Column: Farewell, for now, though not forever, for certain
When I started as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, more than a decade ago, in between covering shootings and assaults, the regular tragedies of city life, I also wrote...
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Column: Sometimes you need a dead squirrel disposal service, and that’s OK
My husband disposed of a dead body the other day. I broke the news to him gently. "Honey, there's an ead-day irrel-squay in the ool-pay," I said, holding the hand...
Column: Camping is not for me: A diatribe
My son wants to go camping. I, on the other hand, would rather have all of my teeth pulled out, slowly, one-by-one, sans anesthesia, by a guy who does dentistry...
Column: It’s just a pig ordinance — until it’s your pig
In 10th grade, I took a government class, one mandated by state law. Every sophomore in the school — both honors-track and regular students — sat there, together, for what...
Column: The ugly truth of the Alden sale, and how newspapers might survive
News broke midday on Friday that stockholders had approved a deal to sell Tribune Publishing to Alden Global Capital, a particularly sterile and heartless-sounding name, even for a hedge fund....
Column: I’d rather have explained the birds and bees to my son, but instead we talked about death
My first memory is of a nightmare. I was 3 years old the first time I had the dream, which recurred for years. In it, a tiny witch, no bigger...
Column: Waiting tables stinks, and that’s why post-COVID, no one wants to do it
In a former life, I waited tables. To give you a hint of exactly how long ago, I'll say only this: The restaurant had a pay phone in it. My...
Column: When it comes to Mother’s Day and sadness, you often can’t have one without the other
For years, Mother's Day made me sad. Well, no, that's not accurate. It wasn't the fault of Mother's Day, exactly. Infertility made me sad. But it made me sad on...
Column: Letter from a vaccine-hesitant Florentine in 1348
Florence, Italy, 1348 Greetings, my dear friend Francesco. How is life in Siena? Here, in my castle a short distance from the Arno River, my family and many servants have...
Column: We’re all just particles bouncing off one another, tied together by a very big universe
Among all the particles in the universe, most are invisible. We only know that those mysterious particles, "dark matter," exist because of their interaction with the world before they disappear,...