The Shedd Aquarium has offered to take the next sea lion caught illegally eating salmon at the Bonneville Dam in Washington state. more ›

Ahhh, harvest season. For most of us this indicates a time to slow down and ease into the our impending hibernation mode, but for wine growing regions harvest time means long days, laborious hours dedicated to the vines with little time for relaxation or even travel. So it’s a treat that winemaker Julia Cattrall from Lumus winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley has slipped in one more trip to Chicago before the season beckons her home. more ›

Is Illinois heading towards legalized medical marijuana? State Senator John Cullerton (pretty website!) hopes so. He's sponsoring a bill that the Senate Public Health Committee approved 6-4 yesterday. A similar measure failed in the Senate last year, but try, try again. more ›

And you thought the Spice Girls had all the fun? Portland, Oregon's Uncle Earl, an all-woman string band, knows how have a good time banging out the bluegrass and old-time music. Closer to The Be Good Tanyas or The Yonder Mountain String Band than anything to do with Mrs. David Beckham, the ladies (or "g'Earls") of Uncle Earl have been touring in support of their latest release, Waterloo, Tennessee, produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. more ›

Chicagoist commenters now have avatars! If you have a profile (and if you don't yet, why not register?), just go to "Edit Profile" and upload a 100 x 100 pixel image. Then try commenting (on this post!), and bask in the glory of our ever-improving commenting system. For now, the default icon for registered users across the Gothamist network is a panda, which is a nod to Executive Editor and Gothamist Co-Founder Jen Chung's well-documented... more ›

It's been nearly six months since Bell's Beer founder Larry Bell pulled his product from the Illinois market in a dispute with distributors over the Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act of 1982. Readers will remember that that specific law, enacted at the time to protect distributors from the loss of a giant beer account on the level of Anheuser-Busch or Miller should they decide to move to greener pastures, doesn't give mid-level craft breweries like... more ›

Quite a few little Johnnies and Susies around the city will be asking this question soon. more ›

McDonald’s better watch its back ‘cause Sonic might just zoom into town. Earlier this week, the Tribune reported Sonic drive-ins are inching closer to Chicago, with one scheduled to open this month in Bartonville (thanks to partners Dan Kouri and Doug Peterson). more ›

Chicagoist is a big believer in human rights. In fact, we think us humans should have more rights. For one, every living soul should have the right to visit Wisconsin Dells at least once and bask in its wonderful tackiness. Two, everyone should have the right to walk on a sidewalk without falling through giant holes. We're frivolous like that. Lastly, one should be able to go through life without looking like a celebrity because, really, what kind of life could that possibly be? more ›

Yowsas. Show of hands, anybody ever imagine publishing a novel that's been written in the span of only 3 days? Considering our difficulty in imagining writing a publishable novel, like, ever (though, y'know, who knows?), the prospect is terrifying. But that's just what Meghan Austin and Shannon Mullally did with their recently published novel Love Block, and they'll be sharing the craziness tonight at Quimby's. more ›

Now that grills across the city are sparking up with more frequency, Chicagoist has taken it upon itself to offer some helpful selections of beers and wines as well as some tasty cocktail recipes to complement your grilling experience and start you out on those baby steps to being a wonderful host- or an above average bartender.
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Chicagoist has been remiss in missing the missives on missing recycling. And so we pick up the story with Mayor Richard M. Daley's press conference yesterday: It's all your fault. Ours, the citizenry, we mean. But not the city's. And certainly not the Mayor's. Nope. more ›

We couldn't be more jazzed up for this weekend, with some of our favorite folks hosting events. Let's get this party started, fools. more ›

We've been saying that Dave Matthews Band is a bunch of shit-soaking garbage for a long time, and now we might have proof. Sunday afternoon, about 80 people aboard Chicago's Little Lady on the river were soaked in a "'brownish-yellow'" substance that rained down from the bridge above, apparently after a bus or two drove across. (The Sun-Times calls the boat the First Lady, but the details are hardly the important element here.) More than... more ›

The Chicago Tribune today notes that "green roofs", that is roofs with gardens on top, aren't quite as popular in the suburbs as they are in Chicago. Which gives Chicagoist an opportunity to talk about one of Chicago's coolest, less-known features: A garden on top of City Hall. more ›