Rob Manker – Page 8 –

Manker: Oven-baked, deep-fried, smoked – best Thanksgiving bird gets bragging rights

June 8, 2018 at 11:18 p.m.

One could see the photo that accompanies this column as the epitome of excess. "Three turkeys?" you might say. "Who the heck needs three turkeys?" And to be sure, these...

Chris Herren, left, is pictured here as a member of the Boston Celtics with head coach Rick Pitino in a losing game to the Philadelphia 76ers in Boston in 2000.

Manker: Asking ‘why’ key to root of drug/alcohol addiction, one-time NBA player says

June 9, 2018 at 2:29 a.m.

When talking about the circumstances that led to his drug use, addiction and near-death, Chris Herren spares no detail. He lays bare the pain he hoped the high would soothe,...

Manker: Regardless of outcome, be proud if you voted and made your voice heard

June 9, 2018 at 4:09 a.m.

Though we may disagree about who's the best candidate and how our nation should be governed, surely we can all agree this has been the most extraordinary presidential election in...

Manker: Hard to beat block party on same day as Cubs’ World Series game

June 9, 2018 at 6:22 a.m.

Few things will make you feel at one with your neighborhood quite like a block party. Our official neighborhood block party is held on a Saturday night in August, usually...

Getting leaves to the curb in time to be picked up for free by Naperville trucks is so much easier when the kids are there to help.

Manker: Be grateful for the help today because it may be gone tomorrow

June 9, 2018 at 8:30 a.m.

The torch has been passed. Or the leaf blower, as the case may be. For most of the 14 years we've lived in our house, the primary leaf raking, blowing,...

Manker: Cubs pose parental dilemmas our great-grandparents never faced

May 16, 2019 at 6:01 a.m.

With the Chicago Cubs potentially on the verge of reaching the World Series – and, egad, possibly winning one! – it's time to again consider the potential ramifications for our...

This photo of Donna Rice sitting on the lap of Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart was enough to end Hart's political career in 1987.

Manker: Cover the kids’ ears – the presidential debates are coming on

May 16, 2019 at 6:01 a.m.

If you're a child of the 1980s, Gary Hart, Donna Rice and a boat called the Monkey Business are likely etched into some distant corner of your pop culture memory....

Illinois parents pay their teens an average of $9.40 in allowance every time they cut the grass at the family home, according to a survey by Country Financial Services.

Manker: Kids’ allowances these days add up to serious moola, survey shows

June 9, 2018 at 2:02 p.m.

Heavy snowfalls were one of my favorite events as a child. Not just because it meant village plows would heap towering, fort-worthy snow piles at the end of my block...

Give your kids a cell phone, and it's almost as if they've grown new appendage overnight -- one that doesn't respond when you acually try calling them on one of the ever-present devices, columnist Rob Manker says.

Manker: Parents pay when kids go ‘mobile,’ but good luck getting them to answer

May 16, 2019 at 6:00 a.m.

We're an Apple family at our house, which ensures that each time a new iPhone is rumored, announced or released, conversation turns to who will get the new device first....

Manker: Cutting down emerald ash borer-infested tree hurts more than you expect

June 12, 2018 at 6:08 a.m.

The tree's once-thick canopy has been gone for a while now, replaced by countless bare, spindly branches where green leafy limbs once were abundant. The thinning started a year or...

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