I subscribe to TED Talks. I can’t see their videos, and I rarely click on them, but reading the descriptions of their featured talk each morning gives me an inkling of what “the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers” are thinking and doing these days. Yesterday’s update linked to a talk by an architect who […]

Renowned Chicago chef Charlie Trotter died this morning. He was 54 years old. The foodie world will miss him, and those of us who are blind will, too. A post I wrote in 2011 explains. R.I.P., Charlie. Her specialty is risotto by Beth Finke Published October 25, 2011 Laura Martinez is 26 years old and […]

Wanda Bridgeforth is 92 years old and has been attending the memoir-writing class I lead in downtown Chicago for seven years. She grew up in Chicago and her mother worked “in private family,” which means Mama lived at the houses she took care of. Wanda lived with one relative one week, a friend the next, […]

I’ve run across some bottles of wine with Braille labels on them over the years, and when I found out that the woman who’s been running programs for senior citizens at Renaissance Court ever since I started leading memoir classes there was retiring today, I thought a bottle of wine might be the perfect gift. […]

I’m meeting a Major League Baseball scout for batting practice at White Sox park this afternoon. Okay, okay, enough with the jokes. Sure, the White Sox are having a bad year, but no, they are not so desperate they want me to play for them. The guy I’m meeting on the field really and truly is […]