Far From Heaven: Ecological, Economic Dystopias

Dystopias (the opposite of utopias) are popular right now, whether you like The Hunger Games or Divergent. Here are three dystopian novels to come out recently, where the rich get the resources and the meek inherit the dirt. Karl Taro Greenfeld's latest, The Subprimes, melds the ideas of ecological and economic dystopia seamlessly. Subprimes are people whose credit…
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#TBT: Hamlet, a Woman?

In Shakespeare’s day, only men acted in his plays, even playing female characters. 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, and over the centuries, things have changed. Men and women have played both male and female parts—I even saw an all-female cast of Henry V back in high school. But that was actually nothing new…
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Hurray for Hedgehogs

Groundhog Day is the first holiday in February, a short month filled with a lot of special days, but Punxsutawney Phil isn't the only cute little critter who spends his winter hibernating and dreaming of spring. Turtles hibernate, bears hibernate, hedgehogs hibernate—wait, hedgehogs? Q: What do you get when you cross a bush and a pig? A…
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Historical Chicago Newspapers

How's your Chicago History Fair project going? Did you know that the Chicago Public Library has lots of historical Chicago newspapers on microfilm? Some of them go way back, to 1833. That's the Chicago Democrat, the first Chicago newspaper. Back in the 1800's and 1900's, Chicago had more than just two or three newspapers. For…
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