Metering is ON

steinberg

Neil Steinberg biography

Neil Steinberg began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1984, and joined the staff in 1987 as a feature writer.

He became a columnist in …

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  • Congratulations! You have won zip

    If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I would have bet it was just an urban legend. The phone at home rang. I looked at the Caller ID and it read, “PHONE SCAM.” They’re getting bold, I thought, picking up the phone. A …Read More

    • O’Neill’s ‘Palace of Pipe Dreams’

    ACT ONE SCENE — A columnist, fifty-one, the stamp of his profession unmistakably on him. Day, near Chicago, a room with doors. ME — (too vehemently) Jees! The Goodman Theatre is doing “The Iceman Cometh.” Again! More than four hours of bleak Eugene O’Neill misery …

  • Coin dealer wise to world treasure

    Treasure is a relative thing, depending entirely upon the person seeking it. Which is why at Harlan J. Berk Ltd., you can walk in to the small shop at 31 N. Clark and walk out a delighted 7-year-old clutching a worn Indian head penny fished …Read More

  • Protecting those who douse flames

    The fire in the house at 333 Pfingsten Rd. in Northbrook started on a sofa in the living room. In minutes, the room was engulfed in flames, the smoke detectors bleating out their alarm, unheeded. No one called the fire department — indeed, firefighters were …Read More

  • In the same boat, paddling all ways

    ‘The Western world no longer aspires, as did the Western Europe of Dante’s day, to be a place of a single faith,” A.N. Wilson writes confidently in his recent book, Dante in Love. Really? It doesn’t? Has Western society given up that dream? Because many …Read More

    • Hats off to Optimo; icon opens in city

    In the Steve Jobs biography, colleagues of the Apple founder refer to his “reality distortion field” — the ability of his charisma to make all who came under its sway believe they could do extraordinary things. A great store is like that. You’re going about …

    Motion disorder hard to diagnose

    A teacher at her ballet school in Western Springs first noticed the problem. Emily Blum, then 9, was walking on the sides of her feet. The teacher said, ‘You know, her foot’s turning in,’” recalls her mother, Barbara Blum. She couldn’t rise up on her …

  • Republicans certain to reject Obama’s plan to streamline government

    Say Mitt Romney were to suddenly realize that our refusal to reform the U.S. immigration system is one of the great moral failings of our time. Say he pledged himself to aid the 12 million undocumented immigrants who we’ve allowed to enter our country and …Read More

  • Must feds wash TV’s mouth out with soap?

    Regarding my column on Chicago closing its libraries on Mondays, Ronald Pyke, a reader in London, writes: “Upon a viewing of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ a couple weeks ago, my wife pointed out that even a dystopian hellhole like Pottersville still kept the public library …Read More

  • ‘A one-time event’ can last for decades

    Serendipity led me to Rev. Phil Blackwell. I had heard that the Loop, which today is home to thousands, once had only one full-time resident: the minister of the First United Methodist Church, who lives in a three-story parsonage starting on the 22nd floor of …Read More

    • Will Rahm repeat  mistakes of 1968?

    Pop quiz! Ready? Then let’s begin. Question: who protested in the streets of Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention? Pencils down. And no, you do not get any points for answering “protesters.” Half a point for “young people” or “hippies,” a point off for …

    Broad shoulders but shut libraries

    In my wallet are four library cards: A sturdy white plastic card with blue lettering from the sleek spaceship-like library in my backyard in the leafy suburban paradise of Northbrook, bearing the sweetly awkward pledge, “I accept responsibility for all use made to this card.” …

    New ER at Rush ready for worst

    Open one of the little hatches secreted within 10 of the 12 gray pillars in the Edward A. Brennan Entry Pavilion — aka the lobby — of the Tower at Rush University Medical Center, and you peer into a world of future horror that most …

    The Super Bowl never has to beg

    Unlike you, I’ve been across the 14th floor sky bridge that connects the two towers of the Wrigley Building. This past summer, thanks to the kindness of Andy Pharaoh at the William Wrigley Co. And just to show you that no act of kindness goes …

  • 2012: Time for Dems to fight for what is right

    Those who endured the false frenzy of the Millennium, who remember when we feared that glitches caused by computers clicking from 1999 to 2000 would grind modern life to a halt, can never again get too worked up about another New Year. This fresh 2012 …Read More

  • They knew how to party in 1912

    New Year’s Eve is a strange holiday. It isn’t religious, like Christmas or Passover, nor patriotic, like the Fourth of July or Veterans Day, nor for the family, like Mother’s Day or Thanksgiving. It’s part mortality festival, like Halloween, but for adults, part romantic holiday, …Read More

  • Gotalottasay, but no time to say it

    “Hodon,” the young man on the telephone said. “I’ll transfer you.” The transfer took a moment, long enough for me to pick apart his language. Of course he meant “hold on” — itself a contraction of what operators in previous years might have said: “Please …Read More

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