Miss Michigan Kristen Haglund from Farmington Hills, Michigan, was crowned the 87th Miss America last night during the live pageant telecast, and First Runner-Up was Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash. more ›

Out of all of our celebrity chef crushes, Gordan Ramsay doesn't really crack the top three five ten. He just doesn't do it for us. There's something about the incessant swearing and love of horse meat that isn't attractive to Chicagoist. But he does do it for FOX viewers and restaurants that need a makeover on his Kitchen Nightmares show. We learned via Schadenfreude (and apparently there was an ad in the Reader as well)... more ›

Where Can I Get a Tattoo? more ›

Buckingham Fountain's Water Supply? more ›

Last week Chicagoist theorized that perhaps a little TLC is the best way to improve schools. And whaddya know, here comes a 15-year research study to prove it. The report, sponsored by Chicago-based educational reform organization Designs for Change, shows that the best-performing schools in the city are those who have taken advantage of their local autonomy--not the schools saddled with disciplinary mandates from central administration. In fact, many of the corrective measures applied to... more ›

Casting tryouts are coming up for two reality TV shows that feature musical groups looking to replace a member who died. The groups? TLC and INXS. Let's here it for acronyms. And dead band members! R U The Girl features T-Boz and Chilli, the 2 remaining members of TLC, as they try to find a female performer to replace Left Eye who was killed in a car crash in 2002. Oh, wait. Replacing Left Eye?... more ›

After many sleepless nights, cups of chicken noodle soup, glasses of OJ and good old fashioned TLC, Gapers Block's servers have been nursed back to good health and the site is back online. more ›