Rare pigs, vexing cheese, heirloom grains, black pepper gelato, farming for the city, and the best new restaurants of 2009

Yes, I want the red, strapless, deep-V-waisted Jean Desses Couture silk chiffon dress that is on the cover of Leslie Hindman's current vintage clothing and accessories auction catalog, even if they call it coral and even if it does come with numerous stains and loose stitches.
From the book's press release: "Edgar Miller was a Chicago artist who used recycled material to turn old homes into works of art. He called it a "social adventure.'"
From the Reader archive: "[Sol] Kogen and Miller collected funky stuff and salvaged scrap and crafted what they needed to create a crazy quilt of materials and form. Larry Zgoda, a local stained glass artist who met and worked with Miller in the 1980s, says Miller 'lived a life drenched in art, and he created . . . romantic, creative places that are drenched in pattern and color and the texture of their elemental materials.'"
Daily Telegraph advice columnist Lesley Garner is faced with quite the conundrum this week: A situation so horrible that it could only possibly be made worse by . . . the recommendations of Daily Telegraph advice columnist Lesley Garner!
The situation: "Eva," a married woman, is raped by her boss on a business trip. She becomes pregnant. She decides to get an abortion. Her husband is supportive of the abortion, but not of Eva—-"He drove me to a clinic for a consultation and waited outside in the car because he 'didn't want to hear me talk about conception dates,'" she writes. Eva later decides not to go through with the abortion. Her husband leaves her. She raises a beautiful baby boy on her own. Now, seven years later, she wants to reconnect with her ex. But there is a complication: "What happened on that trip wasn't quite rape but I wasn't exactly willing either. The man was my boss and he was very drunk and forceful. I tried to push him away without upsetting him, but he was too strong and I didn't fight him."
Continue reading "Advice Columnist Tells Victim She Wasn’t Actually Raped (And That She Should Have Aborted Her Not-Rape Baby)" >>