When we first started planning this special winter arts issue, there was reason for cautious optimism about live performances. But as December turned to January and the Omicron surge hit, several companies did what they’ve been doing for almost two years: they made new plans. Bridgette M. Redman profiles playwright Cat McKay, whose show Plaid […]
Category: Columns & Opinion
Posted inOn Culture
A survivor’s tour of Auschwitz
She didn’t want to talk about it. Fritzie Fritzshall survived Auschwitz, came to Chicago, and built what most of us are lucky enough to think of as a normal life, with work and marriage, a child and a home. She did it by putting her Auschwitz experience in a mental box and shutting it away. […]
Posted inOn Politics
Listen to Olin
With another disappointing Bears season having finally, mercifully, come to an end, the time has once again come for me to once again ask the burning question . . . No, not who the McCaskeys will hire as coach now that they’ve fired Matt Nagy, about a year after it was obvious he was the […]
Posted inOn Politics
MAGA science
Having spent the better part of the last week closely following the showdown between CPS and its teachers, I’ve concluded there’s no way Mayor Lightfoot truly believes the positions she’s been taking. Not unless the mayor—who ran as a progressive—has suddenly transformed into a Chicago version of Ron DeSantis, ’cause the stuff she’s been spouting […]
Posted inStaff notes
A note on this week’s cover
Our cover this week was born out of a sense of uncertainty, something most of us have been feeling for about 22 months now.
Posted inOn Politics
Good news, Dems
I’m happy to report a little good news as we head off into the new year—Donald Trump has endorsed Mary Miller in her race against Rodney Davis in the 15th Congressional District. I know you must be wondering why I think a Trump endorsement is good news. It’s because Davis and Miller are incumbent congresspeople […]
Posted inOn Culture
Arts folk: what would you do with $20 million?
How bad is COVID-19 damage to the arts sector? Arts Alliance Illinois says it’s been researching that question and will be releasing the results any day now. I didn’t have them by press time, but it’s safe to assume they’ll be brutal. The heads of both the AAI and Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Commitment issues
An economy-sized box of enemas, a colleague who won’t end his marriage, and a wife who doesn’t want to swing
Posted inOn Culture
Thompson Center survival is glad tidings
Everybody knows, especially at this season of the year, it’s a bad idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. But what if he opens it? What if he flashes you a great big horsey smile? And you just can’t look away fast enough? I’m asking because we got a wonderful gift last week, […]
Posted inOn Politics
The year of the mogul
Wirtz, Reinsdorf, and Ricketts battle Bluhm to see which mogul the mayor
and council love the most.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Peanut butter question
Put the jar down, then get a divorce and a (human) lover.
Posted inOn Politics
Soak the suckers
In the days since a Cook County jury declared Jussie Smollett guilty, guilty, guilty I’ve been wondering how Republicans will use the verdict to squeeze even more money from the suckers and saps who finance the MAGA cause. This ongoing shakedown of MAGA by MAGA is something I know a lot about. As I receive […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A note on this week’s cover story
Lincoln Park nightclub Neo closed for good in the middle of the summer six years ago. So why write about it now?
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Why shareabortionpill.info matters now more than ever
Plus, why you shouldn’t get your straight friend a shiny latex gimp suit