Claire Zulkey

Apr. 26, 2013

The Kate Lambert Interview

Apr. 26, 2013

Let's talk about what it's like to make a living as a comic performer in Chicago. Kate Lamber is an actress, improviser and writer. She is a cast member of The Second City Touring Company and has performed as an understudy on The Second City's e.t.c. Stage and at UP Comedy Club.

Kate has also toured with The Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Line. She wrote and acted in viral shorts such as "Adults & Tiaras", "How to Live Like Beyonce", and "How to Sponsor a Uterus" that have been featured places like The Huffington Post, MTV and Cosmopolitan.

In addition, she is an actor, writer, and executive producer for the web series, Teachers.

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John R. Schmidt

Apr. 26, 2013

Chicago greets General MacArthur

Apr. 26, 2013

It was the biggest celebration of a single person Chicago had ever seen. Over 3 million people lined the city’s streets. The date was April 26, 1951.

After 14 years on foreign soil, Douglas MacArthur was back in the United States. America’s General had returned. And the city went wild.

MacArthur was a national hero. He led U.S. forces to victory in the Pacific during World War II. When the Korean War broke out, he had turned back the enemy advance at Inchon. 
 
But now that war had become a stalemate. MacArthur thought President Truman was being too cautious. When the general’s views became public, the president relieved him. 
 
That created a sensation. Truman was a very unpopular president in 1951.

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Louisa Chu

Apr. 26, 2013

Handpicked: Bees, cheese, pigs, and more

Apr. 26, 2013

Friday, April 26

Bike a Bee fundraiser at 3624 West Wrightwood Avenue. Make a beeline just west of Logan Square for a honey of a bake sale, local beer and spirits, merchandise (including temporary tattoos), and silent auction. Bid on buzz-worthy prizes like a Longman & Eagle lost weekend (drinks and overnight stay), Pleasant House Bakery gift certificate, and Arize kombucha. Bike a Bee gives beehives to community gardens all over Chicago and cares for them (for free) by bicycle. Admission FREE, food and drink additional and act as donations.

Saturday, April 27

Recipe for Success: Starting and Growing a Food Business in Chicago at the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago Law School. Hungry for information about how to succeed in a food venture?

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Cheryl Raye-Stout

Apr. 26, 2013

Bears draft a guard, Bulls successfully guard home and the Blackhawks finishing up

Apr. 26, 2013

Bears go Long

And the 20th pick in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft the Bears selected...

Kyle Long, an offensive guard from Oregon. 

Bears Phil Emery was unable to trade down and told the media that Long was the player the team had targeted. Many draft experts had Long going later in the draft as late as the third round.

He is 6’7,” 313lbs and the Bears believe he has the capability to also play at tackle. If the last name rings a bell. it should. He is the brother of Rams defensive end Chris Long and the son of Hall of Famer Howie Long.

There is some baggage for the new Bears player. He had some off the field issues at Florida State where he played baseball, went to a community college to play football and wound up at Oregon.

Long played in 11 games last year and started in five, so he has a limited resume on the Division I level.

You can look at it two ways:

  1. He doesn’t have the wear and tear players have coming into the league.
  2. But, he is a player with limited experience and will have to digest the game fast.

Emery expects Kyle Long to make an impact sooner than later. And if the football thing doesn’t work out, he probably could try baseball. No joke.

Long was drafted by the White Sox out of high school in the 23rd round.

The NFL draft continues today with the second and third round.

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Chris Bentley

Apr. 25, 2013

Flooded Botanic Garden saved by native plants, Army

Apr. 25, 2013

Chicago's "garden on the water" got over-watered last week.

With more than six miles of shoreline, the Chicago Botanic Garden offers an idyllic green scenery along a waterfront. But when last week's inundation sent the garden’s lake levels soaring by more than five feet, the scene looked more like a swamp. And it was the actions of native plants – and the U.S. Army – that saved it.

The rising water swallowed stone lanterns on the shores of the Japanese Garden. In the past, such flooding would have sucked soil away from the garden’s shorelines.

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Britt Julious

Apr. 25, 2013

'Headphone culture' is a way to find privacy in public

Apr. 25, 2013
Privacy is a luxury. Outside of one’s home and especially in an urban environment, finding privacy has become increasingly more difficult. Whereas before we were content to find and create privacy in our own homes, the greater invasion of personal space online has bred and will continue to breed a culture of self-imposed seclusion, if only through the form of a song.

My office is a vast and inviting space full of young and hardworking individuals. It is also full of headphones large and small. Everyone is listening to something to not listen to the sounds around them. It is not that the office is particularly loud. Rather, it is the silence that facilitates a need to escape from the public work environment.

I worked in a museum for a year and wearing headphones to listen to music never crossed my mind. I worked in a small office with three other women. Listening to music when they were just beyond the cubicle wall would have seemed strange, perhaps even rude.

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Leah Pickett

Apr. 25, 2013

Feminism is not a dirty word

Apr. 25, 2013

Female superstars like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Beyoncé want to empower young girls and be champions for women everywhere. Just don't call them feminists. 
 
When asked if they considered themselves feminists, they all balked at the term: 
 

"I don't really think about things as guys versus girls." — Taylor Swift, The Daily Beast

"I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have label yourself as anything?

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John R. Schmidt

Apr. 25, 2013

When Western Avenue was Woodrow Wilson Road

Apr. 25, 2013

As any true Chicagoan knows, Western Avenue is the longest street in the city. Would you believe it was once named Woodrow Wilson Road?

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, died on February 3, 1924. He’d been an icon of the Progressive movement and led the country through the First World War. The Chicago City Council wanted a suitable way to honor him.

A few years before, after Theodore Roosevelt died, the aldermen changed 12th Street to Roosevelt Road. What was good for a dead Republican president should be good for a dead Democratic one. Since the city already had a Wilson Avenue, it was decided to use President Wilson’s full name on his street.

It’s not clear why the lawmakers chose Western Avenue for renaming. On April 25, 1924 they voted to re-designated the street as Woodrow Wilson Road.

The 12th-to-Roosevelt change had caused little controversy. But now the property owners along Western objected to the expense involved in renaming their street.

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