All too often, I spend what seems like hundreds of hours looking at photos that never make it into the magazine for one reason or another. I fall in love with an image only to find it on the cutting-room floor when it comes to print time, and my heart breaks over and over again. Welcome to Snap, therapy for my heart and a way to share the ones that got away—as well a bunch of other great photo-related stuff.

The February 2008 issue of the magazine includes a feature showcasing 13 great photos I culled from Flickr...

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All too often, I spend what seems like hundreds of hours looking at photos that never make it into the magazine for one reason or another. I fall in love with an image only to find it on the cutting-room floor when it comes to print time, and my heart breaks over and over again. Welcome to Snap, therapy for my heart and a way to share the ones that got away—as well a bunch of other great photo-related stuff.

The February 2008 issue of the magazine includes a feature showcasing 13 great photos I culled from Flickr...

" />

All too often, I spend what seems like hundreds of hours looking at photos that never make it into the magazine for one reason or another. I fall in love with an image only to find it on the cutting-room floor when it comes to print time, and my heart breaks over and over again. Welcome to Snap, therapy for my heart and a way to share the ones that got away—as well a bunch of other great photo-related stuff.

The February 2008 issue of the magazine includes a feature showcasing 13 great photos I culled from Flickr...

" />

All too often, I spend what seems like hundreds of hours looking at photos that never make it into the magazine for one reason or another. I fall in love with an image only to find it on the cutting-room floor when it comes to print time, and my heart breaks over and over again. Welcome to Snap, therapy for my heart and a way to share the ones that got away—as well a bunch of other great photo-related stuff.

The February 2008 issue of the magazine includes a feature showcasing 13 great photos I culled from Flickr...

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A few years back, when investing in residential real estate seemed like a fast money-maker, two guys went in together on three condos at the Metropolis, a terra cotta-clad building at State and Monroe Streets that was being converted from office and retail into 169 condos.

But when the condos were ready for their investors to take possession, the market had changed and the guys couldn’t sell their three units as fast as they had counted on; they ended up in foreclosure. This month, a real-estate agent working for the guys’ lenders sold one of those condos, a two-bedroom unit with parking included that the investors had originally bought for $310,000. The new sale price: $285,000. “That’s hands down a bargain,” says Peter Boland, the @properties agent who sold the condo for...

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Marc Time

A year after it was first announced and five months after it was originally scheduled to open, Marc by Marc Jacobs (1714 N. Damen Ave.; 773-276-2998) has arrived. Arguably the biggest shopping story of the past year, the opening of the boutique has inspired nervousness among local shop owners and residents who feared a chain invasion, curiosity about the company’s choice of Bucktown over the Gold Coast, and anticipation about when the store would finally open. The sleek, 4,000-square-foot space—which, together with the BCBG Max Azria next door, transformed a drab brick block into a bastion of polished newness—has exposed ductwork and light blue walls. The line has a younger, more affordable bent than its brother brand, Marc Jacobs, offering the designer’s sense of high style mixed with whimsical exuberance...

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Why the hate? That's what I want to know. Misogyny is alive and well and living in male-oriented books about pregnancy. Take a look at these excerpts:

•"There are many reasons to resent your wife when she's pregnant."
•"[Y]our wife should be treated like any other savage creature ready to attack."
•"Instead of acting like a temptress, she'll act more like a toddler. Once you start thinking of your wife as a baby, not a broad, you'll notice other similarities as well."
•"[T]hink of pregnancy as a nine-month stint at a prisoner-of-war camp . . ."
•"Sure, living with a pregnant woman can't kill you, but it sure can take the fun out of living."

Boy. No wonder so many men bail out just after they've pulled out...

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Before I get into the goo, let me just say: I'm usually a fan of the Museum of Contemporary Art's performance series as curated by Peter Taub. It's challenging stuff, often culled from performance groups abroad. Whether it's music, theatre, or dance—the one commonality is that there is generally a strong visual art element. Sometimes I think you could snap a picture mid-scene and create an image worth hanging in the art galleries upstairs...

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Graham Elliot Bowles, the supremely talented four-star chef at Avenues (Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St.; 312-573-6754) for the past four years, is leaving to open Graham Elliot in the former Harvest on Huron space at 217 West Huron Street. “The idea is to do four-star cuisine in a completely different atmosphere,” says Bowles. “I’m doing away with linen and florals and the silver and the crystal and making the space as reflective of the chef as possible. Instead of fine dining I think of it as ‘redefined dining,’ in the bistronomic sense of the word. To just be humble and serve the food we believe in.” Like what? “Dishes such as aged Cheddar risotto with Pabst-braised onions, smoked bacon, green apples, and Cheez-Its,” Bowles says. “And there’s going to be a bar and lounge element focusing on the art of mixology and handcrafted cocktails like a deconstructed Bloody Mary with horseradish sorbet, jellied vodka, Tabasco bubbles, and celery salt.” Bowles will bring...

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I consider myself to be something of an early adopter, but there’s one party I’ve come to late: Facebook. The social networking site launched in 2004, but I only caved to friends’ endless urging and joined about two weeks ago (another latecomer: Chicago senior editor Jeff Ruby; see his hilarious attempt at a Facebook profile). And now, here I am: a true convert, posting messages to The Boyfriend to ask when he’s bringing dinner over. It helped that I read in the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine that more than half of Facebook’s 60 million uses are over the age of 25. That’s my demographic, whether I like it or not.

Some folks use the site mostly to connect with old friends—and I did hear from my long-lost eighth-grade boyfriend, who recently relocated to Israel—but I’m an even bigger fan of the “groups” and “events” functions. Users can alert friends and friends of friends about parties they’re hosting, making Evite a thing of...

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List Price: $5.3 million
Sale Price: $5.2 million
The Property: This stone and stucco house in Hinsdale unfolds like a catalog of exquisite details. The bird-beak roof points and stone-arched entries are complemented inside by a stone fireplace in the foyer, a wood-beamed and –paneled ceiling soaring 24 feet above the family room, and a hanging oval staircase that winds among the house’s four levels like a hand-carved ribbon of walnut.

The slate-roofed house is the design of the architect Charles Vincent George and the builder Jim McMahon, who have collaborated on other super-lavish homes in Hinsdale. This one, McMahon says, “is definitely the best we’ve done.” The house’s Country French character is pervasive, extending even to the outdoor fireplace, a monumental stone and stucco...

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I just read a new study that claims the average pregnancy is not 40 weeks, but rather 41 1/2. Great. I feel like we just got another couple of years tacked on to our life sentence.

Regardless, a healthy woman should gain between 25 and 35 pounds over the course of a pregnancy. A few years back, I saw a woman—let's call her Sharon—gain roughly 70 pounds. She didn't look like Sharon; she looked like a person who had eaten Sharon. With a side of fries. She was predictably miserable. Her wedding ring went in a drawer for nine months because her finger was too bloated to accommodate it. I recall the moment she realized she could no longer cross her legs. "Well, shit," she said, trying to locate her feet for a few seconds. Then she went back to looking miserable...

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Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

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