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Tag: Long Reads
Tremors in the Empire
By Shane Tritsch
The Pritzker family's $15-billion fortune represents a great American success story—a rags-to-riches tale of hugely profitable deals and dedicated philanthropy. Now, beset by the collapse of a financial institution it owned, and pulled apart by diverse interests, a new generation struggles to keep the dynasty on course. Read more
Chicago Too-Lite?
By Steve Rhodes
With PBS looking to expand its dwindling audience, WTTW picked Bob Sirott—a former DJ and wisecracking morning-show host—to take over a revamped Chicago Tonight. Read more
Sudden Impact
By Bryan Smith
In the 1969 Days of Rage, antiwar radical Brian Flanagan and city lawyer Richard Elrod, collided, changing their lives and creating an indelible image. Read more
Under the Radar
By James Ylisela Jr.
The media-shy Yusef Jackson, third son of the famous reverend, takes a curious venture into publishing by pumping money into Radar, the on-again, off-again celebrity-driven magazine Read more
Everybody Loves Bruce Norris
By Tony Adler
FROM JULY 2006: Except Bruce Norris. The playwright’s growing notoriety as a social satirist is surpassing his success as an actor, and Chicago’s top directors value him as an original mind and an excellent dinner companion. But nothing saves him (or the rest of us) from his contempt Read more
Party Hearty
By Marcia Froelke Coburn
Former actors turned chefs Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, otherwise known as the Hearty Boys, have been dishing it out to Chicagoans for almost ten years. Now, in near-frantic performances on their Food Network show, they are bringing macaroni and cheese on a stick to the wider world Read more
Heavy Mettle
By Bob LeGere
They operate in a world of grunts and sweat and mud and blood. The linemen of the Chicago Bears stay mostly out of the spotlight, but the team has advanced to the Super Bowl on the shoulderpads of these giants Read more
Two Soldiers
By Bryan Smith
Kris Walker and George Obourn Jr. grew up best friends In central Illinois. They played brass in the high-school band, got into the usual teenage scrapes, and Enlisted in the army together. In a span of hours, both were killed in action in Iraq—binding them in death, and adding layers of sadness and solace for two grieving families. Read more
Mr. Danger
By Tony Adler
Tracy Letts’s latest work—a sprawling family saga that premières this summer—suggests where some of that menacing energy comes from. Read more