Chicago magazine April 2022

LAST SUMMER, MONICA ENG GOT A FACEBOOK FRIEND REQUEST from a Paula Camp. The name sounded awfully similar to that of former Tribune dining critic Paul Camp. So Eng clicked on the profile, and indeed it was the same person. “I thought, Jeepers, what’s going on?” says Eng, who once worked at the Tribune herself and is now a reporter for the news site Axios. She reached out to Camp and learned that she had started transitioning just a few years earlier, in her late 60s. Soon Eng was making the trip to Michigan to see the cidery that Camp had started there and to find out more about the dramatic change she had made so late in life. Back home, when she talked to Camp’s former newspaper colleagues, Eng was struck…

IN PHOTOGRAPHING DR. THOMAS FISHER for the excerpt from his new book (page 74), Chicago was bent on capturing the dynamism of an emergency room. “Dr. Fisher has a very hectic job, so we wanted to make it visually dramatic,” says photographer Clayton Hauck. One problem: COVID-19 restrictions at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Fisher works, prevented Hauck from shooting inside. That left him the option of shooting outside the ER entrance—on a blustery February evening. As Hauck set up, the doctor took temporary refuge in the car of photo director Michael Zajakowski, but he eventually had to emerge. “The weather was pretty brutal — freezing cold and super windy,” Hauck says. “Dr. Fisher was a trooper.” Hauck got the shot he wanted, and Fisher, his eyes still…

Leavitt Inn. My local favorite! Can’t wait until January is over so I can enjoy a libation there! @patrick.oconnor.35 via Instagram Lol, the bar [Michael Shannon] is at in the pic [Old Town Ale House] is exactly where I saw him several years ago. Dan Lieber via Facebook Great actor at a great bar! @bkoopma1 via Instagram CHESTER WEGER’S QUEST TO CLEAR HIS NAME This excellent long read [“Unmaking a Murderer,” March] is a pretty great take on the Starved Rock murders. This story casts a shadow over the same valley that the author [Jake Malooley] and I grew up in. @writingwelbers via Twitter I almost want him to be guilty because the thought of a person spending all that time in jail for nothing is unbearable. @sjspad via Instagram He did it. Just maybe not alone. @johnfrancisshea via Instagram Prosecutorial misconduct is…

@cousindaniel For Daniel Klutznick, a professional photographer who lives in Old Town, pizza is both a pandemic project and a muse. He’s been experimenting with making it at home, and with some trial and error, a cast-iron skillet, and a Baking Steel pizza stone, this Pequod’s-inspired pizza was born. Proud of his colorful and richly textured mushroom, pepper, and basil pie (with the “happy accident” of an appealing cheese pull), Klutznick hopes his photo “entices somebody to make their own homemade pizza.” He’s even started an Instagram account (@franco.primofantastico) dedicated to photos of his pizza creations. It’s an endeavor reminiscent of the blog he and his cousin started 10 years ago that led Klutznick to pursue photography after a 25-year real estate career. For now, he’s all about the pie. “When I…

1 The NBA playoffs start April 16. Can the Bulls finally shake the stench of the GarPax era and win their first postseason series in seven years? This is their best team since D-Rose tore his ACL. 2 It takes a city. In her book Parent Nation, out April 26, University of Chicago pediatrician Dana Suskind uses neuroscience research on early-age development to argue that parents need more support to help kids fulfill their potential. 3 The Billy Williams and Ron Santo statues outside Wrigley Field will be missing for the Cubs’ home opener. Removed to make room for a sports-book, they will eventually go in a planned Statue Row, next to a new statue of Ferguson Jenkins. 4 The quiz bowl Intercollegiate Championship Tournament will go down April 1–2 at Hyatt Regency…

IF A NEIGHBORHOOD CAN BE CALLED A TRANSPORTATION DESERT, THE AREA AROUND Altgeld Gardens is the Sahara. A public housing project of two-story townhouses built I for World War II veterans, “the Gardens” lies between 130th Street and the Calumet River, at the city’s southern edge. The 34 South Michigan is the only Chicago Transit Authority bus serving its 4,000 residents. The nearest L stop is 95th/Dan Ryan, six miles north. For two and a half years, Adella Bass commuted six days a week from Altgeld Gardens to a cosmetology course at Truman College in Uptown. The trip took an hour and a half each way. Bass killed the time by reading books and sleeping. “This is a transit desert, food desert, everything desert,” she says. “We are left out here…