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They’re squaring off in the Tribune Company boardroom, and the increasingly hostile wordplay popping up in official letters and press conferences got me thinking: what we really need in this world is the verbal equivalent of a dance-off. No lawyers, no long and protracted legal maneuvers, just skillful blather and perhaps a dictionary, and certainly [...]

I tend to forget that what I pay for a thing depends largely on me (well, us) in the first place. It’s easy to overlook our pricing capabilities because we’re not the ones setting them. But we do create the demand driving those prices, and it looks like we might soon be empowered to ease [...]

Thousands — THOUSANDS — are protesting the renaming of Marshall Fields to Macy’s on keepitfields.org. One sentimental rebel at the barricades bemoaned the potential passing of “our beloved tradition-filled, friendly department store paradise.” That’s right, paradise. A paradise where Frango mints fell from the sky and rooms were made of Walnut. A paradise so enticing [...]

The Pharaoh was in town this weekend, as were my folks, and my mom wanted to arrange a get-together. After nine months in Chicago, Renate and I had not yet been to the Field Museum. Meteorlogically speaking, my parents could not have picked a more picture-perfect weekend to make the trip from St. Louis, and [...]

Coudal Partners is currently running a highly entertaining contest on its site. The gist: combine the names of bands and books in oh-so-clever ways. The best of the best get listed on Coudal’s site, and the winners get the book and a CD by the band. Apparently Coudal is being flooded with entries, including the [...]

It’s time to do our part as water-loving citizens of Chicago. The Mayor and other intrepid city planners want to implement new standards that would reduce the amount of bacteria in the Chicago River and create an environment in which fish can thrive (and people can avoid staph infection). From yesterday’s Tribune: Unlike most other [...]

EXT. WACKER DRIVE – EARLY EVENING DREW walks down the street toward the subway station, leaving a voice message for HIS WIFE RENATE. A WOMAN approaches, waving at him. WOMAN Excuse me? Hi. Hello? Drew looks at the woman, then looks at his phone as if to say, “I’m on the phone.” The woman waits [...]

This morning as I sat down to leaf through the main section of the Tribune before Renate took it for her commute, I discovered that the Chicago Transit Authority has named its newest subway line “The Pink Line.” Not Silver, the second-runner up. Not Gold. Pink. “I don’t think so,” said Joseph Santoyo, 18, as [...]