"I think Eastern North Carolina is probably my favorite region, with places like Wilbers, the Pit, and Allen and Son's really sticking out."

FWIW, I can't recommend Honey 1 highly enough, despite some hate in comments. Here's what our critics had to say on Nagrant's other picks: Smoque and Uncle John's.

Update: I've heard that Kansas City actually has the best barbecue so many times that it can't be discounted, but sadly have never been.

Arts & Culture is somewhat less successful. There's a Modern Wing at the Art Institute, and it features modern art.

I enjoyed Michael Miner's take.

[Ed. note: Just kidding about the Freemasonry thing - still grateful to them for getting Ralph Stanley to headline a benefit concert of theirs.]

PS: Since my stock in trade is unofficial campaign signage, I couldn't help myself:

Inspired by a tweet from lit blogger (and former colleague) Mark Athitakis. Further reading: NYT, the Order of the Shrill, Naked Capitalism, Dean Baker, Felix Salmon, Brad DeLong, The Big Picture, and other fine econ blogs near you.

Update: I finally realized why Omar whistles "The Farmer in the Dell." It's a nursery rhyme about a chain of taking, wherein one takes, and is taken by someone higher in the chain. Which means it's basically a nursery rhyme about The Wire's concept of postindustrial capitalism. And at the end the cheese stands alone, which, well, yeah. That the tune sometimes goes with "A Hunting We Will Go" only adds another layer.

However: Edward Lifson writes compellingly about the destruction of the Test Cell. He cares so much I'm sad they're tearing it down on that basis alone. Granted, this gives me the fantods:

"Both campuses [IIT and Jefferson's UVA] are original and great compositions of, and well ahead of, their times. Both men used architecture to foster an Enlightenment agenda* and to elevate members of society through education, beauty, harmonic proportions and to rhapsodize on the relation of the individual to the whole— all to form better democratic citizens."

... but if you want to know how an expert thinks about architecture, it's fascinating and maybe even convincing to people whose hearts are slightly less hard than mine. He's definitely right about the Donkey Kong thing.

* This reminds me of the time one of my friends programmed a professor's office copy of Word to auto-replace "Enlightenment" with "liberal conspiracy."

In the years since then, Chicago has ridden the momentum. It's made big plans, been boosted by big names. Mayor Richard Daley. Oprah Winfrey. Barack Obama.

Now Daley's grip on power is loosened. Oprah is repeatedly rumored to be leaving. President Obama lives somewhere else, and the glow his election brought to Chicago has waned.

(Look to the stars... because they're the only people who can help you. - Maria Bamford)

Glenzilla has more on how getting rid of Guantanamo is actually meant to keep us safe.

Or, not. Sarah Palin peaked immediately after her speech at the Republican National Convention, and her political relevance is only what sinecure hacks like Matthew Continetti or confused pols like Mark Kirk bestow on her, which is to say not much. She doesn't have a constituency; she doesn't have a political philosophy, and doesn't seem to be courting a movement; she really only has one thing.

But I have always wondered if the larger issue about illegal European immigration, which is common in any regions which have large Eastern European populations, might be a problem. Tom Geoghegan mused in his book The Secret Lives of Citizens that one of the main reasons Chicago (which also has one of the largest Hispanic immigrant populations in the country) has far less anti-immigrant sentiment than many other places possibly because it also has a very large illegal European immigrant population. Maybe there's more sympathy to the situation or maybe they are just afraid of rocking the boat. Either way, when people talk about "illegal immigrants" it's almost always about Latinos and it's about some kind of cultural change.

It wouldn't surprise me, although the fact that Chicago is more generally well represented within its power structure by ethnic groups with a current or recent history of immigration, explains a lot. Also, it's really segregated, and if you don't see as much of other races, you're less likely to resent them.

All of the state's seven Republicans in the U.S. House say they oppose the deal, with U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Par[k] - a candidate for U.S. Senate - leading the very public charge.* Like other opponents, Cross raised the specter of increased terrorist attention to the state if Gitmo detainees are moved to the Thomson prison as part of President Barack Obama's plan to shut the controversial Cuba facility down.

I mean, I get the political opportunism at play, I just don't think it's very opportunistic. Compare and contrast to Fremont County, Colorado, where residents raised $160k towards landing Florence ADX (closer to Denver than Thomson is to Chicago), which houses an all-star cast of the most dangerous people on earth, a multinational population of terrorists, gangsters, and mafiosi, including infamous former Illinoisans Matthew F. Hale and Michael Swango. Here's what it's like inside ADX Florence; see also a great piece from Westword about the prison's first inmate, Thomas Silverstein.

Owing to what I understand is a tacit agreement with authorities here, there is a fleet of 1970s Toyota minibuses that ply the main thoroughfares here. They don’t actually stop: You have to leap aboard and leap off, but the price is right: About 50 cents. As long as the drivers can keep them running, it seems, authorities let them do their thing.

Yes, the CTA is expensive to run. Here's a wealthy country where public transportation is cheap. Not letting the buses stop would definitely cut down on the free senior fares.