Generally considered a bummer of epic proportions, the Great Depression nonetheless inspired a measure of nostalgia. Americans looked back to a simpler time, of lives unencumbered by food, employment, homes, […]
Category: Chicago
Fixed That For You
In 1921, with Independence Day festivities out of the way, jury selection began on the biggest scandal to hit the sports world in years: the Black Sox case, with a […]
200 Years of Illinois: Final Flight
American Airlines Flight 191 crashed on May 25, 1979. All of the 271 people aboard died, as did two more on the ground. The cause: an improperly repaired engine mount […]
Sweet home Chicago
May 11-13, 2016, the publishing industry will descend upon the City of Big Shoulders for the textapalooza that is BookExpo America. BEA, held at Chicago’s McCormick Place this spring, is […]
Sensing Chicago awarded by the Illinois State Historical Society
Sensing Chicago: Noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers by Adam Mack has been given an award for Superior Achievement by the Illinois State Historical Society. The awards committee noted, “This scholarly book […]
Above the Lawless
Today marks the birthday of Lucy Lawless. The woman who single-handedly turned the phrase “iconic New Zealand-born actress” from a sly joke into absolute truth, Lawless became famous as warrior […]
Q&A with Painting the Gospel author Kymberly Pinder
Kymberly N. Pinder is Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. Her book Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago explores the […]
Alan Harper’s blues odyssey
Alan Harper left his home in England in 1979 on a pilgrimage to find the blues. His journey led him to Chicago where he worked at a sandwich restaurant and […]
A less than perfect murder
How to get away with the perfect murder is one of those bull session perennials, a topic of unending fascination. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, a pair of University of […]
Excelsior! continued
You night think a skyline would maintain a certain consistency, an unchanging nature that reflected the fact that building a skyscraper is one of humanity’s more complex undertakings. Yet recent newsicles […]
Blues All Day Long awarded by ARSC
Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story by Wayne Everett Goins has been awarded a Certificate of Merit in Historical Research in Blues, Gospel, or R&B in the 2015 […]
Sing in the sunshine
By the grace of the gods and the bulging forearms of Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs have advanced to the National League Championship Series, there to face the New York Mets. […]