It's a good day outside and with the combination of springing forward the clocks, the South Side Irish Parade Sunday, and warmer temps next week there are plenty of weeks to go out. Start the weekend off by leaving work early and heading to the Artisan Cellar at the Merchandise Mart, where they'll be having a tasting of the new-to-the area Graham Beck wines from South Africa. The free tasting runs from 3:30-6 p.m.,......

The Spice Girls are in town tonight at the United Center for the Chicago stop of their reunion tour. Originally Chicago tour dates were scheduled for both the February 15 and the 16, but management moved Saturday’s show over to Detroit. Tickets are still available for tonight’s show. The tour schedule is already relentless, with the Spice Girls also hitting New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. this week. The demanding schedule and personal......

We know. It's the middle of September and we're just now finishing our August read, Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux. Safari was a little like a National Geographic video or a really long Nova special, informative and interesting but sometimes very, very dry. Theroux muses a lot, especially on littering and bad roads, things that are not surprising or necessary. Although it did make the book more lively, our biggest affront to Theroux was......

This weekend 8,000 rugby fans enjoyed seeing 2006 Heineken Cup Champion Munster defeat the Rugby World Cup bound-USA Eagles 10-6 at Toyota Park. This match was the final match for the USA Eagles before they travel to France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. This was the first time Chicagoist had seen rugby played at this level and was immediately intimidated and impressed at the size of the players and the ferocity with which they......

We got some fantastic suggestions for August's "travel" Convince Us. Close choices were the Collected Traveler Anthologies, which look absolutely delectable, and Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine's Last Chance to See. We find reading about travel and places you haven't experienced enriching but terribly heartbreaking at the same time. They kill you to read about and not visit. It gives us awful wanderlust. Having spent half a year in South Africa and the surrounding countries,......

Toyota Park will host two international sporting events this summer. The first on Sunday, July 22 when the Chicago Fire host Scottish Premier League side Celtic FC. Celtic FC had a remarkable season last year where they went unbeaten in 31 of 34 games, leading them to a repeat as champions in the Scottish Premier League. The club has won five of the last seven championships and has racked up 41 domestic titles in their......

As the weather has gotten a bit warmer, we've noticed there are more and more things going on. This weekend we've decided to do some nerdy things before we sit at a bar for the Final Four and embellish to our friends how we were so good at basketball in High School but, had to give it up due to . The knee is healing nicely, thanks. We thought we would make it to Facet's......

Oprah opened a second school in South Africa. Some local construction companies may be misclassifying employees as independent contractors to boost profits and get by some taxes. Carsons might move to the South Loop. That lady who sold off her pregnant belly as Super Bowl ad space had a baby boy. The city may lose its last major slaughterhouse. "carrier pigeon accessories" via kenyee.......

As the US Olympic Committee packs their bags this morning and Daley and his cronies assert that an Olympic bid by Chicago is "eminently doable," the rest of us are left wondering what bringing the event to Chicago really means. Mayor Daley and other civic boosters have touted the Olympics as an economic boon to the city, citing the jobs created by new infrastructure projects (such as the "temporary" stadium to be built in Washington......

The folks over at U.S. Soccer House, in the Prairie Avenue Historical District, have announced their intentions to submit a bid for the 2018 World Cup. The United States hosted a successful World Cup in 1994, which included games at Soldier Field. The World Cup took place last summer in Germany and will next be played in South Africa in 2010. The 2014 World Cup is expected to go to a South American country, though......

Some wine grapes are grown in yields so small that they're either largely ignored by vintners or replaced by more popular varietals. Such seemed to be the case with viognier (vee-on-yay). As recently as 1965 this grape, whose existence can be traced back to Roman times, saw growth in only eight hectares of farmland in France's northern Rhône region, where viognier is the single permitted grape varietal of the Condrieu and Château-Grillet appellations. French vineyards......

No shocker here: Oprah Winfrey tops Forbes' first ever list of the richest women in entertainment. Winfrey, whose media empire includes her namesake talk show, O Magazine, a book club, a satellite radio station called "Oprah & Friends," etc, etc, etc, has an estimated work of $1.5 billion. Forbes estimates that she pockets $225 million annually. She is also the only female black billionaire. The number two spot on the list is held by J.K.......

Frequent viewers of "Check Please" will know what we're about to describe. One of the guests will describe the wine he may have paired with his meal, and the camera will do a quick cut to Alpana Singh, who has her head turned to the guest, listening intently. That look turns to an enthusiastic, knowing gleam if the guest chose an Alsatian riesling. It's one of those rare occasions where Singh lets her guard......

The Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced this afternoon that the 2007 Gold Cup Semi-Finals and Finals will be played at Soldier Field here in Chicago. The Gold Cup is a tournament of national soccer teams within the North American, Central American, and Caribbean regions. There will be twelve teams competing in the tournament. Three are automatic bids that go to former winners: Canada (2000), Mexico (1993, 1996, 1998 &......

A University of Chicago scientist and his colleague found a 360 million-year-old lamprey fossil in Grahamtown, South Africa. The fossil was found in South Africa's version of the Green River Formation in Wyoming, an "unusually productive" site. It's even more unusual that they found the lamprey fossil, which is older than the last lamprey fossil by 35 million years. The parasite fish, which still suck the life out of other animals (and scare the living......

If you were having trouble getting into Nordstrom’s this weekend, blame Bono. The U2 mouthpiece and his wife Ali Hewson were in town to sell ridiculously expensive T-shirts in an effort to raise money for the African village of Butha-Buthe in Lesotho, South Africa. The T-shirts sell for $40 and are part of Bono’s dual mission to end poverty and bring attention to the AIDS problem in Africa. Ten dollars from the sale of each......

Direct from the 16th International AIDS Conference, the Keiskamma Altarpiece, sharing a message of suffering and triumph, has arrived in Chicago. Over 120 South African women and men from a region particularly stricken by poverty and AIDS collaborated on this massive, multi-paneled work of embroidery, beads, wire sculpture, and photographs. The 13 foot by 22 foot collaboration was inspired by the Isenheim Altarpiece, painted around 500 years ago in Alsace, France during a horrible poisoning......