A half century of award-winning journalism, from best feature story of 1974 (Chicago Newspaper Guild) to more than half-a-dozen consecutive annual column and profile honors (Northern Illinois News Association).
Review of “Les Misérables,” “Argo,” Anna Karenina,” and “Lincoln”
Evanston RoundTable, Jan. 3, 2013 Some of the year’s best movies, still playing at first-run theaters, are set in the past, which makes for a delightful holiday season for us
Review of “Lincoln”
Evanston RoundTable, Dec. 6, 2012 Steven Spielberg’s epic new biopic “Lincoln” opens on a panorama of Boschian horror, black and white soldiers hacking away at each other with guns, bayonets,
Letter to the New York Times on Meeting Kurt Vonnegut
New York Times Book Review, Nov. 11, 2012 To the Editor: Kurt Andersen’s entertaining and rueful recollection of meeting Kurt Vonnegut called to mind my own experience. In 1998, working
‘The Sessions’: Courageous and Profound
Evanston RoundTable, Nov. 8, 2012 Movies have come a long way on the topic of living with disabilities. In “An Affair to Remember,” released in 1957, Deborah Kerr was ready to forgo
The Good You Can Do
Evanston RoundTable, Oct. 25, 2012 In the wake of Dajae Coleman’s shooting death, there’s been a call for greater mentorship. Some people will wonder how they can help. Here is one
Pinball Wizard Writes the Tunes, Also Beeps and Boops
Evanston RoundTable, Oct. 11, 2012 Everyone of a certain age will remember the sprightly synthesizer tune that played as Mario scooted along in the wildly popular 1980s video game “Super
Review of “The Intouchables”
Evanston RoundTable, Sept. 27, 2012 Hospice training sometimes includes an exercise in which participants are asked to list the 10 activitites that give them the most pleasure, such as hobbies,
“The Swerve” – A Joyful Ride Through Intellectual History
Evanston RoundTable, Sept. 13, 2012 In the winter of 1417, Poggio Bracciolini set out for a remote mountain-top monastery to seek out a manuscript he thought might change Western civilization.
‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’: A Universe Apart
Evanston RoundTable, August 16, 2012 “To see a world in a grain of sand/And a heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/And eternity in an