I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this year’s Summer Olympics. A lot of factors conspired against them. To start, way back when, Chicago pushed to get this year’s games. I’ve read a lot of pretty solid stuff on the economic impact of getting the Olympics—not to mention using public money for pro sports—nothing I’ve seen […]

The best thing on the radio in my view is an hour-long weekly program on NPR called On the Media, produced by WNYC, and hosted by journalism veterans Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield. Full disclosure: I’m a journalism grad, a giant consumer of journalism, and I think about what makes good journalism more than the average […]

Well, that was some week, huh? I had in mind to collect some of the better political pieces I’ve come across lately. Some of them have come from you – thanks, and you can be sure I’ll share them eventually. But I also read that the conventions are earlier than usual this year—and that means […]

Regular readers know that Hackney’s is our local pub. We’re there enough that Ulrich Sandmeyer, of Sandmeyer’s Bookstore halfway down the street between our condo and Hack’s, calls it Beth’s office. It’s a luxury of sorts to finish up a day of work and have a friendly place just a block away. Apart from the […]

Whew. I’m tired. Beth and I traveled to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin Saturday afternoon—a strategic location for our long awaited trip with our son Gus and his Aunt Bev to a Milwaukee Brewers game. But not just any game. At this game, every single attendee received an alarm clock. But not just any alarm clock: A Bob […]