'Chicago' Category
Narrow Escape
An excited mob of bicyclists took over the intersection of East Monroe Drive and South Michigan Avenue while I was on my way home from work. At first I thought this stream of noisy cyclists was Critical Mass out for their last Friday of the month, traffic-stopping escapades. And it might have been part […]
Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried
My first experience with Wax Trax Records happened in the mid-80s. I happened upon the store late. The founders had moved on to Chicago to start a record label by the same name. They maintained ownership of the original store in the seedy Capital Hill area of Denver, just south of Colfax Avenue behind the […]
Members Nights
Whirl has worked at the Field Museum for ten years. She’s worked for a number of departments and divisions in that time doing a wide array of different jobs. We have joked that she seems to be collecting various divisions as a twelve year-old boy might collect baseball cards and have gone so far with […]
The Crucible
The Chicago Public Library picked The Crucible as the Fall 2007 selection for One Book, One Chicago. Writing The Crucible in 1952, Arthur Miller presents the Salem witch trials as a mirror by which to reflect the anti-communist hysteria embodied by Senator Joseph McCarthy. But more than that, the play—like so many Arthur Miller plays—revolves […]
Sin in the Second City
At the turn of the 20th Century, the sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh ran one of the most upscale brothels in Chicago: the Everleigh Club. The house, decorated with perfumed fountains, mirrored ceilings and a $15,000 gold-leafed piano in the Music Room, stood at 2131-2133 South Dearborn Street, not far from where Whirl and I […]
Chicago Tourists
My sister, Stephanie—not to be confused with my child bride of the same name—arrived in Chicago on Friday evening as I was flying back from Pittsburgh. (Yes, I passed the exams, thank you for asking. Aced them, in fact.) She stayed with us for the weekend and flew back out to Colorado this afternoon. It […]
Walk On
Clark Street cuts through a diverse section of Chicago. From north to south, Clark touches all of these neighborhoods: Rogers Park, Edgewater, Andersonville, Uptown, Sheridan Park, Lakeview, Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, the Near North Side, the Gold Coast, the Loop, Printer’s Row, the South Loop, the Near South Side and Chinatown. Some of those areas are […]
One More Time
Mike Royko wrote a newspaper column in Chicago for thirty-four years. He started at the Daily News, then moved to the Sun-Times when the Daily News shut its doors. In 1984 he left the Sun-Times for the rival Chicago Tribune when the Sun-Times sold to Rupert Murdoch, claiming, “No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in […]
A Chicago Tavern
Rick Kogan works as the host of WGN radio’s “Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan” and a senior writer and “Sidewalks” columnist at the Chicago Tribune. Years ago I counted myself a regular at the Billy Goat tavern on Washington– not the original, but filled with some shared history. But I know only the myths and […]
On Chicago and the Midwest
Over the past few days Whirl and I have been having a discussion about the geo-cultural classification of Chicago. Stated in the simplest terms: Is Chicago part of the Midwest? I hold that Chicago is part of the Midwest. My child bride does not. I must note that this discussion is not premised upon a […]
