The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Dog walking service crash

No one (and no dogs) got hurt the other day when, according to my dog-walking service, someone mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal and plowed through their storefront in Evanston. Said the owner: "fortunately [our greyhound] Jupiter was staying home that day. He likely would have been doggy mush if he had been stationed in his usual place...!"

And the driver? "Oh, she's fine. And her car had hardly a scratch."

No word on when they expect their storefront to be repaired. All of the windows were destroyed; it's now a bunch of boards. Parker, totally unconcerned about this, will still have his usual walk today.

Today's Daily Parker

Yes, it's a holiday, but when you own a small business sometimes you work seven days a week. Yesterday, for example, Parker came in to help with my filing:

I don't think I'll staff the job out to him just yet, however, given his propensity to eat the files.

I'm still looking for cicadas, though none seems to have emerged near me. Yesterday riding my bike I heard one in Highland Park and one in Winnetka, but so far I haven't heard any, nor seen any nymphs or shells in Evanston. If Parker only knew they were coming, he'd be pretty excited.

Today's Daily Parker

No photo today. Instead, yesterday's message from the dog-walking service: "He was excellent today. He even had a crap, which is getting to be rare."

I'm so glad someone else is as interested in my dog's bowel movements as I.

Has it really been 30 years?

I remember 25th May 1977 well. My dad and I waited in a very, very long line in Torrance, Calif., for some movie he wanted to see, and said I would really like. He had to read the opening crawl to me—something about some rebellion somewhere. I had no idea what it meant. Then I saw the first spaceship—the first one, the little one, not the planet-sized one chasing it—and I was in love.

Yes, 30 years ago today, Star Wars hit the theaters. Wow.

Why Illinois rocks

Fully 63% of Americans want a timetable for our withdrawal from Iraq. This percentage includes me, 42% of registered Republicans, every member of my immediate family who can vote, Parker (who agrees with everything I say except "down, stay!"), the Speaker of the House (who is also my father's Congresswoman), and both of my U.S. Senators.

Unfortunately for the free world, majorities of both houses of Congress don't. So sad.

Correction, 9:00 CT Friday: Crap. One of my U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin, voted for the bill.

My proposed new neighbor

Now concluding the massive attack of pithy posts this morning, last night developers unveiled revised plans for the Orrington-Sherman-Church block in Evanston that will preserve the Hahn Building's façade and lower the proposed tower's height to 37 stories:

The proposal, from developers R.D. Horner & Associates and HSA Commercial Real Estate and the architectural firm Daniel P. Coffey and Associates, calls for the developers to rebuild the public plaza at Fountain Square and slip two levels of underground parking for the condominium high-rise under the public plaza.

The developers would demolish the existing Fountain Square building and replace it with a two-story restaurant building that would be topped with an expanded public plaza space, connected to the ground level plaza by an exterior stairway.

The tower would be supported on pillars rising over the landmark Hahn Building at midblock and the tower would be set back 9 to 10 feet from the Hahn Building's street façades and 16 feet from the north property line.

I think this is an improvement over the previous plan. I would be sad to see the Hahn building torn down; the Fountain Square building, on the other hand, is just plain ugly.