No Substitute For Actual Teaching

Higher education is moving online, but can that replace the richness of college life? Most of life falls short of what’s portrayed in the movies. Kissing in the rain? The future bride and groom will both catch pneumonia and their blowout wedding reception will be ruined. Cross-country road trip? A lot of traffic and that … Continued

Help! I Might Need Somebody!

During the pandemic-mandated quarantine, loners and socialites alike can enjoy a longevity-related bestseller What sticks with me is the brightly colored pieces of tape on the floors of every retail establishment deemed “essential” and therefore still open. Swaths of blue, red and black tape were hastily applied to the aisles, lanes and registers where people … Continued

A Good Girl on the Darknet

A Luckbox columnist slips into darkness and sees the light Imagine you’re at your desk when you get a text message on your phone. Oh, is it the cutie from the tiki bar? Nope. It’s Chase bank, and they want to know if you intended to purchase all-season tires and a latex female anatomy simulator. … Continued

Catfish Are Biting in Love and in Money

Separate fact from fiction to reveal the traps set by bogus online daters and fake financial marketers  Imagine that you’re using a dating app and swipe right on a comely lass or rugged fella. You “match” and then the witty banter ensues. A few flirty emojis, some well-placed innuendos, and your heart starts beating fast. … Continued

Benefits with Friends

A Starbucks in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill., bears a striking resemblance to nearly any other strip mall Starbucks. It’s filled with cougars wearing yoga pants, students tapping at laptops and geriatric Russians playing chess. I find a seat at a communal table and place my laptop case on the seat across from me. … Continued

Future Shtick

Psychic, or psyched out? My visit to a fortune teller When luckbox asked me to visit a psychic for this future-focused issue, I felt “shook.” I grew up in the days of Miss Cleo’s “call me now” television infomercials and the hit show “Crossing Over with John Edwards” (the medium, not the baby mama drama … Continued

Are Smartphones Dumbing Us Down?

The desperate are seeking help with their digital addiction. The smartphone—that slender slab of glass and metal gently warming your inner thigh through the pocket of your jeans—packs more raw computing power than NASA’s engineers had at their disposal in 1969 to send a man to the moon. To paraphrase the great philosopher Homer Simpson, … Continued

CBD: Placebo or Panacea?

It’s been a while since a trend has whipped the zeitgeist into more of a frenzy than CBD has managed. Keto came close, there was that whole grapefruit diet fad and there were the “fat-free” potato chips whose only side effect was explosive diarrhea. If there were a shortcut to wellness, or a one-size-fits-all pill, … Continued

CBD: A Physician’s Perspective

Legalization is so important for people who use cannabis medically on a regular basis An experienced physician, Chicago-based Dr. Rahul Khare, finds his patients benefit from CBD and THC but cautions against accepting below par products. He recently shared his thoughts on the present and future of cannabis. Your thoughts on legalization? Dr. Rahul Khare: … Continued

A New Take on the Highball

CBD is showing up everywhere, even in cocktails. So luckbox asked contributing editor and Fake Financial News columnist Vonetta Logan to check it out. Kuma’s on Fulton is at the epicenter of Chicago’s new food mecca, the Fulton Market District.  Even before you set foot inside, the thrashing beat of heavy metal rearranges your internal … Continued