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I have this Modest Proposal for fixing the US drinking age. 21 is well above the international norm of 18 for legally purchasing alcohol – although it turns out to be 25 in some parts of India, who knew? – and the usual justification is that drinking and driving is a bad idea. Drinking and driving is a terrible idea, no doubt, so why not go one further and allow 18-21 year olds to choose? You could either register for a driving licence, or a drinking licence, but not both. They’d be different colours. For those who need to drive, it would be status quo. For those who don’t, they could sign away the risk and, in return, no longer have to confine their drinking to dodgy college parties. It’s win-win, except for the conveners of dodgy college parties.

I put this idea to Will Guzzardi, a State Representative for Illinois, at a fundraising thing hosted by 270 Strategies, but he didn’t seem to think it was a priority. And given that the Republican governor of Illinois is among those indulging in brazenly racist rabble-rousing against Syrian refugees this week, maybe he has a point.

As always, a powerful counterweight to such baseness is the joy and love of good people. This was no better demonstrated than at Robert and Julie’s wedding. They are both such wonderful people, and it’s impossible not to be happy at how happy they are. To make things even better, Katie and Brandon were in town for it, and I realised how much I missed Katie’s facial expressions.

Pictures below are borrowed (with permission) from Stephanie Bassos Photography, who will make you want to get married just so you can have some of your own.

Robert and Julie

Groupon, past and present

Other than that, I’ve mostly been planning Thanksgiving / Christmas / post-Christmas-but-it’s-still-cold getaways. Randi and I did see Chapter Two last night, a play which felt very much from another time and place, which is good because it actually was (New York, 1977). There was a somewhat jarring switch from light-hearted dad-jokes in the first half to an outpouring of emotion in the second – a situation of the main characters’ own making, since they decided (for unclear reasons) that they had to get married in a week. Unless their wedding photographer was leaving the country, I couldn’t relate.

Before I write my fun ‘I’ve been travelling!’ post, I need to catch up on some Chicago things:

Learning science

Supporting Todd support the Blue Jays

Puzzling

Jatherine 1, Jatherine 2

(Clockwise: the Adler Planetarium’s ‘After Dark’ night – the same formula as London’s Science Museum, which is ‘add alcohol, remove children’ – had some cool shows and a decent lecture on dark energy. We all supported Todd through some tormenting Blue Jays games. Belatedly celebrating Catherine and Jason’s engagement – HURRAY! – with specialist wine glasses. And going, on Karl’s invitation, to the Puzzled Pint: an evening of trying to crack fiendish clues in morse code and so on.)

Also, two more shows: Home Before Dark – our pick from Common Room this month – a story of adolescent sexual exploration and abuse, and a technical rehearsal of the excellent The Play About My Dad, telling stories from Hurricane Katrina through the meta lens of a doctor in Mississippi and his playwriting daughter. This is still running until the end of November, and it’s well worth seeing.

(Tangent: I’d love to claim that endlessly blogging about plays in Chicago has now paid off into backstage invitations, but actually this came courtesy of director Marti Lyons, connected to Randi through work and coincidentally also the person behind probably our favourite play to date, Bethany, last year.)

It’s a lazy Saturday morning: drinking tea, lounging around in TARDIS pyjama bottoms (courtesy Randi) and trying to empathise with Todd’s baseball doldrums. So it’s a good time to go through my blogging backlog – which will sorta be like finding last month’s copy of Time Out down the back of the sofa with the pages all stuck together, or ‘a list of things which it’s too late to go and see’.  Internet gold.

• The last ever performance of long-form comedy improv team 3033 at the iO, with Ellen and Kannan. We actually turned up for the penultimate show, but enjoyed it so much that we stayed for the later one too.

• Another famous iO show, TJ and Dave, with Karol. This is actually something you could still go and see! It’s also a pleasantly subtle and understated take on improv comedy, with carefully-observed characters rather than going surreal and wacky.

• But you can’t go and see Cholesterock: Dark Side of the Spoon, because we were at their closing night too. A shame, because this musical history of rock ‘n’ roll and fast food was perfect for a fun Friday night. Special thanks to Chrissy for our comp tickets, and for making us feel cool when picking up comp tickets.

• We also saw The Martian with Nolan and Siri, in the third of a trilogy of high-quality sci-fi movies which Nolan has enticed me to go see. This one has a simple feel-good premise, but it’s well done and enjoyable to watch.

Great socks

In addition, I’ve ticked off a few more Chicago landmarks:  the smells and tastes from Garrett Popcorn during a day out with Randi’s young cousins, a brief trip to the Art Institute during mentoring, and finally making it down to the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. This last adventure was – weirdly enough – prompted by Alastair Campbell’s book tour, and we spent an evening at the Institute of Politics watching him in conversation with David Axelrod. Both men, it must be admitted, come fresh from Ed Miliband’s complete and unabridged defeat – and the subsequent Corbyn explosion – so it felt an odd moment to talk about Winners. Still, it was good to see him again, and be among the niche type of crowd who can appreciate a good Peter Mandelson impression.

We found a bridge

One sitcom which is never getting picked up

As much as I’d like to deny I’m in my mid-twenties – I was perfectly comfortable with 17, and see no compelling reason why that needed to change – one sure sign that I’m wrong is the up-tick in wedding invitations. And it softens the blow, since weddings are fun: especially when it’s two people as great as Shelby and Benno. (Shelbenno? Shelbo? There’s no settled consensus.) Special thanks to Todd and Carolyn for driving us to Grand Rapids and back last weekend! And also to Studio 6.23, whose photo I have nicked above 🙂

Randi’s parents have been visiting Chicago this week, which gave us another opportunity to see Improv Shakespeare. This time, approximately seventeen million below-the-legal-drinking-age University of Chicago freshers also turned up, which probably explains the introspective title It’s Lit. Still great, though. This weekend we also took the architecture boat tour, which was surprisingly good (considering how many other tours I’ve had by this point) and benefited from a great and enthusiastic tour guide.

On the river

Disclaimer: the following paragraph will contain mild allusions to Doctor Who spoilers.

Entirely uncoincidently, her parents’ night to themselves at Second City coincided with the start of the new series of Doctor Who. I love this show. All the hard work converting Randi into a fan has now paid off, and we were both totally captured from that moment in the pre-credits sequence (which I had no idea was coming). And Capaldi has warmed up a little, too… I expect he’ll really hit his stride this year, and it is going to be so awesome.

After two wonderful weeks in the UK, I’m back in Chicago and ready to shower this blog in photos and happy memories. For the first half of the trip, I worked from the London office while Randi gallivanted around the city during the day and took a trip to Paris with Tash. But we still crammed in a lot, starting almost immediately with the Heath…

Hampstead Heath

Yes, within hours of passing through Heathrow’s pleasingly-efficient biometric passport gates, I was stomping around Hampstead Heath to sate months of longing for a swim in the mixed pond. It was quite a hunt, but the moment we splashed into the water was totally worth it. Joined by the wonderful Abbi, we dried off in the sole summery day of the week with a pitcher of Pimm’s and the first of many pub meals. Bangers and mash: job done.

Public service green screen

The next morning, we kicked off our tour of Dominic-approved British institutions by visiting BBC Broadcasting House. Having fallen in love with W1A earlier in the year, Randi (this blog’s Director of Better) was also excited to stalk any room with the slightest connection to Just A Minute. I highly approve. As you can see, we also had a go at reading the news, during which I spoke the vast majority of words on the autocue in the correct order.

‘Fact’ times ‘Importance’ equals NEWS

On Thursday night, Randi’s friend Maisie joined us and Matt, Laura and the (now engaged!) Caroline and Charles for a traditional night of wine, politics and unflattering photos. (At least of me.) Happily, the brashly well-connected and snappily-dressed members of the group had arrived first and marched right into a private room… I certainly wasn’t complaining.

I don’t think I can caption this group ‘Themes & Sources’ anymore

The following night, a large group of us descended on NewsRevue – well I was hardly going to miss this, was I? – which was its usual excellent self. And also about 90% dedicated to the Labour leadership race, which I’d like to think of as Randi’s pay-off for taking in so much useless trivia about British politics. (Fear not, they also included Donald Trump’s rendition of America Fuck Yeah. It was great.)

Simon offers to show me his Jeremy Corbyn tattoo

Joshua! Simon! More drinks than seems necessary!

Besties

With so much politics, it was only right that we toured Parliament – that absurd Victorian Gothic palace which still gives me thrills of excitement to walk through. You can peer over the balconies of as many staid state and federal legislatures as you want, and they are impressive in their own way, but nothing comes close to the combat fields of the green benches in the House of Commons.

Definitely London

But there are other British traditions which are equally important, and one of them is the cheerful determination to continue a back garden barbecue through the drizzle of a Bank Holiday weekend. So a million thanks to Cat and Matt for sharing this experience, and letting us crash at their new flat after celebrating Cat’s birthday with many fine people (Groupon and non-Groupon alike) at a nearby Leytonstone pub. Not pictured below are Biff and Christa, but rest assured they also made it!

Sheltering with Marielle and Emily

So perfectly English

The morning after, with Cat and Matt

So far this all sounds like a hurried clip-show from the last few years of my life in London, but I also got to try a totally new experience for me: Time Run, an escape-the-room style adventure. Katie, Randi and I were pitted against a team of Regans in an immersive time-travelling game which was SO MUCH FUN. And probably the closest I will ever come to becoming a Doctor Who companion, especially as we kinda failed the prospective companion test by not succeeding in our ultimate quest. But we did solve a whole bunch of puzzles along the way in three exquisitely designed sets, and I recommend booking yourself a Time Run unreservedly.

Katie’s eager to get started on our time-travelling quest

Team Adipose

The other side to the week, of course, was just spending time with my family again. It never feels like enough time, but my mum was generous enough to throw an afternoon tea for the whole extended family in one go, so at least I got to see (almost) everyone. And for all of the running around, one of my favourite memories from this trip will just be sitting alone with my dad, in a darkened room, drinking Old Speckled Hen and listening to Doctor Who soundtracks and other pieces of music we share. It was good to be home.