Column: Cleaning up after the looting: ‘We’re investing in ourselves’
On Monday morning, Malcolm Cherry put out a call on Facebook: Did anybody want to join him on the West Side to clean up after Sunday night's looting? Before long,...
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Column: There’s a sickness killing our country. No, it’s not just COVID-19.
There's a sickness running rampant in our country. It doesn't respect economic class or geographical boundaries. It infects the wealthy and the poor, the North, the South, the East, the...
Column: In praise of patience as our locked-down world moves to reopen
A big orange umbrella was fluttering outside the Peet's coffeehouse on North Avenue on Wednesday, like a giant hand waving hello. It caught my eye as I drove past, and...
Column: Masks, tree bark and solving problems by walking: 9 things to like in a pandemic
Every now and then I write a column that lists 9 things I've liked recently. When the pandemic arrived, I figured I wouldn't be making such a cheery list for...
Column: Honey the duck just had her babies. A U. of C. professor is working hard to keep them safe.
The day Honey's newborns waddled over to Botany Pond at the University of Chicago was as action-packed as an Avengers movie. Death-defying leaps from tall buildings! Violent feuding! A fired...
Column: An old Chicago dairy is sold, destined to be torn down. A piece of the city’s history will vanish with it.
They always called it the dairy. "Come to the dairy," Deborah Clarkson would often say when she invited people to her home. She liked how the word contained the history...
Column: In neighborhoods hit hard by COVID-19, some students get a surprise — personal delivery of their senior rings
Giselle Rico was in the apartment she shares with her mother the other afternoon when her cellphone rang unexpectedly. She answered. It was a school counselor asking to drop by...
Column: Go ahead, call that old friend. It will go better than you think.
Another day at home. Another day wondering if and when you'll ever again see people the old-fashioned way, meaning in the flesh and within hugging range. Another day when a...
Column: ‘So long to days of doubt and dread. I promise better days ahead.’ A new TrumPoem.
This is the latest in my occasional TrumPoems chronicling the presidency of Donald J. Trump, based, as always, on his own words. BETTER DAYS AHEAD We're living in a time...
Column: Coronachondria, coronacravings and pandemania: A few words to describe our strange new times
Among the many things changed by the sad, eerie moment we're living in is our vocabulary. We bat around words most of us had never heard or spoken until a...