Long Train Running: A Chicago Marathon Story | Chapter 8 — Broken Down?
At the end was when something hurt. This was new. This wasn’t sore. This was different. Yet, I chocked it up to, well, just having run twenty glorious, goddamn miles. I guzzled water, I stretched, I ate a banana, I rode my bike home. At home, I stretched, I took an ice bath for ten minutes, took a nap. Katie and I hung out at the 312 Block Party at Goose Island for a bit before calling it a night at nine. All day, my right leg would blast with pain at every step.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of September 22, 2019
I respect the guy, but Malcolm Gladwell is not a genius. He’s not even that interesting. He’s perceived that way because he’s a well-spoken black guy. Yeah, I said it. And you’re all racists.
The Last Generation
I don’t want this. I’m too afraid. I don’t think this is the answer for the human race. I don’t want us all to suffer and die, but it is our fault we live in a destroyed world.
Hope Idiotic | Part VIII
Lou finally began making a little bit of money when he broke through to the Chi Star, a free daily paper owned by the Franklin News. It was designed to be a newspaper with training wheels in hopes that as the young readers aged, they would make the switch from the free commuter rag to a more mature newspaper subscription. It was the struggling newspaper business’ effort to survive by adapting the drug trade’s tactics; get ’em hooked for free when they’re young.
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting | Trump Shoots Person on 5th Avenue!
Lindsay Graham says, “It’s unusual, but that’s Trump style.”
Nanny Fire
When I was three years old my mom said, “If you don't start shaping up we're going to have to let you go.”
The Inevitability of the House Winning (If the House is the Earth and We're Just Playing Penny Slots)
We know we aren’t going to reduce carbon emissions by 70 percent. Ever. We know it and yet we keep barking and marching and lobbying for substantive change while driving to the marches, using paper to print the pamphlets while drinking out of plastic bottles filled with water stolen by Nestlé and grabbing a Hot Pocket or packaged bowl of yogurt.
I Believe... [Packers vs Joe Biden]
…that there is almost no substantive distinction between a rabid sports fan and someone on either side of the political fringe.
Hope Idiotic | Part VII
By mid-November, Lou had been living with Michelle for two months. She provided half of the dresser for him and cleared out space in the bathroom cabinets and her closets for him in an effort to make her place his place, too. But she refused to let him hang any photos of his friends or family. And there was no way he was putting his film trophy on display anywhere.
I Don’t Forgive and I Don’t Forget
First time
I give benefit of the doubt
Long Train Running: A Chicago Marathon Story | Chapter 7 — Easy Does It
Marathon training puts time and distance into relative perspective. Once you prove you can run seventeen miles on a Saturday morning, jogging a quick five constitutes an easy run. Six miles is nothing. It’s a breeze. It feels like less work than walking across the street to pick up my dry cleaning. Christ, I hate running errands.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of September 15, 2019
It’s okay to admit that you don’t know or understand something. In fact, it can be beneficial. It gives you the opportunity to listen better, differently, to learn something new and one day be the know-it-all you always knew you were.
Lotusland
"Saw a car accident there in meditation today." She pointed at an indeterminate northeast locale below. Nodding up at me in the pause as if I didn't believe her. "That's right, over coffee. I always stand right where you're standing for about fifteen minutes each morning while I break off a piece of the hottest joe I can possibly do, watching an interminably slow rush hour. The frustration is… transporting.“
Hope Idiotic | Part VI
The week that Lou arrived in Chicago, Franklin News, one of the largest media companies in the nation, laid off a thousand people. In the three months he’d been back, many other companies in his field had done the same. He wasn’t picky about whom he worked for, he just needed a gig. But every newspaper, magazine, radio station, marketing firm, advertising agency and public relations agency he could find wouldn’t even meet with him.
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting | Trump’s Homeless Solution
What if we made homeless people pretty?
Tips from the Universal Household Assistant | Weakness in Children.—
I didn't close the storm windows because I knew Dave would say, “I'll do it.” Then I'd make a show of how I was going to do it anyway and he'd have to say, “I don't mind, really.” So I sit here and he closes windows around me. Then he comes over and kisses the top of my head. “I think you smell good.”
I Believe... [Too Much {Clap, Clap} Time On Your Hands...]
…that if the hill you die on is whether or not there is a female 007, that a Popeye’s chicken sandwich is less homophobic, or how many black people were in Game of Thrones, I’d suggest you have far too much time on your hands.
Hope Idiotic | Part V
Lou hit the San Francisco city limits just as night was coming down. He used the hostel book as promised to find a well-rated spot with a good view of the city. He’d never stayed in hostels before and was curious. He’d hoped to meet a few strangers he could make friends with for the night and explore the city with, but the place was pretty empty. It was too early in the summer for college students or Europeans to be backpacking their way through the country.
I Like to Watch | IT Chapter 2
It occurred to me about a third of the way into the film that this second half of the story isn’t about the clown, it’s about the people fighting the clown. As an older man, it hit me that this second act of The Losers Club was about adults suddenly being forced to deal with how their past shapes their present in both conscious and unconscious ways.
Real Life Ghost Stories: A Children's Home Ghost Hunt
An exploration of an abandoned children’s home that served as both boarding school and orphanage in Bloomington, Illinois, now demolished. This could be your last chance to enter the building before it disappears from memory forever, to feel the echoes of history long past.
Jake and Caroline’s first date was at The Whistler. They talked about Ronnie, how much they loved The Diplomat, and debated the better ride-share service, Uber or Lyft. She was Uber, he was Lyft. They got wasted on Sazeracs and had sex at her apartment. It was incredible for both of them. Caroline stopped taking sex advice from Ronnie.