-
Texts Today
I’ve had my issues with the Chicago Sun-Times, but I’m objecting this time to recent comments from one of its writers. Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg wrote one that was ostensibly about why Chicago Children’s Museum had missing lights on a recent national broadcast. He elsewhere described it as “a columny sort of column” from “a…
-
The Bigger Political Problem
Each day seems to bring more alarming news about the current Trump administration. Recent reports offer more details about Trump’s Board of Peace proposal, which he announced last week, for conflict in Gaza. Among others are the one billion dollars permanent member fee, his permanent appointment as its leader, and the inclusion of the Russian…
-
Plagued By Its Own Success
The Plague, which was officially released on 24 December and nationally available soon thereafter, was good but could have been even better. This psychological thriller, which is set in a summer water polo camp, immerses audiences within teenage social dynamics. Ringleader Jake (Kayo Martin) and the other campers act as if Eli’s (Kenny Rasmussen) acne…
-
Ample Abundance
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (2025) in their recent co-authored book offer an assessment of and an alternative for the American political state of affairs. Klein and Thompson criticize both Republicans and Democrats for different and similar reasons. Conservatives for example cannot acknowledge the limits of markets for example and call for small government while…
-
Half-Way Is Enough?
I agree with others who assert that Hamnet is a moving movie but wonder whether it works as a story. This movie, which offers an account of Shakespeare’s family play, focuses on his wife Agnes (Anne). As such, it becomes in this adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel by Chloé Zhao and O’Farrell a story about…
-
Neocons Anyone?
I’m unsure whether America needs to bring back the neocons as David Brooks (2025) argues, but I think he is right to highlight a missing ethical aspect to conservative politics today, which could serve as a corrective to the current Republican party. I realize that these values needn’t necessarily come from neoconservatives who came together…
-
Like Lukewarm Leftovers
I needed some time to adjust to Paul Kingsnorth’s (2025) latest book Against the Machine and found it useful but ultimately unsatisfying. Kingsnorth in a seeming synthesis of his thinking criticizes what he calls The Machine and offers what he considers ways to retain our humanity. He considers the emergence of this mindset, which he…
-
Making the Most
I can understand the appeal of Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez as the 2025 One Book One Chicago selection but nonetheless wanted more. This 2022 novel, which is Gonzalez’s first, tells the semi-autobiographical story of a wedding planner named Olga along with her politician brother Prieto as they confront in their adult lives an…
-
Humanely Human
This new book by Justin Gregg examines anthropomorphism, or our tendency to humanize our pets, inanimate objects, and even chatbots and considers its biological benefits and our psychological vulnerabilities. Gregg highlights the evolutionary advantages of assuming that eyes, movement, or language for example constitute evidence of human attributes. This tendency, which Gregg describes as an…
-
Sunnier Days Ahead?
I’ve known for weeks that I need to make some difficult decisions about newspaper subscriptions. I currently have daily Chicago Sun-Times delivery, and also receive the Chicago Tribune on Sundays. I also prefer print versions although I’ll read the Tribune opinion articles on a tablet throughout the week. I had traded the New York Times…
“There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.”
–Nikki Giovanni
