Bill McLean

Chase Banks On Patience

HAD A FOOTBALL BUDDY not convinced Chase Bahr to eat a salad outside Foodstuffs in Lake Forest one day last summer, Bahr wouldn’t have enjoyed a chance meeting with a beefy former Chicago Bear. “Mac Uihlein (current Lake Forest High School senior) wanted to eat a healthy meal after our workout,” recalls the 6-foot-4, 280-pound

Wildlife Fearless Life

PETER CRAWFORD unleashes another infectious laugh in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the 2017 Lake Forest High School graduate is a senior at Eckerd College. A journalist calling from Illinois has just asked Crawford to discuss some of his hobbies. “I’m on my bed, propped against a pillow,” Crawford, 22, begins. “The pillowcase is a raccoon

Comics Central

Big Shoulders. Al Capone, Michael Jordan, and the 1985 Bears. The ‘L’ train system. Lincoln Park Zoo’s cubs and Wrigley Field’s Cubs. Navy Pier. You think of Chicago, you think of all of the above. It’s time to add comics— the art forms of entertainment and commentary, not the club performers behind microphones—to the mix.

‘Spek’-Tacular Construction

Karl Spektor’s 21-year-old company, MOD Construction, and 11-year-old son, Brooklyn, have something in common: Both are “batting” 1.000. “Brooklyn,” Spektor insists, “has never had a bad day in his life. You should see him. He’s always smiling, always happy.” Chicago-based MOD Construction, meanwhile, has never failed to complete a project—commercial or residential— since its launch

Picture Perfect

AN ASSIGNMENT in the second grade was an easy one for Valerie Gonzalez decades ago. Too easy. The task: take home a piece a paper and draw what you want to be when you grow up. Gonzalez wanted to be a professional dancer. She had been an avid student of the artistic form since the

Sox Redux

Charles “Charlie” Walsh Jr.’s favorite youth baseball story is the one about the short, thin outfielder who always stood way, way back on defense because the boy from Elmhurst was afraid of getting smacked by a screaming baseball. That same player struck out often. Then, one day, every ball that had ever fallen in front

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Bill McLean

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