Category Archives: General

Like catchers, M. Night Shyamalan and lame pick-up artists, I like signs. Funny ones, at least. And it seems like there are no shortage of those in Chicago. This morning, while walking through Wrigleyville, I spotted another one — several, actually — plastered on the front doors of apartment buildings. In one line of hand-written […]

On Wednesday — when he should have been at training camp — the Chicago Bears’ kick-returner-extraordinaire-slash-wide-receiver-in-training Devin Hester was instead on the horn with the Chicago Tribune, telling reporter Vaughn McClure, “I can’t go out and play this year making $445,000. “Come on, man.” After all, that would be … ahem, ridiculous. Now, while I think most people can eke out a […]

Sometimes, advertising can be dumb. Sometimes, the media can be dumb. And sometimes, the two conspire together to make everyone look stupid. God bless ’em.

In October 2005, the White Sox were rolling through the Major League Baseball playoffs. And I was, well, rolling my eyes at it all while working the late shift at the Tribune Tower. Manning the phone for the paper’s Metro desk, my chief duty from 5 to midnight each night was to keep tabs on […]

It got plenty Dark at Navy Pier IMAX last Knight. And I enjoyed every minute of the new Batman flick. All 150 of them. Smacking his lips and screwing with the mind, Heath Ledger was creepy-funny-incredible as the Joker. Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent was “Believable.” And the rest of the film’s cast — along […]

Forwarded by my mother (a retired English teacher) to me (a “semi-retired” journalist) … Spell Chequer Eye halve a spelling chequer, It came with my pea sea, It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye […]

Sign seen today on the Michigan Avenue Bridge (held by a homeless man in front of a box of scattered pennies): “Senator Obama is campaigning for change … So am I.” I gave the guy a buck. I respect clever panhandling.

Longtime Wisch List readers dating back to my days in Ottawa – or those of you who own my book – likely will recall the columns I wrote in 2003 about my irrepressible pal Mark Wiebe, a wheelchair-bound high school student who weighed just 40 pounds but carried more weight than an army of men in […]

I don’t have a GPS system in my car. So far, MapQuest — and memory — has served me just fine. But if this GPS device can essentially turn my car into KITT, well, I just might have to re-think the whole thing …

I’ve been busy. Busy working, yes. But also busy with Happy Hour (hello, Durkin’s). And busy with Cubs games (goodbye, White Sox). Busy with concerts (on Southport). And busy with movies (at Village North, a quaint little place in Rogers Park). Soon enough, it’s likely I’ll be busy with street fests, North Avenue Beach and who […]