The Simpsons actress Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart, y'all) has a charitable schools program called "Good Choices" that aims to "help children learn to make their own good choices and influence their friends to do the same." A noble goal, to be certain, and Cartwright's program is one of three options for character education being considered in the state’s public school system under legislation proposed in the Illinois House. The problem with Cartwright's program is that it's modeled in part on a book, The Way to Happiness, by science fiction author and Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. more ›

Yesterday the interwebs were blowing up about Sunday night's opening to "The Simpsons," which featured a couch gag by the secretive artist Banksy depicting the Far East sweatshops in which the show, and its lucrative merchandising empire, is created. more ›

• United Airlines begins its move to corporate offices in Willis Tower [Sun-Times]
• The Citizens Utility Board says that Illinois cell phone users are overbilled an average of $359 a year. [Tribune]
• The Illinois Retail Merchants Association endorsed Bill Brady for Governor. Further evidence they may not know what they're doing: they endorse Rod Blagojevich four years ago. [Greg Hinz/Crain's]

This past Sunday, The Simpsons kicked off yet another season of mischief and comedy and while the premiere featured a great guest spot by Flight of The Conchords, this cameo by Ira Glass seems more appropriate for our site. [via TAL] more ›

There are a handful of Chicagoist staffers that dig the show Mad Men, but most of us (if not all) love The Simpsons. Well, the two came together in last night's annual Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. While the actual short was so-so, as the show has been over the last several years, this spoof of the Mad Men opening credits was pretty awesome. more ›

For those of you who are checking in today, we thought we'd also take some time to pay our respects to two giants who passed away on Christmas Day. It was one year ago that James Brown passed away. If you don't have a copy of "James Brown's Funky Christmas", buy it or download it now. It is a necessity of Christmas listening. We managed to find a clip of "Soulful Christmas" dubbed into some footage of the Godfather's legendary 1968 Boston concert for your listening and viewing pleasure. more ›

We've been playing with Hulu, FOX and News Corporation's (FOX, MySpace, etc.) online video-on-demand service, for a few days now and admit we're pretty impressed. We've been missing eps of The Office, Heroes, and The Simpsons, and since that feud with Apple blew up, our only chance of seeing them was crappy streaming video on network sites. That stuff always stalls and crashes our computer. So imagine our pleasure when we started watching Hulu's high... more ›

Working Mother magazine's annual Top 100 companies for, yes, working mothers includes eight Illinois businesses. Speaking of working mothers, congratulations to Lisa Madigan and her husband Pat, who are expecting their second child. more ›

This clip from The Simpsons is as good a place to jump off this week, as we're leaving to see the film after we file this, and the beginning setting is at a fair. Which makes a nice segue for us. Last week, we went to the South Side Arts & Music Fest we profiled in last week's installment and were confronted with the sticker shock of seeing a funnel cake sell for nine... more ›

Now that Spidey 3 and Transformers have opened and iPhone mania is starting to subside, it’s time to find a new place to direct all that geek-out energy. Enter Chicago Tap Theatre’s latest storybook show, The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles, a CTT collaboration with comic-book artist Andrew Pepoy. Fans of the genre don’t need to be reminded that local boy and Loyola grad Pepoy has inked Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and The Simpsons comix, among... more ›

You know what Chicago needs? More news programs. We just can’t get enough of morning news, along with news at 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. And that’s just the networks. You cable and satellite-lovers must be in headline heaven! more ›

Once in a while an event comes along that makes you question your preconceptions and reexamine the meaning of life, the universe, and the forbidden donut. That would be tonight's discussion, entitled “The Simpsons: Cultural Criticism and America’s Favorite TV Family,” at the Chicago Cultural Center. Faculty from Columbia College, The Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University will hold court on why the megahit show has made such an impact on our collective consciousness. The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A, when we hope they’ll clear up a few pressing issues: more ›

There are certain things in life that, in Chicagoist's opinion, are responsible for keeping the world turning. These are things that one can count on: Sunday comes before Monday, the sky is blue, Ben Folds and William Shatner's work together for Shatner's "Has Been" was a collaboration that produced underrated genius. Another is that carnivals are going to have more than one criminal working for them. more ›

It might be too much to ask you to switch away from The Simpsons or The Daily Show at 10pm, but DO IT ANYWAY. Chicagoist is going to be featured in a segment called "Entering the Blogosphere" on ABC7 tonight. The interviews were done a few weeks ago in the Loop and feature about 7 of us. The crew even visited a couple of our "real job" offices. It will be interesting to see how the story is spun and how it fits in with the rest of the segment. more ›

First, a correction: Earlier this month, Chicagoist suggested that some of the bands scheduled to play Taste of Chicago were one or two years away from playing a state fair. In Lynyrd Skynyrd’s case, we were incorrect. Lynyrd Skynyrd will be playing the Illinois State Fair this year. more ›

Usually Chicagoist is smart enough that at 10 p.m. it's time to focus attention to WFLD and spend our last waking minutes engrossed in The Simpsons. more ›