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Excited fans have been leaving their Mojo Dojo Casa Houses (the character Ken’s renaming of Barbie’s Dreamhouse) and flocking to Chicago’s theaters to see what has become a summer blockbuster. In its first weekend on July 21-24, Barbie made $162 million in the U.S. and broke Warner Bros.’ opening week-Monday box office record. Businesses in Chicago have also capitalized on to the movie, giving fans a taste — literally — of the Barbie dream.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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The movie is nothing more than a long television sitcom, where the men are all bumbling idiots and the women are all clever and witty.
If you’ve seen television in the past 40 years, you’re seen this before.
If this is the kind of cinematic slop that Hollywood writers and actors are putting out, they can stay on strike forever