‘Playing guns,’ spaghetti Westerns and our violent gun culture
I grew up with guns. Along with my boyhood pals, I grew up coveting, collecting and running wild with guns. "Let's play guns!" was our sham battle cry during those...
All Stories
The trees of life in a leafy neighborhood
Coming home from school one spring afternoon, I discovered my father had carried out his threat to have our weeping willow cut down. This left a huge void in our...
From the Archive: Uncensored ‘From Here to Eternity’ found
Editor's note: Dec. 7 is Pearl Harbor Day, so we thought we'd revisit James Jones' classic, "From Here to Eternity." In 1990, an early, unedited manuscript was found in a...
The incredible shrinking Scrabble player
Back in the pre-polyester days, there was a widely advertised process known as Sanforizing that was guaranteed to prevent men's shirts from shrinking. Little is heard about this miracle treatment...
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow, a literary giant who conducted a lifelong love affair with Chicago and employed the city as a major character in many of his novels, died Tuesday at his...
NOVEMBER 8, 1900
Frank Doubleday publishes Theodore Dreiser's novel that helps establish an enduring Chicago tradition: fiction in the raw, tawdry but compassionate. Published on this date, Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" was among...
Butch O’Hare: WWII flying ace
As World War II fades to sepia, so does the public memory of Edward "Butch" O'Hare. For the millions of travelers who pass through every year, O'Hare International Airport might...
ROMANTIC WORKS
In a concert weekend dominated by choral music, the program of English Romantic works by His Majestie's Clerkes is of special interest. Anne Heider will lead her a cappella choir...
BRANCHING OUT
The annual Rhino Theatre and Performance Festival, now in its 7th year, gets under way Jan. 31, promising 23 new works and 70 performances in a five-week run in three...
MANUSCRIPT FOUND ON IZZI IS A MYSTERY TO PUBLISHER
Officials of the firm that published the books of crime novelist Eugene Izzi said Wednesday they weren't aware he had written a manuscript about a near-murder that closely parallels his...