“It’s with a heavy heart,” the e-mail read, “that I tell you that my endeavor as a freelance journalist is in its final months.” » Read the rest of this entry «
#751: Zoe
February 13th, 2017 § permalink
She has some trouble on the stairs.
Sometimes she stops at the bottom, reaches up one paw as if to tap, then just puts it down and nervously leans back and forth, staring at the step. Then she’ll look up with pleading eyes just peeking under her big bangs and eyebrows. » Read the rest of this entry «
#750: Two and Four
February 10th, 2017 § permalink
The entirety of American political history can be found at an old polling place somewhere along the north branch of the Chicago River. » Read the rest of this entry «
#749: Pennies on the Dollar
February 8th, 2017 § permalink
He sat in the door frame, propped against the wall on some ledge hidden among the two-liter bottles of off-brand citrus soda.
Leaning forward, his hands bracing himself on his knees, he wheezed a bit, his large body still recovering from the effort of opening the door and coming in. His walker rested on the sidewalk outside.
I slid past him to get the six-pack I promised a friend. » Read the rest of this entry «
#748: Rise and Fall of the American Stuff Store
February 6th, 2017 § permalink
It’s a bolder smell than taste, although the flavor lingers the longer I let it steep.
The smell wafted full and strong from the box, but put in water it’s gentle and nudging. I like it more with each sip, but can’t explain the taste, either by experience or by ingredients. According to the side of the box, the ingredients in masala tea are tea and masala flavour, with one of those superfluous U’s countries that get worked up about cricket seem to employ.
At the end, it tastes like cheap chai I bought from a corner store. » Read the rest of this entry «
#747: The Chicago Journalism Quiz – Answers
February 3rd, 2017 § permalink
On Wednesday, I ran the Chicago Journalism Quiz, looking at our city’s journalism heritage.
Each correct answer below is a link to a place you can learn more about what really happened. » Read the rest of this entry «
#746: The Chicago Journalism Quiz
February 1st, 2017 § permalink
Hello from the opposition party!
When I’m not spouting emo political whines on this blog or fighting crime as The Crimson Hammer, I’m a journalist.
The news is troubled and troublesome, both a victim of the current political climate and complicit in its creation. But when the president of the United States starts yelling FAKE NEWS at anything he doesn’t like and calls your inky tribe “the opposition party,” it’s hard not to swell with pride a little.
It’s also a discouraging time for some in news, so in a rally-the-spirits moment, let’s remember how we got here in this city with the Chicago Journalism Quiz. » Read the rest of this entry «
#745: A Ramble
January 30th, 2017 § permalink
It seems like time for something funny, an uproarious deep dive into the minutiae of urban living, like… winter hats or something.
But nothing seems funny. » Read the rest of this entry «
#744: Unnoticed
January 27th, 2017 § permalink
Yes, I peer at phones.
I peer and prod, sometimes under the pretext of whatever form of journalism I imagine this site to be, sometimes just because I get bored on the train but reading makes me motion-sick.
So I peer over shoulders, watch people swipe through Pinterests of shoes or scroll past images of friends both real and Facebook. Or, in the case of the shortish woman with the dark curly hair and the tam-style winter cap, the text exchange she was having with an unnamed someone.
She was angry and sniffly, vexed look on her face as she shot perplexed, suspicious and nasty looks around the car.
I knew who she and the unnamed were texting about. » Read the rest of this entry «
#743: Life, the Universe and Everything
January 25th, 2017 § permalink
They pulled the battered paperback out of the bag, handling it like it was the relic of a saint. » Read the rest of this entry «
