The rush for the title of best Super Bowl commercial already has begun, and early signs point to a banner year for banality, middle-aged TV celebrities and, of course, animals doing wacky things. Forget Patrick Mahomes versus Jalen Hurts. According t

In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” the title character played by Dustin Hoffman attends a post-graduation party where a partygoer beckons him from the boisterous crowd and gives him a single word of career advice that has become an iconic cinema quote:

CHICAGO My earliest memory of Garrett Popcorn, one that I can still feel in my bones, is of feeling so cold I couldn’t think. Back in the ancient past of the early 21st century, my dad had a conference in Chicago every December, and the whole family

Attorneys for imprisoned singer R. Kelly alleged in a new court filing that the star witness against him in his federal trial in Chicago last year lied to the jury about her plans to seek millions of dollars in restitution from Kelly upon his convict

Some advice to clear up any confusion you might have over recent events in the land of the red, white and blue: Assume that everyone is armed and dangerous. That includes my furtive neighbors, the grumpy mail carrier, the impatient patrons in the que

Max Domi’s first tattoo had a practical use: a medic alert symbol. But did the future Chicago Blackhawks forward known the insignia — two snakes coiled around a staff — carried added meaning as it related to him? The caduceus, the staff of the Greek

Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan is putting his trust in the front office to navigate the impending trade deadline as his team continues to struggle even to get to .500. With the deadline at 2 p.m. Thursday, Donovan said before Saturday’s game again

The artificial intelligence text generator ChatGPT has been the subject of debate recently, but let’s take the AI conversation a step further, to Hollywood. More and more, I’m seeing examples of manipulated performances pop up on social media — alter

Tom Brady says he’s retiring from football for real this time. But along with his Super Bowl rings, and that nagging string of resume asterisks on the topic of suspicious football air pressure levels, he’ll always have “80 for Brady.” Some movies are

A “Collection of Chicago Postal History,” an assemblage of thousands of letters, will be auctioned in March by H.R. Harmer Fine Stamp Auctions of New York City. Nearly all were originally mailed from Chicago. They were found and collected over decade

Some actors relish the act of performance in delightfully showy and externalized ways. Their brio provokes our enjoyment, and while all sorts of subtle and humanizing details may come from that delight in sheer invention, the work is big. Juicy. Like

The financial support provided by international partners helped Ukraine withstand the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion and became a significant source of funds throughout 2022. This year, our country will also need continuous financial suppo

CHICAGO -- Sundays are special for David Pasqual Ruiz. He honors the memory of his father by inviting others to run through the neighborhood where he once walked holding his dad’s hand as a child. Pilsen for him means family. The murals, the sounds a

CHICAGO — Former Chicago Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward attended a ribbon cutting Thursday for the North Austin Center, a 10-acre campus for education, sports and wellness on Chicago’s West Side. The Jason Heyward Baseball Academy has a major league s

When Cherilyn Church took the plunge in May and bought a $5,700 sectional from Interior Define, the Chicago-based custom furniture retailer, she envisioned it as a dream centerpiece for her home. Choosing everything from the size and color to cushion

CHICAGO — The 2021 Sky were a bright spot in a Chicago sports landscape where any kind of light was far and few between. But after winning a championship then failing to repeat, that light has flickered out. Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot and A

According to a new Harris Poll, public safety is the top concern of Chicago’s voters. As the Harris CEO Will Johnson wrote in the Tribune this week, 95% of voters cited that issue. Johnson also reported that his poll showed most Chicagoans feel that

Four longtime friends head to the Super Bowl and misadventures ensue in the comedy “80 for Brady,” starring Jane Fonda alongside Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno. It’s one of several recent projects for Fonda that centers on meaningful friend

Grab the popcorn and settle in: The great electric vehicle price war is here. Weeks after Tesla slashed prices across its U.S. lineup, Ford is set to follow suit. On Monday, the Michigan-based automaker announced price cuts on its electric Mustang Ma

CHICAGO — The video-recorded killing of Tyre Nichols that led to charges against police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, stirred echoes in Chicago, where eight years ago another recorded death similarly sent shock waves across the nation and spurred p

Let’s suppose you were a Democrat who secretly wanted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to become our next president. What would you do? Call America an irredeemably racist nation. DeSantis has become the rhetorical general of America’s new culture war, repe

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is spending part of this week in the Middle East, where he’s scheduled to meet with Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials to reduce the roiling violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But you can bet that

Along with our heartfelt sympathies for their loss, we extend our gratitude and admiration to the family of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old father who died three days after a sickeningly savage police beating in Memphis on Jan. 7. The family’s courageo

The first month of 2023 has brought disturbingly familiar news. In California, 31 people were killed and 24 wounded in seven shootings. In North Carolina, four shootings took nine lives and left 12 people wounded. In Utah, eight were killed in one sh

Improbably, drag queens have become the latest glittery flashpoint in our ongoing culture wars with a new wave of legislative proposals designed to limit the freedom of these performers to do what they long have done. If certain popular social media

The Oscar-nominated short film “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” could be the name for Silicon Valley’s latest gift to Western civilization — and to many practitioners of misinformation. The artificial intelligence chatb

“Knock at the Cabin” is a real load — 100 lugubrious minutes of what is intended as steadily mounting dread and apocalypse prevention seminar. It’s frustrating because writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has made seriously good films and some that go

Read any good books lately? Any great books? Any books that you might consider for the title Great American Novel? It’s a frequent game in the book world, this Great American Novel contest. I have never been one to participate. Writing books is hard

Startup electric truck manufacturer Rivian said Wednesday it is laying off 6% of its workforce, including a small number of nonmanufacturing employees at its downstate Normal assembly plant. California-based Rivian has about 7,000 employees at its a

CHICAGO — If Ryan Poles has said it once, he has said it a thousand times. He’s not so much interested in seeking short-term satisfaction as he is eager to develop a formula for sustainable achievement. Thus as his second offseason as the Chicago Bea