Where the Boys (and Girls) Are

Thanks to everyone who posted comments and sent e-mails regarding Monday’s blog. Your feedback helps fuel future blog topics, so keep it coming. To respond to one poster’s query, “Where’s the best place to meet guys?”: I’m of the school of thought that the women follow the men, so where there are men, there are … Read more

The A+ Team

We crunched data from more than 1,700 public elementary and middle schools in the Chicago area—evaluating everything from average class size to expenditures per student to standardized test results—and picked the 115 best. We also interviewed education experts to come up with 25 private schools deserving high marks.

Ban Wagon

No one’s quite sure what will happen when the sale of foie gras becomes illegal in August under the strictures of the city council’s ban. In search of clues, The Closer looks back at prohibitions past.

Solo Acts

We think they’re stars in their own right: meet Chicago’s cast of singles 2007, envisioned as characters from iconic films. But there’s more to these scene-stealers than pretty faces. From a top chef to an academic star to a police officer, find out who rocks out on air guitar to Rage Against the Machine, whose childhood nickname was GQ, and who has an artichoke in her pocket (nope, it’s not a pickup line).

Real-life CSI

A Loyola University journalism professor and Wilmette mother of two explains how trace evidence can finger a killer at a crime scene.