Whitney and I visited four different classes at Drummond Thomas Montessori School in Chicago last Wednesday morning. After I told one class that even when my eyes are open, all I see is the color black, one preschooler wondered, “Then how do you know when you’re tired?” I can tell you this much: I’m pretty […]

Gangs. Drugs. Violence. Poverty. Those were my lingering images of Chicago’s housing projects after they were torn down a decade or so ago. I know a lot more about the history of those projects and the people who lived in them now, though, thanks to my friend Audrey Petty, an Associate Professor of English at […]

It’s difficult to put thoughts about our one-of-a-kind friend Sheelagh into words, so I am very grateful to my husband Mike Knezovich for doing that for us in his guest post today. In August of 1986, our son — name still to be determined — was getting ready to be born. About the same time, […]

My friend Lynn LaPlante-Allaway is a professional musician, and earlier this month she sent this email with an offer I couldn’t refuse: I will be downtown for a rehearsal, would you like me to come by and play my violin for you? I will sit quietly in the corner and play and all you do […]

Remember the post I wrote early last year about going to Steppenwolf Theatre for a special touch tour of the set of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” I learned so much from that experience that I signed up for the touch tour of “Good People” at Steppenwolf last Sunday. My friend Nancy Beskin came along, and she generously offered to […]