The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them.

You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when.

You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.

A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.

You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.