David McGrath – Page 24

Wedding toast request evoked memories

June 16, 2018 at 3:59 p.m.

When my daughter got married a year ago on Sept. 5, she asked if I would propose a toast at the wedding banquet according to custom. Traditionally, remarks by the...

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, seen at a rally in Chicago on June 9, 2015, engineered a successful strike in Chicago in 2012.

Women leaders give new life to the labor movement

May 11, 2019 at 2:34 a.m.

My first steady job was as a bag boy at a Jewel grocery store at Evergreen Plaza Shopping Center in Evergreen Park, where service manager Marie Spoo was my boss....

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, seen at a rally in Chicago on June 9, 2015.

Why I prefer women bosses, labor leaders

June 15, 2018 at 9:49 a.m.

My first steady job was as a bag boy for Jewel Foods at the Evergreen Park Plaza, where service manager Marie Spoo was my boss. At 16, I was clueless...

Does AA treatment have it all wrong?

June 15, 2018 at 10:58 a.m.

The FDA approved naltrexone for alcoholism treatment in 1994. In the 1959 movie "Rio Bravo," crooner Dean Martin, who wasn't half bad as an actor, played an alcoholic gunfighter. It's...

Donald Trump speaks with the baiduhai Editorial Board on June 29, 2015.

Donald Trump: Cheapest billionaire I know

August 24, 2019 at 9:48 p.m.

Donald Trump: Cheapest billionaire I know Recently I received a forwarded "chain" email claiming that the rates for certain taxes we pay were slated to skyrocket come January as a...

Recalling childhood’s summertime doldrums

June 15, 2018 at 11:18 a.m.

Summertime, and the living is tedious. As far back as I can remember, summer has been a long hot wasteland with little accomplished, and little advanced, save for one's sense...

Children often are restless for those long, hot, boring summer days to end, but perspectives sure change over the years.

Why oh why did we wish away those long, ‘boring’ summer days?

May 11, 2019 at 2:28 a.m.

Summertime, and the living is tedious. As far back as I can remember, summer has been a long, hot wasteland with little accomplished, and little advanced, save for one's own...

Freedom’s necessary trade-offs

June 15, 2018 at 2:24 p.m.

Fireworks are pretty. Freedom, not so much. I'm thinking about the barrage of more than 200 emails from readers reacting to my recent column that was critical of the National...

David McGrath's father, Charlie, with granddaughters Janet, left, and Jackie, circa 1989.

McGrath: Remembering my loving Dad, eccentricities and all

June 15, 2018 at 3:23 p.m.

My father had an unusual habit that came into play most often on Sundays, when he would sit in the middle of the couch to watch the White Sox on...

A gun-rights advocate carries a rifle on his back and a cardboard cutout of a pistol on his waist as a group protests outside the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas.

NRA version of 2nd Amendment lacks common sense

June 15, 2018 at 4:04 p.m.

A new Pew Research Center report states that 52 percent of Americans support gun rights, the highest percentage in the last two decades. Yet the gun rights that they believe...

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