Something else took me to Arizona last week, but on what the locals considered a pleasant Tuesday afternoon I was in Surprise Stadium, in the Phoenix suburb of the same name, for the Cubs’s final preseason game. They were facing the Texas Rangers. Both teams were wearing Cubbie blue. The temperature on the field was […]
Category: Columns & Opinion
Posted inOn Politics
Thinking like us
In a year in which Republicans are trying to scare white people into voting Republican, Richard Irvin has taken things one step further. He’s running a commercial intended to win over the “right” (think MAGA) kind of white people by assuring them he’s scaring the shit out of the wrong kind of white people (think […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Turn that pelvic frown upside down
And why you shouldn’t give your money to Gertrude
Posted inStaff notes
A note from the writer of this week’s cover story
The battle is only a fraction of the art—to experience breaking is also to experience a dance and a community which exists to itself and for itself, yet which holds hope and promise for anyone willing to watch, learn, and practice.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Forever vs. now
I’ve always thought of this column (and my podcast) as a conversation I’m having with friends about our love and/or sex lives after we’d had a few drinks. (Or, these days, shared an edible.)
Posted inOn Culture
Coming of age in an ordinary and dangerous place
Journalist Charles M. Blow once wrote in his New York Times column that he “likes to think of himself as a Southern writer.” His childhood in Gibsland, Louisiana, shaped his writing, and in the south, “you don’t so much say words as sing them.” Now, at Lyric Opera, his own story is literally being sung. […]
Posted inOn Politics
A bad hand
Now that Mayor Lightfoot has officially revealed the three finalists for Chicago’s casino, the bamboozling of the city will begin. Oh, Chicago, you know you’re getting bamboozled. I think you sorta like it—a little attention from the boss. It’s like you matter as they try to win you over into supporting something you don’t really […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Opinion: Chicago must invest in communities to counter gun violence
We need money for schools, after-school programs, and mental health to change the status quo.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Enemies of enemies
State Senator Martwick must be doing something right if John Catanzara and Mayor Lightfoot dislike him so much.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Searching for answers
I get a lotta unsolicited dick pics in my line of work—not complaining, just saying—and half the dicks I see in any given week have pubes. So, there are plenty of naturally hairy guys out there for you to choose from.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Age-old problems
It’s important that you’re feeling aroused—not feeling dread—when your lover is on his way over.
Posted inOn Transportation
Lawsuit to force Chicago to retrofit intersections for vision-impaired pedestrians advances
Chicago’s dearth of accessible signals is “a huge pain in the ass,” says legally blind artist and musician Andy Slater.
Posted inStaff notes
A note on this week’s cover story about chef Amanda Barnes
A few weeks ago there were ten raw half chickens “dry-aging” at the Kedzie Inn in Irving Park, their skins exposed to the ambient cold of the cooler. Those scare quotes are a tell that this isn’t quite the same lengthy process as the one used to concentrate beefy flavor in fine steaks, but it’s […]
Posted inOn Culture
A resonant Tosca
There’s a war raging in Europe. A brutal clash that includes an entrenched repressive autocracy and ordinary civilians determined to fight for their freedom. Tyrannical power is vested in one man—a deranged “security” professional who cares only about his own twisted agenda. He decides who lives and dies; everyone trembles before him. Someone needs to […]
Posted inOn Politics
Jussie justice
Let’s start with an apology to readers tired of reading about Jussie Smollett—because having watched last week’s sentencing, I just got to get something off my chest . . . 150 days! Are you kidding me? My Smollett-hating readers, I realize, have a point—there are far more compelling matters to discuss, what with the species […]