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X Ray Vision

By Maurice Weaver | January 29, 1989
Those who would characterize Darryl Bell as shy and quiet might also describe loud-mouthed, chain-smoking Morton Downey Jr. as the most cordial TV talk show host in America. After spending a snowy December afternoon with the Chicago actor talking about his fledgling career and whisking through Water Tower Place searching for attractive women, Bell proved he's as fun-loving as the fast-talking, very cool Ron Johnson he portrays on NBC's hit sitcom "A Different World" (7:30 p.m. Thursdays on NBC-Ch.
By Jimmy Greenfield, Phil Thompson, Leo Ebersole, Whizzer and Soxman | January 5, 2006
TODAY'S QUESTIONS TOPIC 1: What is Soxman's kryptonite? Jimmy Greenfield: A chunk of debris from his home planet of Crazy. Phillip Thompson: The washer-dryer, also known in Soxman's world as the Black Hole. Leo Ebersole: A cursed jock strap buried deep beneath Jacobs Field. Whizzer: I want to say "Bartman." Instead I'll say "shoes." Soxman: The Ticketmaster Virtual Waiting Room. TOPIC 2: Choose one superpower. What is it, and how would it impact the sports world?
By Ian Spelling, Allison Stewart and Carol Monaghan | September 4, 2001
Just because school has started, that doesn't mean the fun stops. But between classes and homework, your free time is limited. Why waste it on lame junk? If you're looking for cool ways to amuse yourself, check out these three new diversions: TV show: "Smallville" It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a brand new Superman show. The WB series "Smallville" follows Clark Kent as a teen, before he's the Man of Steel. Kent (Tom Welling, right) knows he's not like other high school kids.
By Tim Kane | April 20, 1998
X-ray vision: Superman had it. Now Cary firefighters have it, too. The Cary Fire Protection District recently bought a $17,000 thermal imaging camera that can detect body heat through the thickest smoke. The camera can also detect a print left by the warmth of a person's hand, footprints on carpet or a kid hiding in a closet. Cary is the first fire department in McHenry County with a thermal imaging camera, though probably not for long. Many neighboring fire departments are stopping by to have a look at this state-of-the-art technology.
By Chicago Tribune | August 1, 2003
West Humboldt Park native Charlotte Torres recalls that her mother never let her play in the front yard of their home because drug dealers, gangs and guns made it too dangerous. As Chicago police installed five surveillance cameras Thursday along West Chicago Avenue, Torres, 21, who now has a daughter of her own, began to think the thoroughfare might be safer than her front yard on North Harding Avenue. "There are no kids on Chicago Avenue," Torres said. As long as drug dealers know the cameras are there, "they'll stop doing it in public and [make]
October 4, 2005
Nicolas Cage, who was once set to star in Tim Burton's doomed Superman project, hasn't let go of the Man of Steel. The Oscar winner and his wife, Alice Kim Cage, became the proud new parents of Kal-el Coppola Cage on Monday morning, reports. For those scratching their heads about the latest weird celebrity baby name, Kal-el is Superman's original Kryptonian name before he was adopted by lowly Earthlings Jonathan and Martha Kent and renamed Clark Kent. Publicist Annett Wolf says in a statement, "They are healthy and happy and it's quite lovely."
By Noel Holston. Special to the Tribune. Noel Holston is a staff writer for New York Newsday, a Tribune newspaper | October 16, 2001
No flights, no tights -- that's the motto and the guarantee of the producers of "Smallville," (debuting Tuesday at 9 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9), the WB's slyly inventive reinterpretation of the Superman mythology. Smallville is the Kansas hamlet where a childless couple named Kent found a crash-landed toddler from outer space and raised him to have a conscience as steely as his muscles. The series, which opens in 1989, jumps quickly to Clark Kent's teenage years, focusing less on superhuman derring-do than on the trials and tribulations of his having a secret life and special, potentially dangerous powers.
By Jon Van, Tribune Staff Writer | August 14, 1995
The young student volunteer had been wearing a virtual-reality headset for a few hours, exploring an experimental program intended to help surgeons plan operations more efficiently, and the experience left her warm and weary. After taking off the equipment to feel a real breeze, she reached for a cold can of soda to quench her thirst, raising the can toward her face. But as she tried to sip the soda, the woman found she was pouring it into her eye instead of her mouth, because an embarrassing perceptual distortion lingered from her extended trip into virtual reality.
By Dave Barry | March 22, 1992
As a mature adult, I feel an obligation to help the younger generation, just as the mother fish guards her unhatched eggs, keeping her lonely vigil day after day, never leaving her post, not even to go to the bathroom, until her tiny babies emerge and she is able, at last, to eat them. "She may be your mom, but she's still a fish," is a wisdom nugget that I would pass along to any fish eggs reading this column. But today I want to talk about dating. This subject was raised in a letter to me from a young person named Eric Knott, who writes: "I have got a big problem.