I took the bike out for a fifteen-mile ride Saturday, which is nothing compared to surfing Lake Michigan in winter. There is a small band of dedicated surfing enthusiasts who are committed to truly making Lake Michigan the Third Coast, and they won't let rain, snow sleet or hail get in their way. Take a look at this video the next time you want to complain about the weather. more ›

• The University of Chicago has set up a site that allows people in Iran to fax their stories in to share on the web in the wake of the Iranian government's attempt to crack down on Twitter users. [via the Windy Citizen]
• Our pal Steve Rhodes wonders: if Lisa Madigan wants to run for governor, why does Obama want her to run for the Senate?
• An interesting read on the reform initiatives of Gov. Quinn.

Here's betting we're not the first nor last with that headline, but either way, surfing could be coming to five Chicago beaches soon, so sayeth the Sun-Times. A group of surfers has finally gotten their way and the Chicago Park District may just oblige them by opening up to five city beaches for the purposes of surfing. more ›

Surfing between the Police reunion on the Grammys last night and an all-new evening of animation on Fox (and if Family Guy's "My Drunken Irish Dad" song isn't being sung en masse this St. Patrick's Day, we'll be sorely disappointed), Avenues' chef Graham Elliot Bowles took on Bobby Flay on "Iron Chef America." Knowing that the Tribune had Bowles' appearance featured in yesterday's Sunday magazine, we didn't buy the Sunday paper yesterday and stayed away... more ›

Chicagoist enjoyed the surfing movie Blue Crush as far as it went: great camera work, cute girls in bikinis, tolerable clichés. But lines like “You were working it like a rib without the sauce” didn’t exactly smack of reality. So we were kind of excited that Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark) was screening Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka’ehukai (although we were less than thrilled about the prospect of spelling it correctly for this post) as part of their Dyke Delicious series that starts this Saturday. more ›