Tattler's on HuffPost Chicago

The Huffington Post is coming to town, and Marshfield Tattler got in on the ground floor.

Check out the beta version here.
Arianna promises more local HuffPosts to come and waxes enthusiastic about Chi-town here.

I'm pretty sure I owe my front-row seat to Alexander Russo over at District 299. Thanks!

Oh, and last month the Tattler made a list of digital-diversity bookmarks compiled through a Poynter Institute workshop. (For readers unfamiliar with the inner workings of journalism, Poynter is the professional training and industry resource.) That's thanks to Wendy Turner over at vocalo, where they've been more than gracious by reading some of the posts on air.

Although all this buzz is certainly a spur to blog more often, I've been pretty knocked out since the block party and have taken a big mental vacation. I work during the day, often away by choice from Marshfield Avenue, and I've been taking some north side vacations on the weekends. If I'm lucky August will remain a bit slow here at the Tattler, but here are a few quick updates:

The traffic circle still looks good--I just watered it this evening. Beautiful night--everyone was out. Peter Pan's mom got on a bike and rode up and down the block with her younger kids. Mrs. Ribs hung out with the new neighbors next door to her. Mr. Worrisome had a real lady friend of his to attend to, so I wasn't bothered with marriage proposals while hauling a two-gallon watering can back and forth. Although there was some bustle at the corner and the unmistakable smell of marijuana in the air, I'll fess up that I didn't call the cops for once. Why mess up a mellow evening?

Junior starts high school tomorrow. He called last week for help with math--he was calculating the perimeter of squares and rectangles. He caught on pretty fast, by phone, for how to do it.

Joey is at Chavez. His folks couldn't get transportation together to send him to Perspectives Math & Science. He says the new school year is going OK. I don't believe him. His dad has been around the house a bit more of late-that's probably good for him but maybe or maybe not so good for Dawn.

The younger Brady girl who did Salud will join her older sister in high school starting tomorrow. They made her read a book over the summer-she came by last week looking for editing feedback on what she had written. The English teacher over there gave a great assignment and she did a pretty good job with it on her own, though there were a few things she improved after we talked. For someone who says she likes math better than reading, I thought she did a great job on the assignment.

I went to Home Depot after church this morning in search of plywood boards for our budding graffiti artists to spray without risking arrest. There are some in the $5 to $10 range, so I'm willing to spring. I didn't ask if they can deliver. When I'm ready to buy, I'll find out.

The Brady girl who was looking for a scientific calculator got one for $13, better than the $18 I saw it for up on the north side. I don't know where she picked it up, though.

Medicine Man stopped by last Thursday to get his stuff out of the basement. It mostly survived the deluge unscathed--a couple of boxes were a bit damp, I gather. I kept an eye on the U-Haul while MM, his mom and brother, my new tenant Shutterbug and Junior and Picasso (I think I called him Orozco before but Picasso is sticking better in my head, so that's who my buddy who likes graffiti and isn't Joey is now) all schlepped everything out of the basement.

About half a dozen people going by asked, "You're not moving, are you?" They were all relieved when I said no. I decided to start planning my obsolescence on this block by sending three other people to Rep. Esther Golar's block organizing seminar on Saturday morning. I went shopping at the Brown Elephant in Andersonville instead. It's August, people, and I'm as much on vacation as I can be and still make money.