To know Chicago, visit its neighborhoods

In the May 30 South Loop newsletter The Dearborn Express, editor Al Hippensteel suggests an idea for this summer: “[V]isit three neighborhoods you’ve never been to.” I’ve actually been acting on a visit-the-neighborhoods resolution since the spring, so far going to Old Town, Lincoln Square, Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Little Village, Andersonville, Asian Argyle Street, and Indian Devon Avenue. 

But none of those are neighborhoods I’d never been to. I suspect that Hippensteel is setting his sights beyond the neighborhoods you’ll find in tourist guides, maybe even exploring without a list of what to see.

Are depressing stories turning you off to the news?

I remember reading an article some years ago by a highly educated man who said that he didn’t follow the daily news. He’d hear about anything major regardless, he reasoned, and there were more intellectually challenging things to occupy his mind.

I was shocked.

Author’s love affair with a cat

After finishing Caleb Carr’s book My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me, I looked at my Fanny and said, “I feel like I haven’t loved you enough.”