Features

The Big Onion Awards
by David Zivan, Don Babwin, and Terry Sullivan
Hankies, please. It’s our fifth annual tribute to ineptitude, sloth, greed – and other youthful indiscretions – among bumbling public servants.

Father Courage
by Don Babwin
For two decades, Michael Pfleger has been taking to the streets to fight the forces that he thinks threaten his South Side parish – from drug dealers to Jerry Springer. Within hi church, voices are raised in song.

The Heir, His Wife, and the Hit Man
by Nancy Millman
Albert Goodman hoped to start a family with the beautiful woman he married. But now she stands accused of plotting to have him killed.

Stops in the Name of Love
photography by Laurie Rubin
Taking a pass on resounding wedding bells, these couples tied the knot in short, sweet ceremonies at the County Building and the Cultural Center.

The Sweet Life
by Dennis Ray Wheaton, Anne Spiselman, and Jeff Ruby
It’s dessert, the whole dessert, and nothing but the dessert. Our reviewers take a bit out of Chicago’s sweetest offerings – from hazelnut torte to spicy lime sorbet. Talk about your childhood wishes.

Departments

Letters

Contributors

Frontlines
Gentlemen’s clubs strip away pretense; David Halberstam on Michael Jordan; more
Stage & Screen
by Penelope Mesic
Writer Rick Cleveland’s creative hat trick – a movie, a play, and twins

Real Lives
by Marcia Froelke Coburn
Dealer Paul Waggoner can party down, but he can’t always part with his art.

Style Sheet
by Stacy Wallace-Albert
Royal chocolates, polar bear p.j.’s, little packages, 100 points of light

Dining Out
by Dennis Ray Wheaton
Two auspicious openings leave French marks on the dining scene.

First Person
by Thomas Geoghegan
All he wanted was a great American city. What he got was a bad case of urban angst.

Sullivan’s Travels
by Terry Sullivan
To a Lake Forest skating rink, the ice men cometh – and they’re all old enough to know better.