Random bits

I’m briefly back in the upper Midwest: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• This is a beer town, and yesterday I had a good lunch and a good pint at a well-known brew pub on the river. They were playing music over their sound system, and I noticed an odd thing. The men on the playlist sang good—sometimes very good—blues. The women? That awful pap that these days passes for country music. Surely they’ve heard of, say, Bonnie Riatt. How strange.
• Tuesday morning’s run was, if not Charlie Barnet, at least a pretty good wedding band, and this morning’s here was okay. Stick-in-the-mud that I am, it always takes me a while to get comfortable running in new places, but there is a nice Lake Michigan-side park about a mile from the hotel, and I managed to get to it and back without being hit by a bus.
• The hotel room overlooks the Milwaukee County Historical Center, an imposing pile that I understand was used as one of the banks robbed by John Dillinger/Johnny Depp in Public Enemies.
• It also overlooks a big sign for Usinger’s Famous Sausage, which I’d never heard of before.
• The Great Lakes contain 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water.

Big news from New Hampshire!

• Sweet B is not just walking, she has a tooth!
  
• H has a new car. Sort of. She had been driving a blue 1994 Subaru station wagon. Now she’s driving a blue 1995 Subaru station wagon.
  

From the International Desk:

• I’ve just ordered a pair of Pacer Poles. I still have hopes I’ll be using them in New Zealand in February, but I’ll be giving them a try and posting some thoughts much sooner.