Larkin and her little business have come a long way since then. A manufacturer in Tennessee now produces bookthingys. There are a whole slew of different designs available, and all are adjustable for different sizes of books. The e-reader craze has also affected business - in a good way. Larkin introduced an e-book travel bag line earlier this year, which fit Kindles, Nooks, iPads and Netbooks. She sold out at Printers Row in June and is now selling them on her site. If you’re looking for a good way to carry and protect your iPad, “The Purse of Being a Wallflower” or “Fashionheit 451” might be a good fit. more ›

While we take a short break from bringing you more of Charles Cushman's 60's era photos this week, we stumbled across a repository of striking color photos from even earlier in our history. These beautiful color photos are from the Library of Congress as part of a series from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, as part of an effort to document how the Depression affected the country. This particular selection of railroad-centric Chicago shots by Jack Delano show the city as an industrial, agricultural and transportational hub in the days before air travel became dominant. The Denver Post put together this series of photographs spanning the nation, all of which are worth looking at, but naturally the ones featuring Chicago caught our eyes the most. You can find the rest of the FSA/OWI series here. more ›

Flickr user John McNab shared some great old-time Chicago photos that he found via the Library of Congress American Memory website. On a gloomy Friday morning, they're a welcome step back into the past. more ›

As what would be former President Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday approaches (Thursday, February 12, to be exact), the U.S. Government has decided to honor him in multiple ways. First, the Library of Congress has released a handful of Lincoln and Lincoln-related portraits to Flickr's Creative Commons group ahead of the opening of their new Lincoln exhibit, "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition," opening, appropriately, Thursday. We've picked out some selections below, but you can check out the whole set for yourself here. more ›

- Say hello to Cuppy's. Another coffee chain opens its first Chicago location. - Taking parenting advice from Britney Spears, a 26-year-old woman left her kids in the car with the windows up and hot air blowing while she went to Cook County Criminal Court on the south side. - Oak Park/River Forest High School alumni Charles Simic was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress. - Keep drinking your beer, Cubs fans.... more ›

Nothing gets us raging (pun intended) with city pride more than telling people about the Great Chicago Fire. Today marks the 135th anniversary of the fire's two-day rampage. And what a rampage it was! more ›

Three recordings by artists with strong Chicago ties were added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry this year: Nat "King" Cole for his recording of "Straighten Up and Fly Right"), Mahalia Jackson’s "Move On Up a Little Higher" and an interview with James Baldwin conducted by Studs Terkel in 1962. Sadly, neither “Veronica Hates Me” or “Cindy’s On Methadone” by Screeching Weasel were included this year. more ›

Chicago’s cinematic history is being preserved in all sorts of ways this week. Steve James’s Hoop Dreams, the story of two Chicago high school basketball players, is now part of the National Film Registry, a list of films that have “cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.” Every year, the Library of Congress adds twenty-five films to its National Film Registry from a list of films nominated by the public (click here to send your recommendations for... more ›

Do you hate the commercials before movies? We were always sure to yell "Why do we have to pay to watch commercials?" when we'd see them during our Kalle Lasn/Naomi Klein phase. But now we think they have at least one redeeming quality. Anger is an emotion everyone experiences at one time or another, and what better way to express it than with a group spit-and-seethe session before a movie? It's refreshing to walk out afterwards, greet your fellow movie-goers and say, "Wasn't that great when we all got really mad about those commercials at the beginning? I sure do hate them capitalists, but I sure do love you fellow human being." more ›

» Chicago Photobloggers launched
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On Sunday Richard Dorsay was evicted from a wooden shack he'd constructed between girders and beams underneath a drawbridge over the Chicago River. Evidently there were a number of these shacks underneath the bridge camouflaged with blankets to prevent detection from below. When police arrested one of Dorsay's neighbors, that neighbor gave them a tip that led authorities to the bridge on Lakeshore drive where they discovered Dorsay and the small community. more ›