Features

Tower of Power
by Gretchen Reynolds

With a $300-million-plus expansion binge, the Tribune Company has established itself as the media giant of the Midwest. And the empire builders at Tribune Tower are primed to stay strong in the multimedia revolution.

I Was a Teenage Republican
by Cynthia Hanson
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s progressive politics have made her the second most vilified personality on talk radio, but she grew up in a conservative Park Ridge home, even becoming a Goldwater Girl.

A Shot in the Dark
by Ryan Ver Berkmoes
Joe Smith should have died the night someone gunned him down last year. But Cook County Hospital’s topnotch trauma team put him back together again. Now Smith must put back the pieces of his shattered life.

Breaking Away
by Gretchen Reynolds, Jan Parr, and Jeanne Rattenbury
Fall’s splendor is best appreciated from the seat of a bike: six great weekend trips that take you on back roads and back trails (and can also be enjoyed on foot or in a car).

The Bright Stuff
photography by Tosca Radigonda
Time to junk those neutrals that set last year’s drab tone. In concert with the turning leaves, fashion is again showing its colors.

Departments

Letters

Frontlines
More TV shows with fake Chicago roots; postal disobedience; and a Lotto winner finds $40 million doesn’t go so far.

The Goods
by Leah Eskin
Accessories to see and be seen with when the curtain rises on Lyric Opera’s 40th season

Metro
by Greg Hinz
An election battle oozes mud; fighting words at the Sun-Times; plus, hard facts about “soft money”

Modern Times
by Marcia Froelke Coburn
Northwestern’s head football coach has time – and victory – on his mind.

Stage & Screen
by Penelope Mesic
Theatre this fall shows new faith in the entertainment value of provocative ideas. A preview of Angels in America, A Clockwork Orange, and The Merchant of Venice

Reporter
by Joel Kaplan
An Illinois law, passed quietly in 1992, protects the Cubs, Sox, and other baseball teams from litigious fans injured by foul balls.

Prime Time

Hot dates around town this month

Going Places

by Anne Spiselman and David Novick
In little more than a dozen years, River North has become home to many of our city’s unique galleries, artistic furniture stores, and an endless variety of restaurants.

Dining
by Dennis Ray Wheaton
Suburbanites seeking fine French meals close to home now have two more reasons to make reservations outside the city limits.

Back Talk
by Henry Hanson

Kathleen Battle, Ruth Regenstein, Samuel Ramey, Cardinal Bernardin, Myra Risher, Sonia Zaks, Jim Nutt, Richard Gray, and Bud Holland