If you're old enough, you may remember the show Moonlighting, which ran from March 1985 until May 1989 on ABC. And if you remember Moonlighting, you may remember this bit from the first season finale that aired 40 years ago today:
Later today we'll return to our ongoing existential horror. But let's pause and remember what it was like to watch that scene unfold on broadcast television with no way to play it back until it finished recording on tape.
I've encountered online comments and what passes for deep thoughts from the OAFPOTUS's apologists. Even The Economist has wondered aloud if the vandalism and incompetence of his administration is somehow 4-dimensional chess, his way of bringing about a glorious new world of higher living standards and improved Western cultural hegemony, or some such nonsense. So after this horrible right-wing experiment, should we credit the administration with the centrist correction?
No.
I believe we will recover from this era. I believe that the pain the OAFPOTUS will inflict for the next 46 months or so will, in fact, lead to a massive reset of US politics starting with the 120th Congress in January 2027, and a massive repudiation of both right- and left-wing extremism. And perhaps by the time I'm 80 we'll have a society in North America that bears some resemblance in empathy and technology to the Europe of today, with universal health care, a stronger democracy, and a high-speed train network at least worthy of 1990s France.
This will not, however, have anything to do with the OAFPOTUS himself, nor the Clown Prince of X, nor the double-speaking half-wits they surround themselves with. It will be despite them.
Hiroshima doesn't thank Paul Tibbets for its beautiful city center. America won't thank these thugs for what comes after them, either.
We had a wild ride in March, with the temperature range here at Inner Drive Technology WHQ between 23.3° on the 14th and -5.4°C on the 2nd—not to mention 22.6°C on Friday and 2.3°C on Sunday.
Actually, everyone in the US had a wild ride last month, for reasons outside the weather, and it looks like it will continue for a while:
Finally, the Dunning-Krueger poster children working for the Clown Prince of X have announced plans to replace the 60 million lines of COBOL code running the Social Security Administration with an LLM-generated pile of spaghetti in some other language (Python? Ruby? Logo?) before the end of the year. As this will only cost a few million dollars and will keep the children away from the sharp objects for a while, I say it's money well spent for software that will never see the light of day. There are only two possibilities here, not mutually-exclusive: they are too dumb to know why this is stupid, or they don't care because they actually want to kill Social Security by any means they can. I believe it's both.
First, yesterday's temperatures at Inner Drive Technology World HQ gave us whiplash:
Not shown: the violent thunderstorm that hit around 2:30, while I was driving up to Evanston where I made a critical error in the final trivia round that cost us the win.
Yesterday I also came across this graphic, which says so much about how North America screwed up its built environment while showing us how we can fix it:
Really, if we wanted to, we could get back to the 1920 pattern in my lifetime. Too bad we're busy trying just to keep our democracy.
The cold front that pushed through yesterday has moved north again, giving us this today:
As you can see from this map, we're now in the warm sector of a classic continental low circulation:
When the low pressure center passes over us later today, the temperature will plummet once again, and we might actually have a few snow flurries.
Because, you know, it's March.
Welcome to a special stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Tennessee Brew Works, 809 Ewing Ave., Nashville, Tenn.
4 stars
Train line: Wego Train, Riverfront Nashville
Time from Chicago: 2 hours
Distance from station: 1.7 km
Neither Tennessee Brew Works nor New Heights Brewing is a particularly pleasant walk from the WeGo station, but I would visit both of them again. TBW decided to give us two drink tokens each instead of worrying about pouring and distributing 40 flights. I chose two of their IPAs, the Hippies & Cowboys (6%, 35 IBU) and the River Drifter (6.2%, 45 IBU). (I didn't notice at the time that they also had a hazy on the menu, but when a bunch of professional drinkers from England are behind you in line, you don't waste time.)
I liked them both. More I cannot say, as my boss and I were discussing what we need to do in April for the two teams I run and I thought it would have been a bit suspect if I took detailed notes on my beer at the same time.
I liked the beers, though, and would have gone back for more if I'd had time. Between our leisurely time at New Heights, our lunch at Puckett's BBQ, and Nashville traffic, we got about 35 minutes to quaff our two pints before heading back to the hotel to clean up before our off-site dinner. (Wednesdays are always a hoot at this conference; Thursdays I always feel bad for the people who have to present at 8:30 am.)
Like I said yesterday, if I ever spend time in Nashville again, I'll come back to both of these places, plus three others I found. Meanwhile, I still have about 25 more breweries to visit in Chicago...
Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside
Televisions? Avoidable
Serves food? Full menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Good thing I was inside and could close the windows when the temperature dropped 8.3°C (15°F) between 3:35 and 4:35 pm:
I got the dogs out around 2 (I'm dogsitting Butters again), and they have fur coats, so they did not mind at all. It's now just over 9°C outside with a forecast low of 5°C tonight, yet I had the windows open last night. Spring in Chicago continues apace.
Welcome to a special stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: New Heights Brewing, 928 Rep. John Lewis Way S., Nashville, Tenn.
4 stars
Train line: Wego Train, Riverfront Nashville
Time from Chicago: 2 hours
Distance from station: 2 km
I had the option to go to two breweries and get some good ol' Southern BBQ as the team-building activity during my work conference this past week. We started with New Heights Brewing, which I had already identified as a possible Brews & Choos destination before I knew which breweries the field trip would visit.
Because the tour included 40 or so technology professionals (plus our head of HR), and because many of those people were English and thus born with two livers, the brewery created a standard flight for all of us. We started with the Nothing Fancy blonde ale (5.6%, 20 IBU), then the Coffee & Cream "coffee and vanilla cream ale with Crema coffee" (5.6%, 20 IBU), then the house IPA (6.9%, 101 IBU), and finished with the Navel Gazer Imperial stout (9.2%, 65 IBU).
I took notes in a draft email that I apparently deleted before copying. Dammit.
I did like all four of them, though I have to say, 101 IBUs really gets your attention. The Navel Gazer has a particularly inspired name, because after two pints, you will be gazing at your navel.
I went more than half a century without spending the night in Nashville, so it's not likely I'll be back. But if you visit Nashville, New Heights is worth a stop.
Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Yes
Televisions? Avoidable
Serves food? BYO
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
But I must, must share this ad from Canada's Liberal Party. Wait for the end:
I completed two surveys related to my work conference this week. The first one included the question, "To confirm that you are still reading this, please select 'Disagree.'" The second one assigned point values to the multiple-choice questions, so that the three items I answered "Somewhat OK" instead of "Excellent" brought my grade down to a B-minus.
These are the kinds of things that make one wonder how valuable the survey data really is.
Meanwhile, I've got a ton of things to do today, including getting Cassie her lunchtime walk before a line of storms comes through around noon.
More later, including two Brews & Choos reviews from Nashville.