Jack Spatafora

I'm not always a big fan of the 1st Amendment, now being featured in the Tribune's elegant new North Michigan Avenue museum, the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum ("Museum puts freedom...

We can listen at least four times faster than we can talk. That's what the studies show, which suggests that while someone is talking to us we are processing the...

Spring is here, for seasons change. Still some things never change. Take cable television and the way some channels air the same kind of programming night after night. A careful...

Tonight's Oscars got me thinking. The arts--so essential to our humanity--have changed dramatically over the years, with some unpredictable consequences. At one time they were the exclusive domain of the...

I ask you, where do hockey players train? Or football squads? Or basketball teams? Usually somewhere inside--closed rinks and gyms. But baseball! Its players travel each February en masse to...

Remember what we saw all during the recent holidays, the wonderful commotion of youngsters who populated them--populated them with their eager eyes, their anticipatory smiles, their hopeful lists and, most...

New Year's resolutions, when drafted wisely and embraced fully, can transfigure our lives. Still, you know that most resolutions simply have to do with our everyday health habits. Once again...

We're living in a nation of large things--suspension bridges, skyscrapers and space shuttles. And at the same time we're living in a season of large things--sprawling malls, holiday displays and...

Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas--these are holidays about warm feelings for our children, our families and our fellow man. The bloody news of continued suicide bombings around the globe seems terribly intrusive...

I have this theory. All those wonderful food shows--they're not really about food! During this holiday season, these TV programs will fill the air with exotic recipes for hams and...