Fall is best for seasonal ales.

I think brewery tours are a much better "Fall Activity" than apple or pumpkin picking. Why go through the hoax of picking pumpkins, usually already cut from the vine, in some picturesque pumpkin patch when you can get them on the side of Fullerton, next to Domino's, from the back of a Vietnam Vet's RV? It's not like you're really going to learn all that much about growing squash by walking up and down the rows of said patch with a group of urbanites (or suburbanites) indulging their kids in an hour long jaunt in the countryside.

Two Brothers was fantastic. I ate a delicious lamb burger with sweet potato fries, drank about seven different kinds of ale, went on the kind of tour that's packed with information and led by someone who knows what the hell they're talking about, bought a couple of growlers to bring home, and then enjoyed some sunlight while sitting through traffic on the ride back to the city. A proper countryside trip. So today, in honor of fall, I cooked a Beef Beer stew (with Goose Island--I'm hoarding my growlers) that's got my entire building smelling like heaven. My poor neighbors.

On culture vultures and poorly conducted interviews.

I was sitting a couple rows behind a pair of loud women on Wednesday in the lecture hall at Harold Washington and listening in on a conversation between them and an older man a few seats away about free “cultural events” around the city. “We’re such culture vultures!” the chubbier of the two women said, and you know—it was the first time I’ve actually thought about that term as more than just a NYMag blog title? Also, it was the first time I’ve ever heard anyone describe herself proudly with a phrase that includes “vulture,” which, for me, only brings back Disney’s token dark scene in the Jungle Book.

Life’s stagnant and dull and I’ve decided to start going to these “Cultural Events” to try and keep myself busy and remind myself that the 9-5 ends at 5 (usually) and my free time can involve something more productive than the dive bar down the street or the videos streaming on netflix. I started Wednesday with Michael Chabon giving a reading as part of Chicago's Book Festival. He read from his new essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs, which helped earn him a double whammy in the NYTimes last weekend. Topics covered included: outer space, Carl Sagan, women's lib, circumcision, his penis, marijuana, sci-fi--suffice to say, I enjoyed myself. He was particularly good during the Q&A that followed--very witty and quick to answer, and mostly avoiding the kind of bullshit "I don't really know what to say about this" answers.

Thursday night, however, was much more...intense. Sherman Alexie came (the Library did good--he too had a positive NYTimes review this week) for an interview with Victoria Lautman, who does some sort of podcast/radio broadcast of author interviews, which is surprising because she was one of the worst interviewers I've ever heard. She embarrased the hell out of herself early on by citing something that turned out to be false and he, understably so, since the soundbites will be attributed to him, called her out on it. She spent the rest of the interview in a huff, making petty remarks like "I guess I'm ignorant and poorly researched, but I'll ask this anyway." It was hysterical to watch this woman make such an ass out of herself, and I'm waiting for her to post the .mp3 on her site to see if she'll edit the hell out of it or not.

I'm attending a lecture at the Chicago Architecture Foundation this week about the future of railroads. You know how I feel about trains.