From my mother I inherited high metabolism. From my father, I inherited a raging sweet tooth. The combination of these two made me a kind of Archie's Comics "Jughead" when I was growing up: in spite of all the cookies I had for breakfast and bowls of ice cream I had...

I've been watching the Democratic presidential nominees for months now and the thing that most strikes me about them (John Kerry and John Edwards in particular) is that they never, ever doubted that they would get where they are going. There is a sureness, an...

The speeches of the Democratic Convention are washing over the country as clean and fresh as untainted hope, as full of promise and excitement as Christmas eve, as energetic as the last and greatest spurt of anticipation towards a life-saving goal. Yes, Barak Obama!...

I’m still realizing that I chose my current job according to a single criterion which was not a good idea. I reacted so emotionally to the corruption and collapse of my former employer, Arthur Andersen, that my job search really only had one focus: a business that had...

Remember Arthur Andersen? After 89 years as the gold standard of accounting, in the spring of 2002 it became the poster company for corporate America gone wrong and within months had been stripped of its clients and completely dissolved. No, this is not a business...

Today is my birthday. I am 38 years...old. I am the same age as Carrie Bradshaw when Sex and the City ended. A year older than Mary Richards when The Mary Tyler Moore Show went off the air. The same age as my mother when she had been married for 12 years and had two...

Longing, Part I I want to learn happiness the way others do it with lazy lunches occasional silence and coats thrown together on a kitchen chair. To stay in someone’s life, my name coffee-stained in their address book and permanently on the Christmas card list. To let...

As the daughter of community activists, I have spent my life being suspect of American culture, media and politics. As a product of the Reagan '80's, I learned that our government is not to be trusted and the worst things I suspect of our leaders are probably true. As...

I am now considering how qualified and experienced Nader is for the presidency and he doesn't look good.  Then again, neither Kerry nor Edwards has experience leading, either.    I'm also considering how effective Nader would be as president.  I...

I want to be a centrist: reasonable, willing to see both sides, comfortable with progress through compromise. Arguably the only progress that’s ever made in our political system is the progress that happens when both Republicans and Democrats work together, put aside...

Okay, so there’s this debate going on among leftists and further-to-the-leftists: why elect John Kerry when he’s so centrist it will barely make a difference? The argument is that John Kerry’s record shows that he isn’t nearly as far to the left as he would need to be...

In the July 19 issue of Newsweek, the “Conventional Wisdom” section makes this statement about Vice President Dick Cheney, “Campaigns like Scrooge on tour.” I showed it to the stranger sitting next to me on the train and made a friend, for a moment.

Last night I attended the opening of Jamie Black's one-man show Living Inside Myself at the Bailiwick Repertory Theater (1229 West Belmont Avenue in Chicago). If you think I'M honest about my personal life in public spaces like this blog and my songwriting, you've got...