News & Features, Chicago Reader

Richard Cotovsky's life on the fringe, rewarded

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

After four decades in Chicago theater, Mary-Arrchie's Richard Cotovsky gets a special nod from the Jeff Awards. by Deanna Isaacs Richard Cotovsky never did any theater when he was at Senn High School or Niles North, where he graduated. And he had nothing to do with theater at college, first at Southern Illinois, and then at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was a guitar-toting pharmacy major.…

Should Mom buy Playboy for her kid?

Dan Savage — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on a cross-dresser in a nursing home, drunk straight girls making out, and a kid's developing porn connoisseurship. by Dan Savage QI have a mentally disabled cousin who I haven't figured out how to help. He's lived for more than 40 years in the same nursing home in a small, conservative town.…

Do we really need the Great Chicago Fire Festival?

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Do we really need the Great Chicago Fire Festival? by Deanna Isaacs Twice last winter, I heard cultural affairs commissioner Michelle Boone's pocket speech on the city's new cultural plan. Both times she brought along a chart studded with dozens of red check marks indicating progress on some of the plan's hundreds of goals.…

110 reasons to mark your calendar

Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

110 summery things to do, every day from now until Labor Day MAY Thu16 Fifth House Ensemble in Austin Town Hall Park The community-based chamber music ensemble presents a narrative concert about a secretary whose work piles up as she's sucked into a consumerist nightmare on the Internet.…

Mayor Emanuel's FOIA policy: Don't ask because we won't tell

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Mayor Emanuel finds a new way to avoid sharing public records: throwing them out. by Ben Joravsky As we approach the midpoint of Mayor Emanuel's first term, I think I've discovered one of his greatest legacies to Chicago, right up there with dismantling public education and making Mayor Daley's god-awful parking meter deal even worse. The mayor is also undermining the Freedom of Information Act, so that it's next to impossible for ordinary citizens to secure information showing how the government reaches decisions that affect their lives.…

Do friends let friends fuck Republicans?

Dan Savage — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on a deadbeat husband, a thoughtful sex worker, and fucking across party lines by Dan Savage QI'm a 24-year-old straight, married female. I have been religiously reading your column in the Portland Mercury since I was 16.…

Addicted to guns

Mick Dumke — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

Is there a cure for Chicago's crippling dependence on firearms? by Mick Dumke Tony Wade has always been surrounded by violence. He was raised by his grandfather in Greater Grand Crossing on Chicago's south side, a working-class area that began losing businesses, jobs, and people in the 1970s.…

The school model that's good enough for President Obama and Mayor Emanuel

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:00:00 -0500

If unionized teachers are good enough for Mayor Emanuel's kids, why not the public schools? by Ben Joravsky I recently got a call from a teacher at the University of Chicago Lab Schools who wanted to let me know just how many private school teachers detest the educational policies of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He caught me off guard, because I'd assumed that people at the school would espouse the get-tough-on-teachers mentality of Mayor Emanuel and his predecessor, Mayor Daley, since both mayors sent their kids there.…

The underworld of raiteros

Michael Grabell/ProPublica — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Little Village's underworld of labor brokers, known as raiteros, take workers for a ride. by Michael Grabell/ProPublica This piece was produced by the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica, in partnership with Marketplace. Reporter Michael Grabell followed buses and vans from the early-morning pickups in Chicago to the warehouses in the far suburbs, and conducted more than 60 interviews with workers, raiteros, temp agency recruiters, managers of check-cashing stores, and others.…

Spring deal breakers

Dan Savage — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on relationships soured, long-distance, and illicit by Dan Savage QI am a 23-year-old straight male. My ex-girlfriend and I started dating in high school, when we were both 17, and continued dating until I broke up with her the summer after our freshman year in college because things felt too serious.…

Rick Kogan might be sentimental—just don't call him a sentimentalist

Michael Miner — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Rick Kogan might be sentimental—just don't call him a sentimentalist. by Michael Miner Not many Chicago writers would mind being mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Algren, but Rick Kogan read the Sunday Tribune and was bewildered. Here was drama critic Chris Jones writing about Rachel Shteir's now notorious review of three Chicago books, published the week before in the New York Times.…

In the Chicago Public Schools, promises are made to be broken

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:30:00 -0500

Reasons to doubt Mayor Emanuel's promises on schools—as if you needed more. by Ben Joravsky For the last few weeks, Mayor Emanuel has been promising parents and students at schools he's closing that they'll have everything from new air conditioners to new computers in the schools he's sending them to. Not that any parent would doubt the mayor and his education team, but if you're one of the many parents who's doubting the mayor and his education team, you may want to consider the case of the eight teachers at Lincoln Park High School.…

Happy, gay, free

Dan Savage — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan with an uplifting assortment of letters. by Dan Savage DEAR READERS: Last week was made of problems. The bombing of the Boston Marathon, the explosion that leveled a small town in Texas, the rising tide of antigay violence in France, the North Koreans being North Korean.…

The man who transformed high school baseball on the south side

Adam Doster — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Will the coach who transformed high school baseball on the south side finally get the recognition he deserves? by Adam Doster Simeon Career Academy's Terrance Robertson just doesn't have it. His fastball's got no zip, his off-speed pitches not enough break.…

Welcome to U.S. Cellular Field, home of the sweetheart deal

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Welcome to U.S. Cellular Field, home of the taxpayer-funded sweetheart deal. by Ben Joravsky With all the hullabaloo over the Cubs and their Wrigley Field renovation, it's easy to overlook the fact that there's another ballpark in Chicago with its own political issues.In case any of us had forgotten, a lawsuit filed last week in federal court is a good reminder that U.S. Cellular Field is still around, still serving as the home of the White Sox, and still being underwritten by taxpayers. On April 15 Perri Irmer sued former governor James Thompson and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, alleging that they essentially colluded to have her fired from her job as CEO of the Illinois Sports Facility Authority.…

Lucky Plush, Blair Thomas & Co., and Eighth Blackbird go three to a sleeping bag

Deanna Isaacs — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Lucky Plush, Blair Thomas & Co, and Eighth Blackbird climb into bed together for a good cause: survival. by Deanna Isaacs Four years ago, at the annual meeting of Arts Alliance Illinois, keynote speaker Ben Cameron told the assembled leaders that cooperation, rather than competition, would have to be their strategy going forward—if they were to survive. The country was reeling under the first impact of the recession, and Cameron, now noted for his TED talks on the performing arts, warned of a wave of consolidation in which all but the strongest groups would be likely to disappear.…

Dick Hole, don't panic

Dan Savage — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on dick holes, sex on pot, and role-play. by Dan Savage QI am uncircumcised, and the opening at the end of my foreskin is not large enough for the head of my penis to pass through. This means my foreskin doesn't pull back when I get an erection.…

Former Reader editor delves into the hunt for more of John Wayne Gacy's dead

Michael Miner — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Former Reader editor delves into the hunt for more of John Wayne Gacy's dead. by Michael Miner John Wayne Gacy was executed in 1994 for the murders of 33 young men and boys, but he hasn't gone away. Gacy made headlines 17 months ago when DNA testing led to the identification of one of his eight victims who'd remained nameless.…

God loves fags

Dan Savage — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan, with an assist from an honest-to-god clergyman, on being Christian and gay. by Dan Savage QI'm a gay man who has been seeing a devout Christian guy for one year. We have a great relationship.…

The lessons of Jane Byrne

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Jane Byrne showed that an unknown on a kamikaze mission can end up winning the mayor's office. by Ben Joravsky For many reasons, I've been thinking about former mayor Jane Byrne a lot lately. Part of it is a general feeling of nostalgia brought on by Roger Ebert's death.…

Twentieth-century glamour, on auction at Leslie Hindman

Deanna Isaacs — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

"Skahzzi" gowns and other vintage clothes are going up for auction at Leslie Hindman. by Deanna Isaacs The global economy is collapsing, lethal bird flu has just jumped to humans, North Korea wants to nuke us, and there's a totally cool vintage couture sale coming up at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. We will be focusing on the last.…

Weighing mustache and motorcycle rides

Dan Savage — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on a husband's kinky fantasy, a May-December romance, and more. by Dan Savage QI am trying to understand some sexual fantasies I have. They involve having sex with a woman who has a penis.…

Are baseball predictions—and by extension our annual Golden BAT awards—falling out of fashion?

Michael Miner — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Are baseball predictions—and by extension our annual Golden BAT awards—falling out of fashion? by Michael Miner Sages say it's not the destination that matters but the voyage. When we get to where we're going, we often wonder why we bothered, yet the weeks at sea were full of adventures—storms and pirates and breaching whales, not to mention the hours spent on deck leaning into the wind and brooding.…

Mayor Emanuel's crowded-classroom approach to fixing schools

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0500

A glimpse at the school overcrowding likely to result from Mayor Emanuel's "consolidation" plan. by Ben Joravsky As you may have heard, Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently jetted in from his Utah ski vacation to tell the city—particularly south- and west-siders—that he'd done them a big favor by closing 54 of their schools. That meant that 30,000 children would be moved into new schools.…

Sister as surrogate sex solicitor?

Dan Savage — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dan on sibling sex solicitation, uncharacteristic attraction, and doing BDSM wrong to get it right. by Dan Savage QMy brother is 22 years old and mentally ill with social anxiety on the scale of agoraphobia (officially diagnosed). He's made significant progress in the past few years, but he's stuck on the fact that he's a virgin and is convinced that he's not going to make any real social progress until that's no longer a fact.…