In this two-part series, we'll help you prep your bike and body for winter riding in the city. It may seem like a lot of info, but biking happily and safely in the city during the winter months is part common sense and part stuff you should be doing anyway (like basic maintenance). If you have a question we didn't cover, leave it in the comments and we'll get it squared away. more ›

Hosting Thanksgiving can be stressful and intimidating. Now that we’re just over a week away from the big day, we wanted to share with you our tips for staying cool, calm, and collected. Sort of. more ›

Taste of Chicago starts today. We all know that it can be hot, sweaty, loud and annoying - but we go anyway, and we want to help make it the best experience possible. Here are some helpful tips to have the best Taste that you possibly can. more ›

Rahm Emanuel's tips for surviving Tuesday arrived in our inboxes this morning. That, along with a couple of Chicagoistas forwarding it to us, got us thinking maybe we should share it with the class. It's a good complement to our list of things you need to ride the storm out. more ›

So the snow projected for tomorrow through Thursday is expected to finally give us the whole "Thundersnow/Snowpacalypse" big dump of white powder worthy of dibs that we've really been missing so far. Already, meterologists are comparing this to previous large blizzards. Second City Cop said Mayor Daley, since he's a lame duck, should just "Bilandic" snow removal operations, which would drive residents to do more than "stomp SOS and HELP in the ground." One reader suggested we call the forthcoming snow a "snownami;" Karl coined the term "blizzaster." We're just gonna call it "Tuesday." more ›

It's called "Black Friday" because it's the one day of the year where retailers know they're going to turn a profit ("black ink" = profits?). But the traditionally largest shopping day of the year will snarl traffic and test nerves like none other. more ›

Tomorrow will be Marcus's first foray to Dark Lord Day and he asked me for tips on navigating the festival yesterday. One would think that a man who made it through the sustained Sodom of a New Orleans Saints Super Bowl victory celebration and Mardi Gras in succession would need no tips on how to navigate something of this size. more ›

We've all heard the horror stories from friends losing their valuables in bars and restaurants all over Chicago. Lost or stolen wallets, coats and even bikes. But what about the holy grail for thieves, the laptop? It's something not many of us ever think about until it actually happens. We never really consider just how traumatizing it is losing not only an expensive piece of equipment, but also the mountains of data contained within it. To explain, I will drop the editorial/royal "we" and admit just that happened to me Saturday night/Sunday morning. There I was, having a mighty slinger at Diner Grill, with my ever-so-important MacBook Pro nestled tightly in my backpack. In the mental lapse of the century, I left Diner Grill and the bag and my beloved laptop behind, and since then it has been MIA. While many will say that I deserve such a fate for having been so careless -- and I won't disagree -- I maintain hope that there is a good-natured soul who will return it. Having said that, I continue to work endlessly at locating the missing MacBook. more ›

Happy Election Day, dear readers. With such a big day ahead of us, the Chicagoist staff is scattered about the city voting and trying our best to go on with business as usual. But we can't do it alone; we need your help. more ›

Saturday is the ninth annual "Open That Bottle Night," an event decreed by Wall Street Journal wine column writers Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher. Typically scheduled for the last Saturday in February, Brecher and Gaiter created "OTBN" as a column device, basically. They asked readers to open a bottle of wine they found symbolically significant, and then send in the stories related to that choice. Over the years we've opened up everything from splits of Van Duzer pinot noir to magnums of G.H. Mumm Extra Dry champagne, usually in celebration of something. more ›