Paul Durica

Paul Durica is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.

Author Nelson Algren looks into the window of the closed Lucky Star Tavern at Wabansia and Bosworth avenues, where he said he used to deal poker, on May 24, 1956. (Arnold Tolchin/Chicago American)

One man’s Chicago: Nelson Algren’s ‘City on the Make’ shows a newcomer its rusty iron heart

October 4, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Forceful in its prose, both mournful and mocking in tone, “Chicago: City on the Make” started as an essay for the New York-based travel magazine Holiday.

Led by a trio playing drums and a flute, Chicago Park District day campers march down State Street on Aug. 13, 1976, in the bicentennial version of Youth on Parade, an annual event co-sponsored by Mayor Richard J. Daley’s Neighborhood Summer Program. More than 20,000 costumed youngsters participated. (Walter Kale/baiduhai)

Vintage Tribune: Bicentennial celebrations included a Freedom Train stuffed with memorabilia

July 5, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Mixed responses to the American Freedom Train matched the national mood as the United States approached its Bicentennial celebration in 1976.

In this letter written in French and dated Oct. 26, 1778, a British officer orders two subordinates to travel to Illinois from Michigan with Potawatomi reinforcements to help identify and detain sympathizers to the American rebellion. The letter is in the Newberry Library's collection. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

Vintage baiduhai: Two men’s connections to the American Revolution, one real and one invented

June 29, 2026 at 11:11 a.m.

While Kennison’s claims gave Chicago a connection to the Revolution many wanted to believe, DuSable’s lived experiences reveal the complexities of that moment.

Don Herbert, better known as Mr. Wizard, demonstrates the principles of the inclined plane in 1954 using one of his famous Rube Goldberg contraptions made out of household equipment. (Fran Byrne Photography)

Vintage Tribune: Mr. Wizard’s science show held children spellbound

March 9, 2026 at 12:00 p.m.

Each week on "Watch Mr. Wizard," Don Herbert used household objects to conduct an easily replicated experiment that illustrated a scientific concept.

Film critics Roger Ebert, left, and Gene Siskel pose on the set of their TV show in 1976. The set used forced perspective to create the illusion that they were watching film clips from a theater’s balcony. (WTTW)

When Siskel met Ebert: Dueling critics made TV history with show about the movies

November 24, 2025 at 5:41 p.m.

Two critics watching movie clips and debating the strengths and weaknesses of movies currently in theaters — who wouldn’t want to watch that?

Mary “May” Bangs and her sister, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bangs, shown in an undated photo, spent almost a half-century working as spiritualist mediums, purporting to be able to communicate with the dead. (Camp Chesterfield Collection/Indiana University Indianapolis)

Vintage Tribune: Amid a fad for Spiritualism, sister act drew crowds with messages from beyond

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

In the wake of the Civil War, Spiritualism offered a comforting belief in an afterworld populated by the dead but accessible to the living.

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