For many years after moving to Chicago I witnessed Illinois politicians and I asked my Ohio self: "These people were innocent children once. How did they get this way?" The question, usually dismissed as naive and silly by Illinois natives, is on my mind again.

A little over a year...

They used to lament "the hidden poor" in this country.

I think the bigger blind spot these days is "the hidden rich." I think we're easily shocked by their numbers and by the scope of their excesses--especially in Chicago, with its lunch-bucket self-image. Even if you're reasonably well off, Chicago...

An ex-South Sider friend of mine tells the story about his uncle, who found out he'd gotten a bookie and started gambling on football. At a family party he called the kid over, and whispered into his ear one piece of friendly advice.

"Never bet on a nigger quarterback."

Startled,...

This is something I had published a couple of years ago on a web site called The Week Behind. It seems infinitely more appropriate right now. --DM

***

I do it myself.

On summer vacations and at Christmas dinners, when the time comes to tell my aging father reassuring...

Some years ago a friend of mine, a weary veteran of Trying to Do Things in Chicago, was working with the city on a building project, and boxing with the usual shadows. He told me something that stuck with me.

He said he didn't so much mind that crooked deals...

Granted, the circumstances of my little election-year report on Ohio are extreme.

My 85-year-old father has been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas, and for the last two weeks I've been here in Middletown, shepherding him through tests and oncology appointments. "Palliative" is the operative word, although I keep...

This election is straining friendships and family relations. Angry accusations begin with the phrase, Since when have you been such a goddamn ...

It's actually a good question. Since when, indeed? We weren't born conservative or liberal. How did we get this way? I've been trying to answer the...

Wednesday night after Sarah Palin's speech, I went to bed with a pit in my stomach that reminded me not of November, 2004, but rather October, 2003.

I agree that the Cubs' game six loss in '03 wasn't Steve Bartman's fault, but it remains a fact of my soul that...