David McGrath

McGrath: My romantic gestures might be few and far between but when I do them, they’re the real thing

February 11, 2023 at 12:55 a.m.

Last Valentine's Day, Marianne told me I am not romantic anymore. "Not true," I said. "I was never romantic." "Ha, ha," she said, rolling her eyes. She got me thinking,...

Faculty at the University of Florida discuss how to deal with ChatGPT on Jan. 13, 2023, in Gainesville. In response to the increased student use of ChatGPT, a chatbot that generates articulate and nuanced text, colleges and universities are restructuring some courses and taking preventive measures.

David McGrath: How teachers can defeat ChatGPT-using students

January 27, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.

An administrator at the college where I was teaching English called to say a lawsuit had been filed against the school by a student with hearing loss, alleging I violated...

A gas station attendant and a road map were once reliable sources for driving directions.

David McGrath: Give me old things for the new year. Bring back paper maps and pay phones.

December 31, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.

Unlike many of my boomer brethren, I do not yearn for the good old days. Instead, I embrace change and shed no tears for the disappearance of manual typewriters, four-barrel...

David McGrath: A Gulf Coast Christmas vacation didn’t go quite as planned. But I’ve kept my promise.

December 23, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.

Marianne and I had been married 25 years when I had a brainstorm: As a family Christmas gift to ourselves, why not a tropical vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama? In...

Howard Stern at the 33rd annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Public Auditorium on April 14, 2018, in Cleveland, Ohio.

David McGrath: Grateful people are happier. In that spirit, here is my Thanksgiving list.

November 24, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.

In his book "Music of Silence," Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast writes: "Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is...

David McGrath: Turning back the clock to 1962: The redemption of a shoplifting middle school benchwarmer

November 29, 2022 at 7:58 p.m.

At the end of every October, I grow anxious. Irritated. The reason, I tell everybody, is that it will take a month of restless sleep before I acclimate to the...

Pets take shelter in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Ian at Erwin Technical College, a pet-friendly shelter for people with special needs, on Sept. 28, 2022, in Tampa, Florida.

David McGrath: Lessons from surviving Hurricane Ian

October 5, 2022 at 6:53 p.m.

Meteorologists can predict hurricanes as soon as they're born and gauge their size, speed and time of arrival with increasing accuracy — though ascertaining their precise route remains a work...

David McGrath: What changed my mind about going to school reunions

September 13, 2022 at 2:26 p.m.

After reading the invitation to my Evergreen Park High School reunion, I forwarded it to my wife for laughs, just before deleting it. The prospect of attending a gathering of...

David and Marianne McGrath in a DuPage County forest preserve in 2012.

David McGrath: A winning formula for a loving marriage? Communication and compromise.

August 20, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

When my wife and I got married in August of 1972, I was a substitute teacher for Chicago Public Schools earning $40 a day. Marianne had a permanent gig as...

President Gerald Ford signs a document Sept. 8, 1974, at the White House granting former President Richard M. Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon" for all "offenses against the United States" during his presidency.

David McGrath: Biden should consider pardoning Trump — for the sake of our nation

August 5, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

Among my earliest attempts at fiction was "The Misfit," a short story about a brilliant, competitive, though anti-social and paranoid college student. The writing was amateurish, but the story was...

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