Mutt Versus Jeff: One Animal-Ignorer’s Experience with the Wild New Family Dog
I didn’t want to disappoint my wife and kids, but their peeing, barking irritant of a dog needed to go
Ad Categories: City Life
What the Joplin, Missouri, Tornado Sounded Like From Inside
In the time of stormchasers, we’re pretty familiar with watching tornadoes from a distance. Less often do we get a sense of what a tornado is like from the inside. Here’s a recording from inside a convenience store walk-in refrigerator as the tornado passed overhead.
Blagojevich Lawyer Sheldon Sorosky Answers (Sort Of) the Questions Everyone's Asking
After the prosecution rested its case in the Blagojevich retrial last week, I called Rod’s old friend and lawyer Sheldon Sorosky to ask him whom the defense was going to call as a witness today. Sorosky would not give me names, and he had not decided (as of last Friday) whether Blago would take the stand. But he dismissed rumors that Blago would be delivering…
Apocalypse Oak Park: Dorothy Martin, the Chicagoan Who Predicted the End of the World and Inspired the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
In 1954, a suburban housewife in Oak Park caused a small stir by announcing that aliens from the planet Clarion had told her the world was coming to an end. It didn’t, but the little stir she caused on Cuyler Avenue led to one of the most important breakthroughs in psychology and social science in the 20th century.
Today in Open Government
The Emanuel administration pulls TIF data out of its inflexible PDF jail, making it sortable and downloadable; meanwhile, the Illinois Senate Redistricting Committee puts the process on Google Earth.
What Happens When You Step On the Brakes in a 747?
In short: the brakes heat up to 2,500 degrees, and the tires immediately deflate to keep from exploding. Then the brakes burn.
The New City Council: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time?
Mayor Emanuel scores a unanimous council victory on his first day in office. A new rubber-stamp council? Or just opening-day jitters? Plus: City Council guides.
Why I Love Twitter
The New York Times’s Bill Keller comes to bury Twitter, not to praise it. I’ve come to lift his fail-whale of an essay to the skies, so that the medium can be appreciated for what it is, (virtually) here and now.
Gery Chico to Run for Office Again?
After Election Day, Gery Chico—who fell short of a runoff with Rahm Emanuel—stayed out of the spotlight for a while. The former Daley chief of staff, who once ran Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Park District, was the only opponent who had even a chance of beating Emanuel in this year’s race for mayor. Here, some highlights from our telephone conversation Tuesday, his first one-on-one interview with…
Chicago Segregation and "Pretoria by the Lake"
Steve Bogira challenges the conventional wisdom about the old “Beirut by the Lake” cliche and suggests an alternative to reflect the evolution of race and politics in Chicago after Harold Washington.