Columns & Opinion Archives

Columns & Opinion

Have you spoken to your FinDom adviser about retirement?

by Dan Savage October 25, 2021October 25, 2021

A beautiful, complicated, generous, fraught, and compassionate idea

On Politics

The “fuckton” twins . . .

by Ben Joravsky October 20, 2021October 20, 2021

I was fired up to excoriate Mayor Lightfoot for her recent “fuckton” comments, when . . . John Catanzara released a video of himself holding a sign that read: “John Catanzara for mayor 2023.” And immediately I was overwhelmed with an urge to excoriate him. As Johnny C has come to Lightfoot’s rescue with his […]

Columns & Opinion

Minding the age gap

by Dan Savage October 15, 2021October 15, 2021

Just because you drove to another state to hook up with a teenager doesn’t mean you weren’t the victim of sexual assault.

Growing for Good with Green Thumb

Fully Free Campaign: Directly impacted individuals changing laws and creating opportunities

Columns & Opinion

A note on this week’s cover

by Brianna Wellen October 13, 2021October 14, 2021

And also a goodbye

On Culture

No assignments, no deadlines, no promises, no job

by Deanna Isaacs October 13, 2021October 15, 2021

It’s 1980, and I am unemployed. After giving up a staff writer job at the esteemed St. Petersburg Times to return to Chicago, I have found myself, as the saying goes, shit out of luck. Chicago has gone from four daily newspapers to two, and is awash in unemployed journalists, all more experienced than me. […]

Opinion

A deadly drone program lifted by lies

by Leonard C. Goodman October 13, 2021October 12, 2021

Leonard C. Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense attorney and co-owner of the for-profit arm of the Reader. On August 29, in the final days of our 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, the United States launched a drone strike, firing a 20-pound Hellfire missile at an aid worker named Zemari Ahmadi as he parked his car […]

On Politics

The long haul

by Ben Joravsky October 13, 2021October 15, 2021

I’ve been writing for the Reader for so long that lots of you may think I’ve always been writing for the Reader. Like, you know, I hopped out of my mother’s womb with a pencil in my hand and a question or two for the doctor about TIFs. Not true—I didn’t have a pencil in […]

Uncategorized

Be the sex-positive perv you want to see in the world

by Dan Savage October 7, 2021October 15, 2021

Quickies on sexting, frustrating fantasies, and more

On Transportation

Here’s how we can build a citywide protected bike lane network

by John Greenfield October 7, 2021October 7, 2021

In some ways the city’s surprise announcement last month that it’s spending $17 million in funds from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Works infrastructure program to build or upgrade 100 miles of bike lanes in 2021 and 2022 was welcome news. But there are also some disappointing aspects of the plan, which I’ll get to in […]

On Politics

Sorry, Arlington Heights

by Ben Joravsky October 6, 2021October 5, 2021

Pound for pound the funniest headline for the last week, if not month, came from the unlikeliest source—Crain’s Chicago Business. Not widely known for its knee-slappers. But in this case they had me laughing out loud, when a few days ago they posed the following question in a mass e-mailed clickbait post: “A new Bears […]