Events

Last night, a dozen Ravinia Festival staff members joined about 50 members of The Apollo Chorus of Chicago to dedicate the renovated Hunter Pavilion at the Park. Ravinia spent $70 million renovating the Pavilion over the past 9 months, so naturally we sang the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore while wearing hard hats. Then we finished the dedication concert with "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, which we rushed a bit at the end.

Richard Strauss Jr.: Overture to Die Fledermaus

I'm heading up to Ravinia Park today ahead of tonight's first performance in the completely-renovated pavilion. Sorry, the performance is for donors and staff only; the Pavilion opens to the public tomorrow night.

First run (Apple TV, started 3 July 2026

Graham Platner dropped out of the US Senate race in Maine last night, two days after Politico reported on sexual assault allegations against him. The Democratic Party now has two weeks to pick a replacement. I still think satirist Jeff Maurer has the best explanation of how we got here: letting a pair of Harvard grads who have never gotten anyone elected recruit the candidate without even cursory vetting.

Yes, the OAFPOTUS that no one in the Republican Party will ever call stupid and demented went off the rails in Ankara, Turkey earlier today. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan. They were shot at the aircraft carrier,” he said at one point. Then, while sitting next to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, he twice referred to him as "President Putin." Of course, things started somewhat shakily when the OAFPOTUS landed in Turkey, as Turkish president Recep Erdoğan had to...

The deadline for a candidate to withdraw from Maine's general election is the second Monday in July, six days from now. We have known that Democratic US Senate nominee Graham Platner was an unacceptable candidate since at least last October, though many in Maine and some prominent veterans spoke out before then. The day of the Maine primary, June 6th, I posted on Facebook:

The OAFPOTUS didn't like that a star US footballer got a red card in a World Cup match, so he called the president of FIFA and demanded a review of the play. Because he is that stupid and small. Can anyone, for ten seconds, imagine Eisenhower—or even George W Bush, for that matter—getting involved in such penny-ante bullshit?

Today's Illinois State Climatologist report on June's weather confirmed what we expect from strong El Niño events. Generally, higher East Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperatures set up a cool, wet pattern for the northern part of the US and southern Canada. That's what we got last month: