Author: John Spevak

Loud, fast and urgent—that’s the way many people are trying to get our attention. I prefer calm, measured and understated. Newscasters and sportscasters are the worst. The evening news is delivered rapid-fire, and the first and...

Portland, Oregon, a city I recently visited for the first time, usually enters the news cycle, like other American cities, only when something very bad happens. You’ll hear about a city if it has floods, hurricanes, fires,...

If loyalty, generosity, neighborliness and kindness are the virtues that define a good person, then Butch Woltman, who passed away last month, was clearly a good man. Charles Joseph Woltman, known to his family and friends as...

I’m done with baseball. Or to be more precise, I no longer enjoy being a fan of major league baseball. Maybe it’s because my team, the Chicago Cubs, is so miserable this year. But I think it goes beyond that. Baseball, in my...