Rick Kogan – Page 13 –

Musician Tom Lehrer sits beside the piano in his house in Santa Cruz, Calif., April 21, 2000. Accompanying himself on the piano in the 1950s and early 1960s, Lehrer wrote and recorded brilliantly crafted, scathingly sarcastic tunes that poked fun at all the major issues of the day. (Paul Sakuma/AP)

Column: Celebrating the one and only Tom Lehrer, the satirical voice of generations

August 5, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Tom Lehrer died on July 26 at 97, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The radioactive plume from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki City, as seen from 9.6 km away, in Koyagi-jima, Japan on Aug. 9, 1945. The US B-29 superfortress Bockscar dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed 'Fat Man,' which detonated over the northern part of Nagasaki City just after 11am. (Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum/Getty Images)

Column: On an August anniversary, memories of the atomic bomb from a crew member who dropped it on Nagasaki

July 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The late Ray Gallagher of Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood was an assistant flight engineer on the B-29 that dropped the bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki 80 years ago.

An exhibit patron looks over work as a Portrait of Richard Hunt, by Harry Alan, hangs on the wall as part of the Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt exhibit at the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago, July 25, 2025. (Antonio Perez/baiduhai)

Column: New Richard Hunt exhibit takes the measure of the artist and the man

July 29, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

“Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” at the Loyola University Museum of Art displays much of the artist's work, with the exception of the huge outdoor monuments and sculptures that can...

Singer-songwriter Alyssa Allgood performs with her quintet at the Jazz Showcase, July 20, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/baiduhai)

Young singer-songwriter Alyssa Allgood makes the Jazz Showcase Wall of Fame

July 23, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Alyssa Allgood started singing when she was in the sixth grade and she is singing still, as she was last weekend at Jazz Showcase, that South Loop treasure.

Boho Bouquet Bar owner Amy Lechelt prepares her flowers for sale from her pink Mercedes Benz on July 18, 2025, on North Rush Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo/baiduhai)

Column: Amy Lechelt’s flower shop floats through town in a pink Mercedes

July 25, 2025 at 1:42 p.m.

Amy Lechelt of Boho Bouquet Bar drives around in a 2003 Mercedes-Benz convertible painted a dazzling pink, its back seat filled with all types of flowers.

John Scopes, center, seated next to his father, Thomas Scopes, is on trial for teaching human evolution in violation of Tennessee's Butler Act in July 1925. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

Column: Returning again to the Scopes ‘monkey trial,’ and what I learned

July 16, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

We've reached the 100th anniversary of the court case about teaching evolution in the classroom. Did you know that Scopes passed up offers of riches and instead came to the...

Lyndsay Klebba, left, and Yo Alrawi watch the full moon rise at Montrose Beach on Oct. 17, 2024, in Chicago. Horoscopes are based on the ancient practice of astrology, positing that information about human affairs and earthly events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. (John J. Kim/baiduhai)

Column: Did you read your horoscope today?

July 15, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Newspaper horoscopes are read by more people than you might imagine, millions of you.

After her historic flight as the first woman to fly as a passenger across the Atlantic Ocean, Hyde Park's own Amelia Earhart visits Chicago and her old high school on July 19, 1928. (Herald and Examiner)

Amelia Earhart soars back into the headlines in new book ‘The Aviator and the Showman’

July 9, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

“The Aviator and the Showman” by Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an exciting new book about Amelia Earhart that has already created buzz.

Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is lifted upon winning his bout with challenger Carl "The Truth" Williams, July 22, 1989 in Atlantic City. (Ron Frehm/AP)

Column: Of fighting and surviving, ‘Baddest Man’ is a soaring biography of Mike Tyson

July 8, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

“Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson,” moves from the boxer’s birth in 1966 to 1988, what writer Mark Kriegel calls “the year of (Tyson's) first public crack-up.”

Author and songwriter Champ Clark at home in Los Angeles. (Champ Clark)

Column: Author’s new creative outlet is writing songs, made into music via AI

July 3, 2025 at 5:15 a.m.

Champ Clark's musical career recently came back to life and the reason is artificial intelligence.

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