Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
From Austin’s Craigslist:
This isn’t the first Texan I have heard of doing this. In Texas, we consider BBQ an art form, possible our only art form, but an art form nonetheless.
[Note: My feckless postings will continue until I am wrestled bodily to the ground…or the weather changes.]
Because you get to have conversations like this.
A chronic illness of mine trapped me inside for the last few months where I nearly obsessively followed every minutia of the news via the Internet. Now my health has improved in sync with a run of fair weather, so I have spent the last two weeks virtually wallowing in outdoor activities like yard work and organizing my garage. (Yes, I have reached that point in life where such activities are strangely comforting.) At the same time I entered a pact with my son not to watch any TV for a while.
As a result of this confluence of events I haven’t read a blog, news site, newspaper or watched TV in nearly three weeks and I am as happy as a clam. I heard some distant whispers that some Congressmen has done something or the other but I don’t know the details and I don’t, at the moment, care.
This is not to say that I haven’t been mentally active. I have been designing tool stands and a new kind of clamp, writing some software, and repairing electronic stuff all the while listening to podcast university lectures on pathophysiology.
I have just been ignoring anything political. I think it’s good to take a break from the day-to-day stream-of-consciousness news cycle we find ourselves saturated in, and spend some time just concentrating on little things of no broad import. If a vacation is largely a state of mind then I am on one. The world will just have to struggle along without my insightful commentary (or even bare attention) for the next few days.
You can comment if you want but I probably won’t answer. I’m going to figure out precisely how I am going to anchor a halogen work light with a bucket of sand.
A bit off-topic but the car enthusiasts here will like it. A friend of mine has been attending the Monterey, California Historic Car Races for several years, and put together this presentation based on this year’s event. YouTube’s file compression degrades the quality somewhat, but it’s still cool to look at if you have any interest in cars. Nice music too.