One thing I’ve noticed when going out on walks or trekking across the occasional parking lot or stopping at a busy intersection is that the regular assortment of outdoor litter is now being supplemented or supplanted by face masks. 

I've gone a little hypocritical here in that, despite (or maybe "in spite of") my antiracist cries, when it was announced that the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company was retiring their Native American "maiden" logo, Katie and I may have gone online and ordered some maiden-adorned apparel. Please don't judge us too harshly.

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A coworker, who is a fellow parent and part-time teacher like me, shared this video. I am, in turn, sharing it with you. It's powerful. And heartbreaking. 

I've been following the news of more and more states defying Republican hopes (prayers?) and instituting vote-by-mail full scale for the November General Election. It's been very good for my heart and soul to see this happening. 

I know most of you have, at the very least, heard of the band Rage Against the Machine. They were a heavy metal/rap-rock band that started in the early 1990s and are very well known for their highly politicized songwriting. They are, IMHO, the guitar-driven equivalent of my beloved Public Enemy, although Megadeth is up there as well.

On the negative side of today, Netflix’s Space Force was, um, strange to say the very least. Some of the driest humor to come from Greg Daniels ever. 

I wish I could focus on the cool stuff that happened today, like Falcon 9 successfully going to space and whatever else. But I cannot.

I'm going to be honest, I have not been a space exploration nut since I was a kid. I used to love shuttle launches and I even saw Sally Ride's first launch live. I had toy space shuttles and posters and postcards and photographs in my room until my teen years.

I remember a joke I've heard several times over the course of my life that goes something akin to "What's the one profession where you can miss 7 out of 10 times and still be considered an all star? A baseball player."

If social media is any indication, people are at least trying to maintain a healthy sense of humor in the age of the Coronavirus pandemic. Here are some faves...

A certain Midwest-based furniture chain announced recently that they are going out of business. Why do I care? Well, I owe them money for a mattress that we financed a couple Black Fridays ago.

Kirk Douglas has died. Bumblebees may soon be extinct. Donald Trump was acquitted.

This is why quality control and training are tantamount in this day and age. 

As a library junkie, the husband of a library junkie, the father of a budding library junkie, and a former member of my local library's Foundation association, it warms my heart to no end to read this Gallup article about how library visits topped U.S. leisure activities in 2019, even outpacing visits to movie theaters and sporting events.

This past Christmas, a big to-do was made about the Hallmark Channel pulling an ad that featured a gay couple getting married. A hate group called One Million Moms protested the ad as disgusting and threw around their weight (obviously from sitting around on their couches all day espousing hate via the Web) and convinced Hallmark to pull the ad. 

It is 59° and sunny here in far west Chicagoland. Skies are blue. People are wearing t-shirts, riding bikes, and driving with their car windows open.

In a bit of good news today, it was announced that Twitter will be banning all political ads on its platform rather than deal with with false and misleading ads being placed. 

Ohmigod. Some parts of the U.S. are supposed to see upwards of a 50ºF drop in under 24 hours later this week and into this weekend with some areas seeing anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow in that time. Holy cow. 

As someone who has been overweight most of his life, has dieted, gotten to a “good” weight, put it back on, lost it again, lather, rinse, repeat and had bullies attack him the whole time, I want to publicly thank James Corden for his reasoned and honest retort to that bumbling sack of shit known as Bill Maher.

[image courtesy of Electric102.com]

It's pretty funny that after writing that post about my Discover card design change, I realized that there is a major missed marketing opportunity right now by Discover Card and New Line Cinema.

The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The.

The big news item in the Chicago area -- that has nothing to do with violence, politics, or the weather -- is that Union Pacific steam engine 4014, dubbed "Big Boy," is in town right now. Well, not Chicago exactly. West Chicago... far to the west of the Chicago proper, but only one town east of where I live. 

Will any of you be tuning in to listen to Robert Mueller's testimony tomorrow on the Trump Investigation? Will you watch? Listen? Follow on social media?

I've heard horror stories in the past about television networks denying their content to service providers. What happens is that a contract expires between, say, HBO (or its parent company) and Dish Network. So HBO is no longer beholden to previous terms and wants more money or whatever and, until Dish Network coughs up the demands or they meet somewhere in the middle, Dish can't broadcast HBO or any of its subnetworks, etc.

Why do we even bother forecasting weather more than 48 hours in advance? Is there any point to it at all?

Earlier today, I was reading an article on CNN.com in response to Trump's tweets aimed at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley telling them to go back to where they came from and berating them in other ways simply for being women of color.

Reports have been circulating through local social and news media that the lagoon in Humboldt Park in the northwest side of Chicago may have an interloper of sorts.

Today, the U.S. Women’s National (Soccer/Football) Team won the 2019 World Cup for the second consecutive time, fourth overall. They came, they saw, they conquered... on the biggest stage possible in the most dominating way possible. 

Not only is today the last day before Illinois’ gas tax doubles, but normal vehicle registration will jump by about 50%, electric vehicle registration jumps by what feels like 1000% (I don’t wanna do the math), and it seems like a bunch of other taxes are kicking in as well. 

Wait wait wait... instead of burying people, Washington state wants to pass a law allowing for human composting?? I’m both mortified and morbidly intrigued. I should probably check and see if this is even legit news. 

Update: yes

The saying of record in Chicagoland is that we have two seasons... winter and construction.

I’ve always been a Nirvana fan in some way, shape, or form. Not always a consistent listener as I’ve had spells where I’d listen all the damn time and others where I’d go months or even years without firing up an album. But the enjoyment and respect has always persisted in the end.

The other day, I looked at a truck emblazoned with a Pepsi logo. For some reason, to that point, I had never really paid attention to the fact that Pepsi’s newish logo with lowercase typeface had a weird, um, issue with the “e.”