To the editors: Andersonville is a lovely neighborhood, boasting quaint, well-preserved architecture and a diverse assortment of shops, restaurants, and cafes. I love living here. But one thing is sorely lacking: a good, general-interest bookstore. The one bookstore we do have, Women & Children First [“Breaking the Chains,” June 4], is a decent place to […]
Author Archives: David Futrelle
Posted inNews & Politics
Who Owns Allen Ross?
Hey editors! Maybe Jack Helbig, who wrote a story for the Reader several years ago on the disappearance of Chicago filmmaker Allen Ross, does deserve more than a cursory mention in the end credits of Christian Bauer’s new documentary on the same subject. But Deanna Isaacs’s column on the, er, controversy [Culture Club, December 14] […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fantastic Plastic
Our love affair with the “natural” may well do the world more damage than would a sensible acceptance of synthetic alternatives.
Posted inNews & Politics
Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Letters
An appreciation of the “lost” manifestos and pamphlets of “Camden Joy,” guerrilla critic.
Posted inNews & Politics
All Apologies
It’s been 15 years since Janet Cooke faked her Pulitzer-winning story. Now she says she’s sorry, but maybe sorry just isn’t good enough.
Posted inNews & Politics
Believe the Children
To the editors: A letter from Believe the Children executive director Beth Vargo appeared in the Reader March 29, accusing me of misrepresenting her organization in my article “The Mouths of Babes” (March 15). Several points deserve further clarification. (1) There is nothing unethical about quoting from the public record, as Vargo absurdly suggested. She […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Mouths of Babes
Prosecutors and the press ate up the horrible tale of abuse told by the Hill children. With so many similar cases being discredited, why was everyone so quick to believe it?
Posted inNews & Politics
Mere Coincidence?
The FBI is scouring the country for the Unabomber–but is their search a classic case of misdirection? The best place to hide, they say, is right out in the open. Maybe the Unabomber is one of the most visible men in America. Maybe he’s Bill Gates. Think about it. A close study reveals some suspicious […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Daily Blunders
It’s easy, too easy, to make fun of the lowly “corrections” columns in the daily papers. When, for example, the Tribune announces, as it did in July of this year, that “The name of Richard Seaman, vice president of Evanston’s Fourth of July Association, was misspelled in Thursday’s Chicagoland story about fireworks celebrations,” we cannot […]
Posted inMusic
Reluctant Heroine
Amps Pacer (Elektra) Kim Deal is a long-distance runner, albeit one who has to be coaxed to run at all. Deal’s voice first hit my ears back in 1988. Her song “Gigantic,” on the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, was a pop-punk masterpiece with a deceptively simple chorus that wouldn’t leave my brain. But that was her […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Truths and Consequences
The Unabomber has few explicit fans, but some regard him with a certain respect: at least he knows how to get attention.
Posted inArts & Culture
Marx on the Skids
A totured psyche, a bankrupt ideology, the fatal flaws of a man and his revolution.