The Daily Parker

My preferred candidate for president, Elizabeth Warren, dropped out of the race earlier this morning after depressing results in Tuesday's elections. This leaves three serious candidates for the 2020 presidential election: the 73-year-old white male incumbent, 78-year-old white male US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and 77-year-old white male former US Vice President Joe Biden (D).

(Apparently US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is clinging to her one delegate and refuses to go away, and 74-year-old white male former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld (R) also seems determined to stay in the race.)

As the New York Times points out:

Ms. Warren struggled to win over voters beyond college-educated white people, in particular white women. She was above the 15 percent threshold to win delegates, as of Thursday, in only a handful of highly educated liberal strongholds: places like San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.

Yeah. It's almost as if some people believe competence, intelligence, and humanity should determine who governs us. Weird, right?

This also means that a 70-something white male will almost certainly take the Oath of Office in 321 days.

I really, really wish the Boomers would get out of the way already.

Welcome to stop #15 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Begyle Brewing, 1801 W Cuyler Ave., Chicago
Train line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood. (Also CTA Brown Line, Irving Park)
Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)
Distance from station: 1.6 km (200 m from CTA)

Note: Begyle informed The Daily Parker in July 2021 that they ended their dog-friendly policy. (They still make great beer.)

But also note: As of August 2023, they've re-thought their dog policy. Dogs are once again allowed on the patio!

Begyle is one of my favorite taprooms in Chicago, and not just because it's (a) close and (b) dog-friendly. They also make really great beers.

For the Brews and Choos project, I dragged my bête noir all the way to the taproom and back, which, at his age, took quite a while. And then he was a bit overwhelmed, so didn't get any rest while there:

It was so busy they had a dog quota going (only 12 allowed at a time). Parker got the last spot available for a few minutes.

Because I know their beers pretty well, and because this was not the last stop for the day (though it was for Parker), I had three small tastes, including my favorite of their beers:

Megapixel is their latest IPA, crisp, light, and a bit maltier than you'd guess. Freebird, my favorite of their beers, is also an IPA with it's great balance, a hint of lemon and grapefruit from the citra hops, and its relatively low alcohol content (4.5%). Finally I tried Flannel Pajamas, an oatmeal stout with a great balance between hops and maltiness, though it does read slightly hoppier than most stouts.

Begyle's taproom is one of my favorite places to dog-watch and read. I heartily recommend it.

Beer garden? Sidewalk seating
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? No
Serves food? No, but BYO is fine, and sometimes there's a food truck outside
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

A note on dogs. Begyle's Brett Knickerbocker reached out to The Daily Parker on 6 July 2021 with this sad news [which they updated in Summer 2023]:

Over the course of the pandemic we have lost our upstairs space, which was crucial for extended seating. We are faced with a much smaller footprint going forward and want to focus on saving space for humans wherever we can. We had days during The Before Times in which 50% of our taproom was occupied by dogs and it was simply overwhelming for our staff (and many of our guests). As much as we love our furry friends, we feel that being a dog-free zone is the right move for us.

Parker loved going to Begyle, and I'm sure Cassie would have does as well. But, hey, they have to make the right choices for their business.

Even when I work from home, I have a lot to do. At least I don't have a commute today, giving me extra time to catch up later:

• On March 8th, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy turns 42. Yes, 42.
• It won't surprise anyone to learn that Donald Trump sucks at business. He certainly sucks at medicine. And at nominating people properly.
• Farhad Manjoo wants to live in Elizabeth Warren's America, and so do I.
• Josh Marshall analyzes why Bernie Sanders hit a wall last night.
• Philip Bump explains what happens to delegates when a candidate drops out.
• February set another record for the Lake Michigan-Huron system's water levels, causing extensive damage to beaches.
• Winter 2019-20 ended Sunday. In Illinois, though February was pretty normal, the winter itself was not.
• Let's Encrypt needs to invalidate most of its certificates due to an error.

And now, back to work.

Of course Joe Biden picked up the most delegates in yesterday's Super Tuesday primary elections. To anyone paying attention to polling, this outcome wasn't really in doubt. Don't forget, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Mike Bloomberg all picked up delegates as well.

And yet on the BBC right now I'm hearing breathless reporting about how Biden "won" a bunch of states while Bloomberg only "won" American Samoa. (FFS, the BBC is now saying Biden "looked like Lazarus." I mean, honestly.)

Guys. It's about the delegates. You don't "win" a state in the Democratic primary; you get delegates. We still have four people running for the nomination, and (ha, ha) Biden is the youngest man in that pack.

Josh Marshall summed it up:

I’m certainly not the first to say this but it remains remarkable how clearly support for Biden and Sanders comes down to key demographic groups. African Americans have been critical to Biden. Hispanic voters are a big strength for Sanders. Biden absolutely dominating in the Mid-Atlantic and the South and doing well in New England. Sanders winning big in the West. Seemingly decisively in California and ahead, though not by a big margin, in Texas.

Right. We're a big party, and we all want to extract Donald Trump from the White House. But we have different preferences right now. I still support Warren, even though she has no path to nomination. But she has a bunch of delegates that may make a difference. (Also, as an elected US Senator, she herself is a super-delegate.)

We've got 244 days—just under 35 weeks—until the election. Chill.

Welcome to stop #14 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Piece Brewery, 1927 W. North Ave., Chicago
Train lines: Union Pacific North and Northwest, Clybourn. (Also CTA Blue line, Damen)
Time from Chicago: 8 minutes (Zone A)
Distance from station: 1.3 km (400 m from CTA)

Pizza. Beer. What's a better combination? Piece Brewery in Wicker Park makes both pretty well.

Piece opened in July 2001, so I've had lots of their pizza and lots of their beer. When I visited for the Brews and Choos project, I just had a pint of their new Astronaut Haus English Pale Ale, a 5.5% hoppy decent malty ale. (Note to self: would drink again.)

For some reason, I also ate an entire pizza:

And hey, they deliver (just not all the way to my house).

Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? Bar area only
Serves food? Pizza!
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Don Von Drehle argues that Vladimir Putin succeeds by weakening the West, regardless of the short-term consequences to Russia:

It’s ironic that Americans of all political stripes have contributed to Putin’s success — by failing to understand what he wants and why he wants it. His goals are not the goals of the former Soviet Union (though he has described the collapse of the U.S.S.R. as a “disaster”). During the Cold War, the Kremlin pursued the spread of communist ideology. Putin is nonideological, according to former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, now of Stanford University and a Post contributing columnist. “I see him as impulsive, emotional, opportunistic. Putin sees himself as the last great nationalist, anti-globalist leader.”

A unified United States, pursuing a bipartisan, pro-democracy foreign policy is Putin’s biggest fear. So, he has taken the risk of creating an operation specifically to sow discord through social media. Putin’s computer hackers look for any internal divisions and tensions that tend to erode American unity or discredit American leadership. Though he clearly favored Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, Putin doesn’t generally favor one point of view over another; he supports whichever candidates are most divisive and amplifies whatever arguments are most bitter. Whoever is freaking out on Facebook or Twitter is a potential ally in his cause. At the State of the Union address, he no doubt enjoyed both the snubbed handshake and the ripped speech.

At the same time, Putin went to work on other vulnerable pieces of the Western alliance. By enabling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s brutal tactics, he helped to send millions of refugees fleeing to Europe. When xenophobic nationalist movements flared up in reaction, the Russians poured on the gas via social media. Russia’s unseen hand wasn’t the only factor in the European backlash. But now the European Union may be coming apart.

These efforts would have been toxic even if Clinton had made a better case to voters around the Great Lakes and won the election in 2016. But the fact that Putin’s hackers went all-in for Trump, who won the electoral college with just 46 percent of the vote, turned a Russian win into a rout. The election itself became a cause of further division. Russia’s role became a new wedge issue, the doubt that keeps on festering.

I've no doubt the US and Western Europe will survive Putin's passive-aggression. Ultimately, the fundamentals are on our side. But remember, Putin's goal isn't to win, exactly; it's for us to lose. And in that respect he's succeeding.

For one thing, he'd make it interesting, as he says in an interview with the New York Times' David Marchese:

Given your inclination toward politics and idealism, is there a Democratic presidential candidate who’s connecting with you? No. It’s funny. I was emailing with a friend about this topic. There are grand gestures out there to be had, and no one is going for them. We’re drowning in timidity.

I’m sure you have thoughts about what those grand gestures could be. Mm-hmm. As long as we’re crystal clear that I understand the difference between the real world and “The West Wing”?

T.B.D., but go on. Fair enough, T.B.D. Here’s what would happen on “The West Wing.” Joe Biden would say: “You know what? If it’ll get John Bolton testifying to the Senate under oath, swear me in too. I’ll answer any questions you’ve got.” Suddenly all the attention would be on him. It’s a “Mr. Smith” moment. He gets to sit in front of hostile Republican senators and show us how well he can handle them. If he did it right, if he was performing a “West Wing” script where I got to decide what everybody else says too, it propels him right to winning.

Sorkin also answers questions about his anti-heroes, the conflict beteen Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden, and of course, writing.

Welcome to stop #13 on the Brews and Choos project.

Distillery: Rhine Hall Distillery, 2010 W. Fulton St., Chicago
Train lines: Milwaukee District North and West, Western Ave. (Also CTA Green line, Ashland)
Time from Chicago: 9 minutes (Zone A)
Distance from station: 1.3 km (1.1 km from CTA)

I found visiting Rhine Hall on a weeknight in February odd for two reasons. First, I didn't realize that they distill from fruit, rather than grain, so I didn't prepare myself for the flavors of their spirits well. Second, I used to work in the same building from 1995 to 1996, so walking around the place brought back a ton of 25-year-old memories.

Nothing like this existed in the building back then.

The owners, a husband and wife team, opened the distillery after returning from Germany, where he learned how to make eau de vie (fruit brandy). They have since branched out into a dozen varieties, including the ones I sampled:

From left to right, all 80-proof spirits: apple brandy, oak-aged apple brandy, cherry brandy, and Frenet Lola. The brandies had subtle characters reminiscent of their underlying fruit, and would make really interesting mixers for cocktails (which, incidentally, they serve at the distillery). The Frenet had strong licorice notes and, I imagine, tasted like a well-made Frenet. I have never had Frenet before so this was an experience.

This might be worth a second trip, to try their cocktails.

Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? Yes
Televisions? No
Serves food? No, but you can bring it in
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Freelance writer Alexandra Marvar took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles:

I boarded the 2:50 p.m. Southwest Chief out of Chicago’s Union Station on a Friday. By mid-morning Sunday, we’ll arrive at another Union Station: Los Angeles. I could have flown between the two cities in roughly four hours. But as a frequent flyer all too familiar with the rush and stress of air travel, I was drawn to the idea of a long, slow journey across America by rail. Now, 15 hours into my inaugural long-haul train trip — a $146-dollar (coach class), 44-hour, 2,265-mile excursion through eight states — the experience hasn’t stopped surprising me.

Our reasons for being here are just three of a thousand. A young costume designer headed to a funeral in Topeka, Kansas, couldn’t afford last-minute airfare. Amish families are traveling to a hospital in Mexico for more affordable health care; four couples claim the last two booths in the observation car for a two-day marathon card game of Rook. A married couple who met in high school 50-plus years ago are on their way to La Junta, Colorado, to visit a recently discovered ancestor’s grave. They’ve ridden Amtrak together for decades. We talked about trains throughout last night’s white-tablecloth dinner of steaks cooked to order. We all shared our desserts.

It's a long way to go for a brew.

I've actually taken the Southwest Chief, and its predecessor the Southwest Limited, twice. I'd love to do it again. But like Marvar, I think I'd prefer a roomette to a coach seat.

Welcome to stop #12 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Midwest Coast Brewing, 2137 W. Walnut St., Chicago
Train lines: Milwaukee District North and West, Western Ave. (Also CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland)
Time from Chicago: 9 minutes (Zone A)
Distance from station: 1.1 km (1.3 km from CTA)

Now, this is a brewery. Dog-friendly, great vibe, excellent beers, friendly staff and owners—what's not to love?

They brew everything on-premises, rotating beers as their tastes change. They just opened in September, so they haven't yet got an outdoor space. They're opening their rooftop "soon" and converting an unused parking lot south of the building into a beer garden "by 2021." (The alderman still needs to approve it.) Of course, it's only the first day of spring, so this wasn't a critical lapse when I visited.

They love dogs so much they serve flights in dog bowls:

I liked all 5. First, the Golden Bro APA (5.1%, 36 IBU): malty, tasty, not too hoppy, clear golden color. #2: The Colonies ESB/EPA (5.3%, 35 IBU): excellent, clear Extra Special Bitter style, a little hoppier than you'd get in the UK but nice and malty for the EPA it also claims to be. #3: Throne of Bones Stout (6.3%, 60 IBU): hoppier than expected but didn't taste like 60 IBUs; nice finish, nice chocolate notes. #4: Elevator to Nowhere New England IPA (6%, 30 IBU): really good, grapefruit notes from the citra hops, hazy but not too much. #5: The Old Course Scotch Wee Heavy (7.4%, 27 IBU): Crisp for a wee heavy, definitely malty, apricot notes, clean finish.

The owner also gave me a sip of Escalating Dares Imperial Stout (10.4%, 60 IBU). Wow. He said they "got lucky" putting this one together, but fortunately kept the recipe. They've got two barrels aging in the back that they might tap this summer... 

I will definitely spend a lazy summer afternoon there this year. Or even a lazy spring afternoon.

Beer garden? Coming soon
Dogs OK? Yes, encouraged
Televisions? One, avoidable
Serves food? No; they have an order-in kiosk and menus
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes