ontiveros

Sue Ontiveros biography

Sue Ontiveros has probably one of the wackiest double jobs around. She writes a column on the Saturday editorial pages and is the editor of …

Read More

Search recent columns

More Columns

Dad’s gone; time for Chinese food!

SUE ONTIVEROS: There’s not a whole lot to laugh about when you’re watching your father die of cancer, especially in those last weeks. You witness a once strong body grow too weak to even stand unassisted, see an independent man who was always on the go now confined to spending his days in a solitary room. But the multiple requests for Chinese food never ceased to make me laugh for one simple reason: he never ate Chinese food before!

Billboards make you wonder, what if males were the ones who got pregnant?

SUE ONTIVEROS: The most provocative part of the Chicago Department of Public Health teen pregnancy prevention campaign is the billboards at L stations, bus stops and sprinkled through neighborhoods that have the highest rates of teen pregnancy.

Sing out for the U.S. after Boston

No doubt about it, watching — and listening — to video of the crowd in Boston sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Bruins game Wednesday night really tugged at our collective heartstrings. There it was, the first sporting event in Boston after the terrible tragedy …

Memorials reveal a sense of helplessness

Those memorials drive me crazy. You know the ones I’m talking about. The piles of teddy bears and flowers sitting below balloons at the site of where yet another person has been gunned down in Chicago. Those memorials that TV cameras flock to, where they’ll …

For-profit joints can’t beat an SIU

The conversation between the mom and daughter walking in front of me had grown quite animated, so I decided to listen in. From what I could gather, Mom herself hadn’t gone to college and admitted it wasn’t something she knew much about. Still, she had …

Adele is patron saint of new moms

SUE ONTIVEROS: In this season of awards for entertainers, I would like to nominate Adele as patron saint of new moms.

Latin superstar Jenni did it all

Like so many others, I was shocked by the sudden death of Latin superstar Jenni Rivera. Just hours before the plane she and her entourage were traveling in went down last weekend, the Diva of Banda had performed before thousands in Monterrey, Mexico. Many in …

Cranberries are much more than a side dish this Thanksgiving

I f you were to compare the days of my Dad’s life to an hourglass, you’d see the sand racing to the bottom, with those around him having little chance of stopping it. Dad was diagnosed with end-stage prostate cancer in late May; it now …

We can’t take abortion rights for granted

As one male GOP candidate after another has stepped up to play “Father Knows Best” when it comes to abortion — particularly when it involves a rape victim — I keep asking myself how has it come to this: that women’s reproductive rights are in …

  • ‘GIRL POWER’ A RECENT VICTORY

    One day a younger male colleague asked if there were things I hadn’t been able to do because I was female. Before I could answer, a female co-worker his age jumped into the conversation. “What a stupid question,” she snapped, before adding that there wasn’t …Read More

  • Todd Akin, GOP women and the ‘Dirty Dancing’ factor

    SUE ONTIVEROS: Todd Akin may have others obsessing over election chances and party politics. Me? I’m thinking about”Dirty Dancing” and Republican women. Hang around, you’ll see where I’m going with this.

  • Chicago or the suburbs? Depends on your attitude

    A letter writer on our editorial page last week started out by admitting she could never survive in the city, and she gave 10 reasons why. I was OK with her not being a city type. I could never make it in the suburbs, having …Read More

  • Why bikini onesie is not a joke

    It should be just another goofy gift for baby. But it’s not, and that’s what’s got me mad — and for a variety of reasons. I’m talking about the latest “fun” onesie. Anyone who has a child or has been to a baby shower knows …Read More

  • Sending NBC a loud message

    I’m thisclose to breaking up with NBC. I was going to keep my mouth shut about it, but then I ran into that woman on the elevator last week. Thicker than she probably was at a younger age, yet her body language told me she …Read More

  • Let moms just enjoy their special day

    On this Mother’s Day, I want to visit with my sweet little mother, something I am lucky to still be able to do. Spending time with my boy is on the list, too. So is relaxing, maybe finishing what I’m reading for book club. I …Read More

  • Reunions beat Facebook hands down

    Awhile back, a co-worker wrote a column about skipping his high school reunion. With Facebook and other social media you can find out what your classmates are up to, he reasoned, so the need for an in-person get-together wasn’t there. I was shocked. Yet it …Read More

    • TV shows give Englewood one-sided rap

    TV writers have latched onto Englewood, and not in a good way. First time I noticed was on “Boss,” which is centered around fictional Chicago mayor Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer). In an early scene, a young man, Darius, brings his ailing uncle to a clinic …

    < Previous
    • 1
    • 2
    Next >