David Himmel 10/11/19 David Himmel 10/11/19

Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of October 7, 2019

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that matters. I’ve said this before, and yet, some people still don’t get it. Maybe it’s the way I’m saying it.

Sponsored Content 10/11/19 Sponsored Content 10/11/19

Windy City Empire Singer-Songwriter Night at The Store in Chicago

David Himmel 10/10/19 David Himmel 10/10/19

Hope Idiotic | Part 12

What kind of a boyfriend was he? What kind of a man lets his girlfriend of two years — a close friend for eight years before that — foot the bill for her big thirtieth birthday trip?

Joe Janes 10/9/19 Joe Janes 10/9/19

The Minutes of Our Last Meeting: Improv is Hard

The suggestion is “spatula”. It’s always going to be spatula.

Don Hall 10/9/19 Don Hall 10/9/19

I Like to Watch | Unbelievable (Netflix)

While I understand the argument that no one can genuinely empathize with someone else’s journey — the most recent of these is that white people can’t possibly understand the trials of being black in America — I believe we have to at least try or eventually faction off into castes and tribes with no attempt at finding anything resembling common interest. Stories give us that chance.

Kari Castor 10/8/19 Kari Castor 10/8/19

Notes From the Harrison Hills

This is the sort of thing you’re not supposed to do — wander around off-trail. I wonder if I’ve made a critical mistake, but I don’t feel particularly alarmed or concerned about the situation I’ve gotten myself into. Does that mean I’m rightly assessing that this is fine? I’m not that far off-trail, I know there are roads and ATV trails that crisscross this whole area, and I know which direction to head. Or is my nonchalance the same kind of unearned confidence that got that Into the Wild idiot killed?

Don Hall 10/7/19 Don Hall 10/7/19

I Believe... [The Quixote Zone]

…that we have now entered the Quixote Zone when old men declaring they are knights, reality stars declaring they are presidents, and the very declaration that you are defined by your belief in your own, specific reality contrary to every indicator otherwise is normal.

David Himmel 10/7/19 David Himmel 10/7/19

Hope Idiotic | Part 11

In the dining room, the party was getting more and more raucous. Music was blaring as it competed for dominance over the laughter. One sixty-year-old woman referred to one of the women in her quilting group as “a total cunt.” Gifts set aside, Lou, Michelle, Chuck and Lexi joined in.

Chris Churchill 10/6/19 Chris Churchill 10/6/19

Chris Churchill Saves the World | How "The Walking Dead" Helped Me Feel My Feelings

I love The Walking Dead for a lot of reasons. But here’s the reason I’m so loyal to it:

When I was nineteen years old, committed to the psych ward, sitting across from my first psychiatrist, Dr. Bolan, he explained it to me. He told me I had a panic disorder (a diagnosis that subsequent psychiatrists haven’t necessarily focused on but one that seems to encapsulate a big part of my problem). He compared my brain to a house with many rooms, all of which had a light switch to be turned on when something worried me. As he explained, most people can turn the light on and then, when it was no longer needed (i.e., the thing that worries you is gone), they can turn the light off. People with a panic disorder cannot turn the lights off once they get turned on.

David Himmel 10/5/19 David Himmel 10/5/19

Long Train Running: A Chicago Marathon Story | Chapter 9 — The Unfinished Line

By the time this is published, the Chicago Endurance Sports (CES) training group I’d been running with this summer will be gathering at the Ben Franklin statue in Lincoln Park getting ready to have their last long-ish training run before Race Day. I will be asleep. Or maybe I’ll have dragged my fickle body out of bed to bang out some work before the kid wakes up and the dog needs to be taken out and the wife needs her coffee. The point is that I won’t be at the Ben Franklin statue in Lincoln Park getting ready to have a run. Because I’m not running the Chicago Marathon.

David Himmel 10/4/19 David Himmel 10/4/19

Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of September 29, 2019

I am limping proof that hopes, prayers, and positive thinking are no match for reality and action.

Sheri Reda 10/4/19 Sheri Reda 10/4/19

Nothing

Louise walked out into the waking morning with an ache in her throat and neck she identified as the desire to cry.

David Himmel 10/3/19 David Himmel 10/3/19

Hope Idiotic | Part X

Two days later, Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed, causing a massive wave of panic throughout the financial world. The Great Recession had begun. That day, with no companies to call on, Lou’s entire team was glued to streaming videos and news stories about the collapse. Lou played online Tetris.

Joe Janes 10/2/19 Joe Janes 10/2/19

The Minutes of Our Last Meeting | Trump Fortifies The Wall

Dr. Evil: We fill the alligators with scorpions and replace their teeth with fruit-flavored vape cartridges.

Don Hall 10/2/19 Don Hall 10/2/19

Problematic Movies of the 80s | Trading Places (1983)

If you can get past Justin Trudeau in blackface, then you can probably get over Dan Akroyd in blackface but, if not, that’s definitely a jarring moment in the endgame of Winthorpe and Billy Ray executing the switcheroo on the Duke brothers in the last thirty minutes.

Don Hall 10/1/19 Don Hall 10/1/19

The Artist’s Cross to Bear in an Increasingly Strident AntiArt Paradigm

Currently, the artistic form most under fire is comedy. Oh...and movies. And theater, fashion design, television, museum art, and knitting. Yes. Knitting is under fire for not being appropriately woke in the wake of the Great Over Corrective Wokeness Patrol.

Don Hall 9/30/19 Don Hall 9/30/19

I Believe... [Probst for President]

…that if I really wanted a reality TV star to be president, it would be Jeff Probst of Survivor.

David Himmel 9/30/19 David Himmel 9/30/19

Hope Idiotic | Part IX

Chuck regularly passed out wearing his glasses and just as regularly would lose them in the middle of the night. He’d either pull them off his face and throw them across the room or lose them in the pillows and sheets of his bed or cushions of a couch. But they weren’t in the cushions.

Don Hall 9/29/19 Don Hall 9/29/19

Be Your Own Snopes: When Everyone Has a Megaphone, the Truth Matters Even More

With the digital world, however, the speed and frequency of baseless accusations and confirmed ideas with no foundation is overwhelming. The addition of memes has exacerbated the difficulty of separating fact from fiction. Without hours of time to research every claim, we tend to allow the propagandized messages to go unchallenged.

Contributing Writer 9/29/19 Contributing Writer 9/29/19

A “Be Best” Experience

It seems to me, anything that can happen in real life social situations can now happen in digital social situations. This proves to be a good thing when it’s time to celebrate. But when it comes to sexual humiliation, you just want it to go away.