Ask Amy
Obnoxious blogger bothers brother - August 14, 2011 - Dear Amy: What advice do you have for relatives of bloggers who are revealing buried family history, discussing their sex lives and using offensive language in their public blogs?
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Fred Mitchell's Around Town
Butkus incredulous over Soldier Field surface - August 11, 2011 - Dick Butkus is renowned for being one of the most physical and aggressive players in NFL history. Yet the former Bears Hall of Fame linebacker is a prominent advocate for health and safety on and off the football field.
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Barbara Brotman
Chicagoan adds personal touch to dog tales - August 8, 2011 - Is there anyone who doesn't like funny animal videos and pictures?
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Steve Chapman
Why Obama looks so bad - August 14, 2011 - Barack Obama came into office aspiring to bridge the chasm between liberals and conservatives, red states and blue states, and the gulf is gone. People in each camp heartily agree that as a president, he's a disappointment and a flop. Both sides...
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Teddy Greenstein
18 holes with Charles Woodson - August 6, 2011 - KOHLER, Wis. — Short of making a birdie or getting attacked by snakes, Charles Woodson experienced it all on the front nine at Blackwolf Run's River Course — a 300-yard drive, chunked irons, thinned irons, two pars, a triple bogey, etc.
David Haugh's In the Wake of the News
Exit Zambrano, enter complete culture change for Cubs? - August 14, 2011 - Whenever the Cubs reflect on the 2011 season, this weekend will go down as the most promising. And it has little to do with taking two out of three from the Braves.
Melissa Harris' Chicago Confidential
Name dropping: 'Unitrin' is out - August 14, 2011 - Unitrin. Even CEO Don Southwell admits he doesn't like the name of his own company.
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Philip Hersh
Timing not right for U.S. in 2020 - July 1, 2011 - While a U.S. bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics still seems very unlikely, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun didn't rule it out this week.
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Jon Hilkevitch's Getting Around
What's the holdup on the Congress Parkway Bridge? - August 8, 2011 - What's the holdup completing the overhaul of the Congress Parkway bridge? When traffic control aides at Chicago's airports turn surly, what's a driver to do? And why aren't the new senior citizen reduced-fare transit cards "smart cards"?
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Ask Rex Huppke: I Just Work Here
I Just Work Here: Whatever happened to 9 to 5? - August 14, 2011 - "Workin' nine to five
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Chris Jones
Goodman celebrates a decade of drama - August 12, 2011 - "I sort of like the snowstorm," Robert Falls said in the lobby of the new, $46 million Goodman Theatre on the night of its inaugural performance. "It keeps the riffraff out. The people who are here are really here to see a play and not just...
Gregory Karp
Buybacks warrant caution - August 12, 2011 - Consumers inevitably experience a psychological pain when buying technology because enjoying a new gadget or TV can be diminished after only a few months when something better shows up in stores.
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John Kass
Tea party will survive only if it challenges Republican dogma - August 14, 2011 - Can the tea party movement survive the Republican candidates and the campaign for president?
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Julia Keller
At summer's end, adventure - August 12, 2011 - Nothing in life is certain anymore — not even death and taxes, thanks to cryonics and a Republican Congress. Thus I can't give you an absolute, ironclad, airtight guarantee that if you hold "The Magician King" (Viking) at just the right angle...
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Rick Kogan's Sidewalks
Exotic birds steal the show in Delavan - August 12, 2011 - Of the many pleasures available at The Dancing Horse/Animal Gardens complex in Delavan, Wis., two kids were most thrilled to see a bird.
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Greg Kot
Smashing Pumpkins announce fall tour, Chicago date - August 12, 2011 - The Smashing Pumpkins said Friday that they will headline a 12-city fall U.S. tour, including an Oct. 14 date at a Chicago venue to be announced.
Gail MarksJarvis
Burning questions remain after a week of sweating it out with the stock market - August 14, 2011 - A week after learning the U.S. is no longer AAA-rated, relief and dread have taken hold of investors.
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Nina Metz
The latest documentary from the maker of 'Hoop Dreams' - August 11, 2011 - While working on a 2008 cover story for the New York Times Magazine about Chicago's CeaseFire program, Oak Park-based author and reporter Alex Kotlowitz found himself talking to old friend and "Hoop Dreams" filmmaker Steve James.
Clarence Page
Is the tea party over? - August 7, 2011 - Has the tea party peaked? Republican lawmakers affiliated with the upstart anti-tax movement scored big in the nerve-racking debt-ceiling debacle, but the victory left enough hard feelings to feed the movement's ultimate defeat.
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Michael Phillips
Where in Hollywood history will 'Help' land? - August 12, 2011 - History has determined which race-relations film from 1989 — "Driving Miss Daisy" (based on Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play) or "Do the Right Thing" (from director Spike Lee) — had the stuff to last past that year's Academy...
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Mary Ellen Podmolik
State ramps up mortgage fraud investigations - August 5, 2011 - Reports of potential mortgage loan fraud are on the upswing, and Illinois certainly is contributing its share to the troubling statistics.
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Dan Pompei
Film of exhibition opener kind to Carimi - August 14, 2011 - What happened Saturday night at Soldier Field isn't going to define the Bears, and it isn't going to make or break any players' careers.
Howard Reich
Rare Piazzolla revival sounds better than it looks - August 13, 2011 - By now, anyone even vaguely familiar with tango music must know the name of Astor Piazzolla. The Argentine composer and bandoneon master, who died in 1992 at age 71, proved definitively that tango music can flourish not only as accompaniment to...
Phil Rogers
It's way past time for Cubs to cut losses - August 13, 2011 - Not so fast.
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Phil Rosenthal
Give 'em a break: Everyone needs time out of the office - August 14, 2011 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, not wanting to appear panicked and inadvertently create even more turbulence amid already roiled global markets and an unsteady euro, thought it best to hold to her holiday plans for time out of the public eye.
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Ameet Sachdev's Chicago Law
Illinois Supreme Court dodges 6th Amendment issue - August 5, 2011 - The Illinois Supreme Court last year decided to review a case that asks a question that touches every criminal prosecution: When does a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to an attorney begin?
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Mary Schmich
Gone too soon, but here forever - August 14, 2011 - The name on the park plaque made me do a double-take, or, more precisely, the dates did.
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Dawn Turner Trice
For infertile couples, help and support - August 10, 2011 - Katie Davis, 24, lost her ovaries to cancer when she was 12. Doctors told her that if she wanted to have a baby one day, she would have to use donor eggs and undergo in vitro fertilization. She has been trying to have a baby since September 2010,...
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Phil Vettel
Fine dining stakes claim in Berwyn - August 11, 2011 - To corrupt an old saying, the good Lord never closes a condo without opening a bungalow.
John von Rhein
Union threatens Lyric Opera with strike - August 13, 2011 - The union representing the principal singers, chorus members, dancers, actors and production staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago has sent a letter to its members warning them to "be prepared for an opening night strike" on Oct. 1, when the company is...
Ellen Warren
Earrings today: The bigger the better - August 12, 2011 - Earrings are big this year. I mean huge. You could even say enormous. I'm going with gigantic.
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Jen Weigel
Kids on the job: 'It's work, not day care' - August 12, 2011 - Our column about taking the kids to work generated a pretty exciting conversation on Facebook. Here are a few of the comments:
Jon Yates' "What's Your Problem?"
Things get worse for unlucky dog after pharmacy mix-up - August 14, 2011 - When Jane Mendoza adopted Wally from an animal shelter six years ago, she knew the dog had special needs.
Eric Zorn
In praise of the lost art of practice - August 14, 2011 - I was lacing up my shoes in the empty suburban gym one recent Saturday morning when my cellphone rang. It was my wife: The guys who'd invited me to play in their weekly basketball game had called to cancel, and I'd missed the message on my way...
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Julia Allison: Social Studies
LOL-apalooza - August 9, 2011 - DEAR JULIA: I attended Chicago's Lollapalooza summer music festival for the first time this past weekend. I heard you went and I'd love to know what you thought of how the organizers used social media. The experience was nothing like the...
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Matt Bowen
Soldier Field grass has been unstable for long time - August 11, 2011 - Three pairs of cleats. A speed bottom, a baseball style cleat and the old school seven-studs. That's what I packed in my bag for trips to Soldier Field to play the Bears during my NFL career.
Dennis Byrne
The truth hurts: Bleak indicators - August 2, 2011 - The fierce debate over raising the federal borrowing limit has had at least one happy result: The public's newly found awareness that Washington must borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
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Meghan Daum
Being authentic requires work - August 12, 2011 - Want to be authentic? Good luck! These days it takes deliberate effort, focus, even a long-term commitment to change. This might sound surprising to those of you who associate authenticity with just being yourself, but misconceptions about...
Don Dziedzina
Heat can affect likelihood of strikes - August 12, 2011 - Everyone has tough day on the water and I'm no different. Last week I was skunked fishing Three Rivers Area, my first outing without a catch in two years. Some anglers don't like to admit it, but I have no problem when it happens.
Leah Eskin
Hot and cold - August 14, 2011 - Fashion is a slippery business. Skinny jeans slink away, boot cuts stomp in. Who can keep up?
Ilyce Glink
How to sell your home fast - August 8, 2011 - Our neighbors recently put their home on the market. They received an excellent offer within 24 hours of listing the property and got more money for their home than I thought they could.
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Jonah Goldberg
Riot rationalization misses the mark - August 12, 2011 - Riots are fascinating things. How lawless greed, cruelty and violence suddenly set fire to the minds of men is one of the most mysterious, almost magical (though not in the positive sense) manifestations of human behavior.
Benny Kass
Giving property as a gift requires careful tax planning - July 29, 2011 - I receive a large number of email questions on a monthly basis, and try to answer as many as I can. I wish I could respond personally to everyone, but that is not possible.
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Joyce Lain Kennedy
When it's less pay or no pay - August 14, 2011 - Q.: My last title was senior vice president in a job I was very well paid for. At 58, I'm having trouble reconnecting at my old compensation level. Now that my children are out of college and my house is paid for, I'm willing to work for less...
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Charles Krauthammer
Grand fix for the supercommittee - August 8, 2011 - WASHINGTON — Conventional wisdom holds that the congressional supercommittee established by the debt-ceiling deal to propose further deficit reduction will go nowhere. I'm not so sure. There is a grand compromise to be had. It does, however,...
Dan McNeil
Thayer still fired up for football - August 12, 2011 - When the Bears meet the Bills in Saturday's exhibition opener at Soldier Field, Tom Thayer will begin his 15th season as the team's analyst on radio broadcasts (WBBM-AM 780, WBBM-FM 105.9).
Robert Pagliarini: Your Other 8 Hours
Stay sane in an insane world - August 12, 2011 - Do you ever feel like curling up in a ball and trying to forget the problems around you? With everything going on in the world today -- sky high unemployment, the housing market at its lowest point, prolonged wars in the Middle East, famine and...
Kathleen Parker
Depends on your definition of weird - August 11, 2011 - — Just what is the meaning of weird?
Mark Pearlstein
Rules can't be changed to block board candidates - August 12, 2011 - Q: We live in a complex of 175 mixed town homes and condominiums. Our declaration lets owners running for the board and current board members solicit proxies to help them get elected or re-elected. We cannot get rid of a secretive, vindictive...
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Leonard Pitts
'Everybody look what's goin' down' - July 28, 2011 - Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
Janet Portman
Foreclosure rights under oral lease - August 12, 2011 - Q: I am a tenant in a house I rented last summer, planning on staying a year, but soon after I moved in, the owner told me that he was having trouble making his mortgage payments. Last month, the bank foreclosed and I just got a 30-day notice....
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Dean Richards
Stone expresses admiration for 'Help' star Viola Davis - August 12, 2011 - You are about to experience one of the best movies of 2011 so far. "The Help" is an adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Miss., circa 1962.
Daneen Skube: Interpersonal Edge
When job turns upside down ... learn flips! - August 8, 2011 - Q. My industry has completely changed within the last few years, and I'm struggling trying to figure out how to navigate the new landscape. Most days, I just think how unfair it is that after working so hard I have to completely revamp my...
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.
Joe Trost's Corner Kicks
Boys soccer | Joe Trost's Corner Kicks: Libertyville takes top seed in Pepsi Showdown - August 10, 2011 - The Libertyville boys soccer team learned Tuesday that the pressure will be on from the start after being awarded the top seed in next month's Pepsi Showdown.
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Mary Umberger
Mortgage servicers fall short - August 12, 2011 - It would appear that we are not happy at all with the people we send our hard-earned mortgage payments to. In fact, we're even unhappier than we were last year, according to a new look at consumer satisfaction by J.D. Power & Associates.
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Bob Weber
Pricey shift to compressed natural gas - August 6, 2011 - Q: Why doesn't Ford or GM allow for factory-installed CNG (compressed natural gas) systems on their assembly lines? The option would be costly but offset by federal tax credits which would lesson the economic blow and alleviate our dependence on...
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George Will
Who will bat against 'Alibi' Obama? - July 8, 2011 - "If he popped up in the pinch he should of made a base hit and the reason he didn't was so-and-so. And if he cracked one for three bases he ought to had a home run, only the ball wasn't lively, or the wind brought it back, or he tripped on a...