Ken Trainor
Staff writer
Phone: 708-524-8300
Email: ktrainor@wjinc.com
Ken Trainor has been working for this newspaper since the last millennium, since copy was pasted on boards using hot wax ... in other words since 1990. Like the newspaper industry, he has changed with the times. The analog auteur is now digitally multidimensional and annoying a much wider audience as a result.
A free-thinking weekly columnist for Wednesday Journal for the past 19 years, he turns into a paragon of objectivity as he edits the Viewpoints section, the LifeLines section, the Obituary section, the Inside Report section and each week attempts to repair, rectify and remediate an avalanche of newspaper copy written too close to deadline.
In his spare time, he is working on a book about his Catholic roots. He also loves riding his 1974 Schwinn LeTour bicycle on the Salt Creek Trail, and attends local theater productions and concerts and as many films at the Lake Theatre as he can squeeze in.
A native of Oak Park, he can frequently be found wandering the streets looking anything but lost as he steeps in the two most aesthetically pleasing and historically rich villages to be found this side (or that side) of the continental divide.
Latest News Articles
The unexpected gift of grace
Grace is hard to define. When it appears, it reminds us how little we truly understand about the mystery of being alive.
Theme song for the Trump reality show
I've been trying to come up with a song to accompany Donald Trump's reality TV presidency, but it's already been written: "Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago, the 1975 Bob Fosse musical (and 2002 Oscar-winning film), words by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander. You can find the tune online. Just imagine Richard Gere as Billy Flynn with orange hair.
The very marrow of being human
Harry Parker delivered his last sermon on Reformation Sunday, Nov. 3, at First Baptist Church of Oak Park, where he served as pastor for 27 years.
Moral neutrality colludes with evil
The House of Blues looks a little like a haunted house — cavernous, ornate, walls painted free-form and adorned with myriad music mementos. Above the entrance, ghostly sculpted reliefs of gods of the blues stare eerily down like a gallery from Hotel California.
Latest Blogs
Stick in a pickle

David Hammond has a new twist on holiday treats: "Behold the Peppermint-Stick-in-a-Dill-Pickle" is the headline of his latest food blog at oakpark.com.
State of the art(ist)

Turns out we seriously shortchanged Keith Taylor [Best blog, best Trump smackdowns, second best suburb, Inside Reports, Nov. 13].
Best blog, best Trump smackdowns, second best suburb

Congrats to Oak Park's winners in the Chicago Reader's annual Best of Chicago survey.
Village sweethearts

The Historical Society of Oak Park-River Forest will hold its second annual Museum Gala on Thursday, Nov. 21, and will also bestow their second annual "Heart of the Villages" awards.
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Answer Book 2019
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