Essay: Believing in Movies
Through much of the 20th century, American movies acted as if sex didn’t exist. Oh, they’d hint at it, but film-makers feared being slapped down by those custodians of mainstream [...]
The secret life of cemeteries
We’re entering the season of cemeteries, autumn when the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees like so many souls giving up the ghost. With Halloween, we’ll see a [...]
A writing life
Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago and the son of a Chicago mayor, is chatting in his private office on the 5th floor of City Hall with Robert Caro [...]
Death books: A list
Let’s talk about death. Okay, I know you’ve got to get to your tennis match. Or cook dinner, or check Twitter, or wash your hair. But, really, let’s talk about [...]
The Burnham Plan as literature
The 1909 Plan of Chicago, written by Daniel Burnham and his co-author Edward Bennett, is a great work of American literature. There, I’ve said it. Now, let’s see if I [...]
Essay: Lincoln’s violent death and his legacy
A century and a half ago, Abraham Lincoln was laughing at the punchline at a stage play when he was shot once in the back of the head. He never [...]
St. Scrooge
If I call you a “scrooge,” that’s not a good thing. We all know that a scrooge is a miser, a misanthrope, a bitter wasted soul. “Bah, humbug!” It’s a [...]
Thanks for things that go wrong — then right
During a softball game in the summer of 1981, a lively and otherwise intelligent redhead slid into first base and broke her leg. (Don’t ask.) Meanwhile, a tall and slightly [...]
Pickwick Lane and my mistakes
Ten years ago, I wrote a story in the Chicago Tribune about one of the oddest wrinkles in the Chicago cityscape — Pickwick Lane. It is a short, nine-foot-wide private [...]
Voting for wonder
I vote for wonder. Amid the mudslinging of political campaigns, despite the reports of all that is going wrong across the world, I vote for joy and amazement at the [...]