Features

Good Deals, Great Meals
by Dennis Ray Wheaton and Anne Spiselman
Stepping into the ring with the town’s top budget contenders, our reviewers go toe to toe with bulky buffets, beat the system at the dining heavyweights, and do some fancy footwork in finding free grub for the tykes.

Pressure High
by Cynthia Hanson
For almost a century, New Trier High School in Winnetka has won national renown for academic excellence. But is this bastion of the ambitious supersmart pushing its students over the competitive edge?

Fashion: Some Enchanted Evenings
by Stacy Wallace-Albert
The holidays are the season for late nights out in the latest luxe styles. So fancy this – a simplified palette of gray, black, burgundy, and crimson. Diamonds, pearls, velvet, and sable.

Reliable Sources
by Marc Spiegler and Sara Austin
If the names seem familiar, that’s because you’ve often read them in the daily papers. When reporters need a pithy sound bite – be it on economic policy or white T-shirts – these are the men and women whose numbers they pull out of the Rolodex again and again.

Departments

Letters

Contributors

Frontlines
NYPD Blue director Paris Barclay lauds his roots – in Harvey, Illinois.
Style Sheet
by Stacy Wallace-Albert
Club clothes, highbrow treatments, high tech defense, futuristic lingerie

Stage & Screen
by Penelope Mesic
A couple risk their own marriage to take a play of secrecy and revenge to the stage.

Reporter
by Mary Abowd
A former DePaul prof is accused of a bombing tied to Puerto Rican nationalists.

Sports
by Terrence Bland
Details on the Notre Dame football booster accused of lavishing gifts on players

How Danny Died
by Jonathan Eig

After a crib collapses and kills a baby boy, his grieving parents struggle to understand why.

Travel
by Jo Beth McDaniel
Maui’s colorful beaches and lush resorts wow sun-starved pilgrims from the north.

Dining Out
by Dennis Ray Wheaton
An energetic new chef and a $2-million face-lift put a classic dining room back on top.

Sullivan’s Travels
by Terry Sullivan
An off-the-cuff look at why Gene Klompus should never wear short sleeves