Along the Chicago River, neighbors bond over a ‘duck emergency’
On the morning of Thursday, March 7, several residents of an old neighborhood tucked along the Chicago River received an email with the subject line “duck emergency.” It began: I...
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When the woodpeckers get noisy, spring can’t be far
There’s a woodpecker outside my window. In the past few days it — he? she? they? — has been drilling at some tree with the gusto of a pothole repairman...
Sgt. Keith Miller and his crew hailed as heroes: ‘I’ve learned that the autism community is much larger than I could have ever imagined’
For the past month, Keith Miller has been overwhelmed by thank-yous. From all over the country, parents of children with autism have said thank you. His bosses have said thank...
Dear Winter, we’re done with you. Get out.
Dear Winter, Get out. Get out now. We’re sick of you. Fed up. Not gonna take it anymore. So grab your snow shovels and ice scrapers and back-breaking bags of...
How long do you have to live in Chicago before you can say you’re from here?
Sorry, but you’re not from Chicago. Yeah, sure, you may have lived here so long that you remember when the White Sox played at Comiskey, when there were no night...
Can Lightfoot and Preckwinkle compete without demonizing each other? Now that would be historic.
For one sweet moment, it was the fairy tale runoff. There they were Tuesday night, two remarkable women, the last two candidates standing in the mayor’s race. Both black, one...
Never mind ‘Green Book.’ Go listen to Don Shirley’s music.
Let’s look on the bright side of “Green Book.” It has revived Don Shirley’s music. Like a lot of people, I wasn’t crazy about the movie, a buddy pic with...
One lesson from the Jussie Smollett investigation: The first-day story is never the whole story
The first-day story is never the whole story. That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned as both a journalist and a consumer of news, and it’s one I...
Is it OK for restaurants with a mostly white clientele to play rap songs that use the N-word? This man says no.
Several weeks ago I was in a North Side coffeehouse, trying to ignore the usual hodgepodge of music blaring from the speakers, when a rap song came on. It made...
Signs warning of falling ice remind a daughter of her father’s death, 25 years ago
Amanda Dwyer was 16 years old on the winter day that a block of ice slipped from a high ledge in downtown Chicago and killed her father. It was the...