Events

Welcome to stop #53 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Dovetail Brewery, 1800 W. Belle Plaine Ave., ChicagoTrain line: UP North, Ravenswood (also CTA Brown Line, Irving Park)Time from Chicago: 13 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.3 km (Metra), 300 m (CTA) I know, I know, I should have posted about Dovetail months ago. I mean, Dovetail and Begyle (stop #15) are less than 100 meters apart, and until recently both had dog-friendly policies. But on the day I visited Begyle for the Brews and...

Local restaurant review show "Check Please," which was to begin its 20th season on the local public-television station WTTW, will instead end its run after the station proposed contract terms that the producers couldn't accept: I'd like to say our upcoming 20th milestone season will be our best one ever!  However, WTTW/11 and I want to go in different directions and pursue other opportunities, so it's just not to be. Crain's has more: The show's last contract ended in the spring of 2020, just as the...

Chicago & Northwestern Station, 9 August 1971: Approximately the same location, 23 August 2021: The station was demolished in 1984 and replaced with Citicorp Center.

Welcome to stop #52 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: The brewery closed permanently in February 2023. Brewery: Dry City Brew Works, 120 N. Main St., WheatonTrain line: UP West, WheatonTime from Chicago: 51 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 500 m Just as Methodist-founded Northwestern University in Evanston kept that city dry from the 1850s until 1972, Wheaton College had the same effect on the DuPage County Seat until 1984. Dry City Brew Works celebrates (?) this history with their...

Stories from the usual suspects: Sweden's Prime Minister abruptly resigned Sunday, saying it's for the benefit of his center-left party. Following Andrew Cuomo's resignation, Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York State this morning just after midnight. The Capitol Police have cleared the unnamed officer who shot domestic terrorist Ashli Babbit as she tried to force her way into the Speaker's Lobby on January 6th, adding that the shooting likely saved many other lives. Economist Paul...

New York Times reporter Alissa Rubin, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work covering Kabul, looks back on the Bush Administration's refusal to entertain a deal with the Taliban in 2001: “The Taliban were completely defeated, they had no demands, except amnesty,” recalled Barnett Rubin, who worked with the United Nations’ political team in Afghanistan at the time. Messengers shuttled back and forth between [Hamid] Karzai and the headquarters of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, in Kandahar. Mr....

Welcome to stop #51 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Two Hound Red, 486 Pennsylvania Ave., Glen EllynTrain line: UP West, Glen EllynTime from Chicago: 45 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 500 m You know? Downtown Glen Ellyn is a lot cuter than I expected. And Two Hound Red, which opened in June 2019, is worth the trip. If only they had fewer TVs... They don't have flights, but they will give you pairs of 5-ounce samples, so I had two. Meaning four. And they were pretty good—though it turned...

In a few minutes I'm hosting only the second in-person thing my chorus has done in the past 18 months: our last board meeting of the summer. We're all set to start in-person rehearsals on the 13th, though we will probably have to wear masks until our performances. That'll be weird—but at least we'll be in the same room. Other choruses in Chicago have the same challenges: “COVID shut us down completely because singing is a superspreader event,” said Jimmy Morehead, artistic director for the Chicago Gay...

Welcome to stop #50 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: EBC closed on 8 June 2025 and will be replaced in 2026 by 93 Octane Brewery. Brewery: Elmhurst Brewing Co., 171 N Addison Ave., ElmhurstTrain line: UP West, ElmhurstTime from Chicago: 32 minutes (Zone 3)Distance from station: 300 m Elmhurst Brewing opened in February 2018 and got through the pandemic with take-out and delivery. I can understand how: they have good beer. They brew in the back, then send the beer up to giant steel containers behind...

"Over-extended, hollowed-out, debt-burdened empires are not exactly intimidating to many enemies. Leaving Afghanistan is therefore not the blow to American power and prestige these pundits are claiming. Staying in Afghanistan is."—Andrew Sullivan.