Rick Kogan

A weekend of tavern hopping celebrates the 75th anniversary of Algren’s masterpiece, “Chicago: City on the Make.”

This gruff and profane comedy was written by two Chicago newspaper guys named Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, set in a world of newspapers that mostly no longer exists.

There was a time when a book could shake the world and on Aug. 17, 1976, a book titled “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by Alex Haley arrived on bookstore shelves.

“I said I want a second opinion. He said OK, you’re ugly.” No one told jokes quite like Rodney Dangerfield, and for a generation of comics, he remains an inspiration.

Musician and storyteller Chris Vallillo presents the history of what happened when 16 counties in Western Illinois decided to secede from the Union in 1972.

Colin Asher’s “The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music” and Irvine Welsh’s “Men in Love” were recent subjects in the New York Times Book Review.

As Groundswell Coffee Roasters opens in the storied Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue, we remember the former Artists Cafe.

A recently rebroadcast episode of “This American Life” takes a look at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.

There has always been an energetic curiosity about how the “other half” lives, so I asked the authors of “Chicago’s Luxury Apartment Buildings” why.

On Jan. 17, 1994, Danny Bonaduce and Donny Osmond faced off in a three-round fight at the China Club in the West Loop.