Eric Zorn – Page 13 –

Column: ‘Custody’ now in linguistic jail

December 6, 2020 at 4:03 p.m.

Here's a heads-up for those who want to keep current: In family law circles these days, the old, familiar battle terms "custody" and "visitation" are out. In a little-noticed change...

Sharon Bonilla, one of Santa's helpers, takes temperature scans as families arrive to meet Santa Claus on Nov. 24, 2020, at Gurnee's Bass Pro Shops.

Column: Yes, Virginia, there is a Kriss Kringle, but please don’t say so

December 4, 2020 at 4:50 p.m.

Monday The Associated Press emailed out its holiday style guide, a set of reminders for writers and editors who this month will be wrestling with whether to put a space...

Sewell L. Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward & Co., is carried out of his firm's office by soldiers in Chicago in 1944 because he refused to cooperate with government officials who had taken over the firm.

Column: Trump likely won’t give us the White House eviction craved by so many

December 3, 2020 at 5:56 p.m.

Boston Globe feature writer Beth Teitell recently published an amusing thought experiment in which she asked experts how authorities should respond if President Donald Trump refuses to leave the White...

The mysterious monolith does not want you to participate in the Tweet of the Week poll.

December 4, 2020 at 2:48 p.m.

Instructions: Click the box next to each tweet that amuses you -- no limit to the number of choices. Voting closes Friday at noon Chicago time. Winner is published in...

Kay Fleenor poses at the Illinois Bell Telephone Company exhibit at the Modern Living Exposition Home and Flower Show at Navy Pier in 1958.

Column: Finally, belatedly, I put our once-beloved landline phone out of its misery

December 1, 2020 at 3:56 p.m.

"The deed is done," I announced to my wife the other day with the grim aspect of a farmer who had just come in from out behind the barn where...

Residents pitch in to find survivors after the Bath, Michigan, Consolidated School was dynamited by school board member Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927. A historical marker marks the site where 38 students and five adults died in the explosion. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, File)

Column: My unexpected connection to the worst school killing in US history

November 25, 2020 at 6:46 p.m.

Earlier this month I was deep into a nearly 200-entry, reminiscence-heavy Facebook comment thread with a group of elementary school friends from more than 50 years ago in Ann Arbor,...

Column: History will be kind to Rep. Adam Kinzinger and other Republicans who stood up to Donald Trump

November 24, 2020 at 4:28 p.m.

Many of my liberal allies rolled their eyes earlier this month when, near the end of a cheerfully reassuring column about the postelection tantrum of President-reject Donald Trump, I wrote...

Hot dog! Be thankful for your opportunity to fill out yet another Tweet of the Week poll

November 27, 2020 at 1:31 p.m.

Instructions: Click the box next to each tweet that amuses you -- no limit to the number of choices. Voting closes Friday at noon Chicago time. Winner is published in...

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 27: J.D. Vance, author of the book "Hillbilly Elegy," poses for a portrait photograph near the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C., January 27, 2017. Vance has become the nation's go-to angry, white, rural translator. The book has sold almost half a million copies since late June. Vance, a product of rural Ohio, a former Marine and Yale School grad, has the nation's top-selling book. He's become a CNN commentator, in-demand speaker, and plans to move back to Ohio from SF where he's worked as a principal in an investment firm. (Photo by Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images) ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **

Column: Requiem for ‘Hillbilly’ — Just because the film uses the slur in its title doesn’t necessarily give you permission to use it

November 21, 2020 at 1:53 p.m.

The release earlier this month of "Hillbilly Elegy," director Ron Howard's movie for Netflix based on author J.D. Vance's bestselling autobiography of the same name, prompts this friendly reminder that...

A few runners take part in their own marathons near 31st Street Beach in Chicago on Oct. 11, 2020.

Column: Chicago Marathon news a reminder that, in the long run, we’re going to make it through this

November 20, 2020 at 4:43 p.m.

Thursday's announcement that the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is now officially set to step off next Oct. 10 felt like the sight of green shoot poking through the frosty...

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