The story goes that during a frustrating day on a movie set in the mid-'70s, director Robert Altman, asked what his next project would be, blurted in disgust, "A wedding!" By the end of the day, Altman's exasperation became the inspiration -- and the title -- for his next movie.

If anyone is entitled to make such a judgment, it would be hard to find a more qualified candidate than Dr. Mike Preodor, president and founding medical director of Horizon Hospice. Horizon was the first hospice in Chicago and in October marked 25 years of service. During that time, Preodor estimates, he has been present at about 100 deaths and has been the physician member of a team in caring for thousands of terminally ill patients.

With downcast eyes and bowed heads, the 9- and 10-year-old Diamondbacks of the Edgebrook-Sauganash little league trudge dejectedly off the field after a tough loss. A few of them struggle to hold back tears. A moment later, heads lift and solemn faces regain their glow as a female voice bellows, "Snack!"

I say I want to quit, and every time I really mean it. Every time.

Confessions of a Writer for Hire, Actually Written by Paul Engleman

Soon after Dennis Kass started teaching history at a small high school in Little Village four years ago, he put his law degree to use, dispensing free legal advice to students and their families after school. That modest beginning has evolved into the Chicago Law and Education Foundation, a free clinic that has now expanded to eight additional city high schools.

Sixty-five years ago, in 1955, I was diagnosed with polio. I was two years old, so I was unaware of what it meant to have been infected with the poliovirus, but I became more aware of it in subtle ways as I got older.