A couple back, Roger Ebert groused that he had never won The New Yorker's weekly cartoon caption contest. "I have done more writing for free for the New Yorker in the last five years than for anybody in the previous 40 years," he joked. For a writer as prolific and witty as Ebert, the weekly snubs must have hit hard and are on the level of Susan Lucci only winning one Daytime Emmy for the role of Erica Kane in more than 20 years of being nominated. more ›

Well now, that didn't take long. more ›

If you haven't seen the Reader this week, there's an interesting cover story about a local college student, University of Chicago’s Loren Wilson, and his creation of a database that analyzes that Internet bastion of indie-rock coolness, Pitchfork. A Chicago-based website, Pitchfork is something of a guilty pleasure for Chicagoist. The site's staffers are pretentious, high-brow barometers of underground hype – the Rolling Stone of the indie world. (And they're just as easy to mock: Check out Popdork, indie label Sub Pop's hilarious parody of Pitchfork.) But their ability to write snarky reviews and expose readers to great unheard bands – their tireless cheerleading helped The Wrens, The Unicorns, and Broken Social Scene all achieve semi-fame over the past year – definitely appeals to our sensibilities. more ›

A number of the most important figures in the world graphic novels (a more artsy and less-juvenile way of saying “comic books”) are hometown boys. Dan Clowes – author of the Eightball series and the Ghost World comic and screenplay – and Chris Ware – who has a weekly strip in the Reader and just edited McSweeney’s comics-only issue (oh, Dave Eggers, you so crazy!) – are two of the most prominent examples. And while their contemporary Adrian Tomine doesn’t hail from the shores of Lake Michigan – he foolishly spends his time on the coasts instead – at least he’ll be in town tonight promoting his latest collection, the odds-and-ends anthology Scrapbook. more ›