About Town

Insomnia Leads to Childrens' Book for Evanston Collaborators

Sleepless nights plus a Mother’s Day gift for his wife prompts a union of alphabetic proportion for author Steve Fiffer and illustrator Keiler Roberts. They published their book, Arctic Bears Chase, this spring.

One night in 2006, Evanston author Steve Fiffer couldn’t sleep. He jokes now that his usual method of lulling himself to sleep by recalling all the women he’s dated in alphabetical order* wasn’t working, so he attempted to string together a sentence using words beginning with all 26 letters — in alphabetical order. It’s a lot harder than you might think. After two days of very little sleep, Fiffer came up with, as he calls it, an alphabet string. He thought his 26-word sentence might work well in a picture book format, so Fiffer (who claims not to be a visual person) approached Evanston artist Keiler Roberts to add some illustrations. Years prior, Fiffer and his children presented a Mother’s Day gift to Sharon Fiffer: A mosaic art class …

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Christine Wolf

8:52 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012

Mark Larson, former Evanston Township High School English teacher and Golden Apple Award Winner, says, "I would have loved to share this book with my high school English students. Think of what they could learn about sentence structure, punctuation, and parts of speech and how they operate! plus, I know they would have loved the challenge of the task."   more ›

Read an Excerpt from Evanston Author's Book 'FRED WHO?'

Glencoe native Fred Karger is running as a Republican Presidential candidate for 2012.

The following is an excerpt from FRED WHO?: Political Insider to Outsider, which was written by presidential candidate Fred Karger, of Glencoe, and Steve Fiffer, of Evanston, who contributed to "The Deadline Cafe" on Evanston Patch. Related: To learn more about Karger, check out this story from Winnetka Patch: Republican Presidential Hopeful and North Shore Native Fred Karger Shines Spotlight on Gay Issues It’s early September 1971. Tomorrow I’m supposed to leave our home outside Chicago for Denver and my senior year of college. My older brother Dick will be heading in the other direction. He’s taken a position at an investment bank in New York City. And so on the eve of our departures, my parents have organized a small family dinner. My …

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About Town

Beautiful People

Who in Evanston makes your list?

Oh for Pete’s sake.  Jennifer Lopez is on the cover of People magazine with the heading “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” underneath her windblown hair.   Well of course she’s beautiful.  She’s got access to makeup artists, teeth whitening professionals, lighting experts, airbrushing, you name it. But what makes someone beautiful anyway? Many of the most beautiful people I know live or work in Evanston, like: Beth, my next door neighbor: when the winter garden she’d cultivated to serve as a bird sanctuary was carelessly cut down by negligent landscapers, she showed grace and kindness rather than screaming over the mistake. Nenette, my mail delivery lady: she always leaves little notes on holidays -- and not the kind with self-addressed …

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