It seems like everyone is talking about the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer. In addition to debates about the specifics of Steven Avery's and Brendan Dassey's cases, the series also inspires conversations about exoneration, as Avery was exonerated in 2003 after spending 18 years in prison for a 1985 sexual assault he didn't commit…
Game On! Games in Fiction
Coming up on February 6 is the next 1st Saturdays: Careers In Focus: Gaming. On this first one of the year we'll be geeking out with professionals in the gaming industry, so get your gaming fill before then with some of these awesome gaming books. Graphic novels are a great place to start for gaming fiction…
#TBT: Happy Birthday, Dolly Parton!
Singer-songwriter, actress, entrepreneur and country legend Dolly Parton turned 70 on January 19. For this Throwback Thursday, let's celebrate with a look back at her career. A prolific musician with 46 Grammy nominations and 25 No. 1 hits on Billboard's country charts, Dolly Parton is adored by her legion of fans for her pure voice and simple melodies…
Bad Writing Is Fine Art
Maybe your idea of a good time is to get together with friends and watch Tommy Wiseau's magnificently awful The Room. Or maybe you like to play a party game where everyone takes turns reading The Eye of Argon. You'll be happy to know that the celebration of unfortunate art and literature has a proud history. Even C.S. Lewis and J.R.R…
Quiz: How Well Do You Know Downton Abbey?
For the past six years, Downton Abbey fans, myself included, have followed the rising and falling fortunes of the Crawley family and their household staff, and we’ve been charmed, moved, shocked and saddened. In the final season, I’m hoping Bates and Anna finally have the child they so desire. Will Mary find love again? And…
Women in the Fun Home
In most traditional societies, caring for the recently deceased is the province of women. And yet, there are very few women undertakers in America. Here are three nonfiction books about women and the funeral directing business. The most recent is The Undertaker's Daughter by Katherine Mayfield. Growing up above a funeral home in the 1960s and 70s, the Mayfields lived…
In the News: Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
Currently making the news is the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by armed extremists. However, media descriptions of the land are generally limited to describing it as remote. Chicago Public Library has many government documents describing this subtly fascinating land. We also have laws, regulations, maps and studies of Western land use policy…
The Original Robots Were Flesh and Bone
When you think of science fiction robots, you probably think of Bender, or R2D2, or Tom Servo, or Gort, right? Human-like mechanical characters? Yeah, no. The word 'robot' was actually invented in 1921 for the play, "R.U.R" by Karel Capek. Those robots were more like artificial humans, people grown in vats and assembled as needed…
David Bowie’s American Stage Debut
“How many rock stars could step out from behind their guitars and into a Broadway drama without thoroughly embarrassing themselves? At least one: David Bowie.” Theater critic Scott Fosdick asked and answered this question when David Bowie made his American stage debut as John Merrick in The Elephant Man at Chicago’s Blackstone Theatre in 1980…
B-Fest Is the Best
It's that time of the year: Time to partake in B-Fest, the annual 24-hour festival of bad movies at Northwestern University. If you don't feel like spending the night in an auditorium, you may want to check out these films at home. What exactly is Skidoo? It is the only satire of the 1960s that brings…
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