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10 April 2002
Oops: failure to use Bcc results in yet another major media leak, this time about potential bidders for Global Crossing assets.

Received this completely random email at 13:48 today:
“Amy got the last seat, that bitch. I’m on the third floor, back corner, windows, but I’m sitting with someone. I could move to the tables on the second floor since I forgot my internet cord anway. Hope the tour was fun.”

Gripe and praise

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Quick gripe: spent too much of today hearing platitudes about gentrification, my own poster child of how the complexity of urban social, political, legal, and economic systems is manifested in sometimes random ways. Argh.

and I think I’ve written this earlier, but it bears repeating: fellow CTA commuters, you make for an attractive crowd! Surely far better than the car-bound, and probably better than those on the sidewalks.

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4 April 2002
What the hell? 4:55pm, Dearborn and Madison. I was racing by in the right lane, northbound on Dearborn, going through the green light. Pedestrians are waiting on the northwest corner. As I go by the corner — looking over my shoulder to merge left, since a bus is stopped in front of me, and a van is pulling up behind and on the left — a few pedestrians lean towards me and start shouting something. I can’t quite understand what’s going on; besides, I’m already in a highly precarious position, within seconds of running into something and frightened of getting killed in rush hour traffic. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. Why would someone endanger someone’s life like that? What do they gain from it?

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31 March 2002
1. Last week’s This American Life was the “hoaxes” one, the first which (in its description of someone who had a fake British accent as a teen) really caught my ear.

2. A pair of “follow the consumer good through the industrial capitalist system” articles in this week’s Times Magazine: beef and used clothes. “And yet the further you follow [the rational logic of industrializing agriculture], the more likely you are to wonder if that rational logic might not also be completely insane… how cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs.”

3. Other hidden costs: raising the cost of driving in NYC, to reflect the real costs of public space.

4. The advent of abusive spam: received an email today with the subject line “Stop Fu$%#ing around and fill it out.” Well then.

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25 March 2002
Phrase of the day: “snark-infested homosexuals,” from Cintra Wilson’s shockingly embittered review of the Oscars. Sample: “Let’s stop treating our citizens of color like they are a separate people from us… our black friends are just as excellent at being overprivileged celebrity fuckwads as anybody else.”

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24 March 2002
Woo hoo! I rode a vintage high-wheeler bicycle today. For a while there, I actually felt kind of tall. Thanks to Carey Williams of the Illinois Wheelmen for showing me the ropes. Sorry, no photos of the momentous occasion, since all hands were busy trying to keep me from falling over.

New depths of stupidity: the latest testosterone trend: SUV-sized watches. Not far behind: our fabulous President.

Where to move to: Travel & Leisure magazine rates the locals in Honolulu not only the most attractive, but also the friendliest and most laid back.

CTA guys

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Today’s Chicago Reader reveals that the cyanide stashed by “Dr. Chaos” in a Blue Line tunnel couldn’t have killed anyone… because the tunnels are so darn drafty. Oh well. And I respectfully disagree with Ms Burch on the identity of CTA’s mysterious spokesman; rest assured that the man she’s describing (early 30s, blond, muscular, average height, cheerful, gay, independent) would not sound like that. Personally, I wish they’d chosen someone less excitable with a deeper voice, either a countertenor or a baritone.

hipster history

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[Feedmag and Suck] were “built almost exclusively on the intellectual capital of those who ‘wasted’ their college years and their parents’ money on things like semiotics and indie rock and high modernist literature and so on and so forth. Certainly they didn’t celebrate the mediocre or the risk averse in culture or education or lifestyles, and both had a certain air of entitlement.” — anonymous poster at plastic, wondering how people can get so damn self-righteous about others’ self-righteousness. Anyhow.

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20 March 2002
I punched someone’s car today. The guy turned right in front of a crowd of pedestrians (including me) who were starting to cross the street. Had he turned a second or two later, and he would have hit several people. I instinctively hit the car as it drove off, and he stopped, opened the door, and started yelling. Had there not been traffic cops and witnesses around, he might’ve pulled fists or a gun out as well I yelled something back (“don’t run red lights,” even though he hadn’t, but I was distracted as usual – which makes me a rather poor choice for extemporaneous speaking), which caught the attention of the cops. But anyhow, I’m beyond sick and tired of drivers bullying other road users with their size and speed.

“Capitol Fax” reports that a group called “Family Taxpayers” sent out a “Jim Ryan is too liberal” campaign piece. That name’s a disgustingly double-speaking attempt to cloak neo-Fascism in softer, “how can anyone be against…” tones.

Wearing a “REPUBLICAN” badge yesterday wasn’t that intimidating, though I did get a few strange looks from voters (particularly acquaintances). Dealing with the circus that is Chicago ward politics, though, was quite entertaining.