Column: ‘The Chosen One’: A New TrumPoem
This is the latest in my occasional series of poems chronicling the rule of President Donald J. Trump. THE CHOSEN ONE Hello, my good Americans I've got some breaking news:...
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Column: We love our Chicago thunderstorms, except when they take our trees
In the whiplash of a thunderstorm a few days ago, a big old tree crashed down on the Buddha heads along Chicago's lakefront. This was a little bit north of...
Column: Nobody wants my mother’s four-poster bed. Should I take it?
My cousin Helen emailed the other day to see if I wanted the antique four-poster bed my mother slept in as a girl. I hadn't thought about that bed in...
Column: Don’t love the Air and Water Show? It’s not just you.
On Thursday morning as the fighter jets roared over the homes, offices, people and pets of Chicago, Peggy Browning, a local musician, posted the following heretical thought on Facebook: "If...
Column: Scissors. Pens. Spiral Notebooks. On International Left-Handers Day, let’s pause to appreciate the triumphs of the lefties.
In our angry, sad and divided world, let us pause for a moment to appreciate one small thing that unites us — unites 10 percent of us, at any rate....
Column: In the ‘noisy confusion of life,’ it’s time to read Toni Morrison and ‘Desiderata.’ And go to the zoo.
Today, three bite-sized columns rolled into one. 1. Reading Toni Morrison, at last Toni Morrison died Monday at the age of 88, prompting an outpouring of praise for her as...
Column: Three years after Tavon Tanner was shot, he and his twin sister find quiet among peaceful streets
Mellanie Washington was sitting on her bed Monday when it hit her: It was almost the third anniversary of the day her son Tavon was shot. "Wow," she thought. Three...
Column: ‘I Apologize’: The speech Donald Trump should give in El Paso on Wednesday
President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday in the wake of a shooting at a Walmart store that killed 22 people. To make his tough...
Column: How old is too old to be president? The answer is far more complicated than a number.
Sorry, but that candidate's just too old. You know who I mean. Or maybe you don't. Maybe the candidate who triggered my "too old" bias during the recent Democratic presidential...
Column: Jump in the lake. Catch a firefly. Eat breakfast outdoors. It’s not too late to enjoy summer.
Wait. It's August? Again? When did that happen? It happened Thursday, or so I noticed when I glanced Thursday morning at the little "Chicago" calendar I keep on my kitchen...