‘Don’t wait any longer.’ With hospitals in Chicago and across the country under growing stress, doctors are appealing to parents to get their kids vaccinated against the flu.
■ Two epidemiologists: “We’ve grown increasingly concerned about … pediatric hospitalizations over the last few months.”
■ Three others, writing for the Tribune: It’s time to revive mask requirements in schools and daycare programs.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina updates the demographics: Who’s dying from COVID-19.
Twitter fritters. As Twitter overlord Elon Musk tweeted an image of a gravestone bearing the service’s logo and with the hashtag #RIPTwitter trending …
■ … the company was reportedly bleeding employees after his ultimatum that they commit to “hardcore” work or quit with severance pay.
■ One former employee told The Washington Post that some critical teams have no engineers: “There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.”
■ BuzzFeed News: Musk’s flailing attempts to avert account impersonation have stuck some users with joke names.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg on Musk’s gambit: “What he is doing now not only won’t work; it can’t.”
A ‘figure for the ages.’ As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prepares to surrender her role as the most powerful woman in American politics, the AP reviews her most iconic moments.
■ A University of Virginia professor sees her decision as opening the door to a new generation of national Democratic leaders.
■ Meanwhile, in Florida: A federal judge has blocked Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration from enforcing a “positively dystopian” law aimed at limiting how colleges and universities teach lessons on gender and race.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a Square advertiser.
‘The city of Chicago doesn’t like people looking into what they’re up to, especially when what they’re up to is not solving crimes.’ Lawyer Matt Topic is representing NBC 5 in a suit to get Chicago police records on tens of thousands of hit-and-run accidents in which the city has made pitifully few arrests.
■ Oh, but helicopters are on the way.
Dingus of the Week. Lyz Lenz’s pick: Ticketmaster …
■ … which has repeatedly fouled up sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour.
■ The Onion: “Ticketmaster Opens New Workhouse Where Taylor Swift Fans Can Labor To Earn Their Eras Tickets.”
■ A University of Colorado Boulder professor explains the pitfalls of dynamic pricing.
■ A University of Texas English prof is connecting Swift’s songs to the works of Shakespeare, Hitchcock and Plath.
‘One of the year’s best films.’ Tribune critic Michael Phillips hails She Said, a movie dramatizing the exposé—by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey—of sleazy moviemaker Harvey Weinstein.
■ The Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper says the movie depicts Trib alumna Twohey as “a badass, no-nonsense reporter.”
Internet bill games. A new Consumer Reports study confirms that broadband service is expensive and confusing …
■ … but that threatening to quit your internet service works to lower your costs.
■ The report recommends the government require an internet “nutrition” label on every monthly bill.
Shopping online? Google’s upping its search game and many other features.
■ Cord Cutter Weekly’s Jared Newman counsels: “Don’t buy a new TV just to get newer smart TV software. … Practically all your smart TV problems can be solved with an external streaming device.”
■ $2 million in taxpayer money will transform 55 vacant Chicago storefronts into pop-up arts and retail spaces through the winter …
■ … which seems to be settling in for the weekend.
■ Chicago’s official Christmas tree—an import from Morton Grove—gets lit at 6 p.m.
■ Can you beat your Square columnist’s score? Not unless you somehow manage to notch more than 100%.
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Correction. Contrary to yesterday’s edition of Square, the word embiggen did not originate with The Simpsons, although the show popularized it.
■ In fact, it dates back to at least 1884.