The Daily Parker

I'm sitting at my desk waiting for my work laptop to finish updating, a process now in its 24th minute, with "Working on updates 25%" on the screen for the past 5. Very frustrating; I have things to do today; and if I'd known how long it would take (I'm looking at you, help desk), I would have started the update when I left this evening.

So, all right, I'll read a few things:

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned "for health reasons" merely four days after becoming the longest-serving PM.
• Playwright Aurin Squire describes his time as a Black Republican, how he got there, and why he ultimately grew out of it.
• New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie points out that the violence in Kenosha, and not the Republican National Convention, "tell us more about where the right is headed:" "the extent to which Carlson and Coulter and Turning Point are representative of conservative thought on violence against protesters is the extent to which we may have to prepare for further Kenoshas."
• Author John Scalzi muses on works the public domain, and how copyright status has nothing to do with an author's popularity. He also discusses the discomfort we feel today with the "Golden Age" sci-fi works: "a lot of [it] currently lies in a sort of cultural uncanny valley, existing in a simultaneous state of being too distant from contemporary readers, and also not nearly distant enough."
• Chicago Tribune food critic Nick Kindelsperger finds the 9 best grab-and-go pizza slices in Chicago, which I should not have read this close to lunchtime. Or when I can't just hop on a plane for New York.

My laptop has rebooted three times now and appears to have gotten up to 83% complete. I may in fact get something done today.