Columnists
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Dear Abby
Sister can't knit together family torn by its history - July 24, 2008 - DEAR ABBY: My half-brother, "Jace," and I had a complicated childhood. My father had an explosive temper and a disdain for children in general. He was abusive, and our mentally ill mother was absent during his rages.
Eric Benderoff
Microsoft opens Xbox platform - July 25, 2008 - We're at an interesting point in the development life cycle of third-party programs, those little software applications one can add to gadgets and social pages.
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Barbara Brotman
Ponds: Where science and serenity meet - July 17, 2008 - Dragonflies flitting over a quiet pond in the midday heat. A classic rural scene of summer, no?
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Steve Chapman
McCain's confusion on Iraq - July 24, 2008 - If there is any fixed position in John McCain's policy agenda, it's that we must never, ever, set a timetable for leaving Iraq. He regularly flogs Barack Obama for proposing to withdraw by the summer of 2010. So it was a surprise to hear him say Monday, when asked if our troops might depart in the next two years, "Oh, I think they could be largely withdrawn, as I've said."
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Steve Dahl
Movie-luxe love - July 3, 2008 - I have started going to the movies again, just in time for the summer blockbuster season. I stopped going right around the time humankind lost all respect for public civility. I couldn't take the gum-popping, cellophane-rustling, feet-sticking nightmare that most movie theaters had become. There was always the inevitable turf war over theater seats. People were always saving seats, and not just for one or two designated concession stand runners. They would save entire rows of seats. I would demand that my family sit down and then I was a man alone battling with both my family and other theatergoers.
Bill Daley
To this fan, sweet Elysium wine has not-so-sweet price - July 20, 2008 - Q: I have fallen in love with Elysium from Quady wineries, compliments of your column. The only problem with the wine is that it is expensive ($26 plus). I have tried the Red Electra, but I did not like the fizz. Could you suggest another wine that tastes similar and is less expensive?
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Julie Deardorff
New classes raise barre on fitness - July 20, 2008 - I don't need a class to make my thighs jiggle. But during a recent Core Fusion workout at Chicago's Exhale spa, I let my quads quake for a good cause: long, lean muscles, flat abs and a sculpted rear end.
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Amy Dickinson
Wife is irked that thank-yous directed only to her husband - July 25, 2008 - Dear Amy: Do you believe a spouse should receive a personal thank-you in the following circumstances?
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Eric Gwinn
Rebooting the video-game habit - July 24, 2008 - Something in your past lures you to People Play Games, a new store in the Wrigleyville neighborhood.
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Jon Hilkevitch
CTA Bus Tracker online program adding more routes - July 20, 2008 - Fifteen more bus routes and a new online map with a streamlined look and more information will be added Monday to the Chicago Transit Authority's Web-based Bus Tracker program.
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Steve Johnson: Hypertext
Checking back in on Hulu - July 23, 2008 - When last we checked in with Hulu, the online video-serving site from the parent companies of NBC and Fox, it was still in beta but already impressive.
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John Kass
Hard-hitting football team is truly a Force for good - July 25, 2008 - Want to watch some smash-mouth tackle football this weekend as a Chicago team plays for the championship of the world?
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Garrison Keillor
Summer civility and the promise of more to come - July 23, 2008 - New York in July, hot and breezy, the smell of pizza and coffee in the air, and on the subway one is surrounded by women in light summer dresses, the bare shoulders of elegant young urban women whose shoulders tell you they never toted barges or lifted bales, never laid eyes on a barge or a bale except for someone barging into their office and giving them a baleful look.
Julia Keller
Paragraph of the week - July 25, 2008 - For 34 years, it did its job quietly and well, without fanfare or melodrama. The Ontario Review, the small but potent literary magazine created by the late Raymond Smith and his wife, Joyce Carol Oates, provided a home for excellent, thought-provoking poems; meaty, enthralling stories; and photographs and paintings that required far more than just a single look.
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Cheryl Lavin
Weddings come in all sizes and costs - July 24, 2008 - Who says you have to break the bank to have a wedding to remember? Today's column proves you can spend as little as $107 and still have memories that last a lifetime.
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Gail MarksJarvis
Credit fix reduces interest in zero-percent financing - July 22, 2008 - When is zero-percent-interest financing a lot more expensive than free?
Judith Martin
Coffee drinkers don't want to chat - July 24, 2008 - Dear Miss Manners: As a server in a coffee shop, I am constantly greeting customers, and I make a genuine effort to be kind and polite to everyone. I greet most customers by asking how they are or how their day is going. Nine out of 10 responses begin with the phrase, "I'll have ..."
Jim Mateja
What do you get when you cross tiger, iguana? - July 20, 2008 - Don't ever let Volkswagen name one of your kids.
Timothy J. McNulty
Diversity efforts missing readers - July 25, 2008 - When media executives talk about diversity, the focus is generally on the need to hire more minorities. A different way of thinking about it is that the media need to attract new audiences.
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Clarence Page
A big story is our biggest bias - July 23, 2008 - A respected group of media researchers has found that Barack Obama gets a lot more coverage than John McCain. I didn't need a think tank to tell me that. After all, Madonna gets more coverage than McCain does, even when she doesn't want it—although it is hard to imagine when she wouldn't.
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Kathleen Parker
Should the GOP try to get Jindal to reconsider? - July 24, 2008 - Drum roll. Suspense. Who will it be?
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