Events

The 30-park geas actually took me to 32 parks. Here's the timeline of me seeing at least one home game for every team in Major League Baseball: City Team Park Built First visit Last visit Chicago Cubs NL Wrigley Field 1914 1977 Jul 24 2022 Jul 16 Los Angeles Dodgers NL Dodger Stadium 1962 1980 Jul 28? 2001 May 12 New York Mets NL Shea Stadium§Citi Field 19662009 1988 Sep 15†2012 Jul 6† 1997 Apr 19†2012 Jul 6† Houston Astros NL Enron FieldMinute Maid Park‡ 2000 2001 May 9   2009 Apr 7† Milwaukee Brewers...

What does one say when he runs into his first-year high school French teacher nearly 25 years later? At a bar? The best I could come up with: "Madame, je me souviens le français!" To which she replied: "What's your name again?" In English.

I spent the better part of the last few months looking for appropriate office space to hold a team of developers. We estimated we'd need about 325 m² for 18 people. For some reason we could not find appropriate space. I therefore found an Evanston city consultant's recent report fascinating: Consultant Marty Stern of U.S. Equities Realty says, in a report to be presented to the city's Economic Development Committee Wednesday night, that nine different generally suitable Class B buildings have a total of...

I had a few things to blog about tonight, but this clip from Talking Points Memo made me laugh too hard to remember the rest:

I'm kicking myself for not riding Bike the Drive this morning. That's the annual, Memorial Day weekend closing of Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, all 30 km of it, for any bicyclist who ponies up the fee. I'm kicking myself because it's 19°C and sunny with a good breeze out of the South. Good biking weather. Along the way we both took a look at the skyline from Fullerton Ave., one of the best vantage points on the North Side: Even Parker wanted a look: And we wrapped up our short walk with some...

(I mean, other than because he loathes water.) No, it's about gasoline. I'm taking a summer vacation this year for the first time since 1992, and I had planned to load Parker and his smelly blanket into my Volkswagen and drive to San Francisco with him. Only, I just filled up my car this morning, and for the first time ever I crested $50. For gasoline. In my bleeding Volkswagen. Which caused me to whip out a spreadsheet and determine conclusively whether driving with Parker out to California makes any...

Via reader TC, Uncle Oinker's Bacon-Scented Bacon Print Tuxedo.

It seems text-message shorthand sorely vexes the French. Well, some of them, anyway: "Look at what text-messaging is doing to the French language," lamented President Nicolas Sarkozy in February. "If we let things go, in a few years we will have trouble understanding each other." Most secondary-school pupils have their own mobile telephones, and they use an abbreviated phonetic language to communicate. A2M1, for instance, means à demain, or "see you tomorrow." JTM is je t'aime (I love you). Or try: Ta...