Buy gently-used treasures from Frontera, Alinea, Charlie Trotter's and more, and the money goes to a good cause. more ›

312 Dining Diva tipped us off to this one. Paul Kahan, of Blackbird, managed to get through airport security with a LOT of knives. He tweeted: "Flew outa ohare today. Forgot I had four huge chefs knives in carry on bag. Got patted down for wallet. Knives went through." Thank goodness for the TSA keeping our skies so safe. Maybe if he'd been carrying a 4-ounce bottle of olive oil, they would've gotten him. more ›

On Monday mornings, we invite our readers to gather around our table and discuss a culinary issue of the day. If you have anything you'd like to talk about, send it to anthony@chicagoist.com more ›

Chicago Police raided the house of Kevin Long, the man arrested last week trying to sneak four knives into the Daley Center, and uncovered quite a stash: 1,600 knives. Not only that, but they also found papers with the names of various police officers and sheriff deputies. Authorities indicated the names may have been potential future targets of Long's. Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, told the Tribune, "We recovered numerous boxes of documents from his home and in those were several pieces of papers with police officer and sheriff deputy names on them. There was nothing saying a specific threat against a specific person but it was certainly clear that he was documenting specific people's names." more ›

Kevin J. Long, 48, of the 4500 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon on Tuesday afternoon when four hunting knives were discovered inside his briefcase at the Daley Center. A Cook County sheriff's deputy noticed images of knives inside Long's briefcase as it ran through an X-ray machine and questioned him. Long allegedly said his briefcase contained "just papers," according to a news release from the sheriff's office, and told police that he had come to the Daley Center to visit the law library and had forgotten that the knives were in his briefcase. more ›

You can't make this stuff up if you tried. At about 8 a.m. on Sunday morning on a CTA bus near Belmont and Milwaukee, a man claiming to be a "knife salesman" accidently tripped down the aisle of the bus and stabbed himself in the leg with one of his own knives, police News Affairs Office Laura Kubiak said. The man told police that he was a "knife salesman," selling knives out of his suitcase, and the stabbing was accidental, Kubiak said. Fire Media Affairs Dir. Larry Langford said that although the man lost a lot of blood, his injuries did not appear to be life threatening. more ›