The Daily Parker

I would be remiss not to mention that today is the 50th anniversary of Tea for the Tillerman, Cat Stevens' best and most popular album. It's also one of my favorites.

Cover art by A&M Records (US), Fair use, Link

To thoroughly depress you, SMBC starts the week by showing you appropriate wine pairings for your anxiety. In similar news:

• Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) seeks a 19th term as Speaker, but new Federal indictments and that people voted against Democrats statewide because they don't want him around anymore have made his bid unlikely.
• Vermont and South Dakota have similar demographics and both have Republican governors, so how did Vermont keep Covid-19 infections low while South Dakota didn't? Hmmm, could it be what kind of Republican governors they have?
• The Tribune describes the ghost town of Singapore, Mich., that vanished in the 1870s.

Time to take a walk.

As promised, I did get some photos of the place where I stayed this past weekend. The weather lent itself to drone flying for about an hour yesterday before the winds picked up. Today was a mix of clouds and a bit of sun that didn't excite me.

Here's the house, from 50 meters out and 15 meters over the lake:

And here's what my DSLR thought of the sunrise, which you can compare to the photo from my phone I posted yesterday:

I think the DSLR gave me richer colors and more texture, not to mention better control over the composition. But the HDR feature in my phone did a pretty good job with what it had.

This posture did not mean "rub my belly now," it meant "sometimes I sleep like this." The belly-rubs were a welcome side-effect, however. (8 June 2014)

Watching the lead runners in the Chicago Marathon, 12 October 2008:

Oostburg, Wis., 6:59 am:

I brought my real camera and my drone, so early next week I hope to have better photos.

I've taken myself and a few books up to a cabin in Wisconsin for the weekend. So far, the view fails to suck:

It's clear tonight, so I'm hoping to see stars. We don't see many in Chicago.

For the rest of the month, I'm going to publish never-before-seen photos of my bête noir. I took this on his second trip to the Oakwood Dog Park in Raleigh, N.C., on 17 December 2009:

I think I posted about 100 "daily Parker" updates in his first year. Here's the tag; have fun scrolling.

Every morning I get an email from The History Channel with "this day in history" bullet points. A couple stood out today:

• Two hundred years ago today, the American whaler Essex lost a fight with an 80-ton sperm whale. Only five of the twenty crew survived.
• On this day in 1945, 75 years ago, the Nuremberg trials began.
• In 1985, 35 years ago, Microsoft Windows came out.

And now, the sanity. Via author John Scalzi, (conservative) attorney T. Greg Doucette explains why the president will leave office on January 20th no matter what chicanery he tries to steal the election:

Even though Parker has consumed my thoughts since the election, there are a few other things going on in the world:

• Epidemiologists estimate that yesterday we passed 250,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US.
• The original Morton's Steakhouse on State Street, opened in 1978, closed permanently Tuesday, ending my tradition of going there on my birthday each year.
• In a little bit of good news, the National Register of Historic Places designated Wrigley Field a National Historic Landmark today.

And as I sit in my home office trying to write software, it's 17°C and sunny outside. I may have to go for a walk.