My house that I share with 5 roommates is about 60 yards from the backdoor to the outfield wall of Wrigley Field. And since our house is literally right next to the L line too (as in, I can open a window and touch the track), we have a small parking lot under the L track. So we sell the parking spaces on game days (shhh don't tell CTA, technically it's illegal cause they own the space, though the cops usually look the other way and everyone does it.) We charge $30 for easy out and $20 for blocked in. Considering the proximity of the field and the fact that parking in Chicago is as bad as Boston, I feel like that's an alright deal.

Then I take some of that cash and, unless I'm really strapped (whih is often), I go to one of the scalpers who we're friendly with and pick up a cheapie. Tickets for Wrigley are insane, partly because liscensed ticket vendors are legal in Illinois and they buy more than half the tickets every year and drive prices sky high. (That, and the fact that many of the scalpers are off duty cops who know they can be as brazen as they want-- but shhh again, I don't want any trouble with the fuzz.)

So, yeah. I take money from people who are more than willing to spend it and use it to pay people who are more than willing to take it. Otherwise, I just wouldn't be able to make it to any games. As it is I don't go to more than 30 or so home games a year, even with the parking. I will say this: Chicago has an outstanding public transportation system. There really isn't any reason people couldn't park there car in a different neighborhood and take the train or bus in. But if they want to park close and don't have a problem paying I don't have a problem taking advantage of it.

If you had asked people fifty years ago about the state of the schools, they would have said, "They've never been worse." If you ask people fifty years from now about the state of their schools, they'll say "They've never been worse." If you ask them fifty years after that, they'll say....

Much like crime or poverty, people will always believe that they live in the worst of times for public school.

wrote a smart and entertaining review. A positive one, by the way, for all the people who says she never likes anything. As far as not renewing your Salon subscription: cool. I honestly don't know what the chorus of people who keep saying that expect. Head for the hills, you're not renewing your subscription. Surely end times are upon us.

As far as the z thing goes, fair enough, but I think its weird you used two examples from well over ten years ago.

To begin with: I don't know the degree to which the official story of 9/11 is true or false. I haven't seen much substantive evidence to make me think that the Pentagon or World Trade Center attacks happened differently than the popular version. However, in the case of Flight 93, the fact is that the best evidence we have makes it very clear that the people on board that plane didn't make it into the cockpit. They never got inside.

And it's deeply sad to me that this movie continues the fictionalizing of this tragedy, for two reasons. One, that people insist on creating dramatic (or perhaps cinematic) structure and storytelling in a history that doesn't need one. 9/11 is not made more resonant or real because of this kind of fantasy. It's real enough as it is. But more to the point, it makes me sad to realize that we are more and more becoming a country that prefers a pleasant fiction to an unpleasant reality. It's nice for some people to think that the events of Flight 93 satisfied some "Die Hard" style movie fantasy, rather than a sad story of horrendous murder. Much like the Moussaoui trial, we'd just rather believe the lie.

I just wanted to say that anyone who was engaged by this book (or even this article) should read "Bad Faith and Anti-Black Racism" by Lewis Gordon.

Because, um, he's just amazing. It's a little technical and it helps to have a background in Sartrean existentialism, but I think there's such an incredibly penetrating analysis of black America in that book.

Thank you Kevin. You're absolutely right. There simply can't be an improvement in real wages in this country as long as it is flooded by illegal immigrants who will work for next to nothing, often under the table without obeying the minimum wage. When people say that illegal immigrants do jobs documented Americans won't do, they're being somewhat deceptive-- the truth is, Americans would do those jobs if they paid a living wage. Unskilled workers have absolutely no leverage today because of the 10 million undocumented workers who will take jobs for nothing.

Legalize them, document them, give them amnesty-- and then raise the minimum wage and force them to abide by the labor laws that so many people had to fight so hard for.

Whether you are gay or straight, it's really simple: don't out anybody. It's as simple as that.

Here's what's next: an inevitable decline into mediocrity and pointlessness. I wasn't a fan of Frasier, but I imagine this will go just the same way that Niles and Danielle did. Changes like this ruin shows.

Thanks, this needed to be said. I sometimes feel that the endless list making is a sign of a perpetual adolescence in our culture. Is Citizen Kane a "greater" movie than the Godfather? I can't think of a more pointless question.

Nice Joseph Roth reference, by the way. I love the Emperor's Tomb.

When are you going to stop blasting Darko Milicic? He didn't get any opportunity in Detroit. He showed a lot of potential in Orlando this year. Give him a chance.