Every goddamn day: 05/12/25

     I'm on vacation in sunny California. So as not to leave those back in Chicago not only cold, but without anything diverting to re...

     I'm in California this week, hiking Joshua Tree, relaxing near Palm Springs, visiting the older boy at school, and trying to...

     Controversies boil up, cool down, and are promptly forgotten.      But sometimes they offer a little clarity that lingers.      Our...

         When I was 25, I got my first cell phone—we called them "car phones" at the time, since they weighed 50 pounds and w...

     I was a bit early.      Not by a lot: 15 minutes maybe.      I had given myself time for an errand, take some hiking boots back...

Susanna Phillips      Opera is about love, or should be.      The love that characters have for each other — or, tragically, don't h...

     I've been to a lot of newspaper staff meetings over the past 29 years, but today's was extraordinary.      In the wake of ...