Sophie (left) and Liz on the last day of the Busy Bee (Courtesy of Chester Madej.)
Sophie Madej was always let down when one of her regular Busy Bee customers left the Wicker Park neighborhood. She uplifted spirits while serving pierogis, sour cream spinach soup and potato pancakes between 1956 and 1998 at one of Chicago’s most famous diners.
Mrs. Madej died on Aug. 21 in her northwest side home. She was 86 years old.
The Busy Bee, 1546 N. Damen, was defined by a shoebox shaped diner counter and bright yellow walls you would find in your Grandmother’s [...]
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern (L) and Joe Lee (Courtesy of Charles E. Newman)
Any passionate Chicago Bulls fan would recognize the forever young looking African-American passing out towels and soaking up blood, sweat and tears behind the home bench. I saw this gentleman as a fan in the 1970s and he was in the house in 1990 when I covered the Bulls for the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the early 1990s I had a chance to talk to Joe Lee, who was the Bulls equipment man since the franchise’s birth in 1966.
Wanting to sit down with Joe Lee is what made me “different” in [...]
CHARLESTON, S.C.–Only by traveling do you discover where you belong.
I have been down that road a couple times this summer, whether it was dancing to Beach Music in the sand of North Myrtle Beach, S.C. or just taking a memory trip under a full moon to the Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City.
But a lasting image of the summer of 2014 is seeing my friend Mike Veeck addressing the Charleston River Dogs fans after “Disco Demolition 2” at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in Charleston, S.C.
Besides Veeck, I would argue I am the only other person who has attended both Disco Demolitions. The [...]
