Events

My biggest problem with this is, I had a headache before seeing it:

Via Andrew Sullivan, a brilliant depiction of the idiocy of marriage inequality:

From reader MB, a business venture he wishes he'd thought of: Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets? Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service...

Not so much: Former representative Charlie Wilson died. This is a good weekend to watch Charlie Wilson's War (screenplay by Aaron Sorkin) one more time. A couple days ago Northern Illinois had a 4.2-magnitude earthquake, and no one knows why. Speaking of Illinois, after the amusing silliness with the Lt. Governor primary race, the legislature has proposed eliminating the office altogether. That would make the Attorney General second in line for Governor. People from outside Illinois should note that the...

It's just dawn in London, about five hours before my flight takes off, and this is the headline on the WGN Weather Blog: Entire Chicago metropolitan area upgraded to winter storm warning The entire Chicago metropolitan area is being placed under a winter storm warning effective from this evening through noon on Wednesday. Previous the winter storm warning had been in effect only for counties close to Lake Michigan where lake-enhanced snowfall was expected to boost snowfall total and surrounding areas...

Diane has joined me in London for a couple of days, and since this is her first time here, I thought it important to take her to the #1 Touristy London Thing of All: the Tower Bridge. The reader may recall that the City re-painted the bridge over the summer, so large parts of it had tarps draped over it while we had our first residence. Well, the painters have finished the bridge approaches: Here's the "before" picture, in August: Note also that the temperature fell a bit between the first and second...

I've stopped briefly in London to take two days with no responsibility whatsoever. Along the way I got a brief glimpse of Kyiv, but tantalizingly the cloud cover started right over the city. (For the half-hour we flew over Eastern Ukraine the weather was perfectly clear.) No, really, that's Kyiv: I'm not entirely sure I'll get back to Chicago tomorrow, though. They're expecting a snowstorm: The snow may cover the area over a 24-hour period beginning late Monday, according to the National Weather Service...

From Colorado Springs, a cautionary example of the logical outcome of Republican taxation policies: More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled. The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter. Neighbors are...

I am pooped. The third residency is over, and I've got a 7am flight out of Delhi tomorrow. This being Delhi, that means I have to get up around 3:45am to meet one of my classmates at 4:30—and that might be cutting it close. That means I'll leave the hotel around 10pm London time and arrive there around 9am, and somehow I'll have to stay awake for the rest of the day. I don't usually sleep on airplanes, but tomorrow morning I think I'll make an exception, whether I want to or not. I almost forgot: Nandan...

Apparently, Chandni Chowk (चाँदनी चौक) is closed Fridays in observance of the Islamic Sabbath. The formal shopping center, anyway. I'm willing to bet the actual street and neighborhood of the same name remained open this afternoon, but I could not convince my auto-rickshaw driver to take me there. I couldn't seem to break the language and cultural barriers separating him from an understanding that I just wanted to walk around without actually going in anywhere. In fact, I spent a lot of time this...