Features

What Dealers Know
by Gale Kappe
This insider’s guide to the antiques marketplace offers tips on what’s trash and what’s a treasure, what’s real and what’s a reproduction. Our source list sends you in search of furniture, silver, jewelry, glass, ceramics, and other sure things.

Back to the Future
by Steve Rhodes and Jeff Ruby
In 1976, this magazine rounded up scores of experts to predict what life in Chicago would be like in 2001. Now we check to see how they did. The surprise is not how many got it wrong, but how many got it right.

Street Life, 1892
by David Zivan
Photographs drawn from a peculiar souvenir book furnish a rich portrait of the diverse life on the city’s avenues during the 19th century.

Banned in Illinois
by Robert Kurson
Illegal in many states, Ultimate Fighting features kicks in the face and brutal submission moves. The sport also features Shonie Carter, who – despite his pimp outfits – is probably the toughest guy in Chicago.

City of Big Hands
by Cynthia Hanson and Judy Sutton Taylor
Looking for a way to give something besides money? We list more than 80 organizations that need volunteer help in their offices and in the trenches.

Departments

Letters

Contributors

Frontlines
The secret life of a “sky cop”; French bras and male bonding; Pete Jones, the chosen one; more

Style Sheet
by Stacy Wallace-Albert
Sparkle plenty: Diamonds – and other gems – are still a girl’s best friend.

Stage & Screen
by Penelope Mesic
Actor Simon Callow gives them the Dickens in a one-man show based on the Victorian novelist’s life and characters.

Real Lives
by Marcia Froelke Coburn
An expert in irony talks about why the events of September 11th made it time to stop kidding.

Consumer Retorts
by Terry Sullivan
Tru’s dessert flight is a mouthwatering new offering. If only there were more to put in one’s mouth.

Deal Estate
by Dennis Rodkin
A Burnham house in Kenilworth, horseplay in Barrington Hills, and a $25-million price tag in Lake Bluff

Business
by Jan Parr
The fun and games stopped when Chicago Sport & Social tanked, but now the balls are back in play.

Education
by James L. Merriner
A U. of C. prof says that some of the gains in Chicago school test scores resulted from cheating by teachers.

Dining Out
by Dennis Ray Wheaton
Two of the North Shore‘s best special-occasion spots continue to thrill – one by evolving and the other by sticking to its guns.

Expert Witness
by Carrie Sager
Don’t even scribble a place card without first consulting Gregory Hyder, the man with a party plan.

Chicago Guides

Prime Time

In December
The Jazz Showcase has booked hotshot pianist Jacky Terrasson and vibes-master Stefon Harris, who together can beat anybody’s daddy eight to the bar.

Restaurants

Discovery
Barrington’s Eclectic lives up to its name, mixing cultures and flavors with abandon.

On Wine
In the holiday spirit, Marc Dornan pops the cork on an insider Champagne.