Friday 11/28 – Thursday 12/4

29 SATURDAY Environmentalists are hung up on deforestation, preserving parks, and preventing pollution. But loss of arable land is a far greater threat to our well-being, says Dwight Lowell Mather, a tax specialist and former Methodist minister who has studied the problem since he was a teenager. He’ll discuss The End of the Food Supply tonight at the College of Complexes. According to the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. loses an average of 2.86 million acres of cropland a year due to urbanization, soil erosion, floods, and earthquakes. “We can’t keep increasing population and decreasing farmland without having an effect,” Mather says, and that effect could be devastating. He’ll discuss his theories and findings at 8 at the Lincoln Restaurant, 4008 N. Lincoln. Tuition is $3, and the restaurant would like it if you ordered something. Call 312-326-2120.

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3 WEDNESDAY While growing up in the small-town hell of Nowheresville, Illinois, I entertained a fantasy that Starsky or Hutch–whichever one I had a crush on that week–would pull up in his red Torino, break down the door, and take me away to a life of chasing criminals. I thought my daydream was unique until I read Elaine Segal’s book, I Love You. In her fantasy it’s the Beatles who show up in her life and change it forever after their limo breaks down in front of her suburban home. The mop tops join the family for a dinner of noodle kugel and help the adolescent protagonist deal with her disapproving father. Segal will discuss the book and sign copies tonight at 7:30 at Barnes & Noble, 1701 Sherman in Evanston. It’s free. Call 847-328-0883.