College of DuPage’s name diminished, not its value
It was a night he would not forget. Bill Hillmann had been adrift, ambivalent about pursuing a career in physics, when he signed up for a course in short fiction...
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What everyone who has lost a mother knows
My earliest memory of my mother, Gertrude McGrath, was at our brick house on 54th Street and Winchester Avenue in Chicago in the early 1950s. She used to call me...
An inexplicable lifetime love of fishing
Florida, California, and Hawaii are all lovely fair-weather states. But in my book, you cannot beat Illinois in April. I know that may sound surprising, especially since historically there has...
It takes a mall
In the early 1960s, the Evergreen Park Plaza at 95th Street and Western Avenue claimed the title as the first enclosed shopping center in America. So when the blizzard of...
A believer but not in Catholicism
News item: A new study by the University of Chicago found that the percentage of Americans describing themselves as religious has declined from 62 percent to 54 percent since 2006,...
Concealed-carry? Not in my classroom
My student wants to bring his handgun to my Tuesday night English 1101 class.Not for show and tell, mind you. In fact, he has to keep it hidden in legal...
Rudy Giuliani does not love the real America
Misjudging your audience can have disastrous consequences. Though I am neither a toastmaster nor a celebrity on the national speaking circuit, I am occasionally asked to address crowds at social...
Forgive the Irish for blarney is in their blood
In his younger days, my father was a Chicago softball player, beer drinker and charismatic Irish storyteller. Among my favorite stories was the one he used to tell relatives and...
Too much adult intrusion into kids’ lives
I had never been as thirsty. As though my tongue were coated with sand, my lungs on fire. It would take at least gallon of liquid to replenish what I'd...
Discovering the libidinous effects of booze
When I was 16, Valentine's Day was my least favorite holiday because it only reminded me of my inability to interest girls. The reason was no mystery — you can't...