Brittney's pick: Valentine's Day can be too mushy sometimes. I love this shot by Flickr user Ankylosaur. The single heart and stark black-and-white trees are at once heartwarmingly cute and desolately chilling. They perfectly encapsulate the moods of both lovebirds and the lovelorn on this day.

Esther's pick: I can't imagine anyone would ever buy such a demonic-looking stuffed animal for his/her loved one. Myself? Chocolates in a heart-shaped suede box from a buddy who probably would have bought the scary bear below had he seen it first...

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Brittney's pick: Valentine's Day can be too mushy sometimes. I love this shot by Flickr user Ankylosaur. The single heart and stark black-and-white trees are at once heartwarmingly cute and desolately chilling. They perfectly encapsulate the moods of both lovebirds and the lovelorn on this day.

Esther's pick: I can't imagine anyone would ever buy such a demonic-looking stuffed animal for his/her loved one. Myself? Chocolates in a heart-shaped suede box from a buddy who probably would have bought the scary bear below had he seen it first...

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Brittney's pick: Valentine's Day can be too mushy sometimes. I love this shot by Flickr user Ankylosaur. The single heart and stark black-and-white trees are at once heartwarmingly cute and desolately chilling. They perfectly encapsulate the moods of both lovebirds and the lovelorn on this day.

Esther's pick: I can't imagine anyone would ever buy such a demonic-looking stuffed animal for his/her loved one. Myself? Chocolates in a heart-shaped suede box from a buddy who probably would have bought the scary bear below had he seen it first...

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Hallmark Holiday

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Brittney’s pick:
Valentine’s Day can be too mushy sometimes. I love this shot by Flickr user Ankylosaur. The single heart and stark black-and-white trees are at once heartwarmingly cute and desolately chilling. They perfectly encapsulate the moods of both lovebirds and the lovelorn on this day.

Esther’s pick: I can’t imagine anyone would ever buy such a demonic-looking stuffed animal for his/her loved one. Myself? Chocolates in a heart-shaped suede box from a buddy who probably would have bought the scary bear below had he seen it first…

The Singles Bracket: Final Four

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Even though an anonymous commenter called it a place “full of dumb yupps,” the soccer league at Sport & Social beat out the marathon running group.

But what will happen when kicking balls goes head-to-head with waiting for a cold one at the Friendly Confines?

The field has narrowed yet again. Here, the Final Four…

The Singles Bracket: Elite Eight

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Will country-punk Carol’s edge out late-night perennial Marie’s? Is the
pick-up scene better in a marathon training group or a soccer league?

It’s
time to find out which Chicago hot spots make it to Singles Bracket: Elite
Eight. Drumroll, please…

Week 38: Cry Wolf, Cry Uncle

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Sarah was breathing strangely in bed the other morning, and I asked what was up. “I think I’m having this baby,” she said. My heart stopped. It’s go time. And I’m ready.

For the next hour we tried to figure out whether or not she was in labor. After consulting multiple books, and timing what we imagined were contractions, we’d reached our conclusion: She had gas…

The Singles Bracket: Sweet 16

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I’m choosing to ignore all Valentine’s Day madness for something far more
representative of my current milieu: a Chicago Singles’ Sweet 16. Inspired
by the basketball madness that is March, in the next few days, I will whittle down the best
cultural events/spots for meeting a potential mate (Note: whether “mating”
is just for the evening or for longer term is purposefully not specified, as it is
usually indeterminable from first meeting)…

Guess the Item

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We’re taking you all the way back to elementary school this morning.

Remember those Scholastic book order forms from which you’d procure the latest copies of The Hardy Boys and The Baby-Sitters Club? Remember the feature on the back of the form where you had to look at a detail photo and guess the item? Try this one.

"Surely it’s a juicy, delicious, giant nectarine reminiscent of a lazy summer afternoon," you think to yourself. Well, you’d be wrong…

Week 38: Drop and Give Me Twenty … Wipes

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I spent all day Saturday painting furniture for the baby room, which I figured would buy me a free pass to watch the AFC championship on Sunday. It was shaping up to be a great game: The Steelers had won 15 in a row, and the Patriots hadn’t lost a playoff game in years. An hour before game time, I asked Sarah who she thought would win. She looked around the basement at little piles of unfinished projects here and there, and answered: “Me.”

I spent the day building a crib and assembling a day bed…

Anatomy of a Political Event

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6:20 p.m. My colleague and I arrive at Hyatt Regency Chicago, site of Barack Obama’s Super Tuesday election night party. Navigate through crowd of campaign volunteers, Japanese TV crews, and supporters to check-in table.

6:45 p.m. Obtain media badge, walk through metal detector, scan crowd. It’s stocked full of media types, college kids, and local politicos such as Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool.

7:05 p.m. Attempt to enter ballroom, only to be intercepted by overeager volunteer…

Happy Super Tuesday

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One of the more genius uses of Flickr we’ve encountered: a presidential candidate sets up an account and, over the course of the year, steadily posts almost 15,000 photos shot at various events by thousands of users across the country. That candidate? Barack Obama. The wide range of photos includes your run-of-the-mill crowd shots, insightful behind-the-scenes peeks into campaign life, and quite a few downright artsy photographic dedications. We had hoped to find the same from the other candidates—but no dice…

Week 37: Bare-Assed and Pregnant

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I’ve spent much of my life avoiding women who appear to be pregnant, because they scared the hell out of me. What if I said the wrong thing? I had nothing to offer them, conversation-wise, beyond “So, what’s it like being pregnant?” Now everything is different. Today at the gym I asked the pregnant woman on the cross-trainer next to mine how she gets her recommended daily calcium intake.

Watched Sarah’s belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges…