An article in today's New York Times travel section focuses on our city's thriving Hispanic culture, Pilsen in particular, calling it "Chicago's fashionable Latino neighborhood." It's no secret that we here at Chicagoist are fans of the plentiful eats there. But, as the article points out, Pilsen is more than just food -- it is where the epicenter of Mexican culture and energy is in Chicago. “It’s happening so fast,” said Carlos Tortolero, who came......

Five people were injured, three seriously, when a car plowed into a crowd in a West Side alley last night. "The incident was sparked when someone in the crowd sprayed mace at the motorist, who then drove through the crowd, possibly twice." [S-T] Oh, no. Now that we know the New York Times has the game Set online we may be capable of waisting Chain Factor-levels of time in all new ways. Speaking of oh,......

Fascinating article in the NYT Magazine yesterday about a Chicago company that revives old but they hope not forgotten brands like Brim, Salon Selectives, Eagle and Nuprin. After megacompanies merge, sometimes name brands get folded together. And that's where River West Brands comes in. While [founder Paul Earle] recognizes that a given brand might not be able to survive in the portfolio of a multinational, different sorts of business models might work to sustain it.......

Today's long read: Chicagoist fave Alex Kotlowitz's captivating portrait of CeaseFire, the anti-gun violence organization whose founder, epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, believes violence should be treated like an infectious disease. In his book “The Bottom Billion,” Paul Collier argues that one of the characteristics of many developing countries that suffer from entrenched poverty is what he calls the conflict trap, the inability to escape a cycle of violence, usually in the guise of civil wars. Could......

This sure looks like Gene Lee in the New York Times this weekend, photographed on a skateboard in Berkeley. Photographer Peter DaSilva says he took the photo February 13, 2008. We thought Lee died in December.......

Chicagoist has a list of places to visit and experiences we'd like to have before we die. We've hopefully got a few decades left to keep checking these items off, but some are certainly a bit more improbable than others -- like our dream of owning and living in a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. The Arthur Heurtley house -- just down the street from Wright's own home and studio in suburban Oak Park --......

McDonald's is giving away free McSkillet Burritos today and tomorrow, which elicited responses from Yumsugar readers ranging from "Yuck! No way." to "Do they come with chorizo?" We say "eat at your own risk." Who knew Dolly Parton had a fucking cookbook? Proceeds from sales of Dolly's Dixie Fixins support her Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library, which distributes free books to preschoolers in 43 states and Canada. Parton told Dave Hoekstra, "These are recipes of......

Photo by Deltaspy The Sun-Times takes a look at "elimination communication," a technique some parents are using to toilet train their very young children. Perhaps you read about it. In the New York Times. In 2005. [S-T, NYT.] Police are investigating the human remains discovered in Downers Grove but so far can't establish age, race, or how long ago the man died. [Trib] Alinea won Restaurants & Institutions magazine’s Ivy Award, which is a......

Cubs third baseman Aramis Remirez finally arrived at Spring Training on Tuesday, but when asked by reporters what he did on his winter vacation, he refused to answer. In fact, he wouldn't even allow for the reporter to finish asking the question. Of course, we all know what he was up to back home this off-season. Last week, the New York Times profiled cockfighting and its popularity in a land known for its prolific export......

The New York Times Magazine ran an interesting interview yesterday with Frontera Grill's Rick Bayless, with accompanying photos taken at his Bucktown home. Bayless cops to not cooking Mexican at home, which makes sense since he's around it five days a week at Frontera and Topobolampo. Bayless also grows a substantial amount of the produce for Frontera - about $25,000 worth - in his backyard, which is in line with his localvore sensibilities. We couldn't......

Happy Valentine's Day, Barack! Obama hasn't yet snagged the Democratic nomination. But already, like John Kerry before him, he's about to become the target of an "exposé film." As reported in the New York Times, the conservative group Citizens United has budgeted about $1 million to produce the film, which they plan to distribute this summer. The group and its president have previously released such creatively-titled valentines as Hillary, the Movie (a love song......

Columbia University professor Sudhir Venkatesh will pop a cap in your ass. No joke. It's been a week since Venkatesh's most recent book, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets was published, and the critical response is unanimous: OMG! What a total badass! The book chronicles Venkatesh's experiences while conducting field work in the now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes. We know this gangbangin' prof; he's co-authoring a work-in-progress high-profile Chicago prostitution......

Oh Steve. Steve, Steve, Steve. We had really hoped that with the new year you might finally catch up to current trends and we could put this column to rest. But, alas, your foot once again finds your mouth. Now we understand that you are writing for the general populace, so some of your more obvious observations could be forgiven as trying to bring "mom and pop" into the digital age. But we just read......

Hillary Clinton's "Emotional Moment" in the Portsmouth, NH café on Monday has already become the stuff of myth, with many pundits directly and indirectly attributing Clinton's surprise victory in Tuesday's primary to the tears that almost fell (but never actually did). Leave it to Chicago's own Jesse Jackson Jr., co-chairman of Barack Obama's national campaign, to siphon the tears out of the excretory ducts of Clinton's eyes and leverage them for political gain: There......

Mattoon carved out a spot in the national consciousness yesterday with news that a zero-emission FutureGen coal power plant will be built there in the next few years. However, within hours of the announcement, the Department of Energy issued a statement warning that "projected cost overruns will require a reassessment of FutureGen's design," putting the whole project in jeopardy. The DOE had originally pledged $1 billion for the project, but the budget has ballooned to......

Our servers drank a big glass of bitch juice this morning, but things appear to be shaping up at this point. New York Times blogger and CPS teacher Will Okun wrote today about taking his class to meet Chicago Defender photographer Worsom. Bad news for Blago: His top political fund raiser was indicted today on federal tax fraud charges. he charges against Chris Kelley have nothing to do with politics or with the Blagojevich......

Hearts all across Chicago were broken last January when Zephyr closed its doors. We walked past its former space a few days ago and wouldn't you know, construction workers were busy building what looked to be another restaurant. Alas, it won't be Zephyr 2.0 but rather an Irish-style bar and restaurant (pictured), opening in March 2008 (to their best estimate). The workers didn't know what it was going to be called. New York Times writer......

According to the New York Times, Chicago "is the alley capital of America." Eh, we'll take it. Because the story's all about our "green alley" initiative, which if you'll recall snagged an Innovation Award last month. Green alleys use permeable concrete, which allows water to soak back into the ground, and reflect light. According to the City's Green Alley Handbook (which is so pretty it won an award), "sustainable alley design" tackles four issues: storm......

If you were looking for a product that provided anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits; reduced stress; and released "marine amino acids, minerals and vitamins into the skin upon contact with moisture," where would you turn? A secret spa treatment? Okay. A facial mask? Sure, that could work. A t-shirt? Yeah, we wouldn't either. But apparently women with money to burn have been scooping up garments at Lululemon, a yoga and workout garment boutique, for......

Today's New York Times has a profile of Tom Nauman, a mushroom hunter in downstate Magnolia who also owns a store dedicated to morels with his wife. The story tracked the Nauman as he searched the woods in search of edible mushrooms. It wasn't really news that edible mushrooms grow in Illinois. The story did prompt us to ask why we don't hunt for mushrooms ourselves, with the Forest Preserves nearby? A couple calls to......

Listen, we've kept mostly quiet about the daily newspapers' coverage of the online world. We love and thrive off our paper brethren. And for the most part, aside from every story about an online trend being about 13 months behind the actual trend, we think they get it right. Hell, we actually miss James Coates, since we found his computer advice to be direct, engaging, and idiot-proof. But Steve Johnson must be stopped. When we......

The Audit Bureau of Circulation released its Fas Fax data today, giving newspaper ombudsmen everywhere a topic for tomorrow's column. Too bad everyone's going to write largely the same story: Newspaper circulation is down. Circulation is down 2.6 percent across all major US daily newspapers, with the Trib faring worse than other papers, falling 2.9 percent over the last six months to a paid weekday circulation of 559,404. That makes the Trib the eighth biggest......

Well, it's finally happened: the Writer's Guild of America declared a strike early this morning after midnight negotiations stalled. Naturally there's been plenty of finger-pointing, with writers claiming that the producers broke off talks while producers say that the writers were the ones who walked out. Regardless, the strike will have some very immediate effects, which the Trib has handily put in chart form. Daily shows will suffer the most at first, with programs like......

We always appreciate when the New York Times Travel Section takes time out of its busy day to come and visit our little Midwestern city. The last time they stopped by they discovered that the West Loop is cool! This time, they send "the frugal traveler" to answer one of life's big questions: Is it possible to spend a weekend in Chicago and spend less than $500? The answer, of course, is not only that......

The last two weeks, our Made in Chicago feature, about local artists and crafters, has brought you jewelry. Now, we bring you some crafty clothes to go with that Chicago skyline necklace. Amy DeVoogd ( it's Dutch, pronounced “deh-vogued”), 42, a drifter from Boston, MA to Charlottesville, VA, has settled as a Chicagoan since 2004. Her illustrations are bright contrasts of color that are both surprisingly simple and detailed. Her work has appeared in Playgirl,......

Now that the Chicago International Film Festival is over, we can finally turn our attention to some homegrown cinematic delights. Currently showing at the Siskel for a week-long run is Joe Swanberg's dramedy Hannah Takes the Stairs. A microbudgeted movie shot in Logan Square, it's been taking the festival circuit by storm and garnering write-ups in the New York Times. Despite his movie's acclaim, Swanberg himself, according to a new article in the Reader, is......

You might know who Rutu Modan is. If you don't, you should. One of the most celebrated Israeli cartoonists, she's received four Best Illustrated Children's Book Awards from Jerusalem's Israel Museum, and The Israel Ministry of Culture named Rutu Modan the Young Artist of the Year in 1997. She has been a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation since 2005. We've fallen in love with her Mixed Emotions blog on the New York......

A request for a street named in honor of Chicago author Saul Bellow was denied due to controversial remarks and writing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Bellow's University of Chicago colleague and friend, Richard Stern, made the request to Ald. Toni Preckwinkle. Stern told the Chicago Tribune that Preckwinkle sent him a letter saying she had heard Bellow made racist comments and so would not endorse a memorial to him. Raised in Humboldt Park from......

New York Times reporter Monica Davey took an "unscientific survey" of people at the Cultural Center yesterday, asking them questions from the new citizenship test. People didn't do too well. We decided to do our own "unscientific survey" of Chicagoist staffers and friends, and ... wow. Somewhere, our history teachers are in a corner gently weeping. Highlights of our wrongness: 42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of......

"Tea is a fashion, coffee is a passion," wrote commentor Tim, the last time we wrote about the trendiness of tea. Tim, we hate to break it to you, but at this point, tea seems to have moved beyond trendy and into a full-fledged lifestyle choice. Says who? $5 million in sales this year at Argo Tea, for starters. Today's New York Times has a flattering profile of IT-cum-tea entrepreneurs Arsen Avakian and Simon Simonian,......