Mary Schmich

Mary Schmich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former Chicago Tribune columnist, is host of the podcast “Division Street Revisited.”

Ten-year-old twins Samrya Cribbs, center, and Samya Cribbs look on as their father, Sonny, prepares them a cool beverage as the Brookfield family hangs out at 31st Street Beach in Chicago on June 5, 2021.

Column: On a walk in a park in a different part of town you can learn surprising things. Try it.

May 26, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

Here's an idea for how to make your summer more interesting: Visit a park outside your neighborhood. Walk around. Look around. Talk to a stranger. Do it once. Do it...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at a rally to denounce recent actions taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a news conference from the agency's field office director, Robert Guadian, not pictured, in the 500 block of South Clark Street on Sept. 26, 2019.

Column: Honorable? Overwhelmed? Disappointing? What one word would you use to describe Mayor Lori Lightfoot?

May 22, 2021 at 1:19 p.m.

Choose one of the following words to describe Lori Lightfoot during her time as mayor of Chicago: Tough Disappointing Overwhelmed Honorable Bully Effortful Well-intentioned Emotional Unprepared Cloistered Thin-skinned Badass Exhausted...

A Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is ready during a vaccination event on May 2, 2021, in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.

Column: Goodbye to the year of living day by day. For better and worse, it’s time to plan again.

May 19, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

Not long into the pandemic, whenever someone asked me "How are you?" I took to saying the most honest thing I knew: "Just living day by day." The first time...

Visitors walk along reopened Navy Pier on May 2, 2021, in Chicago.

Column: Hey, don’t throw away those masks yet!

May 15, 2021 at 7:52 p.m.

What will I do with all my masks now? Shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its new mask guidelines Thursday, I saw several people ask that...

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 28, 2021.

Column: A new TrumPoem: The leader of the GOP? It isn’t Liz, it’s me, me, me.

May 14, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

This is the latest in my occasional TrumPoems, based, as always, on the words and actions of former President Donald J. Trump. Hello, old friends! It's been a while But...

Sofas are stacked in the new warehouse for the nonprofit Chicago Furniture Bank on May 11, 2021.

Column: ‘A one-of-a-kind person and mentor’: Jim Mabie’s legacy includes helping 3 young men dream big

May 12, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

There are lots of stories that could be told about Jim Mabie's philanthropy in Chicago, tales of the boards he sat on, the millions he gave away, the long legacy...

Mary Schmich's mother, Mary Ellen Schmich, right, and Mary Ellen's best friend, Martha Ginn, in Georgia 2008.

Column: In praise of our mothers’ best friends

May 9, 2021 at 1:28 p.m.

My mother and her best friend Martha were in their mid-80s when they saw each other for the last time. They had been friends since they were 18, both of...

An eastern chipmunk nibbles grain near the front door of a home in Evanston on Oct. 17, 2020.

Column: Instead of politics and doom, let’s talk about birds and chipmunks

May 7, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

For just a moment, forget Donald Trump. And Liz Cheney. And today's top trending Twitter villain, whoever that may be. Take a break from all the so-called news that lures...

Mary Schmich's laptop's in the shop, so she wrote a column by hand.

Column: My laptop’s in the shop. So I did something radical — wrote a column by hand.

May 5, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

We live in a world of devices designed to make life easy. The toaster. The phone. The laptop. We grow dependent on these objects, rarely pausing to think how lost...

Amanda Harper, left, and Payton Guinan drink margaritas at the bar at Big Star on March 2, 2021, in Chicago.

Column: Ready to go back to the gym? Eat inside a restaurant? Fly? Take our Pandemic Self-Assessment Quiz

April 24, 2021 at 12:16 a.m.

Are you ready to eat inside a restaurant? Go to a movie in a theater? Would you go to a singalong in a closed room this December? If you're rolling...

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