Category: Letters

Obama Cover: Some Loved It, Some Not So Much Re: “Don’t Screw This Up,” November 5 How dare you print such a nasty cover page for all of America to see. If your paper has such a low image of our new president then maybe you all shouldn’t be in the business of news. What […]

Obama Then and Now Re: “What Makes Obama Run?” by Hank De Zutter, December 8, 1995 I wrote this article in 1995 and continue to be amazed at how similar the Obama then was and is to the Obama of the present. A few observations: 1. Some people wonder about his relationship with Alice Palmer—the […]

Joravsky for Mayor Re The Works, October 9 After I read “The Beginning and End of My Independent Political Career” (and finished laughing), I began to wonder how many others like me had cast a write-in vote for Ben Joravsky in the 2007 mayoral election. I started searching the Web for records of all the […]

Somebody’s Bad Day Just Got a Little Worse Re: 2 Good 2 B True Reading 2 Good 2 B True was like reading the diary of a stoned sixteen year old. It was utterly impossible to follow. Did you seriously MEAN to publish this story? Did you read it first? Please, tell me the wrong […]

Fanfic to the Rescue Re “Giving Fan Fiction Its Head” by Noah Berlatsky, October 2 I think there’s a link between shows of dubious quality and shows with a thriving fanfic community—the more inconsistencies and poor characterization in the series, the more room there is for fixing these things in fanfic. Torchwood is pretty much […]

The Polls Are In Re “Colonel McCormick, Get Ready to Roll Over: Is this the year the Tribune will endorse its first Democrat for president?” by Michael Miner, September 25 Prediction: Under pressure from higher-ups, Dold and staff endorse Obama. Disdainful of it all, they offer a weak argument and barely explain the “seismic shift,” […]

A Playwright’s Response Thanks for your review of Dr Egg and the Man With No Ear [September 18]. I am… visiting from Sydney, Australia, for a week to see the early performances here…. Suffice to say we have considered the message very strongly in the development, and tried to depict a scientist who has a […]

Not Illegal, Not Obnoxious Either Re “It’s Not Illegal to Be Obnoxious: A community activist is jailed after speaking 20 seconds too long at a Plan Commission hearing” by Ben Joravsky, September 11 I was there. Peter [Zelchenko] was not out of line. In fact, I didn’t even know he was arrested until the conclusion […]

Department of Amplification Re “Comedy on the Color Line” by Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen with Ron Rapoport and “A Pioneering Flop” by Michael Miner, September 4 As a longtime Chicagoan and friend of Tom Dreesen and Tim Reid I’ve enjoyed reading your extensive coverage of the Tim and Tom book. Good stuff! However, I […]

“We knew we had to have a candidate come out of the March 10 Movement. The slogan … was ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote.’ “—Omar Lopez in “The Browning of the Greens” Is a Green Party Vote Half Empty or Half Full? Re “The Browning of the Greens” by Kari Lydersen, August 14 I […]

In a culture that valued cloistered domesticity, a foot the shape and size of a lotus bud was the ticket to a more important kind of mobility. —”Brutal Beauty” by Deanna Isaacs Post-NYT Readers Re “Stop Big Media… Before It Stops Itself” by Michael Miner, August 7 [The New York Times‘s Chris] Hedges is clueless […]

Slattery didn’t realize the value of the photos. “I was just going to, like, shellac them to a van or something.” — “Master of Markets” by Anne Ford Market Insider Tip Re “Master of Markets” by Anne Ford, July 31 A reminder—Wolff’s/Rosemont is… closed for one weekend only, 8/9 and 8/10. They’re open every Sat. […]

“Not only has it not worked, it has sucked—and sucked the life out of the very entity that made it possible (WBEZ).” Radio Gaga Re “A Sound Experiment?” by Michael Miner, July 17 The mess over there is even bigger than this article makes out. The staff at BEZ tend to make less money than […]