Sunday

We have a heat wave in the Quads.  Its 63 this AM.  But they say we have rain on the way.

The news wires are carrying a story this AM about the Big O's buddy, Rahm Emanuel, being a dead-mayor-walking in Chicago.  I haven't followed the story that closely, but it appears that there was cover-up of a dash-cam video that vividly shows a Chicago police officer shooting an unarmed black kid last year.  Apparently, the video was buried to keep a lid on protests, and to keep the incident from being an issue in the mayoral election earlier this year (that Emanuel won with lukewarm support).

This is how Chicago politics work.  Cover-up.  Obfuscate.  Lie.  Trade backroom deals.  Currently, the city is totally screwed.  They need to raise property taxes because the budget is so upside down.  The teachers' union is set to strike.  Pensions are severely under-funded.  Gang-violence is out of control.  And you have black lives matter people efforting to shut down Michigan Avenue stores on Black Friday.  (Really. Why wouldn't ya?)  And that doesn't even consider that the state of Illinois is essentially bankrupt.  All of this will just incent further exiting of the city and the state by those who can, with a complicit legislature that will most certainly raise taxes to cover the shortfalls.  I'd say that the moniker, "The City that Works" is sadly misplaced.

Hawkeye fans seem to have set off a frenzy in their interest in Rose Bowl tickets.  The latest numbers had over 54,000 requests for the initial allotment of 22,000.  Its possible that some tickets could get reallocated from Stanford, but I don't see anything of the like on a quick News search.  It'll be an expensive trip for anybody making the trip.

I'm guessing that Phoenix is as happy as anyone with that ND-Ohio State match-up in the Fiesta Bowl.  Those teams probably have broader appeal than the four schools that actually made the play-off.

I'm getting weekly reminders from ND that 2016 is my 45th reunion year.  They have a big deal on campus in early June of each year, welcoming back the classes for each fifth-year anniversary.  I think I went to one while we were in C-town, and I don't think I've been back for any others since than.  When you aren't a dyed-in-the-wool alumnus, the reunions don't hold much appeal.  I mean, the last football game that I attended there would have been an Air Force game when Big John was a cadet there.  That would be 25-30 years ago.  (Aunt Martha and I rode a fan bus from here in the Quads with the local ND Club.)

I subscribe to the ND alumni magazine...a quarterly hard-copy that can be tough to digest at times with its persistent liberal dribble.  But each issue does carry a section on the classes and a representative of each year gives news on members and their exploits.  I've never reached out to the column's 1971 author, but I do keep up on a few names that I recognize.  Obviously, at this point, we've lost some classmates to time and disease.  Also of note, a testimony to the passage of time, the class updates come toward the end of the magazine, most recent years at the end of the section...and with each graduation, the notes from the Class of '71 get closer to the middle of the pack.  Think about it.

Auntie Soo seems to be enjoying her stay in NYC.

Lots of main stream journalists have come personally out against Trump on his various Muslim proclamations.  I saw a piece today with Tom Brokaw opining from on-high a soliloquy on the moral outrageousness of such positions.  Other contemporary news (and pseudo-newsy) people have felt a similar need to proselytize.  Gun control and climate change advocates have similar open-season licenses in the liberal-friendly press.  Whatever.  Its no wonder we end up with Happy Holidays as opposed to Merry Christmas.  We've come a long way, baby.

All for today.

BCOT