Yesterday's primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island saw John McCain assume the mantle of the Republican presidential nominee, with commanding victories in all but Texas, and Mike Huckabee's announcement that he's withdrawing from the race. "It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but now what must be -- and that is a united party," Huckabee told told supporters in......

Looking for a mini-vacation from the Chicago winter? Head out to Allstate Arena on Friday night to take in some professional beach volleyball. The AVP Crocs Hot Winter Nights will be bringing some of their top-ranked professionals along with truckloads of sand for a night of volleyball action. The event combines the sport with a beach festival. April Ross, who competed in both the Minneapolis and Columbus stops of the AVP tour, commented, "The atmosphere......

Our pal Ben spotted this Chase ad at the Jackson red line stop and noticed that, despite touting the bank's new Chicago locations, the sign had some local geography issues. Like listing intersections in New York, not Chicago. 54th & 3rd, Bowery & Division, 39th & Broadway, Delancy & Essex, 27th & Park, 42nd & Columbus, 47th & Madison, Canal & Varick, 53rd & Park.... yeah, those aren't here.......

We're leading off today's awesome round-up by reminding everyone that, as Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier says, it's alright to cry. People seem very stressed out today — Holiday stuff? Lack of daylight? Weird diet? — but don't keep it bottled up. Let it out, and recover with some things that should cheer you up and quick: Ah, real-time graphs, how we love you. Like this one, which displays the real-time gage height of the Chicago......

This week's selection was a suggestion from an old friend we ran into at a party a couple weeks back. The time was closing in on midnight and most everyone else had left for the evening. We would interrupt the conversation to say our goodbyes, then return to the important discussion of beer. Our friend looked at us and said, "If you like IPAs like you say, you've got to try 'Racer 5' and let......

The Fire return to Toyota Park tomorrow night to take on rival New England Revolution in their penultimate regular-season home game. The New England Revolution are hot off their U.S. Open Cup Championship game earlier this week. The Fire come into the match on a five-game unbeaten streak, but four of those non-beatings were ties because the Fire's been fizzling: In each of their last three games, they held the lead with less than ten......

The Cubs aren't the only Chicago franchise fighting for the playoffs; The Chicago Fire are narrowly holding on to a playoff berth. With just six games remaining, the Fire are currently in the 8th and final playoff spot, with Colorado and Columbus hot on their heels. The Fire will continue their hunt for valuable points tonight when they take on FC Dallas on ESPN2 at Pizza Hut Park. The "Big D" has not been friendly......

It's still sunny and warm outside, so it's hard to believe the NHL has taken the ice again in preparation for a new season. Last year, Chicagoist made our yearly mistake of getting excited about the offseason moves and preseason successes of the Blackhawks, only to be let down once again. So this year we have vowed not to analyze the preseason too carefully and instead to wait to see how the Blackhawks look when......

Only four of the thirteen Major League Soccer teams took advantage of Major League Soccer's new Designated Player Rule, made most famous by the signing of David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a total of five players. This weekend, arguably the two most impactful designated players, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel, will match up at Toyota Park. Blanco has played just seven games but has helped the Fire to earn 13 points......

We always thought it was pretty ridiculous when students at other schools got the second-tier holidays off of school — you know, your Columbus Days and your Presidents' Days. It seemed almost as ridiculous (read: unfair) as when the kid down the street got ten dollars from the tooth fairy while we got a quarter. Why celebrate some presidents' birthdays by sitting at home but celebrate another's when it rolls around? And didn't they "discover"......

The Chicago Fire used their recent acquisitions to propel themselves to a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake. The Fire knew going into Saturday's game that it was important for them to earn 3 points for a victory against the league worst Real Salt Lake (2-10-6 12 pts.). After a less than impressive first 40, minutes Cuauhtémoc Blanco was in the right place at the right time to hit a cracker of a volley that......

Winner of a special prize at the Berlin Film Festival, #12 on Metacritic's All-Time High Scores and one of the first 50 films chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry, Killer of Sheep has always been a film more talked about than seen. Until now. This week you'll probably be hearing a lot more about it, because twenty years after it was finished it's finally getting a release; it opens Friday at the Music......

The Fire's recent changes, bringing in Juan Carlos Osorio as head coach and signing Cuauhtemoc Blanco, are paying off as the Fire earned their first victory since the first week of June. Many, including Chicagoist questioned the Fire's decision to sign Blanco figuring that a combination of his aging legs and his often destructive temper would not allow him to be a productive member of the team. Since joining the Fire a little over a......

The Chicago Fire beat the Columbus Crew at Toyota Park on Sunday, ending a five game winless streak. Defender Jeff Curtin got the Fire out in front when a well-placed corner kick by Willian Olveira found Curtin at the far post where he headed in his first MLS goal. Prior to the halftime break the Columbus Crew's recent acquisition Gullermo Barros Schelotto, formerly of Argentinian club Boca Juniors, served in a free kick that found......

Growing up off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, we've seen our share of stingrays, unfortunately most still had their barbs, so touching them wasn't something advised. With their barbs removed, you can see, and touch, these graceful creatures at Stingray Bay Brookfield Zoo, First Avenue and 31st Street in Brookfield. Tickets are only $2. We were out of town last year for the Bike the Drive event, but we plan to make it there......

If you take the main ideas of the stories today and combine them, you get a medieval drug dog. Not bad. But separate them out, and you get pure stupidity, pure craziness, and pure laziness/greed. Sigh. When will people learn? We'd love to have a bunch of weeks where This Week In Stupid becomes obsolete, but people just keep doing crazy and dumb stuff. Onward, shall we? Oh we all wished we could go medieval......

The Blackhawks, whose season ended on Sunday with a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, won off the ice today. The NHL Draft Drawing took place in Columbus, Ohio, today, and the Blackhawks won the number-one draft pick for the 2007 NHL Draft. Amazing stuff, 'cause their chances of winning the top pick were about the same chance as them winning a game, 8.1%. The Blackhawks, who have missed the playoffs eight times in the......

We know what you’re thinking: “Aren’t the best ethnic markets located in, well, ethnic neighborhoods?” Why, yes, astute reader, for the most part they are. But sometimes, like that ever-elusive bluebird of happiness, you can find them right in your own backyard. Case in point: L’Appetito, an Italian deli and café with two locations in the Gold Coast. Yeah, yeah, there you go again: Yes, we, like you, normally avoid shopping in the Gold Coast......

Despite what some people think, we've lived here long enough to know when a cabbie is starting to give us the runaround. And now we just nip it in the bud. We call out the Lower Wacker route before they start to pull some other crap. We tell them to take Ashland instead of going all the way east to Lake Shore Drive. But there's one thing we have never been really strong on —......

Today Major League Soccer hosted its 2007 SuperDraft. The draft was overshadowed by yesterday's announcement that David Beckham has signed with the LA Galaxy. Today's newest members of Major League Soccer will get paid significantly less than Beckham's nearly $1 million per week in salary and endorsements. Toronto FC, an MLS expansion team, had the first selection and picked University of Maryland product midfielder Maurice Edu. The Columbus Crew was scheduled to have the second......

Whether or not the folks down at Homeland Security are looking for a fight, it looks like they just got one. Pretty much all of the officials in Chicago allowed their panties to bunch up something awful when they read the report, which counted the city as one of the least prepared for disaster. The report, which examined how major U.S. cities respond to potential dangers, basically said that Chicago and Cook County don't really......

On Monday when we discussed the city's plans to step up efforts to protect pedestrians, a few commenters replied by saying that often, pedestrians are just as much to blame as vehicles for creating dangerous situations at intersections. They're right too; Chicagoist has witnessed many walkers blithely wandering into the street against no-walk signs, and let's not even start on the herds of people on Michigan Avenue who apparently skipped street safety day in grade......

There are some things in life you just need to know. Basic truths, if you will. For instance, tollbooths, gas stations and nuclear power plants are all very different things and serve very different purposes. Also, firework stores are flammable, don’t run from the cops smelling like tasty food, and the brake is on the left. Just some things to keep in mind. An Oak Park man faces charges after confusing the Braidwood nuclear power......

The debate over the possible locations for the new Children's Museum site flared up at a meeting of the Grant Park Advisory Council. That is to say, of course, that there was some continued opposition to the idea of it even moving to Grant Park. When 42nd Ward Alderman Burt Natarus spoke out against one of the first ideas for building the new museum on the Randolph side of the park, he had 2,100 signatures......

Chicagoist is not advocating the mass quantity purchase of aluminum foil to build your own Stanley Cup just yet. We are, however, encouraged to see the Blackhawks start their regular season off on a positive note, building on a successful pre-season by winning their season opener against a tough Nashville Predator team. ESPN calls the Predators "The Thinking Man's pick" to represent the Western Conference in this year's Stanley Cup. The Blackhawks found themselves down......

For this month's preview, we were going to compare our local theater companies to figures on Capitol Hill, contemplating that special, intimate relationship between more experienced hands and up-and-coming ensembles. But well, scandals happen. Instead, we'll stick to the “neighbors” metaphor. This week: Running Away With the Circus: Redmoon Theater Spectacle ’06: Twilight Orchard The Scene: Over 60 actors frolic and flourish in Columbus Park for an audience largely there for the first time and......

Over the weekend, the Blackhawks reduced their roster to 22 by sending seven players down to the AHL Norfolk Admirals in preparation for the start of the 2007 regular season. The 22-player roster includes 14 forwards, 6 defensemen and 2 net-minders. For those playing at home, the players shipped out were Michael Blunden (F), Brandon Bochenski (F), Dave Bolland (F), Jonas Nordqvist (F), Dustin Byfuglien (D), Danny Richmond (D), and James Wisniewski (D). The Blackhawks......

We're all about museum news this week at Chicagoist. Now Mayor Daley has announced that the Chicago Children's Museum will be moving from Navy Pier to a corner of Grant Park. The new building will be funded in part by a $15 million gift from Allstate. Officials hope to break ground at the northeast corner of Monroe and Columbus by 2007. Parts of the new building will be underground to respect lakefront protection ordinances. It......

Last year, the Blackhawks won just 26 games, ahead of only two teams in the NHL. Although it is just the preseason, Blackhawk fans have to feel good about the upcoming season. The Chicago Blackhawks have played five of their eight preseason games and are off to a perfect 5-0 start. The Blackhawks have not had troubles sounding the horn, scoring 19 goals for an average of 3.8 goals per game. In four of the......

Earlier this week, Forbes published a study where they ranked America's drunkest cities. After narrowing the list to thirty-five cities and using a template more suited to determining economic indicators, Forbes ranked the cities listed based on five factors: - state laws regarding alcohol consumption and sales - drinkers in a city (based on the number of people who said they had at least one drink in the past 30 days) - heavy drinkers (based......