First things first: Beth’s sister Marilee and her Florida family weathered Irma and everyone is safe. Though it sounds like some hard work is ahead. Phew. Now, in other news: For those of you who care to know but don’t yet, I had what’s called a catheter cryoballoon ablation last week. Rolls right off the […]

Last night Beth and I joined friends for a celebratory picnic on the lawn of the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The occasion: Our friend Janet just became a full professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a testament to her brains and fortitude. As we noshed, we listened to jazz—it was the final night of […]

WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio) had me come to the studio yesterday morning to talk about using the Eclipse Soundscapes app to experience Monday’s solar eclipse. If you missed it, you can listen to the 12-minute interview online here. I was relieved when host Tony Sarabia opened the interview saying he’d tried the app himself and […]

When I moved to the D.C. area in the late 1970s, I was flabbergasted to routinely run across vestiges and glorifications of various Civil War figures. I mean, a guy from the Land of Lincoln can be uncomfortable driving on Jefferson Davis Highway. That’s when my naïveté about what the Civil War had accomplished—and how […]

Last week Beth and Whitney and I traveled to South Carolina to attend the church service for Beth’s sister Barbara (we call her Bobbie), who died the week prior at the age of 78. Bobbie was a lovely woman. She did not want for material things, but she never lost touch with what mattered even […]