The Chicago Fire of 1871 began 154 years ago today. It is said to have begun in the barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, and ended as a burn zone four miles long and one mile wide. It is often said to have begun with the kick of a cow. There is no good reason for THAT belief. Indeed, the contemporary view is that the cow is, as Ockham would say, an entity introduced into the chain of cause and effect without necessity. With wooden structures, large open doors, lanterns that were themselves simply small fires, and high winds: who needs a cow? In the days after the fire had burnt itself out, the notion that Mrs O'Leary had been milking her cow and the latter had kicked the lantern was one of several competing rumors. Another was that a boarder in the O'Leary house, Dennis "Peg Leg" Sullivan, had slipped into the barn to have a few drinks with some of his friends. During their partying they started a fire, not by knocking over a lantern but simply by smokin...