Events

I didn't spend a lot of time blogging this weekend. Once I have a chance to go through the photos I took in London, I'll post some. (Probably Thursday.)

Started on AA91, LHR-ORD

Read entirely on AA91, LHR-ORD

Yesterday's flight to London took only 6 hours, 37 minutes from wheels-up to landing. That is, in fact, the fastest I've ever gotten from O'Hare to Heathrow, by 8 minutes. I am impressed.

High above the North Atlantic, our hero reads the articles he downloaded before take-off: Releasing to Production the day before a holdiay weekend? No. Just, no. OMFG no. American Airlines just won a lawsuit started by US Airways that opens up competition in airfare consolidation—maybe. Bear with it, because this one article explains a lot of what's wrong with competition in any endeavor today. (I'll find a link to the Economist print article I just read on this topic when I land.) The Washington Post...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Lake View neighborhood of Chicago has some epic binge drinking: The data looked at the 500 largest cities in the country, split into more than 28,000 smaller areas. Large swaths of Lake View ranked in the top 1 percent for binge drinking nationally in 2014, the most recent year data were available. The CDC estimates that in some parts of Lake View, more than a third of residents are engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as more than five...

So: Hillary Clinton officially won 2.9 million votes over Trump, making her the most popular losing candidate ever. What's this about a supervolcano in Italy? Christmas Day in Chicago will be unusually warm. I won't be here, but when I get back, my car will be out of its snowdrift (I hope). OK, traveling tomorrow, reports as circumstances warrant.

Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley died 20 December 1976: Daley was 74 years old, in his 21st year as Mayor of Chicago.  He’d been having chest pains over the weekend, and had made an appointment with his doctor. That’s where he was now. The doctor had examined Daley. You have to be admitted to the hospital immediately, he’d told Daley.  The mayor had phoned one of his sons.  Then, while the doctor was busy making hospital arrangements, the mayor had collapsed. At 3:50 p.m., the mayor was dead. So...

Krugman's column from yesterday—the day Donald Trump was actually elected our next President—echoes a concern I've had for years: I couldn’t help noticing the contemporary resonances of some Roman history — specifically, the tale of how the Roman Republic fell. Here’s what I learned: Republican institutions don’t protect against tyranny when powerful people start defying political norms. And tyranny, when it comes, can flourish even while maintaining a republican facade. Famously, on paper the...