Anthony Driver, Jr—District Divides

One day a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon two collections of stories by Alice Munro–Runaway and Dear Life. Found them in a book barn just up the street. Thought–man, what a find! Munro’s one of the great writers of the last 50 years…

There are so many reasons I love One Battle After Another--Paul Thomas Anderson's latest movie--it's hard to mention them all. So I'll keep it to one--the sensei. That would be Sergio St. Carlos, the character played by Benicio del Toro, who's call…

By the time I met Tony Fitzpatrick, he was already a Chicago legend. This was the fall of 2006. By chance, our children attended the same high school. And I saw him at a parent-teacher conference night, sitting in the last row to meet with Ms. Gall…

It’s been so many years since Malcolm X was murdered that his afterlife is as important as the life he led. That’s sorta the theme of Mark Whitaker’s book, The Afterlife of Malcolm X. A book I devoured in two or three nights, just…

Among the things I learned from last Sunday’s New York Times is that JD Vance trolled Pope Leo XIV with impunity, when they met back in May. I learned about this from a letter to the editor written by Allen J. Wiener, alerting me to an essay …

For almost 40 years, I’ve been urging my lefty friends to please, please, please vote Democratic in the general election. Any general election. But especially presidential ones. I've told them things like… Think of the courts! Or..…