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The conversation regarding essential items is predicated upon our collective focus on COVID-19’s mortality rate, which causes us to overlook the myriad other things about a global pandemic that can kill humans more slowly and more indirectly. There are the folks most vulnerable to the inevitable economic downturn who won’t make it out of this alive. There’s also the looming mental health crisis, which probably …

As a kid in the 1980s, I had a large, hardcover book called Stars & Planets that offers a foundational understanding of our solar system and the universe. The book taught me, among other things, about red dwarves and black holes; the relative size of moons to their planets and how oxygen and gravity work. It drove home how infinitesimally small my humanity is in …

I recently had a conversation with Max, my tattoo artist, about how he feels his earlier pieces are trash compared to what he puts together now. I told him I feel the same way about my writing. I’ve gotten better technically and ideologically throughout the years; I flatly dismiss quite a few of the pieces I’ve written. The difference is, Max’s thousands of tattoos are scattered throughout the world, under the …

When my ace Thomas came in town this past summer, we did as we often do when he comes: linked up at Bar Takito, one of my favorite West Loop haunts, with a group of homies. It was a beautiful evening to be on an outdoor patio – mad shit was talked as the overpriced margaritas flowed and the chips and guac were reduced to …

Once I got settled into my new crib following the dissolution of my marriage, one of the first things I did was set up my “divorce gift” to myself: an appointment to get a tattoo inspired by Swiss painter H.R. Giger on my right inner forearm. Outside of sucking up the last real estate I had left on either arm, the tattoo was symbolic as …

I wish I could say I didn’t cop NASIR, the new Nas album. I wish I could say I wasn’t even excited to listen to it. I wish I could say I wasn’t hitting the refresh button on Apple Music all last Friday waiting for the damn album to hit the services so I didn’t have to resort to the janky-ass YouTube stream. But I …

A few years ago, I interviewed Doug Sohn as he prepared to shutter Hot Doug’s, his nationally recognized hot dog and sausage shop in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. In his early 50s at the time, he decided to close his wildly popular restaurant simply because he wanted to move on to something else before running the shop became “work” for him. I also interviewed his girlfriend …

While watching the first season of Lifetime show UnREAL with a young lady, I described Nathalie Kelley’s character Grace, who was essentially crafted by the fake dating show to be the resident Latina sex bomb contestant, as a “bad-decision woman.” She asked me to explain myself. So here I am. A bad-decision woman is preternaturally attractive member of the opposite sex who, through genetics, dedication …

There’s no darkness of night quite as inky as the darkness following a breakup. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t an element of excitement when I found out for sure that I was going to be divorcing my wife. The weeks between the separation and securing my own crib were defined by the fact that I felt like a dog tethered by a …

I recently sat down to two episodes of the new HBO show 2 Dope Queens. Hosted by The Daily Show alum Jessica Williams and comedian Phoebe Robinson, the show is a live stage adaptation of the popular podcast of the same name, on which the two black Millennial girlfriends riff off of each other about any and everything. The podcast was clearly popular enough to …