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SPORTS Flying Fish club SUNDAY member Matt Gibson soaring for BREAKFAST A chat with platform tennis pro Alison Morgan. P14 New Trier swim team. P12
SOCIAL SCENE Scenes from Highwood charity breakfast benefit French Toast of Love. P9
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NEWS
The Notorious R.B.G. ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOSTS EXHIBIT DEDICATED TO RUTH BADER GINSBURG BY DEBBIE LEE THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
No matter where you land on the political spectrum, there is no denying that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has left an indelible mark on the zeitgeist. The second woman—and first Jewish female—to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice is not only a historical game-changer but a pop culture icon, spawning a fandom that could rival the Beyhive or Beatlemania. And now she’s also the living subject of a major traveling exhibition. On February 9, the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will host Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Based on the New York Times’ bestselling book of the same name, the exhibition is originally a collaboration between co-authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It is described as “a vibrant exploration of Justice Ginsburg’s life and her numerous, often-simultaneous roles as a student, wife, mother, lawyer, judge, women’s rights pioneer, and Internet phenomenon.” But before the book, there was the viral blog. In June of 2013, while a student at New York
GAME ON
NEW TRIER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SUMMON THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL SIDES, LAUNCH BARRIER BATTLES GAME “That was satisfying, very satisfying, seeing them play our game during a break,” recalls Becker, a Glencoe resident like Levy. “I realized then that the game was bigger than myself.” The scene warmed New Trier High School The game is a simple one with few rules, senior Bobby Becker’s heart. though it rewards dexterity and sound strateIt was ninth period in the school’s Trevian gies. Participants have an infinite number of Commons (aka the student cafeteria) one day possibilities on how to choose to build a base last semester, when he noticed two device- with game pieces and attack the foe’s base. It free—device-free!—teens playing the board does not come with a board; it can be played game Barrier Battles on a table. on any level surface. Becker didn’t know either of them. The object of Barrier Battles: eliminate the But he knew all about Barrier Battles—he opposing king piece barricaded by blocks and and classmate Kyle Levy invented it last spring other pieces. Players battle for the ouster of and started selling it ($19.99) nationwide in royalty by flicking their pieces to change posiearly January. The game had been introduced tion, vanquish enemy pieces, and destroy the to NTHS students in the fall through the enemy base. Barrier Battles club at the Winnetka school. It’s a combination of chess, curling (minus BY BILL MCLEAN
THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
the brooms and ice), shuffleboard, billiards, and caroms. Somebody called it the successor to the board game Crossbows and Catapults. “Both of us, while growing up,” Levy says, “had played a similar game to Barrier Battles. Bobby approached me last spring, asking about my interest in helping him publish and finetune a table game that he had come up with as a young child. “The opportunity to use my skills in business and product design excited me,” adds Levy, a 3D printing whiz with a career goal of serving a tech company as its chief financial officer. The best friends and co-owners of the company K-Bob Games—each wrote about the business endeavor for their college-appliContinued on PG 8
Continued on PG 8
BARRIER’ BUDS: New Trier High School seniors Kyle Levy (left) and Bobby Becker hold pieces of the board-game-without-a-board, Barrier Battles. The best friends invented it, formed the company K-Bob Games, and began selling the game in early January. PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK THABIT
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INDEX
LIFESTYLE & ARTS 9 social scene
Ben Cohen of Guaranteed Rate and @properties real estate broker Susan Brown Burklin raise funds for Lemons of Love at a Highwood charity breakfast. John Conatser FOUNDER & PUBLISHER
SPORTS
Mindy Kovco ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER
12 gibson’s takes
Read all about New Trier sophomore swimmer Matt Gibson’s thoughts on resurgent Trevians, Chicago Bears, and more.
EDITORIAL Debbie Lee SENIOR EDITOR Kemmie Ryan EDITOR AT LARGE Elaine Doremus CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
DESIGN
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Linda Lewis PRODUCTION MANAGER/GRAPHIC DESIGNER Amanda Alvarado ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
Alison Morgan on her path to love, motherhood, and success in racket sports.
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GRAPHIC DESIGNER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER Bill McLean
PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART Barry Blitt ILLUSTRATOR
SALES
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NEWS GAME ON Cont. from PG 1 cation essays—displayed Barrier Battles at the recent Chicago Toy and Game Fair and earned “Best Presenter” honors. The distinction secured a spot for their product at the New York Toy Festival February 22-25. Go East, young men? That’s their plan. “I like music, but I don’t know how to play an instrument,” Levy says. “I like art, but I don’t know how to paint. But I can make a board game—and that’s my art.” Nearly 300 games had been sold through January 22, and the game isn’t just a hit with its primary target: teens. Becker introduced Barrier Battles to campers at North Star Camp last summer in Hayward, Wisconsin. Most of the campers were 8. They played Barrier Battles. They wanted to play it again. Often. “My grandparents, from Las Vegas, played it for the first time when they visited my family last Thanksgiving,” Levy says. “They played it for four hours.” Barrier Battles’s appeal must be powerful. If it can pry teens away from their phones and iPads for more than 15 minutes, it owns the might of a superhero. “People have been very open to the idea of trying a non-electronic form of entertainment,”
Levy says. HobbyTown USA stores and Oliver’s Trains & Toys in Evanston carry Barrier Battles. All that pre-launch work involving manufacturing approvals, artwork finalizations, and website design? It continues to pay off. “The personalities of people emerge when they play the game,” says Becker, an avid outdoorsman who also enjoys reading fiction and playing with his four dogs. “You can tell a lot about a person by the way they flick or flip the pieces, by the strategies they choose to use. Some players are timid; some are not. “One game,” he adds, “was a reenactment of D-Day.” Don’t think for a second that Becker and Levy are in this venture only for the money. Both volunteer for Misericordia, an organization that supports children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Levy serves as the Misericordia Junior Board’s director of publicity. The $700 that Becker and Levy raised through a raffle for a special-edition Barrier Battles game went to Misericordia. For more information visit barrierbattles.com or send email to barrierbattlescontact@gmail.com.
Barrier Battles sets. PHOTO COURTESY OF BARRIER BATTLES
THE NOTORIOUS R.B.G. Cont. from PG 1 University School of Law, Knizhnik began a Tumblr page in response to Ginsburg’s dissent on Shelby County v. Holder—a landmark case that invalidated a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. The blog—its name a clever reference to late Brooklyn rapper The Notorious B.I.G.—simultaneously mourned the Court’s majority opinion and celebrated Ginsburg’s strongly worded response. Within 48 hours, the woman who broke the glass ceiling also broke the internet. Knizhnik’s homage to RBG quickly morphed into a larger celebration of the Justice’s career and personal achievements. Quotes, animated GIFs, and fan submissions flooded the blog. It resonated with millennials, and Ginsburg was soon plastered on T-shirts, mugs, and pins, tattooed on super-fans, and parodied on Saturday Night Live. But the upcoming exhibit isn’t just some cash grab for kitschy merchandise as you exit through the gift shop (although who wouldn’t want to burn an RBG prayer candle?) From the time Ginsburg offered her blessings for the project in a 2016 letter, it took two years to complete. The center’s associate curator Cate Thurston worked with Carmon and Knizhnik to procure incredible pieces of history and create a thoughtful, in-depth retrospective of Ginsburg’s life to date. Woven throughout the exhibit are copies of Supreme Court briefs and famous dissents; a judicial robe and jabot (lace collar) from RGB’s Supreme Court Wardrobe; and official portraits RBG and Sandra Day O’Connor—the first two women to serve on the Supreme Court—on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. Visitors are also privy to a glimpse of Ginsburg’s life before and outside of the bench. On view are home videos of RBG with her husband, Martin “Marty” Ginsburg, on their honeymoon. There are detailed, life-size replicas of her childhood apartment in Brooklyn—complete with her favorite Nancy Drew books—and her kitchen in adulthood, which included Marty’s favorite recipes and cooking utensils.
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Top Left: An illustration of Ginsburg’s robe by artist Maira Kalman. Left: Courtroom sketch of Justice Ginsburg’s dissent in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, May 21, 2018. Above: Scene from the exhibit floor. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM & EDUCATION CENTER
Interactive displays, listening stations (audio recordings of her dissents are a must-hear), and archival photos are combined with RBG-inspired contemporary art. Look for bold work by renowned
illustrator Maira Kalman and Ari Richter. On opening day, Carmon and Knizhnik will host a 90-minute talk on the genesis and development of the show, as well as their thoughts on RBG as a cultural phenomenon. The museum will also present various special events related to exhibition, like “Jump for Justice!”—a
| SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1 | SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2 2020
family fitness program based on Ginsburg’s own workout regimen—and “RBG After Dark,” an evening concert for social justice-themed tunes (cosplay enthusiasts are encouraged to dress like the Justice). RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will run until August 16, when it will then move to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. For more information, visit ilholocaustmuseum.org. THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
LIFESTYLE & ARTS
Socials French Toast of Love Photography by Larry Miller Ben Cohen of Guaranteed Rate, and @properties real estate broker Susan Brown Burklin, hosted a
THE HUSS FAMILY
SUSAN BROWN BURKLIN, ALLISON BROWN
DARCY MOSCONI, MAGGIE THAMES
charity breakfast in honor of their late colleague and friend Barb Hondros in December. Held at Sandy’s Restaurant in Highwood, guests enjoyed a special French toast breakfast with proceeds being donated to Hondros’s favorite nonprofit, Lemons of Love. lemonsoflove.org
MOLLY GRAEBNER, DANNY BENDER, LOUIE HONDROS
BEN COHEN, JILL SWANSON
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The Whole 100 Yards FOOTBALL FAN, NEW TRIER SWIMMER MATT GIBSON GAINS SPEED, BOOSTS TREVIANS BY BILL MCLEAN THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
New Trier High School sophomore swimmer Matt Gibson’s favorite pastime out of pools is watching Chicago Bears games with his father, Dave, at home in Wilmette. They like to sit together on a couch, sometimes near its edges, and pull hard for the navy blue and burnt orange. “We put out wings, chips, and all the other essentials for enjoying the game,” says Gibson, in
If you watch Matt swim in the 200 fly, you’d notice he gets stronger as the race goes. He’s developed a lot as a swimmer since last season, and he had a great summer. Smart kid, attention-to-details kid. Matt wants to know information
CAPTION 1: ‘MATT’-ER OF TIME: New Trier sophomore Matt Gibson, seen here in a dual meet at Glenbrook South last winter, won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.15 at a dual with host Stevenson last weekend. NT topped Stevenson 98-88. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
I was pleased with my underwaters, too; those helped.” So did assistant coach Chris Johnson, a former University of Minnesota sprint backstroker who or how his left hand looked works closely with NT’s backstrokers. “Great coach; so is head coach [ Josh] Runkle,” during a race. says Gibson, a state qualifier in the 100 fly and 100 back and as the flyer in NT’s 200 medley relay last winter. “They’re both good at giving advice, at pointing things out to me that I need to know. I’m an analytical swimmer. I work on, and focus on, details. I like to think through what I’m doing. Sometimes I’m overly critical of myself. his second varsity season as a 100-yard butterflyer “But if I mess up during a race, I want to make and 100-yard backstroker. “Football was my dad’s sure that doesn’t happen the next time I race.” favorite sport growing up. I like to play football Gibson kicked his swim game up—without the pick-up games. aid of a placekicker’s tee—a notch last summer by “We both get into Bears games, sometimes too qualifying for Junior Nationals in the 18-andinto it.” under division in Palo Alto, California. He then The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Gibson tackled hit the water in December at the U.S. Open Swimanother challenge in chlorinated water last ming Championships in Atlanta, sharing a pool weekend, touching first in the 100 backstroke with deck with peers, collegiate swimmers, and Olyma season-best time of 54.15 in NT’s 98-88 victory. pians. They staged the 1996 Summer Olympics It wasn’t winning-touchdown-in-the-last-sec- inside that natatorium. ond sensational, but it was a vital feat—akin to a Two big meets, two prime opportunities for a late first down—in a close dual between schools teen. with huge enrollments: Stevenson houses 4,107 “Nice experiences, as well as valuable ones,” students, NT 3,962. Gibson says. “It never hurts to get cool, big-time “I was happy with my time,” Gibson recalls. experiences like those. Before each trip, Coach “Happy because I had worked on my start in warm- Runkle told me to soak it all in, look around, and up, didn’t feel great about the starts, but overcame appreciate being there. Swimming in meets like that and managed to have a strong final 25 yards. those boosted my confidence, and I learned a lot,
like how his right foot looked
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especially as I watched the top heat in the 200 [meter] fly at the U.S. Open.” The 200 fly … that event, alas, does not exist in high school swimming. But it’s Gibson’s favorite race because his strength in swimming is his endurance. “I’m not the biggest guy,” he says. “It probably seems, at times, that I’m racing against grown men in butterfly events.” Bulky guys grinding away, while executing a taxing stroke like the butterfly, are apt to tire precipitously in the second half of the 200-fly test. But lean guys like Gibson look to pounce late and blast past leaders before striking the final wall. “If you watch Matt swim in the 200 fly, you’d notice he gets stronger as the race goes,” Runkle says. “He’s developed a lot as a swimmer since last season, and he had a great summer. Smart kid, attention-to-details kid. Matt wants to know information like how his right foot looked or how his left hand looked during a race.” Gibson followed in the fins of his twin sisters, Caroline and Kathryn, now sophomores at Indiana University. He took his first swimming lesson at the age of 3 and later joined the Evanston-based Flying Fish Swimming Club. “I started early,” Gibson says. “Swimming became my favorite sport. I love racing. I love practices. I enjoy socializing with my teammates. “We have a good program again this season,” he adds, noting the Trevians finished in 18th place at state a year ago after having captured the state
| SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1 | SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2 2020
boys swimming and diving title in 2018. “We’re going to surprise people at state [February 28-29, at Evanston Township High School]. What we did against Stevenson was encouraging and exciting, probably the team highlight of our season so far.” “Near the end there, it got loud, everybody cheering for team on a side of the pool. Our energy level was outstanding.” Gibson’s realistic individual goal is to score (achieve a top-12 showing in at least one event) at state. He had shared the aim with Runkle at a meeting early in the season. But first things first: there’s the Central Suburban League South Meet in mid-February, followed by the Niles North Sectional on February 22. Look for Gibson to swim faster than that 54.15 in 100 backstroke and to supplant his personal-best time of 51.41 in the 100 backstroke at some point in February—the Super Bowl month. “My mindset, the one I’ve had for years, is to focus on pushing through, on staying positive,” Gibson says. “And not just in swimming. There are always great things in store for you in the future if you believe in them, right?” NOTABLE: New Trier sophomore and Cornell University-bound Pearce Bailey won a pair of events in the Trevians’ 98-88 defeat of host Stevenson in a swimming and diving dual last weekend in Lincolnshire, clocking a 21.51 in the 50-yard freestyle and a 48.05 in the 100 free. THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
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S U N D AY B R E A K FA S T
Alison’s Wonderland: A Paddle Court BIRCHWOOD CLUB TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ALISON MORGAN THRIVES AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL IN PLATFORM TENNIS BY BILL MCLEAN ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT
The occasional equivalent of a Sadie Hawkins dance in tennis circles is a mixed doubles tournament. A young woman named Alison—at the urging of her mother, Christine—called an outstanding tennis player named Adam Morgan years ago to ask him if he’d be interested in playing mixed doubles with her at an Intercollegiate Tennis Association tourney. “My mother had seen Adam play in a match,” Alison recalls. “Mom was impressed. She wanted me to play mixed with him. We got his phone number; I’m not sure how we did. “I called him. He said, ‘No.’ ” Adam Morgan had informed Alison of his commitment to play singles and men’s doubles in the same tournament. Battling in a third draw would have been too heavy of a load. Years later, circa 2011, their paths crossed again in Illinois. Alison taught tennis at The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff. Adam did the same at The Lake Forest Club. Their first date? “Walking a dog together,” Alison says. “I was house-sitting at the time, and he joined me for a walk. Our first meal together was at Panera Bread in Lake Bluff.” A courtship off the courts followed, until Adam made Alison complete an Easter-esque scavenger hunt indoors one day. Alison found the last plastic egg, opened it, stared inside of it, and discovered … nothing. “I turned around, and there’s Adam, down on one knee, ready to propose,” Alison says. Alison said, “Yes.” It was a “6-0, 6-0” day for the couple, or, in tennis jargon, a “love, love” day. Adam Morgan later introduced Alison Morgan to platform tennis (aka paddle). It was love at first sight—of chicken wire fence, the sport’s court enclosure. A handful of years later the Lake Bluff residents won their first American Platform Tennis Association (APTA) Husband/Wife Doubles National Championship and successfully defended their title in 2017 with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-1 defeat of Kerri Delmonico and Mike Stulac of New Jersey. About that latter championship effort: It wasn’t exactly a two-ontwo matchup. Alison was six-and-ahalf months pregnant with the married couple’s first child, Kaylee. “Get out of Adam’s way … that’s what I tried to do during that tournament,” cracks the 35-year-old Alison, who now teaches tennis, paddle, and pickleball at The Birchwood Club in Highland Park, while Adam serves as director of paddle at South Barrington
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Club. The humble Mrs. Morgan did more than scurry to provide space for her husband at the APTA event in New York. Much more. The Grand Valley State (Grand Rapids, Michigan) University Hall of Fame tennis player negotiated her way around the dinky
court quite well and struck countless effective shots. “I usually play a fast game, always looking to blitz, to be aggressive,” Alison Morgan says. “But I had to change my game when I was pregnant. I played more patiently. I had to play smarter. “I became more of a well-rounded player.” Alison Morgan made national news again in early December, this time on ESPN’s SportsCenter. A paddle shot executed by Morgan at the Grand Prix Chicago Charities Tournament in a women’s doubles match was Play No. 10 in SportsCenter’s “Top 10 Plays of the Day” segment on December 4. Playing alongside partner Charlotte Sikora of Philadelphia, Morgan tracked a tricky ball high off a back fence, neared a side fence, spun her frame effortlessly, focused intently on the ball, and then thwacked a clean winner past a pair of stunned foes. One of SportsCenter’s hosts dubbed it a “snipe shot.” Morgan—named Female Athlete of the Year in her senior year at Hackett Catholic Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan—and Sikora are ranked No. 7 nationally in women’s doubles. Though she doesn’t play singles regularly, Morgan’s individual national ranking among women is No. 14. Not bad for a high school three-sport athlete (tennis, volleyball, softball) who first hit a paddle shot in 2013. “I fell in love with the fast pace of the sport right away,” says Morgan, who also plays competitive volleyball once a week and, during the summer, softball in a Highland Park league. “Plus it allowed me to continue to play a racket sport, outdoors, through the winter. I love the outdoors; I love to run outdoors. “I’m an outside person.” But nothing beats being a mother in Morgan’s highly active world. Kaylee, nearly 3, talks in sentences these days. A strong personality continues to emerge. Righty? Lefty? Ambidextrous, Kaylee’s
Alison Morgan
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mom thinks. Watching Adam interact with Kaylee blows away earning a trophy at a national tournament. “You’re constantly on the go,” Morgan says of motherhood. “I enjoy every aspect of it. Kaylee … she surprises me, with what she remembers. If I can
I fell in love with the fast pace of the sport right away. Plus it allowed me to continue to play a racket sport, outdoors, through the winter. I love the outdoors; I love to run outdoors.
think of anything cooler than seeing her with Adam, I’ll let you know. I work from home sometimes; I’m grateful for those days and for my colleagues at Birchwood for allowing me to do that. “I am so, so fortunate to have family members who help while I work or travel to compete in a paddle tournament in another state. My mom has been great. So have Adam’s parents [ Jay and Dena].” As a paddle instructor at Birchwood, Morgan keeps it simple. She also stresses the importance of communicating during a doubles match, because each side of the court is about a third of the size of a tennis court and silence as the ball ricochets from fence to fence could easily lead to a collision. “Positioning is a crucial element to success in paddle, right up there with talking with your partner,” says Morgan, who has been in demand to teach paddle camps. “That’s why, in most group lessons, I like to coach and teach after players play competitive points.” The turning point in Morgan’s athletic career? Sophomore year in high school, when she had to earn the volleyball team’s setter job after losing it briefly. Morgan, as a junior, helped Hackett’s Fighting Irish reach a state semifinal match in volleyball. “My mom,” she recalls, “knew how badly I wanted to be the starting setter. She didn’t go to the coach and fight my battle; she encouraged me to put in the extra time to win that position. I went to the YMCA, before every volleyball practice, and worked out and worked on setting. I’d do hundreds of sets. “What a great lesson that was for me. I am so glad I went through that, and I’m so glad my mom came up with the best way for me to handle that challenge. The experience taught me discipline. It helped me in college. “It’s helping me today.” THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
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