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Tag: Long Reads
Lupe Fiasco, Word Star
By Bryan Smith
Sit back and listen in on a Range Rover ride to the West Side with breakout rapper and Renaissance nerd Lupe Fiasco. You’ll get an earful on history, sociology, anthropology, and the artist’s muses, from Tchaikovsky to Noam Chomsky to Ice Cube Read more
The Lost World of Kup
By Carol Felsenthal
When Irv Kupcinet, the legendary gossip columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times, died last year, it marked the end of a remarkable era of glamour and intrigue. Read more
Hiding Between the Lines
By John Cook
Over the course of 20 raucous years, J. J. Jameson became a fixture on the city's lively poetry circuit—a loud, drunken declaimer out of central casting. So his many friends were more than a little shocked when Massachusetts police came to town this spring and arrested him. He had been active in his church, loyal to a fault, unusually talented—and his writing revealed such intimate details of his life that people on the scene thought they knew him. But they didn't know he had been doing time for murder, and had escaped. They didn't even know his real name. Read more
About a Boy
By Kevin McKeough
Chicago's North Shore hardly seems the crucible for edgy punk-pop. But with a new CD that's already gone gold, and jam-packed concert crowds, Fall Out Boy has burst out of the suburbs (even though most of the band members still live with their parents). Read more
The Missionary Returns
By Geoffrey Johnson
In the eight years that he has headed the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George has navigated a range of crises and addressed a groundswell of dissent. Some in his flock remain uncertain about where he will lead them. But now this scholarly and personable man says the way has cleared for his main agenda: bringing people into his church. Read more
House of Cards
By Bryan Smith
Nine bright kids, two harried parents, and a table a few sizes too small made for a raucous dinnertime at the Murray home in Wilmette. Turns out, growing up amid the wisecracks provided the best training a comedian could hope for. Read more
What Does Junior Want?
By Steve Rhodes
From our May 2005 issue: After Jesse Jackson Jr. spoke out against corruption in the Daley administration, speculation erupted that he was running for mayor. But while city hall may be in his sights, the son of the famous Reverend seems to have other things on his mind Read more
The Lincoln Crusade
By Geoffrey Johnson
For more than 20 years, a dedicated group of individuals struggled to make the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a reality. When some observers suggested that Governor George Ryan wanted to turn the project into a patronage dump, the Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal fought one of his last battles. Read more
Harry Schmidt's War
By Bryan Smith
In the fog of war high over Afghanistan, an Illinois National Guard pilot dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers engaged in live-fire exercises. Since then he has been vilified and stripped of his wings. Now he's telling his side of the story. Read more
Devils’ Advocate
By Steve Rhodes

From our March 2005 issue: To people accused of doing bad things—embezzling millions, bribing judges, putting a bullet in someone’s head—Ed Genson may be the go-to lawyer in town. For years the Mob had him on speed dial. And pols in trouble (including Larry Warner, Governor Ryan’s friend and codefendant) regularly sign up with him. He’s cunning, funny, sometimes outrageous—a master of the cross examination. But what matters most to his clients: He’ll do (almost) anything to win.

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