Some of us chorus types went to two outdoor performances this weekend. The first, at Ravinia Park in Highland Park, was a Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Mark Knopfler's score for The Princess Bride:
Then last night, many of the same people went to the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park to hear the Grant Park Symphony and a lot of other musicians perform Mahler's 8th Symphony:
The only problem? Rain. At both performances, we got rained on. The rains ended early, fortunately, and at Ravinia we managed to get last-minute pavilion seats. The Pritzker Pavilion doesn't have a roof, though, so we just sat in the rain for a few minutes and covered our glasses.
But hey, how often does one get to hear Mahler's 8th live?
Yesterday, Cassie and I walked 16.4 km (just over 10 miles), including a 10 km walk that I'd planned only to be a bit less than 7 km. I wanted to stop by Ravinia Brewing's Logan Square taproom, but alas, when we got there, the patio was closed. So we went to Burning Bush instead. In all, we spent most of the day outside in the perfect weather. We'll do more of the same today, just not quite as much walking.
Another brewery that didn't make the cut for the Brews & Choos Project—it's too far from the nearest Metra station—made the culinary news Thursday when the state fined them for their latest infusion:
The state has fined a suburban brewery an undisclosed amount after they served a special infusion of Jeppson’s Malört with cicadas, celebrating the insects’ 2024 emergence. Noon Whistle Brewing Co. in Lombard made headlines in May for combining Chicago’s infamous liquor with bugs foraged from a neighboring park.
The Illinois Liquor Control Commission’s March report includes a blurb that does not mention Noon Whistle, but it refers to a licensee selling an infusion containing cicadas: “The licensee was cited for the violation and was provided education on the issue.” A message to an ILCC rep wasn’t immediately returned. Noon Whistle’s co-founder Mike Condon confirmed the fine over email and wrote he preferred not to share more info.
Chicago went through a phase, in the late 2010s, when bartenders were gleefully infusing spirits, like bourbon, with pork. There weren’t reported fines. However, presumably, they weren’t hunting pigs and curing their own bacon. They weren’t hunting wild pigs, they were buying a product from a store or butcher. There’s no such facility to procure food-grade cicadas.
Cassie, for her part, enjoys the occasional cicada. She snapped one up just this morning on our first walk. It was still buzzing when she swallowed it, so I can only guess how it felt going down. I'm sure Malört would not have made it better.
The hot, humid weather we've had for the past couple of weeks has finally broken. I'm in the Loop today, and spent a good 20 minutes outside reading, and would have stayed longer, except I got a little chilly. I dressed today more for the 24°C at home and less for the cooler, breezier air this close to the lake.
Elsewhere in the world:
- I was waiting for Russia expert Julia Ioffe to weigh in on last week's hostage release.
- The Chicago White Sox failed to set the all-time record for most consecutive losses in the American League yesterday by winning their first game in the last 23.
- Of the $1.2 trillion Carbon Reduction Program funds allocated to reduce fossil-fuel emissions, $130 billion has been spent so far: but only $26 billion on rail, and $70 billion on highways.
- Even though Deutsche Bahn has faster, timelier, more convenient, more comfortable, and just more trains than the US, Germans say their national railroad is on the wrong track.
- Deadhorse, Alaska, which lies at 70° north latitude, set an all-time record yesterday with a high temperature just below 32°C.
- After CrowdStrike told Delta Airlines to go pound sand a couple days ago, Microsoft told the carrier off yesterday.
- Be careful taking dogs to fresh-water swimming holes: warmer weather has made blue-green algae blooms more common.
Finally, today is the 60th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. If you don't know what that is, read up. It's probably the most direct cause of most of our military policy since then.
This shit amused me:
Finally, Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the Dave Matthews Band tour bus dropping 350 liters of very literal, very stinky shit onto a boatload of sightseers in the Chicago River. "The culprit turned out to be the band’s tour bus driver, then-42-year-old Stefan Wohl, who pleaded guilty to charges of reckless conduct and discharging contaminates to cause water pollution. He got hit with 18 months on probation, 150 hours of community service and had to pay a $10,000 fine to Friends of the Chicago River."
I mean, what the shit?
A combination of a mild winter and the decline of natural predators has led to a rabbit explosion in Chicago:
The abundance of rabbits could be due to the milder winter Chicago experienced this year, said Seth Magle, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
The brutality of a cold winter and limited food availability during the snowy, frigid months can take their toll on the rabbit population. But if winters are mild, then with spring comes abnormal population growth, Magle said.
And now, with summer produce season in full swing, the overabundance of rabbits can cause headaches for gardeners, whose crops often fall prey to hungry bunnies, Magle said.
“These are species that are very well-adapted to cities. We’re planting stuff all around that they love to eat. Then you add in these mild winters — I think you have a bit of a perfect storm for rabbits,” Magle said.
As Cassie can tell you, they're everywhere in my neighborhood. I'm a bit disappointed in the local coyote population as well, though they may simply have too much food to eat right now.
The Climate Prediction Center's 6-10 day temperature outlook has generally good news for the upper Midwest, including Chicago:
I wouldn't want to be in New Orleans next week, but that's true most weeks of the year even without this forecast.
While we weather the summer, the news just keeps coming:
And as we go into the election, it's worth remembering that German President Paul von Hindenburg died 90 years ago today, ending the democratic German Republic and elevating you-know-who. Let's keep working to prevent anything like that ever happening here.
I had a burst of tasks at the end of the workday, so I didn't get a chance to read all of these:
Not to mention, this week we've had some of the stickiest weather I can remember, with dewpoints above 20°C for the past several days. And this sort of thing will only get worse:
Climate change is accumulating humidity in the region — between 1895 and 2019, average precipitation in Illinois increased by 15%. A moist atmosphere ramps up heat indexes, meaning the weather feels worse to the human body than it would during drier conditions.
In Chicago, overall summer average temperatures have warmed by 1.5 degrees between 1970 and 2022, but that’s not the whole story: Average lows on summer nights have increased by 2.2 degrees in that same time.
Warmer nights occur when the atmosphere is waterlogged. Clouds form and reflect incoming heat from the sun back into space during the day, but after the sun sets, clouds absorb heat from the surface and emit it back toward the ground.
Just like greenhouse gases trap heat, moisture holds onto heat in the atmosphere for longer and into the night. Rising temperatures, in turn, lead to rising humidity: For every 1°C increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more water. It’s a never-ending loop.
Yeah, even walking Cassie from day care (less than 1.6 km) sucks in this weather. At least I got home before the thunderstorms hit.
Cassie and I have already walked 15.6 km (9.7 miles for the luddites), and have another 2 km or so to go before we get home. Tomorrow I'll have photos from our adventures, including from Montrose Dog Beach.
For now, though, we're enjoying nearly-perfect weather outside.
Too bad I'm in my downtown office. It's a perfect, sunny day in Chicago. I did spend half an hour outside at lunchtime, and I might take off a little early. But at least for the next hour, I'll be looking through this sealed high-rise window at the kind of day we only get about 25 times a year here.
Elsewhere in the world:
- Former CIA lawyer James Petrila and former CIA spook John Sipher warn that the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v US could undo 50 years of reforms that reined in illegal clandestine activities here and abroad.
- James Fallows reviews President Biden's "quasi-valedictory" address from last night.
- The doddering, elderly, convicted-felon Republican nominee for President seemed to have some difficulties at last night's rally. Maybe he's too old to be president and he should withdraw from the race?
- Helen Lewis, shaking her head sadly at the mess of a human being that is Republican Vice-President nominee JD Vance, hopes the XPOTUS "kept the receipt."
- Bowing to market pressure, Southwest Airlines has announced an end to its chaotic boarding process, and will now assign seats like a grown-up airline.
- London expanded its Ultra-Low-Emissions Zone (ULEZ) to encompass most of the metro area last year, which has resulted in improved air quality equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road.
- Unfortunately, this side of the pond, the Illinois Dept of Transportation seems unable to comprehend the opportunity we have to remake DuSable Lake Shore Drive for the future, and instead wants to repeat all the mistakes of the past. All the aldermen along the north lakefront oppose the plan, fortunately.
- The South Works site on the southeast side of Chicago, which used to house one of the world's largest steel mills, will soon become a quantum-computing research facility.
Finally, the various agencies charged with protecting the Democratic National Convention next month have published their plan for a 60-hectare "pedestrian restriction" zone around the United Center and a smaller zone around McCormick Place. "Only people with credentials who 'have a need to be there' – such as delegates, volunteers and other workers – will be allowed within that inner perimeter, said 2024 DNC coordinator Jeff Burnside." Presumably people who live on the Near West Side will be able to get to and from their homes as well.
The President will go on the air tonight at 8pm EDT to explain why he dropped out of the race, and presumably also to endorse Vice President Harris as his successor. This has the XPOTUS so rattled that a campaign lawyer whined to the television networks that the XPOTUS wants equal time so they can whine to everyone. OK, Boomer.
Meanwhile:
- Hillary Clinton lays out a strategy for Harris to do what she couldn't: become our first female president.
- The European Union's climate-tracking directive reported that Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history, with the average surface temperature of the planet cresting 17.09°C.
- Jennifer Rubin (and a few other writers) believe we'd all be better off with a centrist government. (I'm sure if we explain this to the Republican Party carefully and rationally, they'll tone down their extremism right away.)
- Speaking of centrism, Julia Ioffe digs into what a President Harris foreign policy might look like.
- Because of a confluence of events "that Tolstoy could not have made up," Israel has an opportunity this week to change the Middle East for the better—if only they didn't have a troglodyte for a prime minister.
- Pilot Patrick Smith explains turbulence, and why it has suddenly become so newsworthy.
Finally, the Times examines why some people continue to write negotiable orders of withdrawal (i.e., paper checks) despite their obvious inconveniences and vulnerabilities. I haven't written one in about 18 months, and the last time I used one in any capacity was (with no small irony) to set up automatic billing with my HOA.