I refer to my mom by her first name, and if you follow this blog, you already know a lot about Flo. Over the years, you may have read: that she was only 45 years old when our dad died, and from then on she worked full time and raised us on her own a […]

Back in the spring of 1975, I was co-editor of my high school newspaper. I would be heading to the University of Illinois in the fall, and though I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to raise some hell in the service of the public good. Like Woodward and […]

Don’t worry — you can still have an open casket!

This Saturday is Billy Balducci’s last official nightshift bartending at Hackney’s. Hackney’s is our local tavern, and Billy’s been tending bar there since the day it opened in November, 2001. Longtime blog followers know Billy as the guy sitting next to me in a photo we originally published with a 2007 blog post called Cheers! […]

A strange feeling followed me around last week. Like there was something I was forgetting. Finally, on Friday, during my morning walk to work, it sort of tapped me on the shoulder—for no reason I took my phone out and looked at the date. April 25. Exactly one year since the benign tumor on Beth’s […]