Chicago Daily Observer

Lois Wille looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights.

Wille, an icon in the lakefront preservation community, had just announced at a press conference her support of the proposed controversial move of the Chicago Children’s Museum to Grant Park.

Rich Samuels, a reporter for WTTW Channel 11’s Chicago Tonight, had asked if she was “selling out.” Pause. “Selling out?” Wille asked. I’m trying to remember her exact response, as I was taken aback as much as she appeared to be. Her answer, as I recall, was calm and reasonable, even persuasive for someone (me) who has opposed the move. Certainly reasonable enough to wonder where the “sell out” question came from.

Wille’s credentials are unrivaled: editorial page editor at the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times and Daily News, twice Pulitzer Prize winner, and, most relevant to the Grant Park debate, author of Forever Open Free and Clear: The Struggle ... Read More...

If you have two eyes with which to read this text, then you possess a human body and can relate to the exhibits on display at a quietly wonderful museum on Chicago’s Gold Coast.

Located in a Lake Shore Drive mansion that is itself worthy of a visit, the International Museum of Surgical Science offers a series of exhibits on medical history that are meaty but small, a welcome aspect in an era of Too Much Information.

Democrat or Republican, peasant or aristocrat, God-fearing or pagan, we all have bodies and the problems that come with them.

Pain, for example. The Jewish proverb “Not to have felt pain is not to have been human” greets us as we enter a one-room exhibit called “The Universal Condition: Enduring and Alleviating Pain.” What do belladonna, mandrake and henbane have in common? All are effective pain relievers AND deadly poisons. Very important ... Read More...