26 August 2002
One writer on procrastination: “I will accept that I am neither smart enough nor talented enough to put all the light and movement and beauty I had hoped for onto paper, and so I will have to settle for what I am capable of pulling off.”

25 August 2002
Government that works, Cicero-style: “So what if she took the money?” Jim said. “The town’s never looked better.”

24 August 2002
According to Crain’s, the Cheesecake Factory pulls in $18 million a year at the John Hancock Center. At $20 a pop, that’s 900,000 customers annually, spending about one out of every two hundred dollars spent at Chicago restaurants. The selling power of the lowest common denominator never ceases to surprise.

21 August 2002
Chemist Michael Braungart says that “books are not designed to be used inside,” since they “off-gas” and thus damage indoor air quality. Somehow, I don’t think I could call in sick on this one. Also in Metropolis: an interview with Jan Gehl on Denmark’s initiative to build new public spaces.

18 August 2002
Hurry! Untold millions could be made by a second generation of cybersquatters willing to squat on returned domain names like BuyClamsOnline, FreePaperClips, or AssAssAssAss.com.

16 August 2002
“We’re the North Side Irish…” New census figures show that Lakeview, home of (too) many “Irish” Cubs brew-pubs, is Chicago’s most Irish community area. I’d bet that many of those “Irish” are no more Irish than Lucky Charms, being Anglo-Saxon or Germanic Midwesterners (via the original New England settlement) who were merely proclaiming their Celtic roots back in March 2000.

14 August 2002
Speaking of mobile data, I can now be reached via SMS.

13 August 2002
The bus commuter in Tel Aviv is safer – less likely to randomly die on any given day – than the auto commuter in Houston.

12 August 2002
Feeling polyamorous? Try the Love Bike!

9 August 2002
Patio Men in the Sunbelt’s new technoburbs are reshaping the political climate of America. Be very, very afraid.

6 August 2002
“I think the car issue is huge,” says a securities analyst, since people who ride transit have more “microniches” of time to use mobile data services. “I think a lot of areas in the States are going to struggle with the driving.”

3 August 2002
“Think about places where there are no traffic problems, say, eastern Wyoming. Are these the kinds of places you want to be on a Saturday night?” – Garrison Keillor