Jim Tuohy was taller than this. (D. Hoekstra pix.)
The fine Chicago writer Jim Tuohy was a curious guy. He cut his chops at the City News Bureau of Chicago, wrote for the Chicago Reader and Chicago Lawyer and co-authored 1989’s “Greylord: Justice, Chicago Style” with Rob Warden.
My encounters with Tuohy were almost always after 2 a.m. at the Old Town Ale House and sometimes earlier in the evening at O’Rourke’s and Riccardo’s. He was always interested in what stories I was working on. He radiated a sincere sense of wonder. He leaned into me like light through a shadow.
Tuohy died of kidney failure in January [...]
Thank you, White Sox, thanks Bill! (Provided photo.)
Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Veeck loved incongruity, so he would have enjoyed Saturday’s “Bill Veeck Night” at Rate Field. The White Sox did a fine job with Veeckish stunts such as a pre-game petting zoo featuring Stella the Sloth, a 60-second marriage in center field officiated by former White Sox great Ron Kittle, a puffy Andrew the Clown, and a cool Veeck bobblehead.
But incongruity rounded the bases at the end of the game.
Jesse Cole, the effervescent founder of the Savannah Bananas barnstorming baseball team, appeared with a video message [...]
Summer, 2025 (D. Hoekstra photo.)
I’ve been going to Feed since Donna Knezek and Liz Sharp opened the southern-inspired diner twenty years ago in a country-industrial gumbo of Humboldt Park.
Feed, 2803 W. Chicago Ave., is a couple of blocks north of the Milwaukee District railroad station. In 2005, the bar next door was the Famous Pizza Lounge (a.k.a. Hiawatha Inn), a former speakeasy with a curious clientele and a loud jukebox. Today, the Continental Lounge features a mural that pays tribute to the Milwaukee Road’s Hiawatha.
Christ Bambulas (1931-2013, a.k.a. Chris) owned the building that housed the [...]
Camp Mi Casa, Old Route 66, Carthage, MO,. (Jon Sall photograph)
Like a broken needle in a compass, selling my camper van left me lost in the slipstream. The blue converted 2015 Ford Transit van was the subject of 2018’s “The Camper Book (A Celebration of a Moveable American Dream)”with fine photographs from Jon Sall and a great foreword from actor-Detroit Tigers fan Jeff Daniels.
The van became a 10-year chapter of my life.
While looking back at the book and photos we took along the way, I arrived at the “what was I thinking?” moment. The van was likely a whiplash response to the passing of [...]
