Heroes of Health Care
Evanston RoundTable, May 7, 2025 National Nurses Week is a good time to honor our hospital caregivers We couldn’t get by without nurses. They’ve been called “the superheroes of healthcare” who are “irreplaceable … in keeping the nation healthy and thriving.” And says former President Barack Obama, “America’s nurses are the beating heart of our […]
Stand by me
Evanston RoundTable, April 23, 2025 Three decades of making beautiful music — together. In the realm of celebrated teams — Dante and Beatrice, Mickey and Minnie, Michael and Scottie, Bonnie and Clyde — musical stand partners rank pretty low. There’s a good reason for that: The unique, complex and daunting dynamics of sharing a music […]
The Beatles at Northwestern
Evanston RoundTable, April 9, 2025 The mop tops never played at Welsh-Ryan Arena or Dyche Stadium (as Ryan Field was known then). To my knowledge they never even visited our fair city when they came to Chicago to perform at the International Amphitheater in 1964 and 1966 and Comiskey Park in 1965. Nevertheless, the band […]
The lesson of the soap dispenser
Evanston RoundTable, March 19, 2025 “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” said the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and we know what he means. The present races by second by second at a speed so astonishing and unmanageable we make all sorts of errors and commit all kinds of transgressions. […]
The world turned upside down
Evanston RoundTable, Feb. 20, 2024 People didn’t notice at first. The steady tug of gravity has been with us so long — since the beginning of time, tens of billions of years ago, across hundreds of millions of generations, the most reliably consistent force in the universe, the glue that holds the galaxies and atoms […]
Turning 90, Jim Harper still shows his stuff on the pickleball court
Evanston RoundTable, Feb. 6, 2025 As he embarks on his 10th decade, Jim Harper is still grateful he can get out on the McGaw YMCA pickleball court and have a good time. “I’m not as quick on my feet as I used to be,” laughed the former tennis and racquetball player, “so I’m grateful my […]
‘Somebody Somewhere’ turns out to be Evanston’s Hannah Bos
Evanston RoundTable, Jan. 30, 2025 The co-creator and co-showrunner of the comedy drama, which last month completed a three-season run on HBO Max to rave reviews, is Hannah Bos, who was born and raised in Evanston and graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1996. When I asked her how the city has influenced her […]
Expressing gratitude
Evanston RoundTable, Dec. 23, 2024 One of the many wonderful features of the annual Thanksgiving holiday, in addition to the food and the company, is the opportunity to express our gratitude. In many gatherings, people are encouraged to share what they are grateful for, to express love for those with whom they’re breaking bread and […]
Rx for health care access: Some initiatives that may help
Evanston RoundTable, Nov. 21, 2024 Editor’s note: The first part of this series explored the supply-and-demand dynamics that help explain difficulty accessing doctors nationwide, and the concerns of local patients and physicians. This part looks at some initiatives underway to remedy the problem. That it is increasingly hard to access doctors for even acute conditions […]
The doctor can’t see you now: Is access to health care in crisis?
Evanston RoundTable, Nov. 20, 2024 Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part series. When health care consultant Michael Millenson phoned Endeavor Health last year to make a dermatology appointment, he was told to wait while the scheduler checked for openings. After a short while, she came back on the line to report […]