Disquieting the minds of the people

At the confluence of Damen, Lincoln, and Irving Park in Chicago's North Center community, the Lincoln Restaurant squats in kitschy repose, welcoming seekers of unself-conscious American cuisine and Lincolniana. Yet every Saturday evening it lights up as the host of an unusual and - in my view - badly needed institution: the College of Complexes. (As in "Stop that or you'll give me a complex!")

The College is an unaffiliated forum for free thought and learned showmanship put on by and for talented amateurs (in the best sense of being driven by love rather than money), yours for an incredibly low $3 cover.

CoC is among the last remnants of a vibrant tradition of radical orators and agitators who set up their soapboxes in Washington Square ("Bughouse Square" to the cognoscenti) and set about persuading and/or pissing off fellow citizens. The whole point is to encourage critical examination of the status quo. Recent CoC topics have included hemp politics, humane capitalism, and God-free ethical systems, just to give you an idea.

When last I checked, there were openings for speakers in July. C'mon, autodidacts! It's a free dinner and all the jeering you can tolerate.