Remembering Riccardo Giacconi: A Titan of the Heroic Age of Astronomy
Riccardo Giacconi, the “Father of X-ray Astronomy,” Nobel Prize winner and one of the most influential figures of modern astrophysics, died in December at the age of 87. Over a career spanning more than five decades in time and 10 orders of magnitude in wavelength, Riccardo opened up new windows for observing the universe, and revolutionized the wa...
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Susan Lucci
We’ve known and loved Emmy-Winning actress Susan Lucci for almost half a century now after her 41-year run on hit soap All My Children (1970-2011) playing the devious Erica Kane and starring role on Lifetime’s Devious Maids (2013-2016). Parade.com recently caught up with the still-very-active and nimble ‘Queen of Daytime TV,’ best-selling author an...
The story behind Frank Sinatra’s $10,000 yarmulke
Last month, when Sotheby’s held a huge auction of items belonging to Frank Sinatra and his widow, Barbara, the item that made the most headlines was one of the smallest: a hand-knit yarmulke. Frank had owned it, and someone — we don’t know who — bought it for nearly $10,000. But why did Sinatra have a kippah? Where did he get it? And when? The stor...
NIASHF Inductees: Joe Girardi
MLB All-Star and World Series Champion Player & Manager. In 10 seasons as the Yankees’ manager, Joe Girardi guided New York to six Postseason appearances and a World Series Championship in 2009. Girardi managed the Florida Marlins in 2006, winning the NL Manager of the Year Award in his managerial debut. Born in Peoria, Illinois, Chicagoland native...
NIASHF Inductees: Gene Pingatore
Head Men’s Basketball Coach at St. Joseph High School – became all time win leader in Illinois during February 2017. Gene Pingatore was born and raised in Cicero, Illinois, the son of Annette and Frank Pingatore. While at St. Mel’s High School, Gene was an Honors student and three year varsity letter winner in basketball and a member of the 1954 Ci...
Review: Which Italian restaurant chain makes the best spaghetti and meatballs?
Have you ever wondered which of the big Italian restaurant chains makes the best spaghetti, or how they measure up against each other? Me, too. So I went on a marathon spaghetti binge to find out. Here’s what I learned. Maggiano’s Little Italy. When I lived in Chicago in the ’90s, I worked around the corner from the original Maggiano’s Little Italy...
’68 Rides Again: The Return of Sergio Corbucci
One of the best genre films of 1968 was among the very best commercial releases of 2018. Sergio Corbucci’s “The Great Silence” escaped the vault and is available for streaming from Amazon Prime and Vudu. Corbucci (1927-90) may be Sergio Leone’s only rival as the maestro of Italian westerns, and “The Great Silence,” which had its belated theatrical...
Twenty years later, we’re still talking about the Sopranos
Twenty years ago, mobster Tony Soprano walked into a psychiatrists office and glued over 10 million Americans to their television sets for the next eight years in one of the most groundbreaking shows in history. Fans of “The Sopranos” can relive their love and passion for TV’s greatest mob story at WORD Jersey City on Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m.,...
‘The Sopranos Sessions’ Goes Inside Groundbreaking HBO Show
There may be no show in the history of television that changed the art form more than The Sopranos. It ushered in an era of brooding antiheroes and complex, serialized storytelling that still thrives today, with an ever-growing roster of imitators (a few worthy, many not). When the show debuted on January 10, 1999, Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Se...
Delta And Alitalia May Merge After Executives Meet For Talks
Exciting rumors from the world of Aviation; Delta and Alitalia might merge after their executives revealed an upcoming meeting in Atlanta. Unlike previous talks with Air France and Etihad, both of which lost plenty of money helping Alitalia, this deal might be fully supported by the Italian government, as it would not threaten jobs in the home coun...
When money is tight, she turns the cuisine of her Italian roots
Maybe you are one of the hundreds of thousands of people not getting your paycheck, thanks to the government shutdown. Maybe you feel squeezed after a holiday spending frenzy, or you've been watching the stock market the past few weeks and are worried about your 401(k). Right about now, a lot of us are feeling anxious about money. I know I am. A...
"Green Book" Marks New Chapter For Editor Patrick J. Don Vito
Editor Patrick J. Don Vito’s latest collaboration with director/writer/producer Peter Farrelly is quite a departure from what’s been their comedic norm. But this new turn in some respects wasn’t all that surprising to Don Vito who recalled telling his wife when he was working on the Farrelly TV pilot for Cuckoo that he’d love to see the director ge...