At this time in history, #MeToo is one of the latest ways women are empowering themselves. There will be and need to be other movements, to be sure. But women empowering themselves alone will not be nearly enough. Undoing centuries of expected and imposed roles as well as entrapping stereotypes requires more than enlightened thinking […]
Category: Columns
Posted inPublic Square
Peggy Tarr: Scatter Rugs Be Gone
While out of town, a neighbor – a retired beautician whom I shall call Ann, volunteered to cut my hair. She had done so when I visited a year or so ago. This time, she came over to where I was staying and cut my hair. I knew Ann did not want any payment, but I […]
Posted inColumns
Nancy E. Anderson: He’s just a cat, right?
I always tell my kids that Arnold is the best cat I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of cats. The first cat I remember was Frisky. Then there was Signe, named for my great-grandmother. Then Roo, Larry and a host of others who dotted my central Illinois upbringing. We didn’t have dogs because […]
Posted inColumns
Charles Wilkinson: Before and After
The self-help admonition to live in the Moment, in the Now which carries its own wisdom and responsibilities, requires us to understand how our past (our Befores) make us who we are, and that who we are now determines who we will become (our Afters). The Now is about presence, mindfulness and choices that are […]
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Peggy Tarr: Bored?
At a July 4th get-together, one person asked if the month of July had a National Month designation. No one knew. I decided to Google the question. Wow! There were at least 15 National Month titles for July. I was struck by two of the titles: World Watercolor Month (included in Evanston’s Blick Art Supply Store ad) and […]
Posted inColumns
Les Jacobson: Trash City
Hey Evanston, I hate to break it to you, but you’re a slob. I know, you love it here, Evanston is heavenston, blah blah blah. So why do you toss trash around with such careless abandon? The following litany of litter was noted recently on a short stretch of a downtown street: rubber gloves, pieces […]
Posted inColumns
Meditation: Conditional Love
A while back I asked a friend, playfully, “If you were a word what would it be?” He thought for a bit, then said, “A word? Not a tree or animal? So many choices.” After a minute, he said, “I’d be a verb because I need to be doing things. Maybe something like ‘Go.’” He […]
Posted inArt & Life
My Children are Angry
Dear Gabby, My sister will not get a COVID vaccine, despite the fact that she is eligible because she (ironically!) works in health care. She has been struggling with infertility and is concerned that getting a vaccine could somehow jeopardize her chances of conceiving or even harm her future not-yet-conceived child. I have been consistently […]
Posted inArt & Life
Evanston Dimensions | Ask the Historians
After our last column, RoundTable reader Barbara Miller submitted the following question for historians at the Evanston History Center: I’ve been wondering when/why small neighborhood “convenience” shops disappeared. In the 1950s there were at least four within a few blocks (different directions) of my family’s home near Wesley & Monroe. No one did the family […]
Posted inColumns
Peggy Tarr: Gwendolyn Brooks, An African American To Be Celebrated
It is February, Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, a month officially designated as such since 1976 by each U.S. president. It grew out of “Negro History Week” and is a month to celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans to the U.S. and the world. (Wikipedia) Years ago, […]