Kerry Lester Kasper –

People play mahjong at the Mahjong Lair at Dragon Well on October 28, 2025 in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

Kerry Lester Kasper: I resisted playing mahjong, fearful that it was an admission

May 22, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

I had, until recently, steadfastly refused to participate in mahjong’s trendy resurgence among the Chicago and suburban mom set.

The Great Tree at the Marshall Field's Walnut Room is in full view for visitors on the seventh floor of the Macy's State Street department store Nov. 6, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/baiduhai)

Kerry Lester Kasper: The Walnut Room is giving moms what they want this holiday

December 24, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

This season, I have realized that what so many moms want is to sit with our loved ones and not worry about the endless to-do lists.

Illinois poet Carl Sandburg in 1944. (AP)

Kerry Lester Kasper: Chicago has become the ‘City of the Big Shoulders’ once again

November 26, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Carl Sandburg’s words are illustrative of the moxie Chicago has always had but only recently reclaimed.

Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News)

Kerry Lester Kasper: School shootings have broken the silence at our family dinner table. I hate it.

September 14, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

I'm a reporter and believer in the value of news, but I also have an instinct to shield my kids from the horrible reality of shootings.

Anjanette Young at the lakefront, her favorite place to unwind, on Aug. 8, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

Kerry Lester Kasper: Anjanette Young shows the city grace in her ability to compromise

August 22, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The Anjanette Young Ordinance may soon get over the finish line due to a compromise. We should applaud Young for her grace.

A discarded surgical mask lies on a sidewalk in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood on April 1, 2020.

Kerry Lester Kasper: We disagree about masks. Can we still be friends?

February 16, 2022 at 3:30 p.m.

In the sad reality that is middle age, I have lost more friendships than I ever thought possible. Abdications to an ex. A move from the suburbs to the city,...

Mourners line up outside Our Lady of Angels Church for the funeral for three nuns Dec. 4, 1958. Sisters Mary St. Canice Lyng, 44, Mary Seraphica Kelley, 43, and Mary Clare Therese Champagne, 26, died in the fire at Our Lady of the Angels grade school on Dec. 1 in Chicago.

Commentary: The power of the nuns at Our Lady of the Angels — then and now

November 27, 2020 at 3:11 p.m.

Driving to the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in West Humboldt Park as the first specks of snow fell this winter, I was taken back to my time...

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