What in the hell …

I heard this song recently that I hadn’t heard in a while. (more…)

Been doing some reading lately in what is a new area for me, and doing some thinking about it.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve read so far, the common denominator across the various examples that can be called “immigration history” is motion. More specifically, immigration historians write about the movement of people. (more…)

At the moment we have a severe winter weather advisory. It’s currently -11 degrees F, -31 with the wind chill. That’s -24 and -35 respectively, in degrees C.

It’s cold enough that it can be hard to breathe. Yesterday morning when I was half way to the bus stop (all of 2 or 3 blocks) I had the thought “maybe it would be better to die.” Yesterday at 5 in the evening I spent 42 minutes standing at a bus stop home - the 5:20 bus never arrived, I got the 5:43 one. My hands had gone numb, despite being inside my gloves inside my coat pockets. I’m going out in it again today because we’re doing a training here in our local branch of the union, so I can’t even sit home and lament in civilized fashion while sipping tea and swaddled in blankets. Accursed union, damnable training. Clearly I have betrayed someone to warrant this cold. Whoever you are, I apologize. Write me an email describing the betrayal and I’ll do my best to make amends, then perhaps I can get out of this the ninth circle of hell.

I will be rooting for the Bears in the Super Bowl with perhaps diminished vigor due to these climatological tribulations, but with additional anti-Minnesota spite (Vikings Schmikings! What’d they do this year? Ha!) and a falsifying nostalgia for dear, warm Chicago.