Donna Vickroy – Page 22

Vickroy: A teacher’s plea to parents: Put down the phone and talk to your kids

April 15, 2022 at 12:13 p.m.

In the 20 years J.R. Willard-Rose has been teaching at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, he's never seen this many checked-out, disaffected, ambivalent students. "You'd always have a few with their heads...

When Jada Pinkett Smith's hair became the subject of a Chris Rock joke during the Academy Awards on March 27, it prompted her husband to slap Rock and triggered dozens of topics of discussion, including the sensitivity many people feel about their hair.

Vickroy: Hair too sensitive a topic to joke about, and Chris Rock should have known better

April 1, 2022 at 11:54 a.m.

Will Smith was wrong. It is totally inappropriate to use violence in response to bad humor. But Chris Rock also was wrong. It is totally inappropriate to use cruelty as...

Vickroy: Play about mother with dementia puts spotlight on universal challenge of aging parent care

April 1, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.

For more than seven years, Judy Hogfeldt's mother spent each day telling staff at her memory care facility that she was going home "tomorrow." As crushing as it was for...

Vickroy: Naper Settlement’s Weed Ladies ready to spring their new designs in big sale next week

March 24, 2022 at 10:05 p.m.

On the grounds of the Naper Settlement, green buds are only starting to peek through the brown landscape. The hydrangea and the peonies are just beginning to shake off their...

Eugene Parker, professor emeritus with University of Chicago, talks with the audience following a 2017 lecture on "solar wind" at Izaak Walton Preserve in Homewood. Parker died March 15 at age 94.

Longtime Southland resident Eugene Parker, the first living person to have a NASA rocket named for him, remembered as ‘humble and kind’

March 24, 2022 at 12:34 p.m.

Famed astrophysicist Eugene Parker "touched" the sun and the hearts of the Homewood-Flossmoor community. The pioneering astrophysicist who watched as his namesake rocket blasted off for the sun, died March...

Vickroy: Regardless of how you celebrate, do not let your birthday go by without doing something for you

March 18, 2022 at 10:38 a.m.

Ahem, good morning. Excuse me while I clear my throat and my head. I am typing this in a throbbing, foggy, somewhat exhausted state. My bones ache. My lips are...

Column: Here’s an easy way you can help Ukraine

March 11, 2022 at 11:03 a.m.

Don't just be frightened or worried about Ukraine. Do something to help. We all have clothing, towels, shoes or blankets that are new or slightly used. Or maybe some of...

The "Maus" graphic novel series by Art Spiegelman saw sales increase by huge numbers after being banned by a Tennessee school district.

Vickroy: Good riddance to the no-good month of February

March 3, 2022 at 9:10 p.m.

February is a lie. It may have the fewest calendar days but it's the loooongest month of the year, in these parts anyway. Don't believe me? Consider this evidence from...

Column: Sure, celebrate the eagle’s comeback but imagine a world in which the dragonfly population soars, too

February 25, 2022 at 3:27 p.m.

On a gray Thursday morning, predictions of a snowstorm keeping me near the window, a glimmer of wingspan caught the corner of my eye. A hawk hovering over the small...

At the very least, every baker should master the chocolate cookie, which is a favorite with almost everyone, says Jeanne Kraus, a pastry chef instructor at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.

Vickroy: With the right tools, few tricks and little practice, you, too, can become a baking champ

February 17, 2022 at 10:12 a.m.

Bakers, I'm here for you. Not with an apron or a rolling pin but with praise, camaraderie and some real help from baking pros who know why your cookies fall...

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