Ronald E. Yates 
In 1961, an Oscar-nominated film, “The Hustler,” starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason, told the story of two pool hustlers out to beat the system and each other. At one point in the film, “Fast” Edie Felson (Newman) and Minnesota Fats (Gleason) engage in a marathon game of “straight pool …
During a discussion in a journalism class I was teaching at the University of Illinois a few years ago, I posited the following question: What do you think has been the greatest, most impactful invention in the world during the past 1,000 years? The answers, as you might expect, were …
If today’s Congressional Democrats were around on Dec. 7, 1941, I wonder if they would have voted against declaring war on Imperial Japan—the nation that attacked the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans. Does that sound like an outrageous question? At first glance, yes, it does. …
The following is a compilation of Thanksgiving trivia from The Old Farmer’s Almanac & the Indianapolis Star. My thanks to both of these fine publications. It’s Thanksgiving Day, and millions of Americans will celebrate by tucking in for a big meal with friends and family, by watching football games, and maybe …
“And now for something completely different,” as they used to say on the old Monty Python show. Every week, I receive heaps of emails containing bits of wisdom, humor, anonymous information, and lots of weirdness. Usually, I give these things a quick read and delete them. Today, however, I thought …
I used to think I was just a regular guy, going about my life, as President Lincoln once said: “with malice toward none and charity for all.” Boy, was I wrong. Just take a look: I was born a white male, which means, whether I like it or not, I …
Journalism has been my life. For almost 30 years, I worked as a reporter and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Later, I taught the art and craft of journalism as a professor and dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. I share those bona fides …
Historical myths say that Lucrezia Borgia was a seductive poisoner who carried a hollow ring filled with venom, hosted orgiastic banquets, and eliminated lovers and rivals at will—an archetypal 16th-century Renaissance “femme fatale.” As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia exercised a lot of agency: she managed a sophisticated court, patronized artists …
Today is Veterans Day. Given that only 6 percent of the people of this nation have ever put on a uniform–including those currently serving–I am not sure many Americans have any idea why Veterans Day is a holiday. Yes, it means schools and most government offices are closed. But it …
When I was a sergeant in the United States Army Security Agency, there was no confusion about who the enemy was. It was the communists. Of course, that was in the 1960s, before socialist/communists like newly elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, and Los Angeles’s Karen Bass …