The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits... more ›

The last two weeks, our Made in Chicago feature, about local artists and crafters, has brought you jewelry. Now, we bring you some crafty clothes to go with that Chicago skyline necklace. Amy DeVoogd ( it's Dutch, pronounced “deh-vogued”), 42, a drifter from Boston, MA to Charlottesville, VA, has settled as a Chicagoan since 2004. Her illustrations are bright contrasts of color that are both surprisingly simple and detailed. Her work has appeared in Playgirl,... more ›

As far as we know, we never rode a CTA train or bus in the presence of Frank Kruesi. Rumor has it he did it quite often, judging by the kinds of comments we heard when he was fired. We imagine the yellow jacket would be hard to miss. In the past, we doubt the CTA's new sheriff in town rode much with Kruesi, either. Ron Huberman (who for all the world looks to us... more ›

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not... more ›

Remember a couple weeks ago when we said it seemed like every political writer with a byline was watching the race for the 6th Congressional District? We weren't kidding. Someone with Reuters sent us this pic of Times Square that showed a poll they did in conjunction with Zogby that says Tammy Duckworth leads Peter Roskam 54% to 40% in the race to represent the 6th District of Illinois in the U.S. Congress. When... more ›

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they're designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we'd say that they're doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you... more ›

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for... more ›

In a press release that's pretty much an advertisement for Hotwire, Chicago has been named the top destination spot for New Years Eve. Based on Hotwire's top 10 hotel bookings for New Year's, this was the second year that Chicago topped the list. When Chicagoist thinks of NYE destinations we think NYC, Times Square, Dick Clark (Regis Philbin?), the big countdown and ball drop. While New York is still on the top 10 list, Hotwire... more ›

Headed into this past weekend, Chicagoist was thinking about laying low and maybe going to see a movie. However, we were invited to attend the Lexus Press Preview event on Saturday, and our attitude changed. Sort of. When we heard that we had to get up at 7 am on a Saturday, we weren't sure we wanted to go. Really. Besides, did they know we drive a 1990 Honda Accord? Not only did Lexus not... more ›

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Uh. Yeh. Right. But ABC 7 did have a groundbreaking on it's new state-of-the art studio on State Street yesterday. Included in the new studio is a huge sidewalk window where people will be able to get an look behind-the-scenes of ABC 7's broadcasts. more ›

Chicagoist is a major, major chocolate fiend so we are trying not to squeal as we type this. Hershey's has announced plans to open a retail store in Chicago by June! This news comes almost two years after opening a retail store in Times Square. The Chicago store will be similar to the store in NYC except it will be even bigger. more ›