This month we asked you ladies and gents to judge a book by its cover. We chose Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Gross. Actually, although reading in the heat about the "gamy" and "slightly sweet" smell of rotting human flesh did make us feel faint at times, we found Stiff to be thoroughly engrossing (no pun intended). Mary Roach's forays into cadaver research and the body farm were all precise and detailed without... more ›

Last weekend, professional soccer players Dean Ruddy and Ross Smith came across the pond to raise money for a charity called Dreams for Kids. In soccer, one of the cardinal rules is that the players, save for the goalie, are never allowed to touch the ball with their hands. But these guys were feeling up Chicago like crazy. They weren't here to raise money playing soccer, they were here to hug. It was called... more ›

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA... more ›

In January George Hood, an Aurora resident, spent 85 hours on a stationary bicycle in an attempt to break the world record. Guinness officials notified Hood that due to inconsistencies in his log of rest breaks, they express "great regret" that he is not the record holder he thought he was. more ›

Steve Milton, creator of the world's largest rubber band ball, stood grinning like a Cheshire cat during Tuesday morning’s ceremony at State and Jackson, where the good folks at the Guinness Book certified his new record. Basking in the moment with him was his six-year-old son Bryce who, over the past year, helped him wind 175,001 bands. more ›

We’re of the opinion that the older people get, the more they rule. That’s why we were particularly sad to hear that a few days ago, while we were all eating pizza rolls and yacking about Stroger, what may have been the world’s oldest person quietly passed away in this very city. more ›

• Answer the question we were too skeeved to ask: what do you do with a dead elephant? "Tatima [the 35-year-old elephant] will be disposed of as 'medical waste' via incineration," according to the Sun-Times. Geaahh. Poor Tatima died Saturday after a battle with tuberculosis, which, who knew, elephants can totally get. Tatima, and two other female African elephants at the Lincoln Park Zoo, came to Chicago from the San Diego Zoo in spring 2003. Some animal rights activists tried to get Tatima et. al. moved to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, and claim that living conditions at the zoo contributed to her disease and eventual death. For some reason, the Sun-Times puts in the lede that Gillian Anderson wrote a letter supporting the move. Gillian Anderson? Yeah, we bet she has time to write lots of letters now that her career is dead. Whatever. RIP, Tatima. more ›