Whitney and I were getting ready for our presentation to the second-graders at Chicago’s Francis Xavier Warde school cafeteria Monday morning when the first 25 arrived. “Sit real close,” their teacher told them. “We need to make room for the others.” The kids in front were close enough to strike up a conversation with me […]

One of the teenage girls who waited in line for me to sign her book yesterday afternoon had a voice like a young Viola Davis. “You are a POWerful person,” she told me, stressing the “pow”in powerful. Just in case I didn’t hear her, she said it again. “You must be a POWerful person,“ she […]

Every year the Cliff Dwellers (a private arts club in Chicago) invites girls from nearby public high schools and their teachers to join them for a special lunch to celebrate International Women’s Day. Last year the keynote speaker for the event was Toni Preckwinkle, one of the two African American women in the upcoming run-off […]

Just got back last night from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois — Mike drove Whitney and me down there so I could give a presentation to a lecture hall of 400+undergraduates enrolled in an Animal Sciences class at the University of Illinois. Inspired by the Pick of the Litter documentary Mike posted about on Monday, I spent a […]

This morning my Seeing Eye dog Whitney and I take off for Union Station to head to the Chicago suburbs. It’s Disability Awareness Week at Wilmot Elementary School in Deerfield, and we’re slated to give a presentation to eight- and nine-year-olds. The third graders are studying Helen Keller, and you can bet I’ll be publishing […]