Here at the Chicagoist offices it's really not uncommon to hear, shall we say, colorful language, being tossed around the office, especially when Tankboy commandeers the turntable and decides to play the musical stylings of his beloved slut-wave goddess Ke$ha. I will be the first to admit that I have used some rather "colorful" words that are not politically conscious to say the least, including, but not limited to the word, "retard." In fact the word "retard" is used more than 24,000 times daily on Twitter and who knows how many times it's tossed around on other social networking venues. more ›

This year's presidential race has been a national dialogue on what matters to Americans at this point in our nation's history. But it's also been a sometimes difficult debate on the very real gender, ethnic and racial tensions that lie just underneath our country's perception of itself. more ›

They say Shakespeare wrote over 30,000 unique words in his complete works and his vocabulary is estimated to be about twice that. The average person today knows roughly 12,000 to 20,000 and only uses a tenth of that. more ›

The United States isn't the only country that is having federal elections this year. In March a by-election will be held in Toronto's Toronto Centre Riding. And our sister site, Torontoist has been posting a semi-regular column by their Environment Editor, Chris Tindal, who is running for parliament as the Green Party candidate. more ›

If you're like us, you're already getting pumped up for the Oscars! Not. Jeez, let's get past New Year's first, O.K.? Oops. Too late. The Chicago Film Critics Association has already jumped the gun and handed out their awards. To the surprise of no one the big winner was No Country for Old Men, the new Coen brothers movie that both impressed and disturbed us when we saw it last month. It won four awards in all (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem). We're very pleased that Bardem won; there wouldn't be much of a movie without his chilling character study, and he damned well better win the Oscar. more ›

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, which means it's time for Merriam-Webster to light the world on fire with their pick for 2007 Word Of The Year. This year's winner is...drumroll please..... W00t? We would have picked l33t talk years and years ago maybe, but this year? If we were going to pick something "techy," it probably would have been LOLCat or cheezburger. And Chicago word of the year would have to be... more ›

If you were looking for some new books to cuddle up with for the oncoming winter, the Chicago Book Festival is here to help. There's an events booklet available at libraries and bookstores and a PDF online. Much of the information is on readings in the city that happen anyway, but we are excited about the extra discussions for this fall's One Book, One Chicago, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which we haven't read since high... more ›

Alaska? Iceland? Actually, this is The Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentine Patagonia. And Lisa Lubin used to be there, but not any more. Let us back up to the beginning, though.. Lisa Lubin is a former TV producer at ABC7 who helped start the show "190 North." In her 9 years in Chicago she completely immersed herself in the city. She played in a summer tennis program, owned real estate, taught a TV production... more ›

There were a few surprises this morning when the Chicago Film Critics announced the winners of their annual awards. Past award slates from the CFC have been known for the occasional maverick choices and this year was no exception. Joan Allen, the pride of Rochelle, IL earned a Best Actress win for her performance in The Upside of Anger while Mickey Rourke was named Best Supporting Actor for Sin City, makeup be damned! Maria Bello’s... more ›

If the experience of going to a club to see a big name DJ has always felt a little soulless to you then DJ Language might be the answer for the kind of “real music” you crave. more ›