If you've spent any serious time in Mexico, especially the South of the country, you've heard of (if not tasted) Groupo Modelo's Victoria. And if you've spent any serious time as a beer drinker in Chicago, you've asked in some of the Latino groceries that sell beer if they carry Victoria. Sold at prices far above retail for a lager of its caliber, Victoria was only available under the counter, generally in a caguama, before its official rollout in the market last month. more ›

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own... more ›

Middle school can be a rough time. Hormones rage, cliques form, and the general craziness of living a teenager's life in the double-naughts can close in. There are bullies to dodge, nerds to befriend, and that one goth-chick with red eyes who is never seen without her crusty duct-taped headphones on. And then one of your friends comes along, gives you a hug as you say hello, and suddenly the world is OK. more ›

Sixteen years ago this Chicagoist contributor was sailing around Indonesia's Flores Sea on an oceanographic research vessel re-mapping shipping lanes that hadn't been charted since the original Portuguese and Dutch colonists claimed Indonesia for their respective monarchies 400 years prior. We originally met up with our ship in Darwin, Australia, where a carved-from-granite tattooed bartender/"Thunderdome" extra shoved a Victoria Bitter in our right hand and a XXXX bitter in our left, after we ordered a Foster's in our most lame Yahoo Serious-inspired accent. "Foster's is piss water, mate. Like Budweiser in the States," he said. Unknown to us then, that bartender set us on a path from which we haven't strayed. more ›

We can't believe we never heard about this before, but it took us years to hear about this, so we definitely miss things. There is a free monthly interview series called Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman. It's a live interview hosted by Victoria Lautman at the Lookingglass Theatre and takes place Sundays at noon. more ›

There's been a lot of food news that crossed our radar this week. Here are a few of the stories we didn't snark on, until today. Kraft Foods, You've Been Served: The legal team at Kraft Foods is going to be mighty busy in the upcoming year, if they keep getting sued at this rate. Earlier this week, a Florida woman sued Kraft for claiming that their "all natural" Capri Sun juice drinks are really... more ›

We interrupt our gingerbread-baking schedule to give you the following stories: In a horrible but entirely preventable tragedy, a Metra train struck a minivan in Elgin on Friday afternoon, killing two adult sisters and an infant. Witnesses said the van tried to circumvent the lowered crossing gates. The train dragged the Dodge Caravan for approximately 150 feet. Five more van occupants, a third sister and four children, were taken to area hospitals; one of the... more ›

People of Chicago, Justin Timberlake has heard your cries for more. more ›

When we first heard they were doing iPod audio tours of Millennium Park, we were psyched. We like the idea of an audio tour; we can go at our own pace and listen to headphones that drown out screaming children and double-decker buses. We also like to see Chicago through someone else’s eyes; see a different Chicago than the one we’re used to seeing every day. more ›

Chicagoist needs to pull its corduroy jacket out of the closet, our elbow pads are looking a little too new. Good thing it's Story Week so we can start rubbing some elbows. Story Week is Columbia College’s week of lectures, readings, panel discussions and performances, from authors large and small, local and from away. There’s way too much cool stuff to list here, so we’ll list some of the highlights, but make sure to check... more ›

One of the coolest things we love about The Lookingglass Theatre Company, besides its stage adaptation of Stuart Dybek’s The Coast of Chicago, is its new literary series Writers on Record. Every month or so, Victoria Lautman, a contributor at WBEZ, interviews authors in a free event at the still-newish Lookingglass space in the Water Tower. This month, Lautman will host Margo Jefferson to discuss her book On Michael Jackson. Jefferson, a Chicago native, is... more ›

If you’re like Chicagoist, you have a pile of junk mail on your desk. Catalogs, credit card offers, magazine subscription offers, etc. It’s amazing there are any trees left in the world. more ›

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Hot scribe of the moment Susanna Clarke is scheduled to speak at the Lookingglass Theatre on Dec. 19 as part of WFMT’s most excellent “Writers on the Record” series with host Victoria Lautman. more ›

We kind of thought we'd be hearing more about this, but for some reason it's been pretty quiet. Susan Orlean will be in Chicago on Sunday as Victoria Lautman's guest on "Writers on the Record," a radio interview show. more ›

Yow. We thought we got off track without our computers, but we bet there were a few full-on freakfests last night at the Trib offices. The Trib website apologizes: TO OUR CUSTOMERS The production of Monday's print edition of the Chicago Tribune was delayed significantly because of an extended computer system failure Sunday night. Many subscribers therefore will not receive their Monday newspaper until as late as Tuesday morning. And the content of Monday's edition... more ›