Chicago Sun-Times

Divvy Diary: Biking adds time, even time for a dig from the president of Mongolia

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 02:15:57 -0500

Biking is faster. Distances shrink while time expands. Taking Divvy allowed for a reception with “The Golden Swallow of Democracy” and a chance to be told “That is a stupid question.”

Freebie lets you turn your social status into stuff

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 02:33:46 -0500

With social media we are all stars of our own little or, in some cases, not-so-little universes. As with real celebs, there will be chances to cash in on our popularity, the latest being a Chicago startup called Freebie.

Divvy diary: Helmets for cyclists a no-brainer, usually

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 02:19:28 -0500

If you hit your head on the sidewalk, you want a helmet. But is the risk of not wearing a helmet while on a bike an acceptable hazard, like the risk of dying from salmonella when you lick chocolate-chip cookie dough off a wooden spoon? Or is it foolish?

Not all will embrace Pope Francis’ vision of love

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:15:09 -0500

Every religion has a lot of stuff in it, and all adherents must pick and choose. You can’t emphasize everything. That’s how I interpreted Pope Francis’ surprising remarks about abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

Illinois Supreme Court in Chicago during Springfield renovations

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 02:33:31 -0500

Restoration of the Illinois Supreme Court’s usual ornate home in Springfield, built in 1908, sent the justices packing to Chicago. The court began hearing oral arguments Sept. 10 and wrapped up Wednesday but will hear more cases in November, January, March and May.

Cops go extra mile for homeless woman

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 02:15:49 -0500

You go to the police for help, not the other way around. They don’t come to you for aid, generally. But that was what two 14th District Chicago Police officers did last week.

WWI propaganda lives in gas revulsion

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:44:42 -0500

What’s so bad about poison gas? Bad enough that the United States could sit on its hands, uttering a few feeble protests, while 100,000 Syrians were killed through conventional means. But 1,300 civilians were murdered Aug. 21 in a poison gas attack, and that spurred us to action, or to near action. Where’s this distinction coming from? It’s a century-old revulsion. People associate poison gas with the horrors of World War I, but its use in warfare was already illegal according to international law — and already produced by most major powers anyway — in the late 19th century. What …

Why is a Divvy bike like syphilis?

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:19:19 -0500

After arriving at the Merchandise Mart, and feeling vaguely guilty for riding even a few feet on the sidewalk, it’s clear there’s no place to park at the station: 23 slots, 23 bikes. Not a slot to spare. Wait or search out another station?

Figure out the system, first! And so the Divvy Diary begins

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 02:16:35 -0500

NEIL STEINBERG: Why spend $7 for one Divvy bike day pass when I could spend $75 for 365 days, which is a ... doing the math ... savings of $2,480. It’s like getting paid to ride a bike.

Steinberg: Time to stick a fork in Charlie Trotter?

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 02:13:31 -0500

There are two types of chefs. There is what I think of as the “Sarah Stegner Chef,” so named after my first glance of Stegner, in a tall white toque, standing dignified in her kitchen at the Ritz-Carlton, arranging the artisanal cheeses she championed, quiet as beauty, still as a river, entirely focused on those gorgeous orbs of fromage, as if they were land mines she was defusing. And then there’s the “Charlie Trotter Chef” — think of the chefs in Bugs Bunny cartoons, snarling, screaming, flailing, an inflamed, overcooked ego in chef’s whites. Those chefs do well on the …

Easier to punish than to give a second chance

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:00:06 -0500

NEIL STEINBERG: I would suggest that we focus on murder, on the extremes, to cover an awkward truth — as a society, we tend not to forgive anything. You don’t need to kill anyone to find yourself beyond redemption. Almost any crime will do.

What a gas

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:23:30 -0500

The sun produces heat — we all know that — from fusion of hydrogen atoms. What is far less known — OK, far, far, far less known — is that, along with heat, the sun also churns out helium. Which makes it apt that humanity first noticed the existence of helium during a solar eclipse on Aug. 18, 1868, when French astronomer Pierre J. C. Janssen saw an unusual yellow spectral signature around the sun’s corona he realized had to be a new element. British astronomer Norman Lockyer saw the same spectral line and named the element “helium” from “helios,” …

Will Congress push nation off helium cliff?

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:23:27 -0500

The immediate crisis — some call it the “helium cliff” — is this: the United States government, through its Federal Helium Reserve, supplies roughly half the helium in the United States and a third of the world’s. But that spigot very well could turn off, completely, on Oct. 8.

Martin case distracted from real racial issues

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:45:44 -0500

OK, I’ll bite. After reading the umpteenth post-verdict piece of punditry calling for a national conversation about race in America in the wake of vigilante George Zimmerman being exonerated for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, I began to wonder if maybe it’s time to stop pressing my lips together and join in. After all, it has been well over a year since I’ve written about the case. And it’s been two weeks since the verdict. Time enough for passions to cool, maybe a little bit. No mystery as to the reluctance — race is not only the third …

Lyric violist a musical new citizen

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:25:44 -0500

NEIL STEINBERG: They each stood as the name of their homelands were read aloud. Argentina. Austria. Bangladesh. Belize. Bosnia-Herzegovina. Brazil. Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China. Colombia. Croatia. Czech Republic ... 53 nations in all.

Chicago is ‘totally jealous . . . a horror’

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 06:12:52 -0500

If you are a rugby fan, you’re probably familiar with the New Zealand All Blacks, a squad famous for its “Haka,” a taunting pre-game ritual they perform to intimidate opponents. It’s a Maori warrior dance, origins lost in antiquity, where they beat their chests and slap their thighs while shouting about their masculinity and fierceness. I thought of that, reading Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes’ remarks, spoken to Radio CBN RJ in Rio Friday, in reaction to my Wednesday column chiding the International Olympic Committee for picking strife-torn Rio over relatively placid Chicago for the 2016 Olympic Games. “Chicago …

Steinberg: Dear IOC, sorry yet on Rio choice?

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 06:20:55 -0500

Dear International Olympic Committee: Howdy! Long time no talk to. Four years. Where does the time go? I know you’ve probably forgotten about Chicago, ever since you gave us the backhand in fall 2009, and in the first round no less. But we remember. Yes, we do.

Let me share this about Divvy bikes

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:55:55 -0500

To be honest, the idea of trying a communal bike would never have crossed my mind. I walk, or train, or cab. The whole shared bike thing has a distinct European odor to it. Something they do in France. Not here. We Americans, we own things, we do not share things. That’s socialism.