Getting out

It's summer...finally...get out and have fun.

We have been trying. And some of our nature exploits have me plotting my next writing gig.

Last month, we packed Isaiah up and headed out to Starved Rock State Park. And when I say packed up, I mean it. He was bundled into a pack and strapped to my shoulders. They say our troops in Iraq carry 60 pounds on their back all the time---cripes, Isaiah is just shy of 30 pounds and I was ready to fall out after a few miles of hiking.

Still, worthwhile. The Illinois River was way up over its banks, so I was robbed of the opportunity to take an Asian carp cruise. But the views of the river valley from the actual Starved Rock and other elevated perches were stunning and the canyons (as close as we get to them in flat prairie that is) are just cool---plus this is my favorite photo in a while.

We also ventured west in the city to Sherman Park, home to mysterious invasive fresh water jelly fish and a nearby melting church.

Both trips were reminders that we needn't stare tired and bleary-eyed at Isaiah on weekend mornings. Farmer's markets, parks, fests, and nature await if I coffee-up quickly enough to meet the day. And its good writing fodder. The Sherman Park visit was good for a weekend of Chicagoist posts. And the search for invasive species has me charged up about a book or long-form article idea that I am running past some folks.

More to read...

I've been busy with Chicagoist. Since its weekend work, they have me doing all kinds of stuff...enviro...music...news...politics...sports:

• Scott Lee Cohen For Governor Rumors Grow Louder - He won't go away. The weirdest political story in Illinois (that says a lot) might add a chapter soon...
  
• Could King James' Night on the Town Mean a Bulls Win? - Ummm...no...not even close enough to be wishful thinking... But it was fun conjecture before the game Sunday.
  
• Gender Bending Chemical in Illinois Water - Atrazine. Its nasty stuff. Coming from Springfield makes me all the more concerned...
  
• Hoosier State for Mercury? - Why do I care what they do in Indiana? Cuz we share a drinking water and air shed... And there's a lot of gross stuff going on that impacts both.
  
• Going Gobbler in Bronzeville - My neighborhood is not exactly a dining Mecca, so this concept is interesting.

And if you've talked with me in the last six months, you know I am completely consumed with the whole Asian carp controversy. So I've written a lot about that of late:

• Free Asian Carp Dish from a Man on a Mission - The whole "eat 'em all" solution to the Asian carp issue gets bandied about a lot, but as near as I can tell only one guy in Chicago is trying do something with it... So I stopped into the Lockwood Restaurant and ate some raw invasive fish to see if we really can fix this problem with a knife and fork (a full two weeks before the Trib or NYT did the same, thank you).
  
• Asian Carp Take Over U of C and SCOTUS - I stumbled onto the University of Chicago's brilliant Earth Week posters featuring trident wielding carp hordes. Awesome.
  
• So awesome, in fact, that I also wrote about it on Switchboard - They Came from the Canal: Asian carp brilliance from U of C.
  
• Fish are central to my favorite post of late, FirstEnergy’s Bayshore Plant: A Real Live Bass-o-Matic! on Switchboard. An enviro homage to Dan Aykroyd and a coal plant that chews up 60+ million fish every year.

Enjoy. And feel free to comment or click on the LIKE buttons.

More stuff worth reading...

So, I am now officially on the Chicagoist staff as a weekend blogger. I will be posting at least one thing each Saturday and Sunday. I don't have a beat per se, though I'd like to interject light green stories as much as possible. Send along suggestions. And if you haven't been clocking the site, here's what I've done lately:

• So An Aardvark Walks Into a Doctor's Office... Brookfield Zoo was all over the airways this week showing off a new CT scanner---but this is hardly the first time that human medical tools, technology, or professionals have been used to safeguard their animal collection.
  
• Double Dose of New Orleans Next Week: Treme & Galactic - Pretty straightforward...Saturday, great NOLA band hits the Vic, Sunday HBO's new show focuses on the Crescent City three months after Katrina. Should be fun!
  
• New Hope for Bronzeville - My hood took an ugly knock when a fire recently crisped one of the areas most promising commercial developments, but the 47th Street Market is coming back. (Includes my photo too.)
  
• Asian Carp's Religious Use - Passover is here. So is Gefilte fish...its made largely of carp...guess what fun follows...
  
• Obama No Threat to Fishing, But What About Asian Carp? Two of my favorite topics---crazy rightwing blog-fueled conspiracy theories and invasive species!

Watch the site and feel free to mark my work with a "like," if you...you know...like it.

In Other News...

Preparing the house for Cletus the Fetus hasn't just kept me from keeping up this blog. I've been shirking on my work blog too. But now that the basement is largely finished and the nursery is close to done, I've had more time to write. I've got some personal anecdotes to post this week here---but I've posted some fun stuff on NRDC's Switchboard too. Check it out:

• Wolf Litigation...a snowball's chance - The fight over legal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies is contentious and, well, at times unbelievably weird. A story told by an NRA member in recent filings around NRDC's suit to return wolves to the Endangered Species list is pretty over the top. It involves snowballs and elk...
  
  
• Big Win for Bees: judge pulls bee toxic pesticide - The title says it all. This one is pretty straight forward. The win occurred the day before Christmas Eve, so not much press coverage---but I think the fight will continue this week before the chemicals are due to be pulled from store shelves.
  
  
• Eat 'Em All: "Silverfin" cannot save the Great Lakes - If you haven't talked to me about work lately, this is the story I've been working on for the last six weeks solid. The imminent invasion of the Great Lakes by Asian carp. Its a pretty amazing story. If you haven't been following it, these fish can get to 100 pounds and literally take over ecosystems that they enter by out-eating and out-breeding native fish. Oh, and they freak out when they hear things like motor boat engines, causing them to launch themselves out of the water ("missiles with fins!"). They are making their way through the canal system used to reverse the Chicago River a century ago and there is a massive legal fight over what to do to prevent the carp from getting into Lake Michigan. Of late, there has been a growing chorus saying we just need to start eating these critters. While there's no doubt that the American appetite can put a dent in any animal population it is set upon, relying on gluttony to fix the problem is just a horrible idea on so many levels...

Keep an eye out here and on Switchboard for more content this week!