• Home
• Dining & Drinking
• Arts & Culture
• Style & Shopping
• Real Estate
• News & Politics
• Home & Garden
• Best of Chicago
• Marketplace

May 2011

	06/01/11 Where Can You Get in 15 Minutes in Chicago? The new website Mapnificent uses CTA and Metra data to answer the question: If I'm at Point A and have x minutes, what are all the possible values for Point B? Posted at 11:02 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/31/11 A Chicago Casino? Looking Likely After decades of debate, legislation that would allow a Chicago casino, as well as slot machines at O'Hare and Midway, is on its way to Pat Quinn's desk. Posted at 6:04 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/31/11 Yellow Journalism, Arthur Brisbane, and the Sins of the Grandfather The New York Times public editor, grandson of the legendary Chicago Herald & Examiner editor (and longtime William Randolph Hearst employee), takes to his pages to decry the decline of American journalism and culture. Sure, sure. Posted at 12:34 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/27/11 Bulls-Heat: Chicago's Loss Isn't Derrick Rose's Fault Contrary to what Derrick Rose says, the loss doesn't fall on his shoulders. He made mistakes, but didn't get enough help from his young team, much like the Michael Jordan of old. Plus: Scottie Pippen says LeBron might be better than MJ. Heresy! Posted at 12:24 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (3)
	05/26/11 How Did Illinois End Up With Rod Blagojevich, Anyway? As Blago spends his second trial painting a long verbal portrait of himself as a genial fool, a look back at the question: how did this guy get to be governor? Posted at 5:02 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/26/11 Illinois Statehouse Developments on Pensions, Education While Rod Blagojevich spins long yarns about his life, important legislation is making its way out of Springfield on the big issues of the day. Posted at 1:47 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/26/11 Rod Blagojevich Trial: The First Time as Tragedy, the Second Time as Farce, the Third Time as a Twitter Feed Thanks to the magic of Twitter, Rod Blagojevich's rambling testimony can be easily digested through entertaining, 140-character dispatches from the weirder side of politics. Posted at 11:49 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/25/11 Why ComEd's Smart Grid and Rate Hike Might Not Be a Bad Thing ComEd just got approval to implement a rate hike that will cost customers about three bucks a month, or 36 dollars a year, in order to implement a "smart grid." No one likes paying more, and no one likes having to work to pay less, much less do math for it. But there's evidence that a smart grid, and the irritating pricing structure that accompanies it, might have broader benefits. Posted at 5:33 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2)
	05/24/11 The Origins of Bob Dylan's Accent On Robert Zimmerman's 70th birthday, an attempt to trace the origins of his singular voice. Plus: my favorite deep cuts, two of which never appeared on an album proper. Posted at 3:46 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/24/11 A Modest Theory About Oprah's Decline in Viewership In the past decade or so, Oprah Winfrey went from being a business to a businesswoman, which may have brought her private and privacy, but also cost her the most influential part of her brand. Posted at 2:22 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/23/11 What the Joplin, Missouri, Tornado Sounded Like From Inside In the time of stormchasers, we're pretty familiar with watching tornadoes from a distance. Less often do we get a sense of what a tornado is like from the inside. Here's a recording from inside a convenience store walk-in refrigerator as the tornado passed overhead. Posted at 4:41 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/23/11 Free Show at Millennium Park: Bonnie Prince Billy, Eleventh Dream Day One of the best bills of the spring and summer is tonight at Pritkzer Pavilion: it's free, and features (mostly) locals. Posted at 2:24 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/23/11 Flinchy: New T-Shirt Company From Jay Ryan, Diana Sudyka, and Tom Stack Jay Ryan of the Bird Machine, Diana Sudyka of A Tiny Aviary, and Tom Stack of Stackmatic branch out from posters into t-shirts. Posted at 11:00 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/20/11 Randy "Macho Man" Savage's Macho Dad Randy "Macho Man" Savage, who died today, was born Randy Mario Poffo, a Downers Grove native who found fame in the WWE. But he wasn't the first wrestler in the family: that would be his dad, Angelo Poffo, a DePaul grad who wrestled in Chicago during the sport's infancy. Posted at 7:05 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/20/11 Apocalypse Oak Park: Dorothy Martin, the Chicagoan Who Predicted the End of the World and Inspired the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance In 1954, a suburban housewife in Oak Park caused a small stir by announcing that aliens from the planet Clarion had told her the world was coming to an end. It didn't, but the little stir she caused on Cuyler Avenue led to one of the most important breakthroughs in psychology and social science in the 20th century. Posted at 3:32 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/20/11 Chicago Craft Beer Week Photos: Beer Under Glass A sold-out crowd tasted samples from 27 breweries at Thursday night’s Beer Under Glass, the official opening bash for Chicago Craft Beer Week 2011 at Garfield Park Conservatory... Posted at 12:09 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/19/11 Today in Open Government The Emanuel administration pulls TIF data out of its inflexible PDF jail, making it sortable and downloadable; meanwhile, the Illinois Senate Redistricting Committee puts the process on Google Earth. Posted at 4:20 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/19/11 What Happens When You Step On the Brakes in a 747? In short: the brakes heat up to 2,500 degrees, and the tires immediately deflate to keep from exploding. Then the brakes burn. Posted at 2:33 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/19/11 Creative Mornings Comes to Chicago The first-shift creative/design lecture series Creative Mornings, which has branches in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Zurich, arrives in Chicago next month. Posted at 1:59 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/19/11 The New City Council: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time? Mayor Emanuel scores a unanimous council victory on his first day in office. A new rubber-stamp council? Or just opening-day jitters? Plus: City Council guides. Posted at 11:00 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/18/11 Chicago Sports Shorts An appreciation of Juan Pierre's neoclassical style; the Cubs give up seven runs in a shutout; LeBron James has a cold; a new site about long-form sports journalism. Posted at 4:43 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/18/11 Why I Love Twitter The New York Times's Bill Keller comes to bury Twitter, not to praise it. I've come to lift his fail-whale of an essay to the skies, so that the medium can be appreciated for what it is, (virtually) here and now. Posted at 3:27 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/18/11 Annals of Architecture: An SOM House for Lease and Milwaukee's Exton Apartments Thanks to Lee Bey, I now know that I can lease an early Skidmore Owings Merrill house in Lake County. Coming up with the $1.6 million for restoration could be tricky, though. Plus: an art deco gem in Milwaukee. Posted at 11:41 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/17/11 Derrick Rose: From Murray Park to the Eastern Conference Finals Basketball allowed Derrick Rose to get out of Englewood. But it also kept him, and his family, safe. According to Rose, he was actually safer in Englewood than he would have been elsewhere, because of the game. Posted at 4:21 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/17/11 Chicago Segregation and "Pretoria by the Lake" Steve Bogira challenges the conventional wisdom about the old "Beirut by the Lake" cliche and suggests an alternative to reflect the evolution of race and politics in Chicago after Harold Washington. Posted at 1:05 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/17/11 Race, Segregation, and Dot Mapping in Chicago Yale prof Bill Rankin uses dot maps to show the diversity and lack thereof in Chicago and the Bay Area. Chicago is as segregated as you'd expect, but the far north side along the lake looks to be as diverse as any big-city neighborhood in the country. Posted at 11:48 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/16/11 Rahm Emanuel's First 100 Days: A Preview The first new mayor in 22 years takes over for real today. Here's a sampling of what to look out for, from school days to beat cops to searchable budgets. Just don't ask him about tampons. Posted at 5:37 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/16/11 Chicago Craft Beer Week Preview: New Brewery 5 Rabbit Launches in Chicago You read it here first (in English, at least): A new Chicago brewery, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria, will preview its beer lineup during the second-annual Chicago Craft Beer Week, which kicks off Thursday and runs through May 27 (check The 312 on Friday for photos from the opening-night party at Garfield Park Conservatory)... Posted at 2:45 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/16/11 Mayor Emanuel's Inauguration: Meet the New Boss, Rhetorically Similar to the Old Boss Like Mayor Daley, Emanuel's doing this for the kids. In other words, there were no big surprises in the new mayor's speech, but he did address the issue that many suspect will the focus and the big tension of his early tenure: Chicago Public Schools, teachers' unions, and Jean-Claude Brizard. Posted at 1:23 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/16/11 Annals of Mayoral Inaugural Speeches: Richard J. Daley Gives the Most Boring Inaugural Speech Ever The original Mayor Daley's inaugural speech was something less than a barnburner, but encapsulated the man and his civics-class-era tenure as mayor. Posted at 11:11 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/13/11 Was Mayor Daley a Republican? In a word, no. But asking the question raises some interesting answers about the soon-to-be former mayor, which tell us a bit about Rahm Emanuel as well. Posted at 3:55 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (4)
	05/12/11 Adult Prom: Insufficiently Ironic, Excessively Midwestern for New Yorkers Some folks in these parts are getting together for simulacra of their high-school years, or just as excuse to dress up, drink, and dance. Clearly, this is unacceptable (if you're from flyover country). Posted at 3:23 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (3)
	05/12/11 EPA Wants the Chicago River Clean Enough to Swim In The EPA doubles down on its push to get Chicago to clean up the river, as well as the Cal-Sag and Little Calumet. But reducing pollution would obviously put our children at risk. Posted at 12:13 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/11/11 Chicago Code: Canceled On Account of Grimness Why? Wysocki. It's a shame the show couldn't find its footing before bean-counters pulled the plug, and a significant financial loss for the real Chicago. But while you're waiting for "Boss," check out "Crime Story." Posted at 4:48 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/11/11 Radio Day: Inside the WGN Studio A longtime fan, first-time guest reflects on being the man behind the curtain, at least for a few minutes, and the deeper questions of what we say when we talk. Posted at 11:42 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/10/11 Rick Bayless Puts Rich Melman On Blast After Beard Awards No-Show Rich Melman finally wins a Beard Award, taking this year's Best Restaurateur prize. But he was a no-show at the ceremony itsef, and Rick Bayless called him out. Can't we all just get along? Posted at 4:30 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/10/11 Free Music in the Chicago Cloud Need something to listen to? Want to stream locally? The CSO, Chicago Public Library, Thrill Jockey, CHIRP, and WFMT all offer good options for when you're desk-bound or on the go. Posted at 12:59 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/10/11 Is Opposition to Chicago WalMarts Grounded in Class and Culture? Why are people up in arms about WalMart coming to Chicago, when other big-box retailers with comparable labor practices are welcomed with open arms? Plus: labor opposition to Walmart isn't a zero-sum game, even if it looks like it. Posted at 11:52 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2)
	05/09/11 The Last Days of Nelson Algren 30 years ago today, the poet laureate of midcentury Chicago died. In recognition, here's an epic account of the last year of Algren's life, by his friend Joe Pintauro. Posted at 6:25 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/09/11 Groupon Hooks Up With LiveNation and Beard Awards, Faces Backlash The Chicago-based coupon giant makes two high-profile moves, partnering with music borg Live Nation and sponsoring the Oscars of the food world, as it wades through the coupon-site blowback. Posted at 4:27 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1)
	05/09/11 Osama bin Laden's Death: Another Thing Hillary Clinton Isn't Crying About Park Ridge's favorite daughter gets caught in another less-emotional-than-it-looks moment. She still can't catch a break from the camera. And she can't even get into an ultra-Orthodox newspaper. Posted at 2:12 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/09/11 The Mississippi River Flood From Space How bad is the flooding on the Mississippi River? A time-lapse satellite image shows the devastation around Cairo, while the record river levels make their way towards the Gulf, and New Orleans. Posted at 1:12 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/09/11 NBA Playoffs Game Four: Don't Worry About the Bulls Why Bennett Salvatore's no-call was a symptom of the loss, not a cause; why the Bulls are somewhere in between the Bad Boys and the Iverson 76ers; hopeful signs for the Bulls; and more Posted at 12:42 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/06/11 Friday Favorites: Bill Buckner on WGN and Baseball's Best on MLB.com Why Chicago owes its existence as a major economic center to its crappy weather; the return of the Tiny Aviary; a convict's odyssey and a look at HB2067; and more. Posted at 4:03 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/06/11 Chicago Police Officer Alvin Weems Dies in Suspected Suicide One of the most tragic Chicago stories of the last decade adds another tragic chapter: the officer who accidentally killed an unarmed man at a Red Line stop dies of an apparent suicide. Here's what happened. Posted at 2:49 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/06/11 10,500 Pounds of Chicago Street Signs, Cheap! Got a bunch of room? Have a need for aluminum rectangles? The City of Chicago is auctioning off street, bus, and tow zone signs in mass. One really, really big mass. Posted at 11:00 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/05/11 Stephen Colbert To Get Honorary Northwestern Degree, But What We Really Need Him to Do Is Sing at Wrigley The host of the "Colbert Report" gets another diploma from his real-life alma mater. I can think of a greater honor, perhaps the greatest that Chicago can bestow upon its current and former citizens. Plus: Colbert at Second City, circa 1990. Posted at 5:22 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/05/11 Miley Cyrus's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the Joys of Amateurism The viral video du jour is an unfortunate Nirvana cover by Billy Ray's famous offspring. But it's fortunate as well: I learn as much about art when it fails as when it succeeds. When it does both, it's doubly interesting. Posted at 4:14 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/03/11 How Bad Has Chicago's Spring Weather Been? An attempt to give a quantifiable, data-based answer a well-worn but extremely important question, especially to all Chicagoans: so how about this weather we've been having lately? (Hint: it's as bad as you think.) Posted at 6:01 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2)
	05/03/11 Big Week in Chicago Sports: Derrick Rose, Tom Thibodeau, and Starlin Castro Derrick Rose takes the MVP, as expected. But it shouldn't overshadow Tom Thibodeau's accomplishment putting together a great defense... but one that's facing a tougher opponent than people think in the Atlanta Hawks. Plus: Starlin Castro gets his own honor. Posted at 4:22 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)
	05/02/11 Meet Garry McCarthy, Chicago's New Top Cop Rahm Emanuel announced today that the head of Newark's police department will be the next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. There's a lot that's familiar: experience with technologies like Compstat and surveillance cameras, and union tensions. Posted at 4:57 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (7)
	05/02/11 Osama bin Laden's Death Satisfies Our Human Need for Vengeance The mastermind of 9/11 is dead, and it feels damn good. Does that represent something ugly lurking deep down in our cores? Or is it just a desire for fairness that came to pass yesterday? Posted at 11:52 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0)

About The 312

Recent Posts

• Will Pat Quinn Legalize Medical Marijuana in Illinois?
• Domestic Violence Is Alarmingly Common in Chicago
• Watch These Lovely Chicago Timelapse Videos
• The Midwest Has an Exploding Manure Foam Crisis
• Would Moving the Capital to Chicago Make Illinois Less Corrupt? | Comments (1)
• These Bloomingdale Trail Renderings Look Amazing
• Please Save Us From Slot Machines at Chicago Airports
• Why is CPS Closing an ‘Average’ School?
• Here’s What Chicago Should Learn About Public Financing for Sports Stadiums

Share

Archives

• May 2013
• April 2013
• March 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• July 2012
• June 2012
• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• July 2011
• June 2011

Feed

Subscribe to The 312 Feed »

Home | Search | Archive | Purchase single copies | Dining & Drinking | Culture | Style & Shopping
Real Estate | News & Politics | Best of Chicago | Classifieds | Chicago Home | Bring It Home

Log In  |  Manage Online Preferences  |  Subscribe  |   Advertise  |  About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Press

Connect: Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | YouTube | Foursquare | Foodspotting

Local Tribune sites: Chicago Tribune | Metromix | RedEye | Hoy Chicago | TribLocal | CLTV | WGN Radio | WGN TV | Tribune Events Group