Since January 13, writer Thomas J. O’Gorman has been been writing a gossip/society column for Skyline community newspaper. He took over the beat after Ann Gerber, Chicago’s longest-running gossip columnist, retired late last year.

I said that there is never going to be anyone quite like Ann Gerber, and, to his credit, Thomas O’Gorman doesn’t try ( Read more... )

At this point, the fact that there are wild coyotes in Chicago isn't really news. When they do make news, it's usually because some pet gets attacked. Or when somebody decided to do a bit more digging, like this fascinating JSTOR article published back in September about a study tracking Chicago coyotes - which showed that there are way more ( Read more... )

I was working on a follow-up to How to Get a Boy Without Really Trying when I realized I had a bit of a dilemma.

And this is the part where I realize that I don't really know a whole lot about how women take care of their hair #Writing #UrbisArcana
- Strannik (@Strannik_REB45) May 23, 2014
I found that Twitter can be a surprisingly useful resource ( Read more... )

Chicago's Taft High School (which I wrote about last fall) was in the news recently. The school is currently looking for a new principal, and DNAinfo Chicago did a story on the challenges the person who gets the job would have to face.  The story included a recording of an interview with the reporter to get some more insight, which I've embedded ( Read more... )

Thanks to a recent post by andrewducker, I've discovered a fascinating New York Times Magazine article about the efforts to scientifically prove the existence of bisexuality - and the attitudes towards bisexuality among gays and lesbians. It touches on a lot of issues and points I touched upon the last time I wrote about bisexuality on this LJ (and points ( Read more... )

Back in the late February, we had temperatures swinging back and forth here in Chicago. And on the city's Northwest Side, in the Jefferson Park, the melting/freezing cycle turned a soccer field into an ice field. Which the locals used to skate.

The Northwest Side Press, a Jefferson Park based newspaper, has the pictures.


( Read more... )

Once I decided to expand Innocents Lost from a short story into a novel, I knew William Taft High School would have to figure into it somehow. Most of the POV characters are highschoolers, and Taft is the neighborhood high school for all of them.

As I mentioned in the past "Arcana in Progress" entry, I like to use real places in Urbis Arcana - for ( Read more... )

Chicago Reader's official Twitter feed recently linked to an article it published back in August of 1994. Called "The Panic in Wicker Park," it depicts a Wicker Park that most of its recent residents wouldn't recognize - a Wicker Park where young artists lived side by side with working class Polish, Puerto Rican, Mexican and African-American ( Read more... )