Sun-Times Keeps a Secret If you believe with all your heart that David Dowaliby did not kill his daughter and no stone should be left unturned until he’s freed, you are likely to conclude that the conduct of the Chicago Sun-Times last year was unconscionable. But if you, like most of us, don’t know what […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 12
Issue of Jan. 3 – 9, 1991
Posted inArts & Culture
In Print: the sky above, the corn below
It is arguable that enjoying the farmlands of the midwest is an esoteric pursuit and something of an acquired taste, that no one can love a place so flat and seemingly featureless with the same passion reserved for rolling hills or rocky crags or crashing waves. You could even call it an intellectual game, a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Camp Thiaroye
It’s possible that a good half of the greatest African movies ever made are the work of novelist-turned filmmaker Ousmane Sembene (Black Girl, Xala, Ceddo). Camp Thiaroye, his first feature in 11 years, cowritten and codirected by Thierno Faty Sow, recounts an incident that actually occurred in 1944. Returning from four years of European combat […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Ladies’ Luncheon
There is a certain type of woman who eats lunch alone at Marshall Field’s. While others her age need walkers, she can still glide gracefully (if slowly) on tasteful Italian pumps. A hat could upset the balance of her expensively arranged coiffure, but she still dons one on special occasions. And she doesn’t wait for […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
The following geometry problem has haunted me for 30 years. Every math teacher, PhD, engineer, etc, I’ve shown it to was stumped. Now it’s your turn. Given any triangle ABC, extend the baseline and bisect the interior and exterior angles at A and B. Extend these four new lines until they intersect at D and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Seesaw Schools
To the editors: Ben Joravsky’s “A New School for Rogers Park? Not in Our Garden!” [December 7] rendered clear the facts of a controversial issue in our neighborhood. However, the untold story is one that does not merely pit a group of resident/gardeners against parents and principals fighting over new construction. This is a story […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
As others see us. Terry Jill Lassar in Urban Land (October 1990): “Like the Hancock Center, Marina City is a beloved Chicago landmark that is not yet old enough to have earned protection under the city’s historic preservation laws.” Priorities for suburbia. Headline from the newsletter of Bloomingdale’s Pet Rescue, Inc.: “Please Have a Heart […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Train Time
To the editors: These are comments on your review of Mr. O’Malley’s book about time [November 30], and I can’t be sure which parts of the review are taken from O’Malley and which is your commentary. I hope you will forgive me for choosing you as the most accessible target. Your review cited the situation […]
Posted inNews & Politics
World Update
To the editors: I have recently been shown your article “Children of Vietnam” (December 7), wherein a visitor questions why certain maps are labelled “Indochina” rather than “Vietnam.” The maps in question were installed in the early 1930s and never updated. We are aware of the problem and have been working on re-labelling the entire […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Capital Punishment
To the editors: Here are a few comments to an otherwise outstanding article on the death penalty (Reader, Nov. 30). One of the least publicized and best kept secrets is the effect the death penalty has on juries and judges. The Reader gives an example of how one jury was in a hurry to find […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Display of Innocence
To the editors: I hate to start another one of these chains of letters, but I wish to reply to the letter in the 12-7 issue dealing with the Mapplethorpe photo. Children will expose themselves at will, and think nothing of it, until they are scared into feeling that it is evil. The photo published […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Killer of Sheep
The first feature (1978) of the highly talented and singular black filmmaker Charles Burnett, all of whose films (including My Brother’s Wedding and To Sleep With Anger) are based in Watts; this one deals episodically with the life of a slaughterhouse worker (Henry Sanders). Shot on weekends over a year on a minuscule budget (less […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Crime and Art
To the editors: Bonnie McGrath’s recent article (December 7, 1990) romanticizing graffiti artist Erik DeBat has enraged more than a few of his neighbors in Roscoe Village. For a number of years we have been fighting a daily battle against the defacement of our homes and businesses caused by taggers, gangbangers, and graffiti “artists.” McGrath’s […]