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 [...]
Book review: “Lust” by Simon Blackburn
Most of us find it uncomfortable to speak about lust. Philosopher Simon Blackburn is no exception, even though he lectured on the subject at the New York Public Library and [...]
Book review: “The Night in Question” by Tobias Wolff
A friend of mine is very big on stories having a beginning, a middle and an end. The 15 stories in The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff don’t fit [...]
Book review: “Women of the Way: Discovering 2500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom” by Sallie Tisdale
A confession: I read Women of the Way: Discovering 2500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom because it was written by Sallie Tisdale. I know very little about Buddhism. I have been [...]
Book review: “Building Lives: Constructing Rites and Passages” by Neil Harris
Humans name their babies and their pets and their battleships. And their buildings. I’ve lived in Chicago buildings by the names of 135 N. Leamington Ave. and 7943 S. California [...]
Book review: “Harold Washington and the Civil Rights Legacy” by Christopher Chandler
Christopher Chandler, a former journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times and WBBM-TV (Channel 2), was an important press aide for Harold Washington. He organized news conferences, planned media strategy and dealt [...]
Book review: “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief” by James McPherson
In July, 1864, Gen. Jubal Early and his 15,000 Confederate troops were again raiding the North and threatening the federal capital of Washington, D.C. It was a maneuver aimed at [...]
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 [...]
Book review: “Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife” by Francine Prose
In Amsterdam, on the sunny and otherwise quiet morning of Friday, August 4, 1944, a car pulled up in front of the Opekta warehouse at 263 Prinsengracht. That is all [...]