President Jimmy Carter turned 100 today, making him the first former president to do so. James Fallows has a bit of hagiography on his blog today, and the State of Georgia has declared today "Jimmy Carter Day." I hope I make it to 100, too, but I don't expect the State of Illinois to declare that day a public holiday.
In other news:
Finally, yesterday the UK turned off its last operating coal-fired power plant, ending a 142-year run of burning coal to generate power. XKCD points out that in those 142 years, the UK burned the equivalent of about 3 inches of its land surface generating electricity.
And of course, I'll watch the Vice-Presidential Debate tonight at 9pm Eastern, but I don't plan to live-blog. Reactions tomorrow, though.
I can scarcely believe I took these 10 days ago, on Friday the 20th. I already posted about my walk from Borough Market back to King's X; this is where I started:
You can get a lovely snack there for just a few quid. In my case, a container of fresh olives, some bread, and some cheese set me back about £6. Next time, I'll try something from Mei Mei.
Later, I scored one of the rare pork baps at Southampton Arms. Someone else really wanted a bite, too:
Sorry, little guy, I can't give you any of this—oh darn I just dropped a bit of pork on the ground. (Lucky dog.)
Finally, this screen shot shows why I love Europe so much. (It's in French because I switched my phone's language settings to help practice while I was preparing for the trip.) The blue dot in the center-left shows where my train was at 20:06 France time (18:06 UTC) on Saturday the 21st. The stuff in the upper-right corner shows my phone's GPS utility. If you look at the left side of that box, you can see "Vitesse 303;" i.e., a speed of 303 km/h, or 190 mph. And that isn't even the train's top normal operating speed.
If we elect people in this country who actually care about climate change, we could have trains like that here, too. But given the proportion of the electorate who plan to vote for the convicted-felon rapist demented geriatric XPOTUS in five weeks, I am not optimistic.
Because I had a busy weekend, I had quite a full inbox this morning. After deleting the 85% of it that came from the Democratic Party and the Harris-Walz campaign (guys, you've already got my vote, FFS), I still had quite a few items of interest:
Finally, astronomers have found a rocky, Earth-sized planet orbiting a dying main-sequence white dwarf star, seemingly having survived the star's expansion during its red-giant phase. This suggests that our planet may last until the end of time itself. Life on Earth probably won't last more than a billion more years, but that's someone else's problem.
I meant to post more photos from my trip earlier this month, but I do have a full-time job and other obligations. Plus it took me a couple of days longer than usual to recover, which I blame squarely on the shitty hotel room I had for my first night causing a sleep deficit that I never recovered from.
I posted a couple of these already, but with crude, quick edits done on my phone. I think these treatments might be a little better.
Sunrise at O'Hare on the 18th:
The hills of Hampshire:
Invasive megafauna preparing to attack:
Why I decided to walk for 10 km through Hampshire in the first place:
The Grand Canal:
It might take a few days to get more of these done. I'll post more as I get to them.
Welcome to a special stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Two Tribes Brewing, Tileyard Road, London N7
Train line: Piccadilly Line, Caledonan Road
Time from Chicago: 8 hours
Distance from station: 900 m (about 1.5 km from King's Cross)
I don't know why I haven't made an official B&C stop in London before now. The UK has just gotten going with its own microbrewing industry, as evidenced by the continued success of pubs like the Southampton Arms. I've had lots of English micros, some from London. So I'm happy to report that visiting the brewery closest to my (new) hotel last Thursday turned out great.
They had two bartenders working an enormous crowd so I didn't bother them by ordering a flight. Instead I had a pint of the Campfire Hazy (5.2%, very tasty) and a pint of the Dream Pale (4.4%, also very tasty). And, because they have lots of communal seating, I talked to a pair of biology post-docs who were looking for jobs. I also read a good hunk of my book, enjoyed the low-intensity music, and contemplated how rarely London gets the kind of weather they had at that moment.
They also had tacos, in their food pop-up space. I had the chorizo. For Europe, they were really good tacos, despite the lack of taco sauce. (It's the UK.)
London has about a dozen other B&C-eligible breweries, so I might not get back to Two Tribes soon. But if you're anywhere near King's X, check it out.
Beer garden?Yes
Dogs OK? Yes
Televisions? No
Serves food? Pop-up; check the website. BYOF OK
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
It took me a little bit this morning to get back into things, but once I figured out what my notes meant I managed to finish two whole features today. And I still had time to check these out:
That's it. Just three stories. I really didn't have time to read much else. But I did have time to give Cassie some pats, which I will resume doing in just a few minutes.
Welcome to stop #116 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Crust Brewing, 5500 Park Pl., Rosemont
Train line: CTA Blue Line, Rosemont
Time from Chicago: 45 minutes
Distance from station: 1.4 km (shuttle bus from El station—don't even try to walk it)
Have you ever heard Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album? It's exactly what it says on the tin. And it's not their best work. (I mean, it's got a few laughs, especially on the first cut, but the boys made it clear they were flipping two fingers to their record company with that one.)
This is my Contractual Obligation Brews & Choos stop.
You see, taking the (soon to be discontinued! Oh no!) 8:20 am flight to London, with its requisite check-in time of 6:20 am, led me to getting a hotel room near O'Hare. Since Crust Brewing is just steps from the Aloft, the trip lent itself to stopping there. I didn't have high hopes going in; I didn't have high regards going out.
Wow! TVs everywhere and lots of stone surfaces to make them all really loud! Exactly my kind of place. At least they let you take the beer outside, to the Parkway Bank Entertainment District in family-owned Rosemont. I mean, who could pass up this view of I-294 when sipping on a beer?
I had a perfectly-serviceable but otherwise unremarkable hazy IPA whose value didn't even approach the $13 with tax and tip that I paid for it.
If you find yourself trapped at a convention or something out in Rosemont and you need to entertain a very junior or very suburban team who don't want anything challenging but do want to say they went to a "craft brewery," Crust will work just fine. If you find yourself at a convention or something in Rosemont but you can get away for three hours, go to Revolution, Piece, or Bungalow instead.
Beer garden? Only technically
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? Yes, unavoidable
Serves food? Full but boring menu
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Not if I wanted to keep them
Would go back? No
I had the opportunity, but not the energy, to bugger off from Heathrow for an hour and a half or so connecting from Marseille. Instead I found a vacant privacy pod in the Galleries South lounge, and had a decent lunch. Plus I'm about to have a G&T.
I've loaded up my Surface with a few articles, but I really only want to call attention to one of them. Bruce Schneier has an op-ed in the New York Times with his perspective on the Hezbollah pager attack and supply-chain vulnerabilities in general. I may even read that before turning my Surface off.
Next stop: Chicago, home, and dog.
I've arrived in Marseille, after a short but perfectly pleasant trip from Aix-en-Provence by basic commuter train. I didn't realize the Gare Marseille was on a hill, however, so it took me a few minutes to sort out how to get to ground level.
Just going to dump three photos from yesterday and this morning, then figure out what to explore in the 2 hours of daylight I have left. The principal goal: scoring a slice of the famed Marseille-style pizza that the New York Times assures me is second-best in Europe after Napoli.
Anyway, this is the view across the street from my friends' house, which they built at the edge of their small village about 40 km north of Aix:
We drove for a bit after lunch to Lourmarin for ice cream and a stroll:
Back in Aix, we had some pretty heavy rain come through overnight, leaving behind clear blue skies and lots of (not too hot) sun:
Once I get back to Chicago I'll have the tools to organize and process my photos better. Now, though: exploring Marseille.
I will spend most of today exploring the narrow streets and fromageries of Aix-en-Provence and visiting with an old friend up in the hills above the city. While I endure those horrors and privations, I will also be struggling with the realization that the TV series Lost premiered 20 years ago today.
Remember, kids: don't let the smoke monster cast you out of purgatory until you've figured out the meaning of your life.E