There’s tons of reasons to love the windy city – the Cubbies and The Blues Brothers are those that pop to mind immediately, without even a moment’s thought.

Chief reason this evening is beer in plastic cups. As befits a city of meatpackers, the neighbor to the south of the place the native americans called Mil-le-walk-ee, O’Hare has an enlightened view of the proper place of booze in an airport – namely, everywhere.

My wife is brian-washing me and I have to fight back. My name is John and I like comfortable food. I am not ashamed that this looks yummy.

(this picture stolen from the most recent update at brian battjer, jr.‘s ikeepadiary.com which you should check out because his trip to europe is a pretty fun photoblog.)

I have had a few conversations with folks regarding the new Quizno’s add. Today, it was a topic on MSN.

I know that the add gets the name out there, but geez. Everytime I see one of those singing spongmonkeys, I lose my appetite.

Do not click through on this link. It is not safe for work or home and especially not the public computers at Schlotzsky’s. It is not safe for you. It is of a sexual nature and it’s just wrong.

I just got an email from MoveOn.Org and this time they are bringing babies into the picture.

Under energy industry pressure, President Bush’s EPA plans to defer controls on mercury emissions by power plants for at least a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.9 million women of childbearing age in the U.S. — that’s 8 percent — have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. The people hit hardest will be new-born infants — every year over 630,000 infants are born with levels of mercury in their blood so high they can cause brain damage.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan urged Congress on Wednesday to deal with the country’s escalating budget deficit by cutting benefits for future Social Security retirees rather than raising taxes.

also

He also said that the age for retirement should be indexed in some way to take into account longer lifespans. He noted that presently the age for being able to get full Social Security benefits is rising from 65 to 67 as one of the changes Congress adopted in the mid-1980s, based on recommendations of a commission Greenspan chaired. In his testimony, Greenspan said Congress should go further and index the retirement age so that it will keep rising.

Which makes sense, but what is up with people who talk about wanting to keep working after retirement age as a way to “keep busy”? As soon as the retirement accounts are full, you can bet my ass is going to be on the hovercouch in front of the Playstation XI.