This is South Chicago Heights resident Bill Bramanti. He had a his coffin specially made to look like a can of his favorite beer, PBR. He's 67 and in good health, so in the mean time, he uses it as a cooler. [AP] more ›

Is it just us, or does it seem like there's been a huge increase in the number of missing persons stories? This can't all be the Sun-Times' doing, right? A Chicago Heights woman has been missing since Sunday afternoon. Alma Mendez went jogging in the forest preserve in South Chicago Heights and hasn't been heard from since. The Southtown says Mendez is 5 foot 4, but the Trib says she's 4 foot 11. If you've... more ›

There's been a lot of food news that crossed our radar this week. Here are a few of the stories we didn't snark on, until today. Kraft Foods, You've Been Served: The legal team at Kraft Foods is going to be mighty busy in the upcoming year, if they keep getting sued at this rate. Earlier this week, a Florida woman sued Kraft for claiming that their "all natural" Capri Sun juice drinks are really... more ›

A sense of entitlement abounds this week, as Chicagoland residents defended their rights to pee on the floor at weddings, to expect courtesy from the mailman, to board airplanes without a ticket, to teach neighbors a lesson by planting drugs on their teenage sons, and to smoke crack in the comfort of their own cars: Last Saturday, two men attacked an off-duty police officer who was working security at a wedding after he confronted one... more ›

We wanted to keep today's post warm and fuzzy, but then we stumbled upon a story about Randy Washington. According to the FBI, on Sept. 24 a couple of disc jockeys at Chicago radio station KISS-103.5 asked listeners to call in and tell stories about crimes they'd committed without being caught. A man called in and told the story of a bank he and five others robbed with assistance from one of the bank's employees.... more ›