The Daily Parker

That's what the WGN Weather Blog calls the circle around a dome of hot air stretching from Texas to the Atlantic:

Yesterday this combination brought the second heavy squall line across Chicago that pinned me down at my client offices. The one last Friday had 75 km/h winds that punched out windows at Willis Tower, a few blocks away. Last night's encouraged the city to turn on the civil defense sirens:

The National Weather Service said funnel clouds were spotted in the leading edge of the storms, but there have so far been no confirmed reports of tornado touchdowns. ... Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications activated emergency storm warning sirens at about 6:15 p.m. after a funnel cloud was spotted in the south suburbs, said Will Knight, a spokesman for the agency. Sirens could heard in various parts of the city, including the Loop.

Back when I grew up, the monthly siren tests (first Tuesday of the month at 10am) were tornado drills from February to October. We'd all line up along the wall and cover our heads until the sirens stopped. They still creep me out a little.

Today promises milder temperatures and winds out of the north—a typical cold-front passage. By Sunday, though, temperatures here will creep back into the 30s C and bring more storms.

Exelon Corp. is preparing to dismantle the Zion Nuclear Power Plant just north of Chicago:

Although the timetable hasn't been set, more than about 500,000 cubic feet of material will be moved, everything from concrete walls, pipes, wiring, machinery, even desks and chairs. Much of it is contaminated with low-level radiation. Enough to fill roughly 80 rail cars, it will be transported to EnergySolutions' site 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

It's easier and cheaper than separating the contaminated material from the uncontaminated, officials said.

Estimated cost: $1 billion. ComEd customers began paying into that fund in the late 1970s, a fee not removed from their bills until 2006.

Starting up the plant again would cost about that much, Exelon said. The plant has been shut down since 1998.

Chicago hit 32°C yesterday for the first time since August 9th, and barely missed setting records:

By the time Monday evening's rush hour was getting underway, 33°C highs had been logged at both Midway and O'Hare---18°C higher than the peak reading of 14°C a week earlier---a level 10°C above normal. Only 21 of the past 140 years have recorded a temperature of 33°C or higher this early in the warm season underscoring the rare nature of the hot spell. There hasn't been a warmer May temperature in Chicago in the past 4 years. It was hotter here than in perennial hot spots like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Orlando.

The forecast for this coming weekend calls for temperatures in the 20°C–22°C range. That still won't help my electricity bill, which will spike a little earlier than usual this year.

United and Continental have officially voted to merge, which won't suck for Chicago:

The new United's operations headquarters will be located in Chicago's Willis Tower, which was formerly known as the Sears Tower. United will move forward with plans to place its crucial nerve center and 2,800 staffers in the skyscraper starting in October.

The combined airline would have revenues of $29 billion, based on 2009 results, and hold an unrestricted cash balance of about $7.4 billion. The carriers said in a press release Monday that they expect to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Unlike the earlier merger that United had contemplated with US Airways, this deal isn't expected to involve large-scale cuts since United's and Continental's networks have little overlap. The carriers expect to continue serving the 370 cities where United or Continental currently fly, and will operate 10 hubs, including bases in the four largest cities in the U.S.

(The photo above shows the new color scheme on a Boeing 787, of which Continental has ordered 25 and United has ordered none, as of November.)

American and USAirways will have to merge, really. Or USAirways will have to join oneworld. That will leave three major international airlines in the U.S., which won't do a lot to help prices.

Via reader MB, one of the best beers in the world has been sold to a pair of beer-loving entrepreneurs:

Fritz Maytag, the washing machine heir who launched the microbrewery movement, has sold Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco to a pair of Bay Area entrepreneurs who plan to preserve and expand the iconic brand.

No terms were disclosed for the sale of the 70-person Mariposa Street brewery and distillery that traces its roots to the Gold Rush, when local brewers produced a heady elixir known as steam beer.

In 45 years at the helm of Anchor Brewing, Maytag helped spark a revival in the craft of making beer by hand and inspired thousands of entrepreneurs to follow him in creating small, artisanal breweries.

Judging by the reactions of people in my class to a case we read on the Boston Beer Co., it's likely that overseas readers don't appreciate what Maytag did for beer lovers. Within a few hours of Chicago there are dozens of craft breweries, including Tyranena and, of course, Goose Island, two of the best in the world. Only Japan has anything like the American craft-brew culture, but sadly they don't export it. Neither do most of the craft brewers; their batches are too small even to ship farther than the next state over. So, in Chicago, I get to have a Mad Hatter, and in Raleigh I get to have a Angry Angel; but throughout this fine, beer-loving nation, we'll still have Anchor Steam.

You might see a news story like this:

Chicago would be headquarters to the largest airline in the world if United Airlines successfully consummates a deal with Continental Airlines.

Where to base the world headquarters of the merged entity is one of many potentially thorny "social" issues that have been resolved as the two airlines move rapidly toward a deal that could be completed as soon as next week, said people close to the situation.

The implications make my brain hurt. This would be tremendous for Chicago, at the expense of making O'Hare a fresh kind of hell for Conited (Uninental?) travelers. But United would gain a major hub in Houston to compete with American's in Dallas, and would solidify its Asia-Pacific lead even while essentially conceding the North Atlantic to oneworld. (For the record, I will continue to fly American regardless. The article mentions that US Airways, twice to the altar but never wed with United, may jump into American's arms instead.)

Then there was this, via Sullivan, which has to be a first in American history, in Philadelphia yet:

Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district.

"I outed him as a straight person," Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, "and now he goes around telling people, quote, 'I swing both ways.' That's quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy's a gem."

Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs' comments offensive.

"That kind of taunting is going to make it more difficult for closeted members of the LGBT community to be comfortable with themselves," Kravitz said. "It's damaging."

Add to all this the increasing likelihood (though still well below 50%) that Nick Clegg could become Britain's prime minister in two weeks, and I think it will be a fretfully long night. (In a good way. If I were a UK citizen, I'd vote Lib-Dem this time. Seriously.)

This is the point in the residency when I see how much work I have to do by Saturday afternoon and wonder if I should have taken the bar exam instead.

And as much as I love Chinese and Indian food, I'm ready for a Whole Foods salad about now.

Before resuming my Strategy reading, I'd like to draw the reader's attention to this front-page story in the Shanghai Daily News:

Dense fog affected Shanghai yesterday, blocking dozens of ships and ferry boats and delaying at least 150 flights.

At least 400 ships changed their sailing schedules and the 180 commuter ferries for Chongming Island and on the Huangpu River in the city's suburban areas stopped running in the morning, said the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration.

Other front-page stories included a test run at the Expo site and the announcement of an official day of mourning tomorrow in remembrance of the Qinghai earthquake victims.

I contrast this with the front page of the New York Times, which included stories about the $3.6bn Goldman Sachs bonus payments, the mislaid iPod prototype, and back in Chicago, the shocking, didn't-see-that-one-coming, whocodanode news that Rahm Emanuel wants to be mayor.

It's a slow news day everywhere, but somehow, the Shanghai paper just didn't feel like a paper. More to think about; possibly a cultural disconnect.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake rumbled through Baja California yesterday afternoon, killing one person directly and another indirectly:

The quake struck about 6 miles below the earth's surface at 3:40 p.m. PT Sunday, about 110 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

After examining data, seismologists upgraded the size of Sunday's 25-second quake from a magnitude 6.9 to 7.2, according to Dr. Lucy Jones of Caltech.

"This is the largest earthquake since the [7.3 magnitude] Landers earthquake of 1992," Jones said, "A 7.2 is going to happen over a pretty long fault, probably close to 50 miles long."

... According to reports, the force from Sunday's temblor caused high-rise buildings in San Diego to sway back and forth around 30 seconds before rocking high-rise buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

Caltech officials reported that over 20 million people felt shaking related to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

Oddly, none of the national news services I subscribe to have mentioned it.

In Chicago, for example, one of the top stories was Blagojevich getting fired from "Celebrity Apprentice." That has nothing to do with earthquakes, but it's amusing enough to mention.

I've spent the day at the company office in downtown Chicago, 37 flights up a 60-story building. The wind outside is gusting to 67 km/h, so the building is swaying.

While I've visited plenty of tall buildings, I haven't experienced this kind of wind while inside one in many years. The entire structure is creaking.

It's most disconcerting.

Nothing special about the game, but I do love the shot: