Continuing my notes on the book.  (See part 1 here.) Chapter 1:  Beginning with a profile of Antonia Rodriguez (age 28) and boyfriend Emilio (5 years old); they live together in a home they bought 5 years ago (** median price in the neighborhood at the time:  $5k).  Antonia became a mom at age 14, left school at 15, unemployed and on welfare nearly the whole time since; Emilio also dropped out, one month before graduation.  Antonia had moved in... Read more

This is an older book, first published in 2005.  I came across this in a reference somewhere and read this a couple years ago.  Right now, I want to reread it with notes, as part of the bigger project of writing something for the Chicago Tribune’s “Plan of Chicago” project.  The fundamental idea in the book, as I recall it, is that poor unmarried women and girls do indeed intentionally have children (rather than being ignorant of conception and contraception or... Read more

Lunch break! Megan McArdle has a post up on the exchanges, and a concern that the standardized tiers, fixed subsidy level, and open pricing will drive insurers to set their prices high, and drive consumers to purchase the higher-cost option as a marker for quality.  Because the subsidy is fixed based on the 2nd-lowest-cost “silver” plan, insurers collectively benefit from that 2nd-lowest-silver-plan being expensively priced.  And that much is true — the entire system would benefit from insurers providing their pricing structure... Read more

Just a gripe:  I’m really, really getting tired of the spammers which show up as pageviews in the Blogger statistics, with websites like vampirestat.com, seoanalyses.com, adsensewatchdog.com, 7secretsearch.com, and others. They’re harmless, as long as you know enough not to click on unknown links.  Apparently, according to sources out their on the internet, these sites want to lure the unsuspecting blogger into clicking on a link, which takes them to a website where they either try to sell you something, or... Read more

Just came across this today:  the “foodzeit” blog.  I’m attempting, yet again, to make a Bavarian sourdough bread, with a recipe which, last time around, I misread (I read 3/4 cup of white flour as 1/4 cup and ended up with a very flat-as-a-pancake loaf).  So if I fail again, I’m going to poke around at this blog and her links. Megan McArdle loves her kitchen gadgets, and periodically comes up with a way to work them into her blog,... Read more

The blurb on the front cover says this:  “Overdressed does for T-shirts and leggings what Fast Food Nation did for burgers and fries.” — Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Well, look, Fast Food Nation didn’t trouble me all that much, though I don’t remember many of the details any longer.  But Overdressed does raise multiple points of concern. Before I talk content, I will say that if you’re looking for a tightly argued, data-dense sort of book, you won’t find it... Read more

Well, I’m sure I’ve been called at some point in the past with election-specific questions, but this was the first time I was asked whether I approve or disapprove of Obama and the House Republicans.  Wow – was this a long poll. The first thing I learned is the context behind the “Americans don’t know the difference between the Affordable Care Act and Obmamcare” assertion.  At some point midway through the poll I was asked to rate, on a scale... Read more

A while back, I wrote a post on “food deserts” and my belief that the fundamental issue was not lack of close grocery-shopping options, but lack of transit options, and said that two modes of transit that were commonplace in Europe — bicycling as a means of transportation (with saddlebags or trailer for carrying goods) rather than just recreation, and mass transit with a shopping/utility cart to bring the groceries home — didn’t appear to exist here, and the inner-city... Read more

So people blog for different reasons — to earn money, to be an author of sorts, to have an outlet for creative expression.  And — I know I’m naïve when I say this — part of my reason for blogging is as a way of working out the question of, “how can I make a difference?”  See, it sounds cheesy even saying it.  But, anyway, the Chicago Tribune is running a new editorial series, “A New Plan for Chicago” and... Read more