25 January 2002
“Do we need the overkill of ribbons and commemorative quilts, haloed seraphim perched on top of the burning towers and teddy bears in firefighter helmets waving flags, in order to forget the final minutes of bond traders, restaurant workers and secretaries screaming in elevators filling with smoke, standing in the frames of broken windows on the 90th floor waiting for help, and staggering down the stairwells covered in third-degree burns?” – Daniel Harris in salon.com

24 January 2002
News: Pierre Bourdieu, whose theories on the persistence of social structures (“cultural capital”) reinforced my cynicism at a refreshingly early age, has died.
“You are ugly! U G L Y Ugly! I am a man and I am nowhere near as ugly as you!” – man on the #66 bus last night. I was listening to something else at the time but still managed to share a “what’s wrong with this guy?” suppressed grin with a fellow passenger. Oh, and it turns out that a co-worker was the mysterious person who poked me as I stepped off the train in the morning. See the joys I’m missing by not riding transit?

23 January 2002
Today started slightly damp and cloudy, with promises of more rain and stiff winds, so I decided to forego the bike commute. Bad idea. Cycling takes ~25 minutes (from locking the apartment to unlocking the office door), even without flouting the law; transit typically takes about 30 minutes. Today, I just missed a bus, only to have a pair of buses roll up 5 minutes late, then couldn’t board the first train that rolled by, since standees tend to crowd near the doors and block entry for those trying to board close to downtown. In the end, it took 50 minutes. The day was brightened by the motorman on Blue Line run 105 (?), who proclaimed his train “the happy train,” wished all aboard a pleasant day, and asked passengers to cooperate in getting people aboard – “we’re all in this together.” Thank you.

Speaking of biking to work, one of these days I’ll have to check out the little cluster of Italian shops at Grand and Noble that I’ve been riding by all these months.

21 January 2002 Even less special: on Saturday, while annoying
the sales staff at Barney’s with the presence of riff-raff kids, I heard
Autour de Lucie’s “Faux Mouvement.” Maybe French pop isn’t quite as obscure
as I thought. And okay, so there’s been a delay in getting the WTBAC pages
up. Oh, and for the voyeurs out there, new photos of yours truly are
available.

17 January 2002 Two reactions to the snow,
from today’s Chicago Tribune: “I enjoy snow in small quantities on
the weekend as long as it doesn’t interfere with my travel plans.” – Alex
Vayslep of Lincoln Park “Especially in Chicago. Ice and snow
preoccupies. And now, heat preoccupies. Weather does occupy government’s
position.” – Mayor Richard M. Daley

16 January 2002
Updated Home with new contact info, including
instant messaging alias. Yes, I’ve given in and signed up. In other news,
the staff at my friendly local coffee shop put on a Yann Tiersen CD (okay, so it was the
“Amelie” BOF, made for North American distribution with English liner notes)
on as they closed up this evening. I feel less special. Oh yeah: it snowed
today! Three inches!

15 January 2002 “It’s my parents’
fault for being so liberal. Nobody ever told me to go to law school — they
just wanted me to be happy.” So said a Toronto artist in the Globe &
Mail,

14 January 2002 Word of the
day: raunag, “the Hindi word for the pleasure of being in
crowds.”

13 January 2002 Metropolis magazine this month
includes a neat feature on sustainable architecture in New York and some of
the most thoughtful post-Sept. 11 coverage I’ve seen. Site news: I plan on
having functioning pages for the West Town Bicycle Advisory Committee up by
Thursday; check for the link.

9 January 2002 Okay, I
finally uploaded a revised version of the scrivener archive (see the end of
the column). I’ve been updating this column regularly for more than a month!
No other news of note.

5 January 2002 Another “no!”
moment: The Real World: Chicago (filmed less
than a mile north of my apartment) will begin airing soon. ::shudder::

4 January 2002 Back from vacay and re-settled. Mailbox: the
current American Prospect has a cool
supplement on globalization. Gosh, it was refreshing to bike to work
today after having been shuttled around Raleigh in an SUV. Slightly chilling
discovery: a
Yahoo Groups archive of the Chicago Critical Mass listserv. All my
snarky small talk, exposed for the world to see? No!