Carol Marin

I saw Claypool early Thursday morning. He had e-mailed the night before, and we met at a breakfast joint on Clark Street. I assumed it was to say he was running, followed by a big pitch about his candidacy.

Like everyone else, I was stunned when he said, "I'm not doing it."

Major life decisions, when written across the face of the person making them, look like what they usually are: agony.