Wise up, wisenheimers.

Chicago's second-city inferiority complex never made sense to me. Top-notch culture production is not among the city's manifold problems, but local writers seem obsessed with imagined dings in the reputation, and waste time rehashing the gangster days of lore, as if Capone's legacy is the black eye Chicago will never have enough ice to reduce. That would present few problems if it just meant the perpetually disappointed narcissists had to flee to the coasts eventually. More dangerous is the belief that bringing the Olympics to Chicago will at last erase the stain of rum-running criminality and secure the city's standing among the great metropolises of the globe.

Bayless <3 torture

Hello, I wished to let the Bayless/Frontera organization know how deeply disappointed I was to hear Rick Bayless call for the repeal of the foie-gras ban in Chicago recently. I have eaten frequently at Frontera and Topolobampo and always appreciated the care the chefs took to offer thoroughly well-made dishes without meat or dairy. I had plans in fact to come again on Friday, but I am directing my party to another restaurant, where the proprietor isn't so tangled up in some neurotic Second City insecurities or bizarre affection for the most appalling forms of animal torture.
No longer yours,
me

People, I need to know more about this.

please, help if you can.

"McDonald's formal ties to the Olympics date to 1968, when the company air-lifted hamburgers to U.S. athletes in Grenoble, France."

My assumption is that the land and sea blockade of the communards of '68 were so successful major Western corporations had no choice but to break the iron grip of student Maoism with airdrops of mass-produced meat products. The adoring athletes cried in between bonking sessions with other gorgeous, insanely fit young people, which as we all know is the true purpose for hosting the Games -- ensuring a never-ending supply of hard-body obliviousness.

(Extra points to the Scotsman's story for this quote: "Christo Doyle of Atlanta recalls 'delivering boxing equipment that had come in late for Moldova, and it was 105 degrees outside. They were so appreciative that they insisted we come in and do vodka shots with them. It was horrific.'")