Brian Boyer

Not looking for silver linings, just thinking out loud.

Maybe the impending Gerrymandering War will make people aware of gerrymandering? And they wont like it?

My photo of the Paul Colmorgan House (1939-40) in Glenview, IL showing a modernist design by architect Bruce Goff.

My photo of the Helen Unseth House (1940) in Park Ridge, IL showing a modernist design by architect Bruce Goff

If we’re gonna talk about crazy cool rooflines, Bruce Goff must be part of the discussion. Chicagoland is home to some of the architect’s early modernist work, like the Paul Colmorgan House (1939-40) in Glenview and Helen Unseth House (1940) in Park Ridge.

The north-side stairwell at the new Argyle station is too far north. It’s weird.

Alex on twitter writes: "Someone on Twitter writes: "You’re a menswear writer. You don’t know anything about manufacturing in America, or steel mills, or metallurgy, or CNC machining, or how anything is produced from raw material into a finished product in this country or anywhere. Stick to writing about “men’s fashion."" I reply: "i actually had a career in knifemaking before this. the reason why you can't avoid tariffs in knifemaking is because everyone relies on Gobelin machinery. are you aware of this?" Alex replies: "Gobelin machinery? What exactly are you referring to?" I reply: "you Gobelin DEEZ NUTS!"

"stick to menswear"

It’s a good CMS

YouTube video by Digitalized Archives NOVA: Design Wars (1989) | The Battle for Chicago’s New Library 🏛️🔨

There's a link to this NOVA episode in my column this weekend, but it's really worth its own post. Great work, and it's fun to see Helmut Jahn, Tom Beeby, Dirk Lohan and a glimpse of Adrian Smith. And gritty downtown. Also I like Norman Ross' masterful summation near the end.

Limited edition benefit shirt for World Central Kitchen from Bikini Kill Limited edition benefit shirt for World Central Kitchen from Bikini Kill

just fyi for t-shirt lovers, Bikini Kill is selling a one-day-only shirt to benefit World Central Kitchen's work in Gaza today:

Yep! Lake perch in the foreground, smelt in the background.

Three baskets of fried fish with French fries, and a can of Vernors ginger ale

Got away for a couple days in Michigan

In retrospect, it's wild how far ahead of the curve Tiny News was when it launched.

More talk today about leaving Substack. You should do it. If you’re trying to do local news, head over to www.tinynewsco.org and apply to join the @tinynewscollective.bsky.social. We’ll get you set up with Ghost, fiscal sponsorship, and a community of support. The best deal in journalism.

Been a customer for a very long time, no complaints. Great for travel.

Ray Long holds a beer in one hand while pointing with his other hand at his byline on the Billy Goat’s wall of fame.

I’m a few days late with this post, but here’s longtime political reporter @raylongchicago.bsky.social getting his byline up on the Billy Goat’s wall of fame, during his retirement party on Saturday night.

Alden Global Capital fails in its attempt to get its tentacles on The Dallas Morning News A late bid to disrupt its sale to Hearst is foiled by a fourth-generation newspaper owner turning down more money.

New by me —>

The vulturous hedge fund Alden Global Capital has been prevented from taking over @dallasnews.com — thanks to one final act of stewardship by the family that has run the paper for more than a century.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/alde...

Ah thanks, good to hear. They quit not long after I posted

The Chicago waterfront at night. The lights from a police helicopter and boats are visible in the distance.

Hate to hear the helicopters at night

I once read a comment saying something like "if you choose not to laugh at farts, your life will contain less laughter but still the same amount of farts". I think about that a lot.

A sandwich with baked beans on a blue plate

Cold baked beans on buttered toast, just like mom used to make. (With a little sriracha, cuz I’m an adult.)

Yeah I’m real bummed to not have finished what we started.

Sadly the modern CMSs don’t have ‘em built in, and the vendors are terrible, and building it yourself is also terrible

A screenshot of the listings on the music section of the Chicago Reader website.

Our temporary solution was a wild and inadvisable CMS hack, which I guess will just be the way the website works until somebody else gets a few months to try again.

We were rebuilding the long-neglected website at the Reader when I was laid off (when *lots* of us were laid off). Listings were the biggest challenge but also, IMO, promised to be a huge differentiator. What do you do when AI eats the world? Be an indispensable destination.

The Shareholder Value Myth Shareholder-value thinking dominates the business world today. Professors, policymakers, and business leaders routinely chant the mantras that public ...

Good news: there is no legal “maximize shareholder value” obligation! Lynn Stout’s book, “The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public,” is the seminal work on this subject. corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/t...

Finally, the doctrine that the highest purpose of a corporate board is to maximize shareholder value flatly contradicts the existence of the corporation as a privilege granted by society in exchange for it benefiting society at large. We need the social contract to explicitly apply to companies.

The Chicago lakefront, looking south from Edgewater

Good light and long shadows under a cloudy sky in Chicago.

What an asshole

Hey remember the head of news at NPR during the 2016 campaign? The one who was a sex pest? I sure do.

A long time ago, I was one!

All newcomers welcome here: but only an outer-space alien would put an apostrophe in Rogers Park!