Do you have FSA/HSA $$ to spend? Illinois Union of the Homeless does weekly clinics at the City's intake shelter and you can buy and donate supplies to help your unhoused neighbors!

Since we are all home this time of year my husband is a more frequent character here than usual Him(to his calendar): can't do that meeting on Tuesday. It's a holiday. Me: January 6? Is that Epiphany? Husband: Sure was for Mike Pence!

On a related note if anyone has any good informational writing courses, methods, or books they would recommend, please please share. In 2026, I'm definitely looking to build some skills and tactics to get the thoughts onto the page.

Work feedback I received (not for the first time): "There's a lot of thoughts in here, Denali"

We had a community meeting a while back now about an encampment in a nearby park. A woman who lives near me who supports encampment closure got up and spoke saying that if her child was living in the park she would want someone to go get them because they shouldn't be allowed to live "that way."

“I’m afraid he’s going to die at some point,” Greg said, his voice growing quieter. “If he relapses or uses again, it’s eventually going to kill him. That’s my biggest fear. And my other fear, I guess, is just being estranged from him.”

My husband texted me while I was at the gym to let me know that now that Bridgette Bardot is dead there are 3 people who are still alive who are name checked in We Didn't Start the Fire. I got 2 right away and am trying to think about the third (Beatlemania is not a person).

I still think this. If anything, working on @unbreaking.org has convinced me that people could use more ways of making sense of information across disparate sources.

Ok is it worse to run away with your best friend's wife or your wife's best friend?

What kind of monster drinks the last cup of coffee at night?

I only make funny mistakes in Spanish. Today I narrowly avoided telling a friend that thinking deeply pains me when she offered me some coffee. REFLUJO not REFLEJAR REFLUJO not REFLEJAR

I once heard a candidate who was talking publicly about their mutual aid work refer to food rescue as "dumpster diving" and that was very uncomfortable because pretty much everyone I know who does food systems stuff emphasizes safety and dignity as key parts of the work.

If you're watching this unfold and thinking what the sweet fuck is going on you MIGHT have just discovered your latent interest in procurement. Welcome to the party! We're mostly pretty nice people.

Anyway, those are my thoughts and now I'm off to go do a couple of exciting early morning tasks for my local mutual aid org. Maybe your neighborhood has one? You should look into it!

Pretty much everything about this politics and mutual aid discourse is cursed and yet...i feel like I need to mention that IL has an amazing State Senator who has been active for a long time in mutual aid spaces and this is very much reflected in how she governs & serves.

As I have said before...

I also have half white, half South Asian kids and it's super funny to think that you have to come up with a list of Congresspeople that might hypothetically deny them jobs someday when you can find a whole list of Congresspeople who would/do have already said offensive things about them RIGHT NOW.

My oldest person opinion of the day: the old Guess Who had faces that were much easier to see detail on

In more than 700 cases over five years, Georgia reported inadequate housing as the sole reason for taking a child into foster care, a @wabe.org and ProPublica analysis found. Advocates say it would be cheaper to help families get housing. (Published Jan. 2024)

When I go I want to be remember for loving my work the way Karl P Schmidt Field Museum Curator of Herpetology 1922-1955 very clearly did.

I want to be clear that I'm not saying this program is bad, or that the state is acting in bad faith, or that other states shouldn't take this example and run with it. I AM saying that anyone advocating for universal childcare needs to be thinking about how it connects with disablity.

✶✶ How closely did you follow Chicago local news in 2025? ✶✶ Take the quiz to find out! 📰 🏙️ 🤓 lauriemerrell.com/chicago-news...

Since last year, the jail population has grown by almost 3x the total number of people attending Christmas services

Trying to clean up my storage and discovered an amazing video of everyone at my wedding dancing to Surrender by Cheap Trick

NEW: beginning january 1, chicago will ban unhoused people on the sex offense registry from seeking shelter on public transit. it’s the latest in a concerted effort by mayor johnson’s admin to criminalize homelessness on cta trains + buses and in public parks during the coldest months of the year.

Illinois was first due to state bill sponsored by Harold Washington when he was in Springfield!

The Stevie Wonder Happy Birthday came on shuffle (an excellent Christmas song) and we started talking about the whole making MLK day a holiday and it's weird being old enough to talk about this stuff happening when you were a kid.

Middle kid wrote me a book about us and this is my favorite bit

Nothing like watching someone you love go through a crisis during the holidays while you cant seem to figure out a single way to be supportive that doesn't make things worse.

your occasional reminder that, in Singin' in the Rain, when Debbie Reynolds provides Jean Hagen's speaking voice, the speaking voice you hear is Jean Hagen's, and when Debbie Reynolds provides Jean Hagen's singing voice, the singing voice you hear is Betty Noyes's

Also in hyperlocal news, my branch library will be screening Breakin next month

Unbeatable feeling when your local diner asks you if you even want to see a menu

A reminder: "The innovative Unity Plan introduces a comprehensive framework designed to foster collaboration among aldermen from diverse backgrounds while aligning the Mayor's office and City Council around shared priorities and values."

I received a thank you from some library workers for this piece after a Chicago city budget was passed this week without the previously proposed library cuts I described here. Many thanks to everyone who made noise about this issue. There were wins and losses in this budget, but this win matters.

HAPPENING NOW — Mayor Brandon Johnson is scheduled to sign an executive order around establishing responsible debt collection after Chicago City Council passed an alternate budget that includes selling city debt. WATCH: thetriibe.com/2025/12/mayo...

And if you're being specific this can be really funny. Hi I heard about [awful things]. Do you want to send your kids to my house this weekend, do you need a divorce lawyer rec and also LMK if I can wash your dog. I've enclosed a sexy picture of Paul Newman. I love you so much.

Also anytime anyone I know is experiencing a crisis or trying to help someone in crisis I immediately send them the ring theory article. Like random people I know will text me and say "hey where's that circles thing" bc it is so easy and so good.

My friend L once gave me an amazing taxonomy of stuff you can offer to do for someone and then of course we both forgot the specifics but it's something like (1) Ease the burden of daily stuff (2) Make time and space (3) Knock off something from 50-100 of their to do list (4) Help them with now

Early in my career I lucked into working in the same department as Susan Scheer. She let me tag along on a couple of projects with her. Being around her was like taking a great class. Susan never let people make excuses about why public systems couldn't or shouldn't serve people with disabilities.

My ambulance ride was $1500—my ER visit was $20. Many folks don't know that ambulance operators do not have contracted rates with insurance companies b/c they don't have to have them & people who need ambulances don't have a choice.

The corporate caucus has Resting Austerity Face.

@corli.thetriibe.com has worked diligently covering the budget season. Read her latest about lessons learned by local organizers who were pushing alders to tax the rich during this budget cycle. thetriibe.com/2025/12/chic...

Another unpopular take: If planners don't see the ability to engage with public systems as morally neutral, they will treat anyone who is less able to engage as burdensome or less essential to serve.

Organizers are busting their butts trying to shift political tides at budget time. I think the City needs to give them more support: strengthen the LRB, put in an independent budget office, and make sure the Mayor's Policy and Intergovernmental offices are staffed & strong.

I'm just thinking that there's a lot of frames we need to break out of to get to the other side and sometimes we will find more agreement if we start with the big stuff and then move to the details.

I hear a lot of public service talk, even on the left, about how we have to be realistic about cost and absolutely we do. But values set vision and costs and constraints come into play when we think about implementation and we can always start by thinking deeply and compassionately about people.