The annual Windy City Wine Festival, presented by Binny's Beverage Depot, takes place tonight and tomorrow at Daley Bicentennial Plaza downtown. We've never been overly impressed by the festival, but taking a look at the cooking and wine exhibitions scheduled we might be swayed to drop by. The always entertaining Hearty Boys will be at the festival both days (tonight from 7:15-7:45 p.m. and 7:25-7:55 p.m. Saturday). Also on hand will be Steve Chiapetti of ...

Harold Ramis has confirmed his involvement in Ghostbusters III. We can only hope it will be in 3-D. [Trib]

A man jumped from a Loop building at 155 N. Michigan, landing on a blue Ford along N. Beaubien Ct., behind the Dorel building. Parts of downtown are closed due around this area. As of 6:30, an ambulance was on the scene and the body remained in place.

Throughout the month of September, you are cordially invited to spend your weekends touring fancy homes (the $900,000–$4,000,000 kind of fancy homes) during the fifth annual Chicago Luxury Home Tour. Presented by Midwest Home Chicago, 22 homes will be on display throughout the Chicagoland area. Think Hindsdale, Naperville, Glenview, not Gold Coast, Bucktown, Lincoln Park. It's a bit of driving around but after perusing the photo gallery (Hello, George Costanza-worthy Weilert Custom Homes bathroom, above) ...

A young Chicago man, Antonio D. Johnson, was arrested in Iowa early Thursday morning for disorderly conduct and public intoxication. It was a cut-and-dry arrest until the patrol car ride to the police station. It seems Antonio had several small bags of marijuana on him that the police hadn't found during a pat down, so he did what any other sensible person arrested for public intoxication would do: he tried to hide the weed in ...

An Arlington Heights man needed 15 stitches after a brawl at Ravinia last weekend. After setting up their blankets, chairs and a tarp, a group of concertgoers from Arlington Heights left for a restaurant. Returning an hour later, they found their belongings displaced by a Chicago group, which they confronted. A woman in the Chicago group tried to attack a woman from the returning group, police said. A 40-year-old Chicago man then punched a 49-year-old ...

O.K., it's not Chicago related, but we know the New Zealand duo Flight of the Conchords have lots of Chicago fans, right? Well, we're sad to say that their next season will also be their last. While we're pleased to see that they're going out on a high note before the series has a chance to devolve, we're upset we'll only have one more season to see that hair helmet or see someone get hit ...

Mister Buckets Serious Time recently posted a bunch of old found (and some family) photos, mostly collected from local flea markets. These are some of our favorites. You can see the whole set here. There is an image gallery to this entry which you can view at Chicagoist

The City of Hammond will pay an engineering firm $27,500 to figure out whether an almost full-size, resin-covered foam replica of the Statue of Liberty is fit to make its new home on an island in Wolf Lake. The statue, which stands at about 130 feet tall and weighs about 50,000 pounds, was built for the Indiana-based Beryl Martin printing company, who used it as a display item at a recent convention in St. Louis. ...

The NFL season is upon us and, thanks to one dedicated fan, it's getting easier for us to figure out which games we'll be getting on local television each week. Don't feel like dropping $30 for food and beer at a sports bar just to catch Brett Farves' debut as a Jet against the mighty Dolphins? Wondering if the Bears' prime-time slot means you finally get to enjoy a Saints' game (Who Dat!?!?) from the ...

Had to love this from last night's Cubs game against Houston: Jim Edmonds learns that there's a lot of stuff hidden in that center field ivy. [via Awful Announcing]

God Bless you, Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show. A day after the most watched convention speech in history, it doesn't matter which side of the Obama fence you come down, it's hard not to laugh at another pretty genius piece.

Oh Lord, do we like hearing about things like this: a new company called The Special E functions solely to salvage leftovers from special events like weddings or conferences, often rescuing mighty amounts of food and other event leavings from getting tossed in the trash. The for-profit “green” organization, which services 30 major metropolitan areas, has already been hired for half a dozen Chicago events, including Ameriprise Financial's recent national conference at the Field Museum. ...

A "food desert," by definition, is a geographic area with no or distant grocery stores served by a plethora of fast food restaurants. An estimated 500,000 Chicago residents live in a food desert and the health implications can be staggering. September is "National Food Desert Awareness Month." Sunday morning at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Roseland (211 E. 115th St.), which is a food desert itself, a rally will be held to raise awareness ...

Hope you aren't nursing hangovers from last night's acceptance speech drinking game. In a historic month that marked the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's speech on the Mall of Washington, the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage and the nomination of an African American to run for President , it wouldn't be "The Friday Flashback" if we didn't take a look back forty years to when not all was bread and circuses with the Democratic Party. ...

I present to you this photo of chocolate-dipped bacon. And if you think that's awesome, stay tuned for our live-blogging Dick Durbin and Barack Obama's speeches later this evening. Photo by The Bleeding Heart Bakery

We'll stop the Jay Mariotti coverage one of these days, but this open letter from Roger Ebert is too damn good to pass up. It's titled "Jay the Rat," and it ends "On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass." Our love for Roger Ebert knows no bounds. Full missive after the jump. [Ebert] Jay the Rat BY ROGER EBERT / August 28, 2008 An open letter to sports columnist ...

Mark your calendars! Michael Phelps—perhaps you've heard of him—will be in town Wednesday to support Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. It's not clear yet what he'll be doing exactly. [Crain's]

As much as we'd like to think there's a couple fingers of bourbon in that glass, we doubt it. But since political conventions are traditionally festivals of drunkenness, and seeing as how so many of us are going to be huddled around the television tonight, we figured it might not be a bad idea to lay out some ground rules for some drinking and viewing. Oh, and if you're going to be around a laptop ...

A 33-year-old man is now paralyzed after saving a woman from falling debris in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood. Rogelio Rodriguez and his wife Amelia were walking down a sidewalk when he noticed debris falling from an exterior wall of a Chase Bank branch and quickly pushed a nearby woman pedestrian out of the way. A split second later, huge chunks of concrete fell on top of him, crushing his spine. Rodriguez was in intensive ...