Shaw Thoughts: Bureaucracy in Mayberry and Murder City

People call or email our anti-corruption watchdog organization almost hourly with complaints about public officials and the agencies they run, and many revolve around cops and crime in the Chicago area, where most of our Better Government Association investigations originate.

Shaw Thoughts: Hope and Change

Journalists love to mark anniversaries because they invite reflection—they’re great opportunities to connect the dots between then and now, with color and context.

Shaw Thoughts: Geriatric Genius

He walks slowly these days—a kind of stoop-shouldered amble—his face reflecting the aches and pains of a 72-year-old body that’s been invaded by prostate cancer, Lyme disease and a mild stroke that still affects coordination.

Shaw Thoughts: Jogging memories in times of solitude

Anyone who gets paid to write—even a modest sum—or has to face a deadline—even a fungible one—knows the panicky feeling that sets in when a due date is approaching and life has interfered with craft.

Shaw Thoughts: The World According to Golf

English is considered an easy language to start learning because it’s gender-neutral and doesn’t require different conversational rules for addressing friends and strangers. But hard to master because there are so many words with odd spellings and irregular pronunciations, and so many differ…

Shaw Thoughts: Beach life leaves an enduring impression

This magazine, like many others, assigns every issue a theme or two. And this columnist, like many others, follows the theme when it feels right and doesn't when it doesn't. This issue has twin themes: America the Beautiful and Beach Life. And since both are so relevant to me, I had to think…

SHAW THOUGHTS: Celebrating 40 years of marriage and a (temporary) divorce from the BlackBerry

One of legendary Yankee Yogi Berra's most famous malapropisms is "déjà vu all over again," and the Yogiman actually bumbled into perfect misusage, because it's often the best description of one event that feels eerily like another, including an Asian vacation Mary and I took over the winter …

SHAW THOUGHTS: The bucolic view of an Olmsted landscape

The house is utilitarian, not fancy. Concrete block and boxy, circa 1960, on a lovely plot of dune grass between the main road that winds through our Bridgman beach community and a deep, woodsy ravine.

Shaw Thoughts: Mobile trucks spark 'food fight'

Two young women were discussing lunch options as the elevator descended to the lobby of our Loop office building recently, and it came down to the two mobile food trucks that park outside on West Jackson—one offering Jamaican "jerk" meats, the other Asian cuisine. The meals aren't prepared i…

Shaw Thoughts: 'Angels' in search of a better government

This is a true story but the names have been changed to protect the benevolent.

Shaw Thoughts: Growing family brings with it fear, excitement

My better half, Mary, has a psychiatrist friend whose valuable insights into the human condition include this perceptive take on grandparents and grandchildren:

Microbreweries benchmark the quality of life

Our lives are punctuated with "official" rites of passage. Bridges to somewhere. Game-changers. Exclamation points at the end of biographical sentences. They're shared experiences--communal events like graduations, confirmations, bar/bat mitzvahs, engagements, weddings and births.

Professionally detached, but personally affected

The call came from the news desk at 5 a.m. on a subzero January morning. Eons ago. Probably late '70s, when I was at Channel 5. The police scanner reporting three dead bodies discovered in a desolate section of the South Loop. Please get up and cover it, the assignment editor said. So I did,…

Political corruption not limited to Chicago or Illinois

Ever since venerated East Coast writer A.J. Liebling foisted the condescending label "Second City" on Chicago more than half a century ago, ignoring our preference for "Windy City," Chicago's political and civic leaders have done everything possible to shed Liebling's pejorative put-down by …

Shaw Thoughts: Chicago's New King

It gives me great pleasure to reassure the loyal readers of Shore magazine that the changing of the guard at City Hall in Chicago will not deprive them of access to and local expenditures by the new mayor.

Where Justice Goes to Rest

Dear Justice Stevens,

Andy Shaw talks seafood with "The Fish Guy"

The appetizer is a spread of smoked sturgeon from California. Savory subtlety. Scallops for the entrée come from Nantucket Bay. Served over pasta with a sauce of Parmesan butter, garlic, shallots, prosciutto and olive oil. Culinary cache.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Stop "business as usual" by reporting what you see

Illinois is a legendary state in so many ways: Land of Lincoln, President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan. World-famous authors, architects and chefs. Great art, music and culture. And yes, we also lay claim to Rod R. Blagojevich, who has an ignominious distinction as the firs…