TURKEY BASED
I awoke this morning at six fully charged and couldn't fall back asleep, tossing for that final hour before the clock radio fulfilled its purpose. After opening the work week on a low note, I've been gaining momentum and mixing my metaphors. The local climate has warmed some ten, fifteen degrees since Sunday, to the delight of many. The clouds have parted and the sun now hangs in clear view, there near the ultimate severity of its winter angle, its rays skipping off the terrestrial husk and blinding pedestrians. I squint as I round the corner.

Books. I read them sometimes. I finished Bend Sinister and was pleased. I have since begun Contempt by Alberto Moravia. Meanwhile, my periodic attempt to catalog the books I see people reading on the CTA (sort of) continues:

Aloft by Chang-rae Lee

Murder, She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah by Jessica Fletcher

Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski

Please have a Thanksgiving.

SHAZAM


Featured today on The Chicago Reader and Chicago Public Radio.

ETA1: Now Chicagoist gets on board.

ETA2: And what the hell, Gapers Block.

PITFALLS, PRATFALLS
Some mornings the elevator ride feels like an eternity. And so I walk into my office, take off my coat and and begin typing clichés about the duration of the elevator ride.

Outside on the sidewalk halfway between Michigan and Wabash is a puddle of khaki vomit, its two spatulate blooms smooth at the edges despite what was surely a sudden ejaculation. I nearly stepped in it—

Strike that. After checking the sole of my right shoe it seems that I did step in it after all. The ball of my shoe had been sliding comfortably back and forth across the office floor's laminate wood as I typed. The realization came quite suddenly. I stopped and addressed the situation with a pile of napkins I keep in my desk. I typed this paragraph immediately thereafter.

Lauren and I spent a lovely gray Saturday afternoon at Huettenbar, where we each drank three pints of Spaten lager and listened to music at a pleasant volume. Later, after a mediocre dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant, we met Dave and Rebekah at Gannon's for card games and additional beers.

The weekend was a success overall. Today got off on the wrong foot.