Neil Steinberg biography

Neil Steinberg began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1984, and joined the staff in 1987 as a feature writer.

He became a columnist in …

• Bill’s candidacy, David’s mustache

  At a Misericordia fund-raising breakfast Tuesday, I was only half listening as the Rev. Jack Clair spoke of the organization’s devotion to helping people with development disabilities. Then he did something that caught my attention. Noting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was sitting front and center he reached under the podium and withdrew a goblet of water. “Every time I see the mayor, he asks me the same question: ‘How is the water over there?’ ” said Clair, raising the glass. “A toast. Mr. Mayor, we spared no expense.” Kind of an edgy joke. In the 2011 budget, you may remember,

• Tech gizmos thwart the talkative

  Walking in downtown Chicago, you pass thousands of people. Most you hardly notice, never mind remember. Odd aspects do sometimes stick in the mind. Strange fashions. One day, within five minutes, two women passed wearing the same Burberry-pattern rubber boots — a look I never …Read More

• We’d let them do laundry, but that’s it

  It’s a shame we can’t keep these tortured paths of previous immigrant groups in mind when dealing with immigration issues today. Instead we treat each situation as a new problem that has lurched out of nowhere, flinging our hands in the air and obsessing over every detail, rather than seeing them in their proper light, as the latest chapter in a long and sad saga of history repeating itself, year after year, one baby step in a march of continents and centuries.