TAIL TRACK.

Barring signal troubles, links to any posts of substance ought to work.

A DECENT INTERVAL.

Mariah Carey knows where her bread is buttered.

IT'S TIME!!! 🤘🎸🕛🎄 #SoldeJaneiroPartner https://t.co/b8JwD3J46V

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 1, 2026

Music Choice seasonal channel continued Hallowe'en programming into midmorning Sunday, and Mariah Carey did sing at least once that day.

POLITICS DIVIDES.

Election Day commences in about six hours up in the White Mountains, and an Associated Press report breathes a sense of gathering gloom.

Voters across the United States are getting their word in, too, as they determine which party controls the Senate and the House and takes charge of governors' offices, legislatures and state leadership posts in the final two years of Republican Donald Trump's presidency.

What many of them see is that the America they've known is slipping away.

They see lawlessness coming from those who create the laws. They see hate stirred by politicians among neighbors, corruption at every turn, billionaires ruling the roost and a culture that doesn't speak to how they live — in short, American bedrock at risk of crumbling. Not to mention those crazy gas prices.

In dozens of Associated Press interviews with people who cast ballots at advance polling places or drop boxes across the country, the angst was palpable, most sharply from those who oppose Trump but also from many who support him.

Just another first Tuesday in November for libertarians, argues Reason's Nick Gillespie.

As someone who has never voted for a winning candidate at any level, nothing would please me more than to be able to cast a ballot for a major party politician who might actually have a chance at victory. I'm a principled small "l" libertarian, but that doesn't mean I'm a tough vote to win. All you have to do is be in favor of limiting the size, scope, and spending of government. But it turns out that neither major party ever seems to nominate politicians at any level who come close to following that groove. Which is depressing as hell.

It doesn't do his peace of mind, or mine, any good to contemplate that whoever secures a majority in a legislative body will immediately claim some sort of mandate to implement their plans, nevermind that the electorate are in the manner of old William Buckley, straddling history and yelling "Stop!"

REVEALED PREFERENCES.

Soon-to-be-retiring Northern Illinois University president Lisa Freeman presented her goals for the university to the Faculty Senate.

President Lisa Freeman highlighted some of 2026’s accomplishments and spoke about the progress toward the university’s goals.

Themes

1. Empowerment and shared responsibility
2. Student recruitment, success and experience
3. Academic excellence and curriculum innovation
4. Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
5. Research, scholarship, artistry and engagement
6. Resource development and fiscal responsibility

Freeman provided a progress report.

The article is in The Northern Star, and it opens with a clarification.  "A clarification was added to NIU’s themes by grouping together 'Student recruitment, success and experience.' A clarification was also made by paraphrasing President Lisa Freeman’s statement on a new sexual consent training to explain a misspoken word that was previously quoted."

Whatever.  Once upon a time, the McGovernicks and their enablers in the faculty lounge spoke of a "fundamental reordering of priorities," which in a faculty senate setting might be as simple as putting "academic excellence" first, without "curriculum innovation" cluttering the works, and "research, scholarship, artistry and engagement" second.  You know, a university acting like a university.

PUT A PIN IN IT.

No sooner has the World Series beer been drunk than free agency begins.

The 2026 World Series was a long time coming for Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy. The 67-year-old got his start as a baseball coach in 1982 and didn't get a full-time managerial gig in the majors until 2023.

After such a lengthy climb to reach the pinnacle of the sport, Murphy was — understandably — a bit more willing to let loose following the Brewers' championship-clinching win in Game 5 on Wednesday.

He got that opportunity — and didn't disappoint — upon being presented with the final-out baseball from Game 5. That moment was captured on video, as Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers walked over to Murphy and gave the manager the baseball that secured the last out of the 2026 World Series.

Murphy embraced Bauers for the gesture, and then delivered one more piece of sage advice to his first baseman, one that came at the expense of the New York Yankees.

Jake Bauers, who went from baseball obscurity to most valuable player in the National League championships is a free agent as of right now, with a qualifying offer from the Brewers to consider, and his manager was his authentic self.  "You're going to be a rich f***er. Just remember when you're on that horses*** Yankees team and you're all playing for yourselves, just remember this is the way we used to do it."  Why the Yankees?  "The club could be in the market for a first baseman this offseason, especially one who can take advantage of the team's short porch in left field."

THE POWER OF COMPOUND INTEREST.

During the World Series, Capital One called up a commercial that I have long enjoyed.

It touches on two of my pet themes, financial fitness and life after college being the revenge of the nerds.  Even when the kiddos don't call on the astronaut.  Stay in school.

That's all for this month.  The Packers didn't get the most satisfying win on Thursday, but football on any Thursday that isn't Thanksgiving is a foolish idea anyway, and they have work to do, win or not.  Safety Xavier McKinney did get fined by the league for criticizing the officiating in Detroit and Packer spokesman Wes Hodkiewicz, who, note, speaks for the Packer organization, noted "McKinney spoke the truth, and his words were worth every cent it may cost him."  The officiating crew in question have been exiled, if not to Siberia, from Sunday prime time to a game between New England and Miami.  "If this reassignment is actually a sign that the league is finally taking those complaints seriously, great. But if it's just an attempt to keep bad officiating out of the primetime spotlight, fans aren't likely to be all that impressed."

So mote it be.  Yes, there is a fraught election coming up, yes, people continue to write foolish things on Common Dreams, and yes, higher education continues to be run by terminally stupid people.  Those things will still be true come November.

Enjoy your Hallowe'en, and your World Champion Milwaukee Brewers.

ACCUMULATE THOSE SMALL ADVANTAGES.

There is no booth review in baseball.  Managers have two challenges of calls on the field, which they retain as long as their challenges are correct.  In the recently completed World Series, challenges of calls at second base figured in the outcome of three games.

In the first game, at Milwaukee, the Rays, trailing 3-1, had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth.  Brewer closer Trevor Megill served a ground ball that resulted in two outs and the after-game festivities beginning.  Tampa manager Kevin Cash challenged the play.  Runner out at first, that was unambiguous; runner safe at second, for as long as I've been following baseball I've heard broadcasters carrying on about automatic double plays called when the infielder receiving the ball hasn't properly touched second base, and so it transpired after New York looked at all the video; runner at third and a run in.  The next batter struck out and the Fox Sports stage crew could haul the broadcast set onto the field.  First game to the Crew, 3-2.

DON'T MISS THE VICTORY PARTY STUCK IN TRAFFIC.

Saturday last, the East Troy Electric Railroad said thanks to its donors by operating a Conductor's Club dinner train.  (Want to be invited, dear reader?  Send money.  Preservation railroads welcome money.)

The museum's ticket office and gift shop includes artifacts of Wisconsin's electric railroads, including this sign salvaged from one of the stations where passengers could transfer between local rapid transit cars and the West Allis streetcars.

Imagine having that option at the baseball stadium, which is still close to where that shared trackage ran.

The vacant land in the foreground, which includes remnants of passenger platforms, is where the rapid transit cars between Milwaukee and the Lake Country, latterly stubbed at Hales Corners and Waukesha.  Imagine having a choice of city or rapid transit cars for downtown or West Allis or points beyond, rather than coping with expressway construction, which is currently ongoing immediately to the left, or south, of the treeline at left of the photograph.  Pray that construction doesn't go on for 44 years.  Or pray to the Patron Saint of Traction for the souls of Brewer fans heading to the stadium for tomorrow's victory party.

FISH ON!

It is the nature of Milwaukee sports fans to prepare for disappointment. Consider the professional basketball championships of 2019, where the Bucks took two games from Toronto's Raptors in Milwaukee, and the interviews Milwaukee radio picked up with Toronto fans before the third game started suggested the only people in Toronto who thought the Raptors had a chance were wearing Raptor uniforms. The Raptors won four straight games and then won the league championship.

In baseball, the 1982 Brewers, then in the American League were in a position to win the World Series with one win in St. Louis.  The Cardinals won both.

During the current century, the Cold Spring Shops transition from Festive Season to February more often than not chronicles the latest way the Packers fail to live up to the standard, which remains five titles in six attempts in eight seasons.

Thus, I held off on celebrating the outcome of the World Series until the last defensive out was recorded by a Brewer.

Not the Dodgers, the Brewers.  Never mind the Babylon Bee trying to be funny.  "Fans are reportedly more excited than ever for the 2026 World Series, eager to sit down and watch a compelling matchup between Not the Dodgers and Not the Yankees."

BELATED RAILROAD READING.

Eight years ago, the Independent Institute editorial staff invited me to review Randal O'Toole's Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need, which I subsequenty did, as well as offer a compare-and-contrast with what the ferroequinologist press, who are more favorably disposed toward Amtrak and the local Commuter Rail or Rapid Transit operations than policy wonks with libertarian leanings.

I recently discovered David Henderson's review of Romance for Econlib from seven years ago.  "O’Toole, a long-time fan of railroads, puts his fandom aside and shows what a disaster government subsidies to, and regulations of, rail transportation have been."

Mr Henderson's summation:

On his last page, O’Toole nicely sums up his message: “[N]ew transportation technologies have replaced trains and streetcars. Planes are faster and less expensive for long distances; cars and buses are more convenient for short distances; and there is no midrange distance at which passenger rail has an advantage over both cars and planes.”

I submit that we cannot impound "cars and buses are more convenient" in ceteris paribus, not when the Republican candidate to be governor of Wisconsin is slagging on the Democrat candidate for advocating toll roads.  Recall, dear reader, that the Cold Spring Shops position on "crumbling infrastructure" is "Why should road socialism be any different from any other form of socialism?"

Our position on transportation policy remains conducting conversation about transportation policy on the merits of the modes, rather than on the ideology of the advocates.

LEAVING UNFREE ILLINOIS?

An Independent article reports, "More Illinois counties ready to vote on leaving the state."  That's going to bring up the usual arguments about whether the economic activity in Chicagoland supports whatever state services are available downstate.

Momentum is building in Illinois to form a new state, with more counties ready to vote on leaving because of Chicago’s influence.

Eleven counties are set to vote on non-binding referenda this year to secede from Cook County. If all 11 vote to leave they would join 33 counties that have already approved similar measures.

Cook County is home to Chicago, but people in the state and nation have criticized it for its crime rate, cost of living, Democratic leadership and oversized influence on state politics.

It's not helping matters that a transportation aid bill from last year diverted funds from rural road repairs to shoring up Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority.

The problem advocates of an intrastate separation face is that the Combine's policies, which led the Cato Institute to rank the state as 39th freest, with the no-longer-as-portly governor, J. B. "Ribs" Pritzker earning a D grade at the same rank, have already driven many of the people who would be likely to support that separation out of the state, and the Combine is likely to accumulate enough votes from the residual coalition of hipsters and welfare recipients to continue in service in Springfield and the Illinois delegation to the Federal Capital.

According to Cato, Illinois ranks dead last in occupational freedom and 47th in firearm freedom.

IF YOU CAN TRADE IT, YOU CAN ALLOCATE IT EFFICIENTLY.

The University of Chicago has this reputation as the place fun goes to die.  That might be harsh.

On Monday, a group of students from the University of Chicago stood outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange—one of the world's largest and most diverse derivatives marketplaces—and called for the repeal of an obscure 1958 law that bans onions as futures products traded on U.S. exchanges.

Attracting an audience with a humorous jingle and amusing signs that included "Onions Deserve a Future," "Honk If You Want Free Onions," "Hot Girls Hedge Onions," and "Free Markets Feed Families," the student group, named For Our Futures, has a simple platform: a repeal of the 1958 Onion Futures Act, which prohibits anyone from trading in onion futures on commodity exchanges. (The law was amended in 2010 to ban motion picture box office receipts from being traded on commodity exchanges.) The viral campaign drew enough attention that Mike Selig—chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a proponent of expanding the list of commodities traded on futures markets—was asked about the law in a media appearance.

American farmers produce about 6.75 billion pounds of onions a year, according to the National Onion Association, an industry trade group. While peers who grow cotton, wheat, corn, and soybeans can hedge against price swings by trading futures contracts, onion farmers have no such recourse under federal law. But, as the Agriculture Department's daily National Potato and Onion Report shows, onion prices are highly volatile and subject to wild swings, making them an ideal market for futures trading.

Futures markets are not well understood by people who haven't studied economics, and the prohibition of onion futures contracts has not protected cooks and diners from the sort of price volatility the economically ignorant often associate with futures contracts.

Maybe there's a business opportunity for Sophie Cunningham?

Prices fluctuate to allocate demand.  That's something Our Intellectual Betters often lose sight of.

A protest over onions sounds absurd, but it's a viral reminder to others in that age cohort of how far governments can go when given the slightest leeway to regulate an industry.

Instead of relying on outdated price points when planning future harvests, American onion producers could use resources like futures contracts that offer real-time market signals. All that would require—as the college kids state—is for federal lawmakers to "let the free market reign supreme."

Indeed.  Arbitrage opportunities exist, whether organized futures markets exist or not.

CLEARING THE CUCKOOS OUT OF THE ACADEMIC NEST.

The so-called area studies departments, or critical studies centers, if you will, have long treated interesting working hypotheses as Articles of Faith.  "The fundamental problem confronting the 'studies' departments is that a lot of what passes as critical theory rests either on untestable priors, or is normative per se.  Don't say I didn't warn you."

It has long been my position that much of the work done in ethnic studies or critical theory can be handled, perhaps more properly, in existing academic departments, whether sociology or anthropology or English, and perhaps the presence of more conventional scholars might get the True Believers to offer better arguments.

MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE.

The World Series is not yet decided.  We know who the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra roots for.

This rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at the Bradley Symphony Center 👏 📹: milwsymphorch / IG https://t.co/Ts3doIig2y

— MLB (@MLB) October 25, 2026

Go Brewers.

YOU'RE AN INTERIM COACH WHETHER THE JOB TITLE SAYS "INTERIM" OR NOT.

Fourteen years ago, North Carolina State recruited Northern Illinois head football coach Dave Doeren right in the middle of Northern Illinois earning an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl.  "North Carolina State created the vacancy late last week, under circumstances that prompted Jane Shaw at Phi Beta Cons [the link is long dead — Ed.] to make invidious comparisons between the sacking of coaches and the sacking, or not, of professors."

North Carolina State University just fired its football coach. Tom O’Brien had a winning record over six seasons (but not in the school’s conference, the ACC). He had taken the team to four bowl games, and his team had beaten its chief rival, UNC–Chapel Hill, five times. But the athletic director, Debbie Yow, wants more “aggressive” recruiting. As one fan said, O’Brien was “pretty good,” just not good enough.

Nothing changes in Raleigh.  "NC State's McMurray Family Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan has announced that Wolfpack head football coach Dave Doeren has been relieved of his duties effective immediately."

REPLAY REVIEW MAKES THE REFEREEING WORSE.

Red State's Kyle Becker calls attention.  "Something Feels Very 'Wrong' About the NFL. Fans Are Noticing."

At one point, if you looked up at the myriad of big screen television sets one could see what can only be described as a herd of zebras.

On every set, a referee, calling a holding penalty on this play, but not on the fifty plays before where the exact same thing happened.

Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that sports gambling is "ruining" the sport, it has become undeniable that NFL games are being decided as much by the referees as the players.

If football is a game of inches, then you could say that is now 13.5". That is the length of an official NFL penalty flag.

The impossible has happened: NFL officiating is getting worse. A recent analysis by Warren Sharp drives home that this is not your typical season for bad officiating.

During the corona shutdowns, Dave Barry anticipated the phenomenon.  “We’re thinking of just showing 60 minutes of referees throwing penalty flags and peering at replay monitors.”  That was supposed to be a humor columnist calling attention to a bad situation in a humorous way.

The problem is the replay technology.  "Expect the officials to do their job, and they'll likely do a better job than they do now, when they can make mistakes and have them corrected by Mission Control."  There's less reason for a professional to do a professional job when there's a second-guesser ready to guess.  "What incentive, other than pride, does an official have to get a close call right as the half or the game ends, when there's always the eye in the sky to issue the corrections?"

PASSING THE BATON.

The current standard for collegiate or professional championships won in the Great State of Wisconsin is the nine national titles garnered by Wisconsin's women's hockey team.  More than a few of those players also won Olympic gold (Team U.S.A.) or silver (Team Canada) in the days before pitchers and catchers reported.

Thus, it is fitting and proper for representatives of the Wisconsin skaters to participate in the festivities opening the World Series in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin's social media team posted that picture without a caption.

John Hinderaker liked Mickey Guyton's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.

He was also impressed with players actually lining up for the Anthem, but less impressed with replay review.  Perhaps we'll take those things up another day.

Milwaukee Brewers from the 1982 World Series, when the Brewers were an American League team, were on hand to throw out the first pitch.  Robin Yount, who Christian Yelich acknowledged as the team's de facto initial captain, honored longtime play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker in his choice of attire.

The Brewers held serve at home.  Keep in mind, dear reader, that the batters listed toward the bottom of the lineup card are major league baseball players, and they can hit for power accordingly.

Game Three starts in about ninety minutes in St. Petersburg.

GIVE EMERGENCE A CHANCE.

As pro baseball's regular season wound down, Matt "Dean Dad" Reed has a schadenfreudelicious moment.

I don’t quote Hegel often, but lately I’ve been thinking about his idea of the “cunning of history.” It’s his term for the times when circumstances conspire to get the outcome they want, against the intentions of actual actors. History seems particularly cunning lately.

There’s no way to note this without seeming insensitive, but the war on Iran has done quite a bit to encourage the shift to electric vehicles and hybrids. The longer that the price of gas is 50 percent or more higher than it was before the war, the more appealing it becomes to find ways to reduce or eliminate the use of gas. And that’s to say nothing of diesel, where the increases have been even worse, apparently to the benefit of railroads.

Hegel would have diagnosed the moment. The current administration has made no secret of its fealty to fossil fuels, but its foreign policy is creating market incentives to move away from them. And it’s easier to repeal a tax credit than it is to end a war. History has conspired to turn the administration’s moves against itself.

Of course, for anyone not blinded by ideology or tribal loyalty, that consequence of the war was utterly foreseeable.

Let's leave aside for the moment that North American railroads burn a lot of diesel: perhaps what he was getting at is they can roll more ton miles with a gallon of diesel than a big rig on the road, and we'll not call attention to the way he overlooked the corrupt bargain that kept Hormuz open (How do we add to that accounting the expense of letting the mullahs' tyranny over Iranians and their funding of proxies so that they look the other way while infidel oil transits the strait?) nor shall we make an issue of the curious overlap between people who want to keep fighting to the last Ukrainian for regime change in Russia while complaining about removing the mullahs after fifty years of their nonsense nor shall we call attention to the difficulty refining crude into diesel fuel when such refineries are thin on the ground in the United States, particularly on the Pacific coast.

THE FINAL SUMMIT.

Steve Lee, who managed the Union Pacific steam program until 2010, has departed this life.

A Kentucky native, Lee began his railroading career with the Illinois Central in 1972 and later served as a trainmaster and road foreman for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. As the Rock Island faced bankruptcy, Lee became the division road foreman for UP out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1980. He took charge of UP’s Heritage Fleet in 1989, overseeing 4-8-4 “FEF-3” 844 and 4-6-6-4 “Challenger” 3985 along with the railroad’s vintage diesels and passenger cars. He led the program until his retirement in 2010.

Union Pacific's decision to bring a Big Boy out of retirement and donate 3985 for preservation came later.  Union Pacific's steam program's success during the Steve Lee years undoubtedly contributed to headquarters opting to restore a Big Boy to service.

Lee was born Aug. 2, 1950, in the small north-central Kentucky town of Vine Grove, not far from Fort Knox. His hometown is located on the former Illinois Central line from Louisville to Paducah, now part of the Paducah & Louisville regional railroad. Lee hired on with the IC in 1972 and later went on to become a trainmaster and road foreman for the Rock Island. Around the time of the Rock’s demise in 1980 he landed a job with Union Pacific as a division road foreman at Cheyenne.

The spotlight began to shine on Lee in 1989 when UP put him in charge of its Heritage Fleet, based at the Cheyenne shops complex. The fleet included Nos. 844 and 3985, both of which were already operational, as well as the railroad’s extensive roster of other vintage steam and diesel locomotives and passenger cars.

Overseeing a Cheyenne crew that included full-time employees and volunteers, Lee took UP’s steam program and its locomotives far and wide, staging a number of high-profile events that included running 844 and 3985 to Railfair events at the California State Railroad Museum in 1991 and 1999, bringing 844 (still numbered 8444) to the 50th-anniversary celebration of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in May 1989, and taking 3985 to Chicago in 1993 for the National Railway Historical Society’s convention.

In the early days of double-stack intermodal trains, Union Pacific put 3985 on the head pin of an American President Lines train, without any diesel assistance.  The year of Mr Lee's retirement, Union Pacific put 3985 on the head pin of Ringling Barnum's Blue Unit.

Children of all ages still flock to trackside when 844 or 4014 are at work.  R.I.P.

NOTICE OF DISCONTINUANCE.

Chicago opinion columnist John Kass calls it a career.

It’s time for me to wind down the website. Past time. I held on too long because it had cost me too much in pain and psychic blood at the hands of the jacobin newsroom union that destroyed the once-great Chicago newspaper that I loved. And I loved it for those decades and decades.

But I’ve run my race. Now it is time for me to go. Past time. I didn’t want to consider it once. I was afraid. I wouldn’t even dare brush up against it.

Especially when clinging  rather desperately to some old man dreams of myself as Laertes in his garden, an old man still hoping  to prove his worth as the warrior he once had been, still insisting he had spears left to throw.

But I’m old now. There are no spears.  Five strokes in three years convinced me. After that wonderful Indian Summer that we just had, the sky grew cold and  I finally came face to face with it: Betty explained the math. Five strokes in three years, she said, And you can still speak, you can still read and use a search engine, you can read Victor Davis Hanson and Plato, you can still discuss the great ideas.

But another stroke? I didn’t need any further convincing. I couldn’t contemplate the alternatives.

He took what they dished out, and he did it his way.

Over the years, Mr Kass took on the Combine, the chumbolones of Chicago's Democrat machine, correctly noted the folly of using tax money for public radio, and in many ways continued the combination of sass and wit of Mike Royko.  Readers are suggesting he bestow one more Golden Moutza to close out the year.

MODEL RAILROAD SEASON GETS INTO FULL SWING.

The ancient Saginaw cast-bronze Consolidation goes on the road.

The battery in the locomotive held up pretty well classifying cars at the west yard in Marquette, Iowa.  The battery in the hand controller continues to be a constraint on operating during protracted sessions, particularly if there's a lot of switching.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

Baptist Baseball Fans Torn Between Rooting For Team Named After Devil Or Team Named After Beer.

Friday is for fish fries in Wisconsin.  Just spitballin'.

Between the World Series and a communications upgrade at Cold Spring Shops (internet connected to the fiber backbone, landline phone number migrated to a mobile, old emergency mobile to be discontinued at the end of October) this compilation of Friday short takes is another emergency clearance of bookmarks.  Longer-form essays are likely to resume sometime next week.

HIGHER EDUCATION, PERSISTING IN MAKING THINGS MORE DIFFICULT THAN NECESSARY.

A week ago, the house organ for all wokeness, all the time, offered the worst deflection of all time from the professors' trade union.  "The American Association of University Professors president told the Commission on Colleges and Universities that institutions shouldn’t 'be expected to prioritize intellectual pluralism on settled scholarly questions.'"

LEADING OFF, DONALD BOUDREAUX.

There have been a few distractions at Cold Spring Shops headquarters, and in that spirit we'll put in a pinch hitter with Some Links.  A few of the linked posts over there are on the line-up of topics to be dealt with later.  For now, hop on over there, read and understand them, and Go Brewers.