being, Chris Persons' website is still up, and there you can read his letter to the community announcing the end of his campaign. There is also a picture of Chris standing in front of a group of volunteers, including me. The caption reads: "You can take our voice, but you cannot defeat our spirit!"

Still here

2007-01-19T19:34:00.000-06:00

I try to update the blog at least once a week. In the week following the last entry, as a result of my being out of town and then my being under the weather, I failed. I still have plenty to write about -- soon.

Habeebi's

2007-01-08T21:32:00.000-06:00

At my last block club meeting, one of the members lamented that when you look down Bryn Mawr, all you see is dollar stores. Dollar store, dollar store, dollar store. This person needs to look again. Certainly there are some dollar stores, but only a few; and a dollar store here and there can be a good thing.

Already, for several years, the Bryn Mawr Historic District has been home to Francesca's Italian restaurant, Johnny Sprocket's bike shop, and a Starbucks. Recently, I've discovered Ben's Noodle Shop (a Thai restaurant). And a few more eateries have opened up in the past year: Flourish (bakery and sandwich shop), That Little Mexican Cafe, and Habeebi's.

I first noticed Habeebi's a couple weeks ago as I was getting a loaf of bread from Flourish across the street. At the time it must have just opened. I decided to give Habeebi's a try last Friday, and here's my review...

Habeebi's is a very casual sit-down restaurant. You order and pay at the counter, then wait for the food to be brought to your table. They also do carry-out. The dining area is furnished in a somewhat plain, yet appealing, manner. Prices are pretty reasonable at around $8 per entree.

I ordered the combination plate and a side order of hummus, and my companion (a.k.a. The Girlfriend) had the fatoush salad. The food was excellent. However, not all was well. We took cans of pop from their cooler and asked if they could supply us with cups and ice. "Oh, sure... No problem." But they didn't follow through and actually give us the cups until we asked again later. And we waited a long time for our food. To their credit, they understood there was a problem and gave us a complimentary plate of baba ganoush. But even this they didn't get quite right; the extra baba ganoush wasn't served with extra pitas. So what were we supposed to do -- eat it with a knife and fork?

It's not that the staff was lazy. On the contrary, the guys behind the counter were running around in a frenzy, mostly putting together take-out orders. But they were either so understaffed or inefficient that they struggled to serve a mostly empty dining room. I hope that they will correct these problems in time, but until then, I would recommend Habeebi's for take-out only.

LeeVees

2007-01-02T20:11:00.000-06:00

I saw the LeeVees a couple weeks ago when they played a gig at The Kinetic Playground, a performance space just a couple of Red Line stops down from me. Actually, it was only two of the LeeVees -- they said they couldn't afford to bring the whole band to Chicago. It was kind of like spinning the dreidel and getting a "hey." But I shouldn't complain. This was the only stop on their tour that was west of New York.

With this post, I'm trying out a new media type -- video -- via YouTube. It's a music video of the Leevees' song How Do You Spell Channukkahh from their only album, Hanukkah Rocks. I know we're a week and a half beyond the end of Chanukah (SP?), but a good song knows no season. I hope this shows up OK...

The consequences of elections

2006-12-31T15:00:00.000-06:00

Since the November elections, I've been taking a little break from writing about politics. The consequences of the Democrats taking over Congress has been widely reported in the national media, and I have nothing to add. But there have been some interesting little aftershocks at the local level in Chicago.

Prior to November 8, it looked like there might be at least one big name on the ballot to run against Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley this coming February -- namely, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL). While I acknowledge that Daley has done many good things for the city, I think he needs to be held accountable for pervasive corruption (Hired Truck and patronage scandals) and for the occasional abuse of power such as the midnight demolition of Meigs Field. If the Aldermen won't put checks on his power, the voters at least have the opportunity to elect someone else. I was hoping Jackson would run, but he was disinclined to give up his seat in Congress just as his party attained majority status.

As of year's end, 2006, there are two less-well-known candidates challenging Da Mayor: Dorothy Brown and Bill "Dock" Walls. Both are positioning themselves as reformers, which unfortunately splits the opposition vote. In my opinion, Brown has the more impressive resume of the two, but it will be a long shot for either to unseat Daley.

Another result of the November elections was that Todd Stroger succeeded his father, John Stroger, as Cook County Board President. The younger Stroger was handpicked by the Cook County Democratic Central Committee to replace his father on the ballot after John Stroger, incapacitated by a severe stroke, was forced to withdraw from the race. The choice was controversial, but good, old-fashioned nepotism was validated by the voters on Election Day.

Commissioner Bobbie Steele was appointed interim Board President in July, serving for the remainder of John Stroger's term, and I thought she did a reasonably good job. However, she retired shortly after the election (no surprise -- as a retiring president, she gets double the pension than as a mere commissioner) and picked her son Robert as her replacement. As in the case of Todd Stroger, there are some doubts about Robert Steele's qualifications, and the voters of Steele's district had little say in his selection.

Foster Beach

2006-12-30T17:11:00.000-06:00

Band music from the October concert

2006-12-28T13:13:00.000-06:00

Somehow I neglected to write about my band's fall concert, which took place on October 28 -- exactly two months ago. Here is the program:

Ride - Samuel Hazo
Selections from Wicked - Stephen Schwartz (arr. ???)
Concerto for Violin in D Maj.* - Tchaikovsky
Symph. Metamporphoses, etc., Mvt. 4 (March) - Hindemith

Intermission

La Gazza Ladra Overture - Rossini
Irish Tune from County Derry & Shepherd's Hey - Percy Grainger
Klezmer Classics - Johan De Meij
Symphony No. 9 in E min. (New World), Finale - Dvorak
Orpheus in the Underworld Overture - Offenbach

*The violin soloist for the Tchaikovsky was Cynthia Arden.

The concert was recorded, and I got the CD two weeks ago. The two tracks I thought came out the best were the final two movements of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (as one track) and La Gazza Ladra. For your listening enjoyment, I've uploaded MP3s of these tracks:

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Canzonetta and Finale

La Gazza Ladra, The Thieving Magpie

I think the slow Canzonetta movement of the violin concerto is a good example of the band's orchestral style. The faster finale begins with an attacca transition at the 6:16 mark. It requires more technical skill from the band, especially after 15:10, when the band takes over the line from the violin; it was about this point where the trumpets and woodwinds got embarrassingly out of sync in the midst of a roller-coaster sixteenth-note run.

If I had my way, I'd probably take parts of La Gazza Ladra a little slower than we played it. (We did the ending at an absolute break-neck speed!) It is a common problem among community bands to drag the tempo, accommodating the members who can't play so fast. My band, if anything, has the opposite problem. Sometimes I think the band director takes things faster than they need to be just to show everyone that we can do it. But it doesn't always sound good.

Broadway update

2006-12-20T16:09:00.000-06:00

About a year and a half ago, I did a little survey of everything on Broadway between Foster and Bryn Mawr. Last month, I walked up and down the street to see what has changed since then, and I'm finally getting around to writing about it.

At 5200-04, the building is still boarded up, but there is now a For Sale sign posted high on the exterior wall, near the corner. The building adjacent to the north, formerly a funeral home, also remains boarded up. During the summer, a temporary fence had gone up around it, which had a tendency to blow down. The fence is gone now. In the summer of '05, both of these properties were owned by a developer who wanted to build a large, five-story complex; it was approved at the Alderman's Zoning & Planning meeting (where I was the only one to vote against it), but the developer was unable to get the project financed.

On the east side of the 5200 block, there is a suburban-style shopping center. The northeast corner of the shopping center, facing Berwyn, used to be the Dr. Wax record store. This summer, they moved into a smaller space under the Berwyn 'L' stop. The old Dr. Wax location is still vacant.

The real estate office that had been at 5354-06 has moved to 5503. The old location is now vacant.

I believe the owner of the Chinese grocery at 5353 N. Broadway has bought the building to its north (5355-59). It's freshly painted and has new windows, but it is still empty.

5401 used to be Adria Mare, a Croatian restaurant. It seemed to be struggling for a long time, and I think it has finally gone out of business.

At the time I did my original survey, it looked like a tanning salon was opening up at 5411; it did indeed open and remains so.

The Zengler complex that runs from about 5423 to 5441 is still under construction. Pepitone's, an Italian restaurant, has an awning up at about 5437, but it is not yet open.

The florist at 5459 is no longer there. When I went past there last month, it was vacant. Now it is the campaign office for someone running for alderman against Chris Persons. After the municipal elections on February 27, I imagine it will revert to its former, unused state. An interesting thing I noticed is that when the sign for the florist came down, it revealed the "Care for Real" sign behind it -- Care for Real, a neighborhood food pantry, used to be located at 5459.

At the northwest corner of Broadway and Balmoral, Bromann Park is being renovated.

The taqueria at 5424 is now closed, and the storefront is vacant.

There was a condo sales office at 5501; apparently, all units have sold, and the sales office is no longer needed. 5501 is still empty.

The store that had just moved from 5557 to 5553 at the time of the original survey is no longer at 5553. Instead, this storefront contains the "Enchanted Mystic Shop." Sounds enchanting. And maybe a little mystical.

At the southeast corner of Broadway and Bryn Mawr, 5555-57, which was vacant, now houses a small grocery.

On the other side of the street, 5524, which was a dentist, is now a physical therapy office.

The cell phone store that was at 5556 has moved out, and the storefront remains vacant.

Something's not kosher

2006-12-09T15:32:00.000-06:00

I don't keep kosher, but I have noticed that the laws of kashrut still seem to have some influence on my diet. I avoid eating some things that aren't kosher; on the other hand, for no rational reason, I have no problem with some other non-kosher foods. If I could rewrite Leviticus, this is how it would classify the following foods:

Shellfish: OK
Catfish: MARGINAL
Pork chops: NOT OK
Ham: NOT OK
Spam: SADLY, NO
Prosciutto: SINFUL BUT DELICIOUS
Pork egg roll: OK
Pork hot dog: NOT OK
Bacon: OK
Pork ribs: OK
Pork snouts: EWWW
Cheeseburger: MARGINAL
Sausage pizza: OK
Blueberry bagel: NOT KOSHER. MAY LIGHTNING STRIKE YOU DOWN.

Poetry

2006-12-09T14:47:00.000-06:00

Lest anyone think I am lacking culture, I'd like to share a haiku I heard yesterday. The poet has not had it published, so I will maintain his anonymity by identifying him only by his initials.

Condominiums
by M.B.

Condominiums.
Condominiums are nice.
Condominiums.

What I've been reading

2006-12-01T17:02:00.001-06:00

I've already gotten through three of the books from my October reading list. I just finished one that was not on that list -- The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I hadn't read anything by Roth since high school, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy his writing.

The Plot Against America is a memoir of Roth's childhood, set in the early 1940s when Charles Lindbergh was President and we nearly went to war against Canada on the side of the fascists. What's that? You don't remember a Lindbergh presidency?

The book is, of course, a work of fiction. There have been many, many works, both fiction and non-fiction, written about various aspects of World War II and the Holocaust. For instance, these themes were prominent in another novel I read recently (also highly recommended): The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I was a little skeptical that Roth would be able to find anything truly original to say, but the novel easily exceeded my expectations.

Tragedy on Devon

2006-11-30T21:55:00.000-06:00

Business owners on the 2500 block of W. Devon Ave. had little to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Last Thursday there was a fire that burned the entire block, which consisted of three two-story buildings sharing a white, stone facade. According to a Chicago Tribune article from Sunday's paper (link -- may require registration), at least 25 businesses and 13 apartments sustained damage. I'd guess many of them are a total loss.

Fifty years ago, Devon Avenue was a major commercial strip serving the then-predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Rogers Park. By the mid 1980s, large numbers of Indians and Pakistanis had moved in, and parts of Devon began to look like a South Asian marketplace. I remember it at that time as a vibrant and entrepreneurial place.

I had dinner on Sunday at Indian Garden, across the street from where the fire was, so I was able to see the ruined block first hand. Out on the street, a smell like a sooty fireplace permeated the air. It was sad to think of the people who lost so much of what they had obviously worked so hard for -- losses that were often uninsured. From the Tribune article:

Some of the business owners said they planned to rent other space quickly. Mir Minhaj, an accountant whose Amtech Accounting office was on the second floor of the center building, had already made calls to lease a different space.

[Abdul Wahid] Butt, [owner of Sabri Nehari Restaurant] who estimated his losses at more than $1 million, said his restaurant's fame would make it easier for him to rebuild, but the fire still left him heartbroken.

"We are in shock right now," Butt said. "It's the memories. What can you do? You have to cry."

Latke vs. hamantash

2006-11-23T22:29:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night I made a journey to the South Side to attend the 60th Annual Latke-Hamantash Debate at the University of Chicago. I went with a pro-latke bias, but I must admit I found the defender of the hamantash to be the more persuasive of the panelists.

Philosophy Professor Yitzhak Melamed argued that it was pointless to argue whether the latke was superior to the hamantash, since he could prove that the hamantash does not even exist. (According to him, the hamantash is an item in an exhaustive list of things that don't exist.) His argument went as follows... There is nothing to distinguish one side of an equilateral triangle from the others; therefore all sides of an equilateral triangle are actually the same side, and the equilateral triangle can have at most one side. It follows that a three-sided equilateral triangle is an impossibility. Further, Spinoza asserted that the more perfect something is, the more reality it has. If isosceles and scalene triangles have less reality than the more perfect (but still impossible) equilateral triangle, then they cannot exist either. So no triangles exist, and no triangular objects, such as the hamantash, can exist. As far as I can tell, the chain of logic was properly constructed, but I had nagging doubts as to whether all the premises were true.

Rev. Alison Boden, Dean of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, then stepped bravely up to the lectern to defend the hamantash, which we had just been led to believe could not exist in nature. My expectations were not high. After all, what does a UCC minister know about latkes and hamantashen? Rev. Boden gave a sermon-like lecture that, like many sermons, went on too long. But in the end, she had me convinced that if there is an all-powerful being that takes interest in my affairs, it would want me to vote for the hamantash.

Election post mortem

2006-11-13T22:27:00.000-06:00

Sen. Joe Lieberman in CT:

I supported Ned Lamont, winner of the Democratic primary election. Initially, I felt that Lieberman would have trouble competing as an independent against two major-party candidates and that Lamont would win in the general election. My friend Antonio posted an opposing view in the comments, and he turned out to be correct. Lieberman did lose some support, only getting about half the vote, by far his lowest percentage since he edged out Lowell Weicker in 1988. But in a three-way race, half the vote was easily enough to win. Lamont staffer David Sirota wrote a nice article for In These Times about his experiences in the campaign (link to article).

Cook County Board President:

I had endorsed Commissioner Forrest Claypool in the Democratic primary. He lost to a guy in a coma, so it just shows the value of my endorsements. Then, behind closed doors, Alderman Todd Stroger, son of the guy in a coma, was anointed as the Democratic candidate. As far as I can tell, his main qualification is that he's the son of his predecessor. The general election was decided on the following factors: loyalty to the Democratic machine, support of values espoused by one's favored party, and good governance. The north side of Chicago (Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and points northwest) is usually very reliable for the Democrats, but the above factors gave them little reason to vote for Stroger; these wards voted for Peraica, the Republican. This same area falls within the Cook County Board's 10th District, with Democrat Mike Quigley as its commissioner. Quigley ran unopposed and got over 45,000 votes, more than any other commissioner.

Illinois 10th Congressional District:

I was hoping that Dan Seals would unseat Mark Kirk. He came within 6 percentage points of doing so, a reasonably good showing in a district that has recently been gerrymandered to make it safer for the Republican incumbent.

Other races:

Another closely watched race in the Chicago area was Duckworth vs. Roskam in the 6th District (left vacant by the retiring Henry Hyde). This has long been a Republican stronghold, but it has been trending Democratic. In 2004, Democrat Christine Cegelis ran a good race against Hyde without much support from the Democratic Party, and I was disappointed that Cegelis' strong showing failed to earn her the support of Rahm Emanuel and the party establishment. This election cycle, there had been some disagreement between the DNC's Howard Dean and the DCCC's Emanuel in terms of strategy. Probably both strategies had some merit and complemented one another. Neither of Emanuel's big gambles in Illinois (in the 6th and 10th Districts) paid off, but Dean's "50-state strategy" helped some candidates win in other parts of the country where there may not have been a strong Democratic organization before.

Although no additional Democrats will be heading to Washington from Illinois, the gains made by the Democratic party could be seen at a more local level. Democrats swept the statewide offices and maintained solid control over the General Assembly. And Democrats did well in county races in the traditionally Republican Chicago suburbs. In McHenry County, Democrat James P. Kennedy became the first Democrat to be elected to the County Board since 1976. In Lake County, Democrat Mark Curran defeated incumbent Sheriff Gary Del Re. And in Will County, Democrats Pat McGuire and Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant won their races for County Treasurer and Superintendent of Schools, respectively.

Twelve on the twelfth

2006-11-12T23:59:00.000-06:00

A while back, one of my coworkers told me about this thing she heard about where, on the twelfth of the month, people take twelve pictures and put them up on the internet. I can't find any reference to this anywhere, so maybe it's an internet meme that has long ago fizzled out, and I'm behind the curve. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do, so here is my day in photographs...

... (1) I wake up. My cat Jazzy is sitting on the bed next to me.

...(2) Grendel, the temporary cat, has his breakfast.

...(3) And I have my breakfast. Note the Bob Chinn's cup, the National Geographic, and the book Bowling Alone.

...(4) After breakfast, I found Grendel taking a nap on my office chair.

...(5) Taking a shower. There's a glass block window on the wall opposite the shower head. I like how the light that comes in through the window gets distorted by the glass blocks, and then gets distorted again when it reflects off the water in the tub.

...(6) I took the Red Line downtown.

...(7) Walking east on Grand Avenue, it gets a little desolate between Michigan Ave. and Navy Pier. The banners are for the Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Expo (SOFA), which is where I was headed.

...(8) The entrance to Navy Pier.

...(9) Outside Navy Pier, there is a statue of Bob Newhart in his TV series role as a psychiatrist. That's my girlfriend on the sofa.

...(10) Me discussing my neuroses with a statue of Bob Newhart.

...(11) We got out of the SOFA show around 4:45, and it was already getting dark.

...(12) The CTA Red Line at night.

The other mysterious person

2006-11-09T19:02:00.000-06:00

The front page is looking a little boring these days. Here's a picture of my niece Ella (the other mysterious person):

A mysterious person

2006-11-09T18:45:00.000-06:00

A mysterious person has entered my life; unlike the last time, she doesn't require a Pack and Play.

I usually avoid writing about my personal life on this site. You can have my opinions, but I like to maintain a little privacy. When I write about centipedes in my bathroom, I'm really opening up to my readers. But I'll go ahead and say that I have somehow gotten myself into a relationship. Let's see how this sounds... Mark M has a girlfriend. Hmmm... It just doesn't roll off the tongue. It'll take some practice.

She is a nice Jewish girl, dark-haired, a little shorter than me, and a little older than me. She's been involved in theatre, she shares a lot of my political views, she lives on Kenmore, and her name isn't Mimi. Sorry, Mimi -- you know I love you, but you're not the one, even if the description fits.

A memorable day

2006-11-08T21:54:00.000-06:00

I had quite a range of experiences yesterday. I started by fulfilling my civic duty at the voting booth. At my precinct, there were five or six paper ballot booths but just a single, lonesome electronic voting booth. I asked to use the electronic machine, but I grew impatient waiting for it to free up and exchanged the "smart card" they had given me for a paper ballot.

In the middle of the day, I left work to attend the funeral of one of my cousins. Even though she was not a very close relation, there is still a sense of loss. My parents, sister, aunt, and other cousins were there, and it was good to be with them.

I was invited to an election day party after work and spent the evening watching TV coverage of the election. We were all rooting for the Democrats, which for the last dozen years has been like rooting for the Cubs. But this year the Democrats won big. It was well worth staying up way too late on a week night.

Opinion page idiocy

2006-10-31T19:16:00.000-06:00

I was so astounded by how much nonsense was printed on the Chicago Tribune's October 20 Commentary page that I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I haven't had a chance to write about it until now.

Above the fold is a column by Jonah Goldberg titled: "Let the population grow." Goldberg is an editor at the right wing National Review, but lately the Tribune has been kind enough to give him regular space in their paper as well. What else can I say about Goldberg other than he is an idealogue, and quite possibly an idiot? Here's an example of his stellar discourse:

These days, overpopulation is primarily a hang-up for environmentalists, though suburbanites and feminists occasionally whine about it too...

Oy, those crazy environmentalists, suburbanites and feminists. If they believe it, we must reject it, regardless of whether it's actually true or not. Wait -- suburbanites??? Don't they make up the base of National Review subscribers? There's more:

What unites today's worriers and those of yesteryear is their common allegiance to Malthusianism. The British economist Thomas Malthus argued that population will always outstrip available resources. And he was 100 percent wrong.

Because people are, in the words of the late economist Julian Simon, "the ultimate resource." Given the right policies, intellectual and economic productivity trumps biological reproductivity.

Now, if his statement that Malthus was 100 percent wrong is itself wrong, what percentage wrong does that make Goldberg? As for productivity, it would be interesting to see how productive Goldberg would be if his share of global food production were to fall below 1,200 calories a day.

The other column on the page is by Victor Davis Hanson, a man I have criticized before. It is titled: "Liberals gone absolutely wild!" and is accompanied by a rogues' gallery of left-leaning celebrities such as Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, and Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller... what a wild man! Seriously, that's the best they could do?

The whole article is just a bizarre and grossly inaccurate rant. I could provide examples, but I'd end up tearing every word of the article to shreds. It might surprise the reader of the article to find out that Hanson publicly identifies himself as a Democrat. But he is not. He's employed by the Hoover Institution (a pressure vessel of willful ignorance) to produce flak -- in other words, to smack down anyone in politics or the media who speaks out too strongly against conservative interests. Usually he does this with a little more subtlety.

Judicial retention: Vote no for Judge Flanagan

2006-10-29T21:50:00.000-06:00

When Cook County voters go into the voting booth on November 7, they'll be faced with the names of dozens of judges on their ballots. Most voters, even those who are very well informed about politics and government, won't recognize a single name. So the whole judicial retention part of the ballot is seen by most people as a joke. Nevertheless, I'll take a position on one of the candidates and hope I never see her in a courtroom.

Here is what the Chicago Bar Association had to say about Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kathy Flanagan back in 2000:

Judge Kathy M. Flanagan is "QUALIFIED" for retention as a Circuit Court Judge. Judge Flanagan possesses the legal knowledge, ability and integrity required of the judiciary. However, the Committee encourages Judge Flanagan to address concerns about her temperament. (emphasis added)

So the "qualified" rating came with, um... qualifications. This year, the CBA endorsed her without reservation, but I'm not sure the concerns over her temperament have been resolved. From what I hear, Ms. Flanagan has a little problem with cell phones.

Something more substantive on the Kirk/Seals race

2006-10-29T21:29:00.000-06:00

One thing about Illinois' 10th Congressional District is that it contains suburbs such as Highland Park, Northbrook and Winnetka, in which there is a large Jewish community. Therefore, to a greater extent than in the average district, the voters of the 10th are concerned about our government's policy toward Israel. If these voters are impressed by Mark Kirk's pro-Israel voting record, they might be well served to visit Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog to read a good argument as to why challenger Dan Seals would be the better choice.

About that last entry

2006-10-25T19:28:00.000-05:00

You might have noticed that my last posting was a little on the linky side -- gratuitously so, even. And the content... maybe not so original. You might have seen similar talking points appear elsewhere around the blogosphere in recent days and thought my posting looks like part of a blogswarm. But it wouldn't be like me to participate in one of those, right?

[31 OCT 2006 13:48:00] Update: The posting from October 24 was part of an experiment by Chris Bowers at mydd.com to see what effect bloggers could have on Google rankings. The idea was to create associations in the internet between candidates' names (Mark Kirk) and websites containing information that might affect public opinion about the candidates (video clip from the CBS affiliate in Chicago). Then, when someone does a Google search on the candidate's name, Google will preferentially offer the website we want people to see.

Did it work? According to mydd.com, the Mark Kirk link was a dud, but actually, it did sort of work. The problem with the link is that it doesn't point directly to the video clip. The URL goes to "cbs2chicago.com/video/", which is resolved on the host side to the default web page in that directory. That page takes a parameter: "id=25835...", but Google didn't retain that level of detail in the search results. So when you search for "Mark Kirk", the CBS site shows up as hit #8, but without the reference to the desired video clip.

Illinois 10th: Time for a change

2006-10-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

After college I spent six years living in the 10th congressional district of Illinois. This district covers the northern suburbs of Chicago from Waukegan down to Wilmette. Historically, the Chicago suburbs have been as Republican as Chicago itself has been Democratic, but the 10th district is less conservative than most suburban districts. It has been represented by moderate congressmen from both parties (Abner Mikva and John Porter).

When I was living in the 10th, there was not much of a Democratic Party organization in the area. Come election day, I'd usually have a choice between John Porter and ... well, just John Porter. The Democrats didn't even contest the seat. Good strategy for victory, guys. In 2000, when Porter retired, Democrat Lauren Gash ran against Mark Kirk, but Kirk won the seat by the slimmest of margins, 51% - 49%. This year, the Democrats have a strong candidate in Dan Seals. A recent poll (warning: PDF file) shows Kirk ahead of Seals by just 2 percentage points (46-44, MoE +/-3).

Congressman Kirk often claims to be moderate and independent, in the mold of his predecessors, but he is no maverick. In fact, he's the Assistant Majority Whip of the House, whose job it is to make sure his fellow Republicans toe the party line. In early September, the local CBS TV station ran a story on Mark Kirk that looked with a skeptical eye into his claims of independence (link to the video).

[01 NOV 2006 14:00:00] Update: In my update to the October 25 posting, I noted how the links in this posting weren't working quite as expected. The guys at mydd.com have acknowledged this and have offered an alternate link. I've replaced the CBS video clip with an article from the Daily Herald.

Kittens

2006-10-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago, one of my coworkers sent out an e-mail saying he had three stray cats he had rescued and needed to find a home for them. It was a mother cat and her two kittens. The mother, under a year old, was a kitten herself.

Another of my coworkers decided to take all three. The following week, at the vet, he found out the mother kitten was already pregnant again and was expected to give birth to another litter of two kittens. Last week, the kittens were born. It wasn't two kittens -- it was five. So now my coworker has a total of eight cats in his apartment.

Ah, the miracle of life.

A not-so-grassroots process

2006-10-15T20:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got a newsletter in the mail from Mary Ann Smith, alderman of the 48th Ward. In it, she gives herself a big pat on the back for her community process. She calls it "grassroots democracy at its best," but that hardly describes what I saw when we were rezoning Broadway. Ald. Smith had her own proposal for B1-2 zoning, whereas the developer and real estate interests were advocating for B1-3. The block clubs argued, often contentiously, and often from a standpoint of ignorance, between these two options until a decree was sent forth upon the land from the alderman's office. Ald. Smith now had a new "compromise" proposal that would leave most of Broadway with a B1-3 designation, and she expected the Zoning and Planning delegates to vote in favor of it at the next meeting, which was only a few days away.

Snow

2006-10-15T20:09:00.000-05:00

The weather in Chicago is not always as we would like it to be, but we usually bear it with a fatalistic acceptance. Too hot? Too cold? Well, that's just how it is here in Chicago. But a snowstorm in the second week of October???

A chance of snow was in the forecast for this past Thursday, but I was so sure it wouldn't happen that when I opened my back door, my first thought was: What is this white stuff all over my porch? I couldn't remember an accumulating snowfall occurring so early in the fall. Where I live, the warmth of Lake Michigan typically keeps temperatures above freezing until the end of October.

My name in the Tribune

2006-10-08T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is weird. I was reading the Home & Garden section of today's Chicago Tribune, and I found the following article:

Crabapple might need to be moved

By Lee Randhava
Special to the Tribune

Q: My two crabapple trees bloomed beautifully this spring, but their leaves are abnormally small. What would cause this? -- Mark Maslov, Chicago

A: Stunted growth can be caused by lack of nutrition, root damage, disease or improper culture. Infertile soil, heavy clay or soil that is subjected to periodic flooding might not contain enough nutrients to promote healthy growth...

...And so on. So now the whole world knows that I might need to move my crabapple. I hope, at least, that my case will serve as a lesson to other gardeners.

The weird part about this is that I don't recall if I ever told the Tribune about my crabapple problem. And they never told me they were going to publish this article (not that I mind). I did bring a cutting from one of the trees into the Chicago Botanic Garden for evaluation and filled out a report there, so maybe they forwarded it on to the Tribune?

That's all for today

2006-10-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

This is my eleventh posting in the last hour, and that's all I've got for now.

Chess match held up over toilet demands

2006-10-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a rough decade in the world of professional chess. First, Garry Kasparov, the best chess player in history, broke away from the international chess federation (FIDE) and took his world champion title with him. Then in 2000, Vladimir Kramnik defeated Kasparov to take the title, but he refused to defend his title in a FIDE match for the next six years. FIDE has held their own championship tournaments, with Veselin Topalov winning the 2005 title. At long last, Kramnik has agreed to defend his title against the FIDE champion. So the fact that there is a world championship match between Kramnik and Topalov is huge news.

Last week, however, there was a discouraging turn of events. Kramnik, who suffers from a form of arthritis, kept getting up from his chair and going to the bathroom -- dozens of times each game. Topalov, understandably, thought this was a little suspicious, and his team filed a complaint. In the ensuing uproar over who could use which bathroom, Kramnik refused to start game 5. So this match, which was supposed to be this great "reunification" match, might end up being remembered for a dispute over toilets.

Don't mess with the Big Dog

2006-10-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

The Sunday before last, Bill Clinton appeared on Fox News for an interview with Chris Wallace, and Wallace was doing the "Clinton didn't do anything to stop 9/11" narrative. Clinton smacked him down. Video can be seen at Crooks and Liars.

Conservative commentators were screeching that Clinton "lost it." But as for the substance of what Clinton was saying... He's right. When Clinton was in office, everything he did to combat al Qaeda was criticized by the Republican Congress as "wagging the dog" to distract people from his marital infidelity problem. Just weeks before the end of Clinton's term, his terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, drafted recommendations for how to respond to the U.S.S. Cole attack, which were completed within two months of the attack. The recommendations, which included providing military support to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, were passed on to Bush's transition team, but the new Bush administration did not act on them.

Senn/Rickover community process

2006-10-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

Last week there was a meeting in the neighborhood about the presence of Rickover Naval Academy on the grounds of Senn High School. The Naval Academy, in its second year now, was created without the necessary input from the Local School Council (LSC) or from the community. In fact, when it was first proposed to the LSC, they voted unanimously against it. In this spring's primaries, some of the 48th Ward precincts had a referendum on the ballot calling for a community process dealing with this issue, and it passed with about 70% in favor. Last week's meeting was part of this community process.

I went to the meeting, but I was a little dismayed at some of the things I observed. There was one long-haired, sixtyish man who wore the American flag as a cape and a big, puffy, Uncle Sam hat. The guy got up and started reading from a scrap of paper, rambling in an utterly incoherent manner. Afterward, he sat down next to my representative in the Illinois General Assembly, Harry Osterman, and put his arm around him. Osterman wisely moved to another seat. It worries me a bit that the mostly cogent discourse that went on that evening might be tainted by one man's clownish antics.

They had a woman from the CPS and a guy from the military speak in defense of the Naval Academy. They tried to reassure everyone that the students would not be singled out for recruitment, and that the curriculum would be just like in any other school. But if so, why not make a similar investment in the Senn portion of the school? Why does the Department of Defense have millions of dollars to throw at education (which is not their core mission), but not the Department of Education?

Soda constructor

2006-10-03T21:48:00.000-05:00

I found this cool website called sodaplay.com. It allows you to construct these creatures out of virtual masses and springs, and then you can set them in motion. Here is a picture of one I made:

This one wiggles around like a caterpillar.

Persons for Alderman

2006-10-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

I've been volunteering for Christopher Persons' aldermanic campaign. He's running as a Democrat against the incumbent Mary Ann Smith (also a Democrat) in the 48th Ward. His website is at chrispersons48.org. Check it out... You might even see a picture of me in the gallery.

My birthday

2006-10-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

I just had a birthday a little over a week ago. I'm not saying how old I am, but in base 7, it makes a nice round number. I wouldn't mind if I were to stop incrementing my age here, but as my grandfather once lamented, at a time when he was suffering some setbacks in his health, "You can't stop it... You just can't stop it."

Or can you? It got me wondering if it might be possible to reverse time, but I think this would only be possible in a universe where the following statement could sometimes be true: A caused B; therefore, A happened after B. Until someone can show me an example of this, I'll have to side with Grampa.

What I'm reading

2006-10-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

I figured that as long as I'm ranting about urban planning, I might as well know what I'm talking about. So I went to the bookstore and got these books:

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, & Speck

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam

A little light reading. Ominously, two of these books contain the word "collapse" in their titles. The other two contain the words "death" and "decline." The Diamond work differs from the others in that it concentrates mainly on environmental issues and on the sustainability of economies. It does, however, cite ex-urban sprawl as a factor in resource depletion in Montana.

Cook County Board

2006-10-03T21:33:00.000-05:00

Last week I read on Tribune columnist Eric Zorn's website that on the Cook County Board, it takes an 80% supermajority to override the veto of the Board President. Which effectively means the president calls the shots. As Zorn pointed out, the original reason for the rule had to do with city vs. suburban politics. If the president was from the suburbs, the Chicago commissioners couldn't all gang up on him and override his veto. But this no longer makes sense, as Zorn writes:

The high threshhold became unnecessary in 1973 when a 6th suburban commissioner was added (two-thirds would have served the original purpose) and utterly pointless in 1994 when the
board expanded to 17 single-member districts -- with some districts, such as Suffredin’s district, including both city and suburban communities.

Commissioner Mike Quigley, who represents my district, has proposed reducing the veto threshold to 60%. Zorn likes the idea, and I agree.

Spot the logical fallacy

2006-10-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

The Wednesday (Sep. 27) edition of the Chicago Tribune had the following headline:

Bush denies war incites terrorists: Says militants would still target U.S.

Bush was making an argument against the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate report released last week that concluded the invasion and subsequent invasion of Iraq has created resentment against the U.S. that has made the U.S. less safe. Bush's argument is equivalent to saying: Tobacco company denies cigarettes cause cancer; people would still die of cancer. In the Wikipedia entry for this type of fallacy, it says, "The fallacy is often used to exploit paranoia."

Too many postings make the blogger's fingers go numb

2006-10-03T21:27:00.000-05:00

In my neighborhood, a theatre group called the Neo-Futurists has for many years put on a show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes. I thought I'd try and catch up on my blogging by using the TMLMTBGB model and posting as many items as possible in one hour. More to come in a couple minutes...

Please stand by

2006-09-29T19:27:00.000-05:00

I realize it's been over a week since my last posting. I'm still here and will resume blogging shortly. Thank you for your patience.

New stuff in the neighborhood

2006-09-18T22:18:00.000-05:00

On April 1, I wrote about Urban Epicure closing. I walked past there yesterday and found that the space is now occupied by Ranalli's, one of a small chain of pizza restaurants based in Chicago. This location is barely a mile north of Ranalli's "Up North" location, so I guess this would be Ranalli's Up Norther? Until a few years ago, there was one in the northern suburb of Riverwoods, which should have been named Ranalli's Way the Heck Up North.

I also noticed that just south of Foster, on Clark, there's a new day spa for men -- I think called Sir Spa? A day spa for men. Huh. Wonders never cease.

Last year I wrote about the fire in the building next door to the Tree House cat shelter in Uptown. I walked past there and found a brand spanking new building where the old one had burned down. If memory serves correctly, the old building was one of the traditional multi-unit types, perhaps a six-flat, so I was really disappointed to see what they replaced it with. The new building is made entirely of oversized red brick and is devoid of any ornamentation, which makes it jarringly plain looking. But that's the least of its problems. Inexplicably, the building was turned sideways to face the adjacent playlot instead of the street. The "front" features porches that look out onto said playlot, which to me seems to force public and private spaces to intrude on one another excessively. As for the side that faces the street, it is just plain ugly and is more characteristic of what would ordinarily face the alley. The statement this makes is one of extreme inconsiderateness, whether or not that reflects the attitudes of the building's residents.

An illustrated argument against the urban big box

2006-09-13T23:55:00.000-05:00

So Mayor Daley vetoed the big box ordinance. And he got the three aldermen he needed to switch sides in order for the veto to stick. I disagree with his position, but that's the way it goes. Da Mayor gets what he wants. But what really sticks in my craw is what I read in the newspaper today. According to the Chicago Tribune, Mayor Daley commented on how there has not been such opposition in the suburbs, and he suggested that the ordinance "will unfairly keep stores out of black city neighborhoods."

Now there is some irony in trying to bring race into it, since African-Americans, given their history in this country, should be particularly sensitive to being under-compensated for the work they do. As for the Mayor's claim that the ordinance keeps big box stores out -- that simply is not true. At most, it might provide a slight disincentive to opening stores here. But there are other reasons aside from employment issues for opposing big box development in the city. In my previous entries on the subject, I've focused on the economics; at risk of turning this into a New Urbanist manifesto, allow me to demonstrate why Wal-Mart and its ilk make for poor urban design and should therefore be discouraged from building stores in urban areas. (There might also be legitimate reason to oppose big box stores in the suburbs, but opposition would not be effective without regional coordination among suburbs.)

Take a look at Figure 1. This is a aerial view of a Wal-Mart (upper left) and Sam's Club (lower right) in the Chicago suburbs near where I work. A McDonald's restaurant is at upper right. Each side of the image is roughly a quarter mile.

Figure 1: Typical Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in suburban setting

Now look at Figure 2. This is a aerial view of the Jewel grocery store in my neighborhood. (For readers in other parts of the country, a Jewel is similar to an Albertsons or a Publix.) The scale is precisely the same as in Figure 1: the photo is a quarter mile on each side.

Figure 2: Jewel (Albertsons) supermarket in urban setting

The Jewel represents relatively low density compared to its surroundings, yet its presence does not disrupt the urban street grid. It is located close to mass transit (note the buses lined up south of the parking lot, within 150 feet of an elevated train stop). Its parking lot is relatively full, indicating minimal waste, and those who live in the surrounding residential buildings need not even drive there. Just within the area shown, there exist approximately 1,000 residents. The Jewel coexists well, even if it is not a perfect design.

In Figure 1, the Wal-Mart, you can see some single-family housing on the far right. I would estimate that fewer than 40 people live in the area shown, not including the suburban homeless who might spend the night in their cars in the Wal-Mart parking lot. There is no street grid, and what might appear to be a rudimentary grid in the residential area (really modified cul-de-sacs that double as driveways) is totally disconnected from the shopping that is so tantalizingly close! The owner of the house with the brown roof might walk out his back door for a gallon of milk and have only an eighth of a mile walk to the front door of the Wal-Mart -- except a fence prevents him. Instead, he must get in his car and drive three quarters of a mile and park just a couple hundred feet from where he started.

That gallon of milk might be twenty cents cheaper at Wal-Mart than at the Jewel shown in Figure 2, but that doesn't include the hidden costs of: the necessity of owning a car; the wear and tear on the car of approximately $.10/mile; the cost of fuel of approximately $.10/mile; and so on.

You might suggest that he walk on the sidewalk, but there are a few problems with this. First, the nearest sidewalk, near the top of the image, is inaccessible from the adjacent residential area. It connects to a subdivision farther to the east, but that subdivision is not within easy walking distance. It is a sidewalk to nowhere. Not surprisingly, I hardly ever see anyone using it.

But even if Mr. Brownhouseguy could get to the sidewalk, he would still feel an aversion to walking on it. It is a featureless white strip in the middle of a space that is poorly defined. To one side he looks out over a sea of parking (most of it empty), and to the other he is confronted with four lanes of traffic whizzing by at 55 miles an hour. The experience is more like being on the open savannah (complete with the cheetahs) than in a place conducive to human life.

While this is but one example, I'm sure millions of suburbanites can recognize the environment depicted in Figure 1 as being functionally similar to those they encounter every day, and containing the same dysfunctional qualities. Much of the dysfunction boils down to the fact that the suburbs are designed for cars and not for people.

Wal-Mart stores are built on the scale of suburban sprawl -- not on an urban scale. If big boxes like Wal-Mart are built in urban places, they must either be put in the few suitable areas that are far from the most vital parts of neighborhoods, or they must be built to a smaller, denser, more urban scale. Otherwise, their presence damages the built environment of the neighborhood.

Macaque see, macaque do

2006-09-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

Normally, I shy away from name calling on this site, but after Sen. George Allen (R-VA) called a staffer of his Democratic opponent "macaca" -- a variant of "macaque", which in some circles is used as a racist slur referring to dark-skinned minorities -- I think Mr. Allen deserves it.

Yesterday, Sen. Allen committed another act of incredible stupidity. See, my senator, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), was about to introduce an amendment (No. 4884) to the DOD appropriations bill (H.R. 5631) that would earmark $19 million for treating veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries. But Sen. Allen asked if he could speak before Durbin and then proceeded to introduce an amendment (No. 4883) that was identical, word for word, to Durbin's! I believe that's what we call plagiarism. But it's refreshing to see a Republican so enthusiastic about a Democratic idea that he wouldn't change a word.

Since the language was identical to Durbin's, it no longer made sense to introduce amendment 4884. Durbin graciously withdrew his amendment and, along with all the cosponsors of Durbin's amendment, attached his name as a cosponsor to No. 4883. Just like that, Durbin's idea goes on record as being Allen's.

An article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a different take on the incident, but if we are to believe Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams (yes, that really is his name) that the amendment was a "bipartisan effort," then why did Allen introduce his own amendment and not cosponsor Durbin's?

As for the merits of the proposal, I'll refer to an article that appeared last year in USA Today on the subject of soldiers suffering traumatic brain injuries (TBI's) in Iraq:

A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It's a type of injury some military doctors say has become the signature wound of the Iraq war. [Emphasis added]

Known as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the wound is of the sort that many soldiers in previous wars never lived long enough to suffer. The explosions often cause brain damage similar to "shaken-baby syndrome," says Warren Lux, a neurologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

...

The injury is often hard to recognize — for doctors, for families and for the troops themselves. Months after being hurt, many soldiers may look fully recovered, but their brain functions remain labored. "They struggle much more than you think just from talking to them, so there is that sort of hidden quality to it," Lux says.

Thinking about big boxes on Labor Day

2006-09-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

This morning I awoke to an NPR interview with one of the editors of The Wall Street Journal. Appropriately enough for Labor Day, the topic was labor, although the WSJ editorial board is hardly a friend to the working man.

The interviewer asked about the minimum wage, and about how Wal-Mart in particular has been criticized for poor compensation and treatment of their workers. The WSJ editor made the typical supply-side argument that Wal-Mart needs to keep its costs down to compete, and if higher costs are passed on to the consumer, then it just hurts the people who shop there, and many of them are low wage earners themselves. Here's what I think of that: baloney.

You see, the WSJ editor was implying, and he was hoping we would assume, that big box retail is labor intensive. It is not. In my previous article on this subject, I examined Target's finances. (I assume that Wal-Mart's cost structure is similar to Target's.) The key figures are public knowledge, available on the Internet for anyone to see. And it looks to me like the wages of its lowest paid workers (making less than $10/hr) couldn't possibly account for more than 5% of its total costs. Target complains that being required to pay $10/hr plus benefits would cost them an additional 50% for some employees, and they would then need to pass the cost on to the consumer. But we're talking about a 50% increase in only 5% of its costs. To cover the increase in wages, all they would need to do is sell that $39 pair of shoes for $40 instead.

Three weeks ago, I went to a WakeUpWalMart event at St. Gregory's High School in my neighborhood. You can read about it at WakeUpWalMart's blog. I didn't know much about the organization before I went, but I was pleased to hear them make the same point that Wal-Mart really can afford to pay its workers more.

Finally, I was at a meeting at Alderman Smith's office (48th Ward) last week where she explained her position on the living wage ordinance. Among other things, she sees this as a taxpayer issue. When a large employer does not pay a living wage, the City must then provide services to help the workers make ends meet. The cost of these services is borne by the taxpayer, and the fact that the employer does not bear the cost amounts to corporate welfare. Alderman Smith says that letters to her office have been overwhelmingly in favor of the ordinance.

Jean Michel

2006-08-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

Monday I wrote about the new espresso machine and how it made everything right with the world. It was hyperbole of course, but alas, how I was wrong!

Whenever we would have trouble with our espresso machine, we'd call Jean Michel, the coffee guy, and he'd come and repair the machine. He was the one who pronounced our old machine dead, and it was through him that we ordered our new one. He installed our WMF 1400 on Monday afternoon and stayed into the evening to help us program it. It was one of his last acts.

Tuesday evening, he decided to do some work in his garden before going to bed. His body was discovered there the next morning, tragically, by his two young children. He had suffered a massive heart attack, apparently without warning. Jean Michel was only 53.

It's a reminder of how unpredictable life is. Outwardly, Jean Michel appeared perfectly healthy. Who would have guessed that this could happen to him? When I heard the news, I picked up my coffee cup and got myself a cappuccino. Savor it... who knows what the future holds?

Katrina and people we know

2006-08-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

I don't have any close ties to New Orleans. I was lucky enough to have gone there once on vacation, not even two years before it was largely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I read about all of the lives turned upside down, but among them there was no one I knew personally.

When I saw my graduate advisor earlier in the month (see my August 10 entry), he mentioned that he had recently been down to New Orleans. I was surprised; it doesn't seem like much of a tourist destination these days. He explained that his parents had lived there until last year. They were fortunate that they had the means to evacuate safely, but they won't be returning. My friend's father has Alzheimer's, and he was just getting to the point where he is no longer able to live at home. And now New Orleans is no place for the old man to move back to.

I wasn't able to get all the details of my friend's story straight. His family, I gather, was originally from Kansas, and that may be where his parents will end up. Just a couple of individuals in the diaspora of New Orleans spread across the country. I may not have close ties to New Orleans, but this story makes me wonder: How far removed is any of us from Katrina?

The existentialist President

2006-08-28T21:04:00.000-05:00

I wrote an entry in early July that revealed some of my summer reading list. One of the books was The Stranger by Albert Camus. So I thought it was quite a coincidence when I heard a few weeks ago that President Bush was also reading The Stranger. The President and I reading the same book simultaneously? What does it mean??? It just seems so, so... absurd.

Food and beverages

2006-08-28T20:47:00.000-05:00

Last summer I lamented the closing of Cafe Boost, which had been the only place in my neighborhood where I could get Homer's ice cream. Recently, however, I found that I can get my Homer's fix even closer to home. Coffee Chicago, at the corner of Berwyn and Broadway, started selling Homer's ice cream sometime around July, and there's still a little bit of summer left to enjoy it.

The espresso machine at work broke down last week. We called the repairman, but there was nothing he could do. The machine was designed for 6,000 shots of espresso, and we had dispensed an incredible 70,000 in just 18 months. When word got out that it had made its last cup, panic quickly spread throughout the office. This was the sort of crisis, however, that even management could readily comprehend, and they sprang into action. This afternoon our shiny, new WMF 1400 arrived. It makes espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate, and any combination of these you can think of, and all is once again as it should be.

Still here

2006-08-22T20:51:00.000-05:00

I haven't been very good lately about updating the blog. Lots going on. For instance, just yesterday, I unexpectedly got an injection of lidocaine in my butt. So as you can see, there's hardly a dull moment in my life.

Diversions

2006-08-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday at an art fair in Evanston, I happened to see the college professor who was my advisor in grad school. It was the first time I'd seen him in years. He was selling his fractal art, similar to stuff I've posted here, only better. He was telling me about a course he taught last semester in which he had his students reverse engineer mechanical creatures created by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. The reverse engineering was done by looking at video footage of the "strandbeests" in action (click here for video from Jansen's site -- WARNING: large MPEG file!). After completing this task, the students modified the design to give the creature a more optimal gait.

I took a short bike ride along the lakefront Wednesday evening and stopped at the bird sanctuary near Addison. I saw a black-crowned night heron. It's not a terribly rare bird, but it is not common in Chicago. It's the first time I'd ever seen one.

What happened yesterday in Connecticut

2006-08-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

In 2000, Joe Lieberman made the Democratic Party's presidential ticket. He ran for President in 2004 and was an early front runner in the primaries. But yesterday, he couldn't even muster the support of his home state's Democratic voters. Instead, Ned Lamont will be running as the Democrat for Lieberman's Senate seat.

I have heard much idiotic post-mortem analysis on this primary, some of it coming from our unofficial seat of government, Crawford, TX. Bush's Press Secretary Tony Snow put out a statement in which he says: "I think ... it's a defining moment for the Democratic Party whose national leaders now have made it clear that if you disagree with the extreme left in their party, they're going to come after you."

Give me a break. The "extreme left" brought Lieberman down? Here's my take...

Lieberman felt free to criticize a Democratic President for his personal failings, but questions the patriotism of anyone who criticizes the current Republican President, stating that this would "undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."

Lieberman aligned himself with the Christian Right in trying to overturn the decision of the courts in the Terri Schiavo case.

Lieberman has often supported supply-side economic policies that favor corporations at the expense of individuals. While he voted against the Republicans' punitive bankruptcy reform bill in 2005, he helped its passage by failing to support a filibuster.

Lieberman has supported school voucher programs, which draw federal funds away from the public schools.

Lieberman, on issues of foreign policy, is a neocon.

Lieberman rarely passes up an opportunity to appear on Fox News with right-wing pundits to attack his fellow Democrats.

Lieberman was singled out for a kiss on the cheek (no joke!) by President Bush after Bush's 2005 State of the Union address. (The kiss of death?)

Lieberman announced that he'd run as an independent if he lost the primary -- the Democratic Party be damned.

And so on.

Lieberman won endorsements from prominent Democrats, such as the two Senators from my home state of Illinois -- Dick Durbin and Barack Obama. Bill Clinton also helped campaign for him. On the other hand, right-wing pundit Sean Hannity offered his endorsement on Hannity's radio show, and Lieberman was also endorsed by Ann Coulter as her "favorite Democrat." I think the endorsements from opposite sides of the political spectrum cancel each other out rather than reinforce each other.

Joe Lieberman, in the end, came to represent the interests of entrenched power. And so he preferred to stay inside the bubble of the political pundits and the D.C. politicians where everyone loved him. But the people who mattered -- Connecticut Democrats -- were appalled at many of the positions outlined above, and they felt Ned Lamont could do better.

When it came time for Lieberman to concede defeat, he announced his candidacy as an independent, just as he had threatened. Early polling had shown that Lieberman would win such a contest handily, thanks to Republicans who would cross party lines to vote for him. I heard several commentators express this view last night. But a more recent Rasmussen poll had Lieberman (as Ind.) and Lamont (as Dem.) tied at 40% apiece. I suspect that Lieberman will discover who his fair-weather friends are, now that he's lost the support of his party, and I don't think it is likely he'll win in November.

Off Target: Response to living wage ordinance

2006-08-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

Today Target Corp. announced that they're backing out of plans to build a Target store in Chicago as a result of City Council passing the living wage ordinance. They didn't come to this decision because the ordinance would make the difference between a profitable and an unprofitable store. It's a gambit. By pulling the plug on the store, they give up a little revenue growth and maybe a teeny tiny slice of market share in the short run. But if they can get just two aldermen to change their minds, making the measure vulnerable to the mayor's veto, it will be worth the cost.

Some math... Target Corporation has approximately 300,000 employees and 1500 stores -- about 200 employees per store, but not all work a full 40 hour week. I imagine that a typical store employs around 5000 worker-hours of labor per week. The ordinance requires total compensation of $13/hr by 2010, but in today's dollars, that's just $11.50 (assuming roughly 3% annual inflation), or $5/hr above Illinois' minimum wage. If all of the 5000 weekly worker hours are paid at minimum wage (worst case), the differential would be $25,000 per store per week on the high end. Because some workers already earn more than $6.50/hr, the differential would probably be more in the $15,000 per week range. If all 1500 stores were subject to similar regulation, it would cost Target a little over $1 billion per year, or about 2% of revenues. This would be upsetting to the relatively small number of major shareholders. But it would make a huge impact on the lives of many of its 300,000 employees.

Living wage update

2006-07-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

I guess the Chicago City Council will vote on the living wage ordinance today. Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune ran a piece by columnist Eric Zorn that went against the paper's conservative opinion page, which Zorn republished on his blog (click here). He brings up some of the same points that I made in my previous posting on the issue, including the one about the Santa Fe ordinance, but Mr. Zorn said it better.

[26 JUL 2006 17:10:00] Update: The Chicago Tribune website, in a "Breaking News" item, is reporting that the living wage ordinance was voted on this afternoon and passed 35-14 -- a veto-proof majority.

Temporary cat

2006-07-23T10:36:00.000-05:00

The front page is starting to look a little boring. Time to post a cat picture.

This is Grendel, the temporary cat.

Why a living wage?

2006-07-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Lately, while Democratic legislators in D.C. have been talking about the minimum wage, Chicago politicians have been talking about a living wage ordinance. The ordinance would apply to big box retailers and require that they pay their employees $10 per hour plus another $3 an hour in benefits (a total compensation that exceeds the federal minimum wage by $7.85/hr). According to ChicagoFairTrade.org, the full City Council is expected to vote on the proposal on July 27 (maybe as early as the 26th?).

The Chicago Tribune, at least on its editorial page, has been a strident critic of the measure. This past week, they questioned whether it would even be constitutional, citing a recent court decision on a similar ordinance in Maryland. However, I think the comparison to the Maryland law is an apples-and-oranges arguement; the Maryland law was very specific about what one particular employer (Wal-Mart) must spend on certain benefits, whereas the Chicago ordinance affects a larger class of employers and more broadly defines a level of compensation.

The Tribune also ran an article this week that was somewhat misleading. The headline is: "Clerics slam big-box wage law." For those who tend to read the headline and the first few paragraphs, it gives the impression that there is a broad consensus against the measure. The article is actually balanced, but to find the balance, you need to read to the end. Here I'll quote the final seven paragraphs:

Supporters of the proposal set up a telephone conference call Monday afternoon in which politicians and experts from across the country weighed in about their experiences with such ordinances.

David Coss, mayor of Santa Fe, said retailers and the Chamber of Commerce were concerned about the effect on businesses after the New Mexico city passed a living wage law three years ago.

"The Wal-Mart in Santa Fe has never skipped a beat," Coss said. "At least here in Santa Fe they have learned to live with the law after all."

Coss said the chamber predicted employers would flee the city for the surrounding area, "and that just hasn't happened."

In fact, Coss said, Wal-Mart has won permission to build its first super center in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe ordinance requires all businesses with 25 employees or more to pay workers at least $8.50 an hour. Under the ordinance, the wage rose this year to $9.50.

Chicago Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said the pattern and practice of the large retailers in other communities leads her to believe that their threats to not build stores "are disingenuous and disrespectful of the city and its residents."

Lyle said the city represents more than $1 billion of untapped buying power to the retailers. "Make no mistake, Wal-Mart and Target will open stores in Chicago, because the money is here," she said.

Why a living wage? If we can draw any conclusion from the Santa Fe example, the answer is: because it works. It really does help those it was intended to help.

As for the idea, implied by the headline, that the measure lacks popular support, the item from ChicagoFairTrade.org cites a mid-June poll in which 84% of registered voters said they supported a living wage. (N.B., there is no information given on who conducted the poll or on the methodology used.)

Jazzy's unlucky 13th

2006-07-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

As a 13th birthday present for my cat, I took her to the vet. She was not thrilled. Nor was I when I found out that her weight had plummeted from 7-1/4 to just 6 pounds in the last six months. She had had thyroid problems in the past, but then she inexplicably went into remission, and her weight had been stable for the past two years.

Yesterday I took Jazzy to a veterinary specialty clinic for a "thyroid scan," and it revealed that she has a benign thyroid adenoma. So I'll need to get treatment for her -- probably radioactive iodine. It's expensive, but it would be just as expensive to treat it with medication for three years.

A small amount of radioactive iodine was used in Jazzy's thyroid scan, so for a short while, I had a slightly radioactive cat. She'd be radioactive for a longer period of time while undergoing the treatment. It got me thinking... If Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and turns into Spider-Man, what happens if you get bitten by a radioactive cat? Cat-Man??? That doesn't sound like a very good superhero. But I looked it up, and as it turns out, there was a superhero from the 1940s named Cat-Man (with his sidekick Kitten). Check out the Wikipedia entry. All I've got to say is Cat-Man's costume could use some pants.

Why a minimum wage?

2006-07-16T21:12:00.000-05:00

Back when I was in college, the economics professors displayed charts on overhead projectors showing supply and demand curves for the labor market. Where the curves intersected, this was the point that the market would set for wages, on the vertical axis, and for the level of employment, on the horizontal axis. The invisible hand of the free market would find this point, and all would be well.

But what if, asked the professor, the government were to set a minimum wage? He drew a horizontal line above the point where the supply and demand curves crossed. Now wages were slightly higher, but the number of workers exceeded the demand for them. A minimum wage increases unemployment among the poorly-compensated, and that's a bad thing. So we were to conclude that the minimum wage, while arising from good intentions, actually harmed the very people it was intended to help. It was necessary to assimilate this view in order to obtain a good grade. But it's not quite right.

If only it were enough for people to have jobs! But work is not its own reward. Nor is it sufficient for it to just stave off homelessness or starvation. If we truly value labor, it should be compensated well enough to support a certain standard of living. The federal current minimum wage of $5.15/hr is well below the $8.30/hr needed to rise above the poverty line for a family of three. If poverty is the measure, then $5.15 fails to support a minimum standard of living by a wide margin. Yes, a moderate increase in the minimum wage would likely increase unemployment slightly, but it would still increase the aggregate income of those on the low end of the income scale.