starch mogul

gonna pin my little blog where i trawl library digital collections and traipse around with a camera to compare postcards (aspirational, semi-real) with the visible present www.postcard-past.com

yoooooo villegas drew a challenger!?!?

There are only two explanations for the NYT's habit of presenting GOP operatives and donors as true swing voters: 1. Their reporters and editors are somehow incapable of running a simple Google searches, showing just a staggering level of journalistic incompetence 2. They want to the GOP to win

the contents of the production file at the newberry library—the production process took a bit more than a month here in 1950, checked by the cost department, worked on by composing, retouching, photo-litho, hand color proof, and the artist department

Alvvays, DIIV, Hovvdy and CHVRCHES walk into a bar. Bartender says, "Whatt'll itt bee?"

I totally forgot to mention that I collaborated with @chicago.suntimes.com ! Pretty sure you can still get this shirt when you donate to Chicago Public Media.

NEW: "Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s," per new House Judiciary Dem report. Report has new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old and then promised the victim a visa & NYU admission, demanding she stay quiet.

deranged project i’ve toyed with but will never actually do because it’s too creepy and invasive is a map of the best private art viewable from public sidewalks …that said, do we think this (in a gold coast mansion) is a kerry james marshall?

pretty sure chicago's own cristiano felicio is not bolsonarista

With 83% of the vote counted nationwide, Lula has stretched his lead to 2.8 million votes. That's a lead of 51.4% to 48.6%. That puts him on track for a victory that could be larger than his 1.8% win four years ago, which would be an immense comeback. He's even up in Minas Gervais now, by 0.6%.

deranged project i’ve toyed with but will never actually do because it’s too creepy and invasive is a map of the best private art viewable from public sidewalks …that said, do we think this (in a gold coast mansion) is a kerry james marshall?

Democrats are up nine points on trans issues. NINE Red States have less draconian anti-trans state laws. Even *Third Way* agrees that this kind of rhetoric & moronic, their own research suggests vacuous “safety & fairness statements” poll 10 points better than bigotry. Turek is choosing to be evil

quite charmed to learn adrian chiles is a rays fan and a baseball sicko

Here's the first of a series I'm writing on Guzmán's work. Tomorrow will be the 7-year anniversary of the biggest protest (1.2 million people) in Chilean history. The 2019 "estallido social" is the subject of Guzmán's last film. It's weird to watch documentaries age substack.com/home/post/p-...

Blue building Lula, Mississippi

even crazier: her ex-husband is ben zobrist, the cubs second baseman

NEW: Ingram, Texas, was just rebuilding from a devastating flood when its tiny police department enrolled in ICE’s 287(g) deportation program. Within a year, cops would hand over the equivalent of 10% of the town. with @nytimes.com

Did not know that the guy who closed out the 2008 World Series was onto a very cool second career

i see this all as being downstream of an elephant in the room: police departments have accumulated so much power—and the consent to hold that power from most voters—that our elected officials believe their personal safety and the peaceful transfer of power depends on having their political support.

it's genuinely so cool that bob thall did the documentation for a few chicago-area nrhp nominations in the 1990s

damn that was a coooold double play

Cool site

if we're complaining about Mass Effect: it's fucked up that the guy who's in charge of all the Reapers is named Harbinger and the guy who's supposed to open the way for the other Reapers is named Sovereign

We made a book! RURAL INDEXING: A COLLECTION OF AMERICAN BUILDINGS, SIGNS, AND SYMBOLS arrives from Rizzoli in March 2027. Our favorite themes and subjects from the thousands of places we've visited since 2010—450+ photos, many never published before. Preorder: linktr.ee/ruralindexingproject

one of the things we lose as a society when we start paying too much attention to wormy pundits is a general understanding that it's bad & shameful to be a coward. it's really not more complex than that. most of us who were out there, i think, didn't feel like we had a choice. he doesn't get that.

i had no idea how meticulous/creative ticket collectors could be until a french guy collecting A.S. St. Etienne tickets reached out to me a few years ago because he saw that i'd been tagged in a facebook photo at an obscure europa league qualifier in 2013 (alas i only had a shitty printed ticket)

Tolls would fix this in days

The Estamere apartment building, 65th & Kimbark in Woodlawn, 1900s, 1962 and present day.

The only thing drivers hate more than driving is the suggestion that sometimes they should not drive

wrote a pretty fucking long thing about the intersection of 71st and south shore drive—real estate speculation, government intervention, white flight, and fitful reinvigoration www.postcard-past.com/71st-street-...

I wrote this for the Chicago Tribune: The Uptown Theatre drew thousands during Open House Chicago. How do we get it restored? www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/23/o...

An exclusive sitdown with Robert Lewandowski: 🏆 The Ballon d'Or and Lamine 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kane's "amazing" production 🇫🇷 Loves watching Olise: "Wow. He's the game-changer." ⚽️ Adjusting to life in MLS (turf) and Chicago. 🕰️ The "fear" of what life looks like after football. www.nytimes.com/athletic/770...

sullivan never misses louis sullivan, home building association bank, newark, oh (1914)