Siftings
Oct
23
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Mary’s 20
Been a little busy, so I'm outsourcing this week's countdown to Mary Schmich, a terrific Tribune columnist who assembled a lovely little list of life lessons from the 2015 Cubs season.
You can find it (here).
My end of season essay is forthcoming. As soon as I stop sobbing....
Oct
11
Primary Colors
“Cubs fan” was the answer. The question was, “What is your religion?” The lady in the scrubs was not amused. Or maybe she thought the pain was causing delirium. “That’s not one of the choices”, she explained. “Maybe I’m at the wrong hospital then”, I replied.
Here’s the thing. Dying...
Oct
08
Heading Home
The tragic era has passed. Brothers Curt and Dave Utter, best friends and sometimes roommates, were taken much too young. In their early twenties and within a year of each other, cancer and an aneurysm took two bright lives from family and friends who still grieve for futures lost. The...
Oct
07
This Just In
The City of Davenport's agreement to have a private developer build a road to $250 million in taxbase and 2,000 jobs was comparatively shrewd. More (here).
10/7/15
Oct
06
Double Check ?
Recently asked if I double-checked with Legal on the Elmore Drive agreement before it was placed on the agenda, the answer is yes.
An original printout of the double-check e-mail from 2014 is (here). A 2015 printout of the e-mail was provided to Brian Wellner on June 15, 2015 via hard copy and...
Oct
05
R.I.P. Rand
“I hear your son is a good ballplayer.” I don’t remember the first words everyone says to me, but I remember Rand’s. Colin had just started Pony League, and the City Council had just grown tired of losing another legal skirmish the City should have won, so I found myself walking into a conference...
Oct
04
Divides
Scale. The scale of the West is the enduring memory. Colin summarized east/central Wyoming thusly last year. “I looked out the window and then started watching a movie. When the movie ended, I looked out the window and couldn’t tell if we had moved.” The Jeep would have traveled at least 150...
Oct
02
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Places On The Way
59 hours in the car, and 22 places ranked worst to best along the way.
20. Gillette, WY. – Stopped for gas. A strip mining hellscape, with coal dust covering every horizontal surface, including the too scary to look at tattoos festooning the women folk. Could not leave the gas station...
Sep
30
Drive
Of course, it’s a Mustang. We’re out west where they run wild. 2,431 miles into the 4,426 total mile trip, and I’m being passed (it doesn’t happen often on the open road, so I tend to recall them). Some mistake was made at corporate and a sport package Focus made it into the Avis fleet. It’s...
Sep
28
ICMA Presentation
In Seattle, about to deliver a presentation on open government, community building and utilizing information technology. A pdf of this year's presentation "It's the 21st Century. Don't Be Yesterday's News" is available (here).
The handout from last year's show "Are You Ready For The Manager's...
