Ask Amy
Teacher needs to go to spending school - June 16, 2011 - Dear Amy: I am a 64-year-old woman, and I've been careful but not miserly with my money. I was a teacher who lived below my means for years.
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Around Town
Guillen plugs 'All-Stars' - June 15, 2011 - Ozzie Guillen is pushing Sox sluggers Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko for the American League All-Star team.
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Matt Bowen
Waiting for name to be called on draft day nerve-wracking - April 24, 2011 - The dynamic of the NFL draft goes much deeper than first-round picks walking across the stage in three-piece suits (bought by their agents) to shake the commissioner's hand.
Barbara Brotman
In New York, protected bike lanes jaw-dropping - June 13, 2011 - I have seen the potential future of biking in Chicago.
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George Will
It's the Obama way or else - January 29, 2010 - WASHINGTON — Barack Obama tiptoed Wednesday night along the seam that bifurcates the Democratic Party's brain. The seam separates that brain's John Quincy Adams lobe from its Sigmund Freud lobe.
Dennis Byrne
Who wouldn't want a drug-free neighbor? - June 14, 2011 - Â The idea of testing Chicago Housing Authority tenants for illegal drug use is drawing the usual, tiresome objections from the usual, tiresome complainers: It's humiliating, offensive, invasive and insensitive. It's more "blaming the victim" and punishing "people for being poor."
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Steve Chapman
Republicans vs. the environment - June 16, 2011 - Kicking off her recent bus tour, Sarah Palin attended a motorcycle rally and took a deep breath. "I love that smell of the emissions," she exulted.
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Joe Trost's Corner Kicks
Girls soccer | Joe Trost's Corner Kicks: Madison County teams sweep the state tournament - June 9, 2011 - Darren Geisler, an avid soccer fan from downstate Illinois, sent an email last week thanking me for picking Granite City to advance to the semifinals of the Class 3A state tournament last weekend.
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Meghan Daum
Fast brain versus uh, uh, uh - May 27, 2011 - Apparently, a lot of people consider President Barack Obama to be bumblingly inarticulate. "The guy can't talk his way out of a paper bag!" a reader wrote to me recently. "Sarah Palin is a brilliant speaker. It's the president whose sentences are undiagrammable," said another in response to a...
Don Dziedzina
Lake Michigan perch head back to shore - June 10, 2011 - After several days of rain and high winds, Lake Michigan is settling down and clearing up. With that, the perch are coming back closer to shore.
Leah Eskin
The salad tamer - June 12, 2011 - Spinach salad has a lot to offer. Like spinach, in abundance. So much abundance that the spinach salad session can be exhausting. All that chasing the exuberant leaves around the plate. All that gnashing.
Four Corners
Today's question: Who will win the U.S. Open? - June 15, 2011 - Four sportswriters from Tribune newspapers debate the topic of the day.
Ilyce Glink
Is the mortgage market on the mend? - May 27, 2011 - The Mortgage Bankers Association announced in mid-May that the number of delinquent homeowners rose a little in the first quarter of 2011, but over the course of a year the number has dropped substantially.
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Jonah Goldberg
Men behaving badly - June 3, 2011 - Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York is a very busy man. He sits on several important committees. He's newly married to a high-powered wife. He's planning a run for mayor of New York, which they call "the city that never sleeps" for a reason. In fact, he's so busy that from 2007 to 2010, he...
Teddy Greenstein
World's top 3 players make for 'solemn group' - June 16, 2011 - BETHESDA, Md. — The 8:06 a.m. grouping of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer forgot to chug their morning coffee. Or perhaps some Bloody Marys would have provided the "swing oil" they needed to live up to their standing as golf's "A-team."
David Haugh
Ricketts must show he's engaged - June 14, 2011 - Making a bold fashion statement Tuesday that aptly summed up the mixed messages sent at Wrigley Field this season, Cubs players took the field for a pre-game workout wearing "(Bleep) the Goat,'' T-shirts.
Melissa Harris
Bears, Cubs battle Cook County over amusement tax - June 16, 2011 - Earlier this year Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts made the rounds to test support for a stalled plan to use amusement tax receipt growth to cover a $200 million renovation to Wrigley Field.
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Philip Hersh
Amonte Hiller best coach of any college or pro team in Illinois? - May 30, 2011 - The players were pulling their equipment bags from the bus in front of Patten Gym, taking part Monday in what has become a Memorial Day ritual in Evanston: the Northwestern women's lacrosse team coming home a day after playing in the national championship game.
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Jon Hilkevitch
Chicago's new transportation chief sets a new course - June 13, 2011 - Gabe Klein shows no signs of being your typical transportation commissioner, which means if he makes no waves and leaves Chicago quietly after a couple of years he won't have done his job well.
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Steve Johnson
WBEZ hoping comedy podcast will also be popular on radio - June 7, 2011 - On the podcast "WTF With Marc Maron," extraordinary things happen. Gallagher, the prop comic who we learn is bitter over never having gotten his own talk show or sitcom, storms out of the hotel room where the interview is taking place when the questions from Maron get a little too tough.
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Chris Jones
Visa delays nix '1001 Nights' in Chicago - June 16, 2011 - TORONTO — Due to delays in visa processing for some actors from Egypt, Syria and Iraq, Chicago Shakespeare Theater has indefinitely postponed its planned engagement of "1001 Nights," which was to have opened June 25 on Navy Pier and will not now travel from Canada to the United States.
Greg Kot
Kings Go Forth transcends trends - June 16, 2011 - Andy Noble hates fads, least of all when they involve his band: Milwaukee's Kings Go Forth.
David Sobolewski
'We had bigger goals' - March 21, 2011 - Obviously, the Benet team and community had an extremely rough time with the unexpected end to the season.
Dean Richards
'Green Lantern' star embraces comic fans - June 10, 2011 - — He's one of the few actors who has gone seamlessly from romantic comedies to dramas to his latest, a high-power superhero movie. Ryan Reynolds has also just finished shooting the action-thriller "Safe House," with Denzel Washington, that'll be released next year.
Daneen Skube
Sailing through workplace change - June 13, 2011 - Q. I started out my career planning to be in one industry but have ended up in another. It seems that every time I get my goals planned in one direction, another direction opens up and messes up my plan. How do you recommend people deal with careers when every plan is subject to change?
Gregory Karp
Is cheaper phone service your calling? - June 10, 2011 - For the tech savvy, a home phone line seems almost quaint because so many of them use mobile phones for calling. But you don't have to be a techie — or even a cell-phone owner — to benefit from cutting the cord to your traditional phone line.
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John Kass
Dr. Millionpills becomes Mr. Unemployed - June 16, 2011 - Dr. Joseph "Millionpills" Giacchino, the famed pain pill-dispensing doctor, could have walked straight out of an Elmore Leonard novel.
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Julia Keller
Sex sins of mighty are old hat in literature - June 15, 2011 - It didn't start with Twitter — and it won't end with Weiner.
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Charles Krauthammer
Is it stewardship? Or is it ideology? - June 11, 2011 - The Republicans swept November's midterm election by making it highly ideological, a referendum on two years of hyperliberalism — of arrogant, overreaching, intrusive government drowning in debt and running deficits of $1.5 trillion annually. It's not complicated. To govern left in a center-...
Gail MarksJarvis
Good market news renews interest in stocks, but choose carefully - June 15, 2011 - Enough gloom.
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Dan McNeil
Bruins, Mavs 'hollow' victories - June 16, 2011 - In lieu of a rally in Grant Park, or a ticker-tape parade down Michigan Avenue, many around here are celebrating the championship series collapses of the Miami Heat and Vancouver Canucks this week.
Nina Metz
When Chicago's main black comedy club was serious business - June 16, 2011 - Throughout the '90s, All Jokes Aside in Chicago's South Loop was one of the most prominent black comedy clubs in the country. Co-owner Raymond Lambert played a key role in identifying and promoting an entire generation of stand-ups — from Jamie Foxx to Cedric the Entertainer — but...
Clarence Page
Dump the war on drugs - June 15, 2011 - When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series "The Wire," heard that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to see the series return for a sixth season, he offered the nation's top prosecutor a deal.
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Robert Pagliarini
Life after the Oprah effect - June 13, 2011 - "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is over. While many are shedding tears at her departure, this is great news for authors, businesses, experts, entertainers and charities around the world! Before you go thinking I'm an Oprah hater, I am not. I am actually a huge Oprah fan. I think she's done a tremendous...
Kathleen Parker
Busting water myths by the gallons - May 31, 2011 - NEW YORK — In a slender essay titled "Here Is New York," E.B. White wrote about the implausibility of the great city, mentioning among other things the millions of gallons of water needed each day just so people could brush their teeth.
Mark Pearlstein
No justification for board racking up travel expenses - June 10, 2011 - Q. We are a homeowners association that generated excessive travel expenses over several years, including $20,000 last year alone. A recent election made changes to our board of directors. There is a questionable need for business travel, although it has been reported on our income tax return.
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Michael Phillips
It's a short trip from 'Psycho' to 'Happy Father's Day' - June 16, 2011 - My father, whom I admire as much as I admire and appreciate my own son, never was a lascivious man given to comments or behavior of an inappropriate sexual nature. It's times like this Anthony Weiner saga when you re-up your admiration for the dad you have rather than some of the more reckless...
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Leonard Pitts
What price America's principles? - May 23, 2011 - "I would find myself trussed up and left for hours in ropes, my biceps bound tightly with several loops to cut off my circulation and the end of the rope cinched behind my back, pulling my shoulders and elbows unnaturally close together. It was incredibly painful."
Janet Portman
Stopping check a risky route to get out of lease - June 10, 2011 - Q. When I was transferred to another city, I went ahead to look for an apartment. Time was short, so I applied for the first place I saw. I gave them first month's rent and a deposit, and they said I'd get the place if my credit checked out. It did. Then I discovered that I could have...
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Mary Ellen Podmolik
Plan for Transformation a tough sell in weak market - June 10, 2011 - More than a decade ago, former Mayor Richard Daley's Plan for Transformation began taking shape with the goal of replacing Chicago's notorious public housing projects with a mix of subsidized and market-rate rentals and for-purchase homes in attractive neighborhoods.
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Dan Pompei
Lessons learned from Cutler's first 5 years - June 11, 2011 - In the biggest game of Jay Cutler's life, he laid an egg big enough to feed most of the people at Soldier Field. And when he couldn't play in the second half because of a knee injury, the haters accused him of being chicken.
Howard Reich
The mighty Chicago Jazz Orchestra settles in at Andy's - June 16, 2011 - One of the great rituals of summertime jazz in Chicago has begun again: the Chicago Jazz Orchestra's Monday-night residency at Andy's Jazz Club, on East Hubbard Street.
Phil Rogers
No need for massive baseball realignment - June 15, 2011 - There's nothing fair about baseball. Never has been. Never will be.
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Phil Rosenthal
Business leaders' legacy today is all they can take - June 15, 2011 - This is the debut of a column about business, written from the perspective of Chicago, a city defined by business as surely as by its skyline, diverse population and lakefront, which its businesses also helped shape.
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Ameet Sachdev
Nortel Networks' patent portfolio up for auction - June 7, 2011 - One of the more intriguing auctions scheduled later this month won't involve fine art or vintage sports cars or other expensive trinkets, but it is expected to attract some deep pockets.
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Mary Schmich
'It's complicated' with omnipresent Facebook - June 15, 2011 - I was recently asked to give a speech about Facebook, which I use regularly, and I began with the obvious question:
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Dawn Turner Trice
Dispatches from a daughter for Father's Day - June 13, 2011 - In 2004, I was covering a story when my mother called me to say my father, who was 77 at the time, had had a heart attack. As I raced to the hospital, it occurred to me that if he died, I'd be left with many unanswered questions.
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Mary Umberger
Outlook for condo prices not as bleak - June 10, 2011 - The avalanche of housing market data that seems to befall us on a daily basis mostly tells only the story of what's happening in the single-family world. Trying to scope out the national picture for condos and town houses is an elusive thing because few number crunchers track them.
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Phil Vettel
Deconstructing the menu - June 16, 2011 - Union Sushi + Barbeque Bar is definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
John von Rhein
Kalmar, orchestra knock Grant Park festival opener out of the park, despite downpour - June 16, 2011 - Perhaps they should have played Handel's "Water Music" instead.
Ellen Warren
The right wedding wear - June 16, 2011 - "What are you going to wear?"
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Bob Weber
'Trac off' trick boost mpg - June 16, 2011 - Q: I have been driving a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am for many years and have been averaging 21 mpg. The car has a four-cylinder engine. Recently I have been turning off the ETS button on the dash. To my amazement, I started getting 24 mpg! The button has to be pressed off every time you...
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Jen Weigel
All in the family business - June 16, 2011 - We've heard of mixing business with pleasure—but what about mixing business with family? Is blood really thicker than water, or is this a recipe for disaster?
Jon Yates
Problem Solver: Fridge freezes food, company gives chilly reception - June 16, 2011 - Refrigerators should refrigerate and freezers should freeze.
Eric Zorn
Are you smarter than a scam artist? - June 16, 2011 - To judge from my inbox, London is a perilous place. In the last several years, I've received dozens of anguished emails from friends reporting that they've been mugged while on vacation in that fabled city.
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