It’s hard for me to figure out. I am an optimistic, generally happy-go-lucky guy by nature, who as a kid used to absolutely love the Christmas season. So, why now does the beginning of another holiday season hit me with equal parts fear, trepidation, anxiousness and malaise, with a slight do…
Dear Candid Candace: I have a holiday dinner cooking quandary for you. Our family always hosts a big Christmas dinner. I am always amazed at the amount of cooking, shopping, preparation and planning—not to mention time and effort it takes to put it all together—for the relatives and other f…
A few years ago, my boyfriend and I broke up on Dec. 11. I called my sister crying. Her response? “That’s crazy. I just heard on the news that Dec. 11 is the biggest breakup day of the year,” she said. It wasn’t exactly the sympathy I was looking for, but it’s a nice little trivia fact to ke…
One of my favorite writers, Michael Sneed at the Sun-Times, writes a gratitude column every year around Thanksgiving. It's touched me so much that I found myself clipping and saving her articles.
One of the best things about doing work on the “giving back” theme for our November issue of Chicago Star is the reaffirmation of how many great organizations with wonderful helpful causes there are in the Chicago area.
With our theme this month of service and charity in the City of Chicago we turn to our favorite sports teams to dream up some money-raising ideas.
Before I started doing comedy, I’d get really upset after bad dates. I only had myself to blame. I’d project a lot on my dates from text conversations and social media stalking. If a guy didn’t follow up for another date, I’d analyze every text he and I exchanged. I’d ask anyone who would li…
As the old adage says, giving is receiving. As we enter the holiday season, many of us will find joy in being generous with our time, money and kindness as we seek to make our communities better in some way.
Once a teacher, always a teacher. Years ago, I landed my dream job in education, where I enjoyed a solid decade as an elementary school teacher before leaving the workforce to raise a family. During that time out of the classroom, I joined Chicago Star, back when it was a small, local public…
The first thing I did when I heard our October issue was going to have a “fashion and beauty” theme was search for the escape button.
If you are a fan of our beloved Chicago Bulls basketball team, you have some work to do before the opening game on Oct. 20. There are a lot of new faces to get to know this year.
I had four solid dates with a man I met on Bumble; we’ll call him Mike. Mike asked me out for a fifth date and suggested Sunday evening. He texted Sunday morning to confirm and said to sit tight for the details. To be honest, I’m getting a little antsy. I still haven’t got the details from M…
Our first fashion and beauty issue highlights the ways Chicagoans use our fashion sense to express ourselves and help others.
Full disclosure, I'm a big fan of the Boka Boys, Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, but I also have a very critical eye. Although, try as I might, I couldn't find anything to complain about at Alla Vita, their newest restaurant at 564 W. Randolph, in the hot West Loop. This new eatery from the Boka R…
Everyone knows where and what they were doing when this nightmare called 9/11 happened. My husband Chuck was getting ready for work and I was on the computer, watching TV when those horrible images appeared. I had the TV on mute so all I saw were flames coming out of one of the Towers. I tur…
The historic Field of Dreams game was not just for baseball fans. This epic event was a delightful and much needed throwback to a kinder, gentler time and I, for one, could relate completely and didn't realize how much I needed to see it.
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Chicago has had a transformative year, with new crown jewels shaping the city’s iconic skyline and a number of businesses, like our very own Chicago Star, making their debut.
What a difference a year makes for our Chicago beaches that were empty last year, even on the most gorgeous of summer days. Now back in full swing, crowds pack in and enjoy everything from the sand and sun to the water and waves. It’s a beautiful sight to see.
This party has been a long time in coming and, many times, none of us were even sure it was happening. It was canceled first due to Covid and then other problems arose. But finally, FINALLY, the International Playboy Bunny Reunion is now in Chicago!
Our most exciting July 4th celebrations occurred in one of our favorite vacation spots in the world, St. Tropez on the French Riviera. Believe it or not, the French celebrate our holiday as exuberantly as we do at home! And, since we all know that the best place to be is always where your fr…
One of the great luxuries of the summer season is getting engrossed in a good book—one that you really delve into—and getting to that particular time of day when your schedule allows for just you and the written page to become one.
I recently bombed at a comedy show. I called my mom afterwards and told her how embarrassed I felt. She asked who the crowd was and when I told her that it was mainly men in their early 20s, she said, “maybe jokes from a middle-aged woman didn’t resonate with them.”
Dear Chicago Star family,
My dad loves basketball, and unfortunately for him, his three daughters are not and were not ballers by any means. I always wondered if he wanted a boy. Not sure his son would have been a baller either, but maybe my imaginary brother would be more interested in the actual sport.
Dear Chicago Star family:
I love living in Chicago but I get very nostalgic during the holidays for my hometown of Dupo, Illinois. It’s the summer celebrations, like Memorial Day, that really make me wistful for days gone by in this small railroad town of 3,000 people set near the banks of the Mississippi River in S…
Dear Baseball, can we talk?
My mom and dad divorced when I was 2. I don’t remember this, but do remember that, for my formative years, I felt like I was split in two. I shouldn’t complain, I know how lucky I was to have two parents who loved me, but sometimes I wish I'd had them both together in the same space.My dad, …
We here at Chicago Star want to thank you. Thank you for welcoming us into your homes and communities. We hope our positive, uplifting news makes you proud to be a Chicagoan and will help you rediscover the city that you call home.
Struggling to stay awake in the pews? Maybe church hopping is for you. This month, I gently, and quite delicately, delve into the topic of religion and I will go so far as to suggest attending a variety of churches (socially distanced of course) to hear different sermons, rather than going t…
I’ve had the unique ability to observe and learn about life from Prince Philip for the past 13 years.
April 9, 1926, Hugh Marston Hefner was born. Today, he would've been 95 years old. I still miss him and always will. Playboy has played the biggest role in my life, bringing me from St. Louis to Chicago, honoring me with a centerfold and 9 covers, taking me around the world on promotions, in…
Now the real work begins for Harry and Meghan. The drama surrounding their interview as the impact of “The Oprah effect” begins to fade. The answers to questions about the royal family that have never been spoken, at least not in public are now out there for all to evaluate.
His dating profile name was Yum Tasty Animals. That should be the end of the story, but sadly, it’s not.
I once had a man tell me it was his Christmas wish for me to stop calling him. No, it was not my ex-boyfriend, it was my prospective client. Which is worse? My love life or my career?
Ask any Chicagoan if spring in Chicago actually exists, and you’ll get a range of responses.
After unexpectedly crying at the end of the rom-com "Always Be My Maybe" in July of 2019, I realized I might be a smidge lonely and definitely a smidge dramatic. Who knew a rom-com with Keanu Reeves would have so much influence on me?
As a Jewish senior (67, but I don’t look it and have a very young spirit), I’m looking for my “person”. The pandemic has truly exacerbated my sadness and loneliness; I lost my sister in April to cancer and my parents are deceased as well. I do not want to go through anything traumatic again …
I am a storyteller and stand-up comic living in the Gold Coast. I have performed all throughout the city (Second City, Zanie’s Rosemont, The Laugh Factory) as well as a couple of comedy festivals—all pre-COVID.
It occurred to me recently that many of my friends or work associates don’t know me by my actual first name. They simply call me “Coach.”
We lost a good one last month. A moment of silence, please, for a true Chicago icon: Lawry’s The Prime Rib.
This month I went on a mission to check out Soldier Field and my beloved Chicago Bears football team. More specifically, what was it like to be around the stadium on a game day when no fans were allowed to attend?
In mid-March, as Chicago’s restaurants and other meeting venues began to close, our organization, Skyline Village Chicago, was discussing new ways to connect with and reach out to our members.
Hello there! I'm "Candid" Candace Jordan, a new contributor to Chicago Star.
As this issue comes out in early November, we will be right smack in the middle of election mania—sure to be a volatile, if not hostile, period of time (I hope I am wrong).
Many of us stayed away at first, preferring the comfort zone of our normal cashier line, while occasionally glancing enviously at “the early pioneers” who dared traverse the still virgin territory of self checkout.
With the virus still among us, proper elevator etiquette has taken on new rules.
When there’s a birthday, there’s cake. And candles, topped with tiny triangles of fiery plumes. There’s also the song, followed by the customary display of the celebrant making a wish and blowing out the candles.
He gave me the side eye as we passed on the sidewalk. It’s a new age look that new mask wearers have adopted.
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