INFUSORIA The Next Theatre Company Writer-director Dexter Bullard clearly had a good idea when he decided to build a play on the basic story of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, shifting the setting from 19th-century Norway to late-20th-century Chicago. However, for some reason his heart seems to have resisted following where his brain […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 8
Issue of Dec. 6 – 12, 1990
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
I read recently in the paper that approximately 1,000 frogs rained from the sky on a city in France. Is this actually possible? Do I need to take cover next time I see a dark cloud overhead? Help, I don’t want to croak! –Joe Athey, Annandale, Virginia Watch the puns, Joey. People have been targeted […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Invasions of Privacy
To the editors: It looks like the Reader has joined the rush to push the First Amendment to its limits by being offensive, irresponsible, and demeaning to women just to show you can. Something can be legal to do and still be morally wrong. If your publisher, Robert Roth, had decided to expose a girl’s […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
Sorry, I won’t be able to come over the evening of December 31. I have other plans… Walgreen pharmacist Pauline Cheung advises consumers to “weed out your medicine cabinet once a year” to get rid of outdated drugs. “Because it’s an easy date to remember, I do mine every New Year’s Eve!” Things you never […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Successful Censor
To the editors: As business manager for the New Art Examiner from June of 1987 through February of 1989, I was well aware that the magazine’s sometimes precarious financial position put it at the mercy of its printing company. Despite limited resources and low pay, every member of the Examiner’s staff put out substantial effort […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Good News at North Shore Shelter
To the editors: As a five year veteran volunteer at the Evanston/North Shore Shelter for victims of domestic violence [Neighborhood News, November 9], I would like to report that there is GOOD NEWS (if that is printable!). Over the past five years I have seen the Shelter grow in number and quality of staff; I […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Field & Street
At least 110 species of birds nested in Cook County in 1990. Five of them were exotics: pigeons, starlings, house sparrows, mute swans, and monk parakeets. The other 105 were natives. We have these numbers thanks to an army of 196 volunteer observers who devoted free time in spring and early summer to searching parks, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Who Does Chet Coppock Really Work For?
To the editors. “How do you describe Chet Coppock without insulting him?” asked Michael G. Glab in “Sport of Sports,” his reverent look at Chicago’s longtime sports personality, the one, the only, the inimitable, Mr. Chet Coppock (August 24). Well, how does Coppock describe himself? “I love to perform,” Coppock told Glab. “I’m a showboat […]
Posted inArts & Culture
David Dorfman Dance
DAVID DORFMAN DANCE at the Dance Center of Columbia College November 30 and December 1 and 2 Just when you think you’ve got David Dorfman’s choreography typed, his work moves off in another direction. His strongest dances are tightly focused, neatly trimmed, and somehow emotionally exhausting no matter what they’re about–a personal encounter with mortality, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Wallowing in the Poo-Sniffing Pit of Mediocrity
To the editors: I was really sad to read Mr. Wyman’s article on XRT [“So Many Records, So Little Time,” November 16], which basically amounted to a free 12-page advertisement for the station. There are several reasons for my feelings toward this article, most of them having to do with Bill Wyman’s embracing the station […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Convicted murderer Thomas Marston argued in his recent appeal that conflicts of interest were responsible for his 1985 conviction in Mendocino County, California. He submitted evidence that his attorney had fathered the child of the then district attorney, who Marston claimed was hassling the father for support at the time of the trial. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Lion and the Jewel
THE LION AND THE JEWEL Court Theatre I suppose I could look at it any number of ways. I could choose to see The Lion and the Jewel as a chance to watch some really sharp Nigerian-style choreography, done to some really rich Nigerian-style percussion: A trio of drummers shows up from time to time […]
Posted inFilm
Celebrity Guest
MISERY ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Rob Reiner Written by William Goldman With James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, and Lauren Bacall. Although it didn’t impress me too much when I first saw it, The King of Comedy has gradually come to seem the most important and resonant of Martin Scorsese’s features, largely […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Children of Vietnam
Conceived in war, shunned in their homeland, stuck for years in a diplomatic morass, they’ve come to Chicago to find their fathers and their future.