Books are like blankets, the mere sight of them around the house provides warmth and comfort. They are like mirrors, too, reflecting places I've been, phases I've been through, people I've loved or thought I did.

Thanksgiving without tension is like a Thanksgiving without turkey. It can be done, but it is not the norm.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.

The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them.

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.