By Steve Rhodes
1. “Zac Efron went to Chicago . . . and all he got was a $100,000 bottle of champagne from the son of a Russian billionaire!!!” TMZ reports.
“The Russian also bought some stuff for his OWN table, including 2 magnum bottles of Grey Goose, 2 magnum bottles of Dom Perignon, 4 bottles of Cristal and 3 magnum bottles of Laurent-Perrier Brut Rose.
“The total bill – $112,550 . . . PLUS – dude dropped a $22,510 TIP for his server, Jasmine – 20%. Not bad for a Tuesday night.”
2. “Today in Weird History: 1954: Following the investigation by the Federal Grand Jury on racketeering in Chicago the first indictments have been served for charges on four union agents of extortion of large sums of money from poultry dealers in Chicago’s Fulton market.”
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This Date In Baseball:
“1908: The Chicago Cubs won the NL pennant when Mordecai Brown beat Christy Mathewson 4-2 in the playoff of the disputed game Sept. 23 when Fred Merkle failed to touch second base.”
“1929: Howard Ehmke, a surprise starter for the Philadelphia Athletics, struck out 13 Chicago Cubs to win the opening game of the World Series 3-1.”
3. “Chicago will be home to a new $13.75 million project that will apply data mining methods to better understand the genetic and environmental factors behind neuropsychiatric disorders,” News-Medical.net reports.
“The Sylvio O. Conte Center, a multi-institutional effort based at the University of Chicago, will combine the statistical power of pre-existing genetics, pharmacogenomics, text-mining, and clinical record databases to confront diseases that have so far frustrated researchers.”
4. Family Misses Stolen Blackhawks Jersey-Clad Goose.
5. Bullshit quotient in Chicago expands by 37,238 square feet.
6. “An Upper East Side restaurant last night dished up some edible art – serving it on glitzy, gold-painted plates looted from the palaces of Saddam Hussein,” the New York Post reports.
“The bizarre taste treat – venison topped with a date syrup – is appropriately titled ‘Spoils.’
“Kevin Lasko, the chef for the Park Avenue Autumn restaurant – whose quirky name changes with the seasons – teamed up with New York-born and Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz, who has an Iraqi-Jewish background, to make the dish.”
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“Enemy Kitchen is an ongoing project begun by Michael Rakowitz in 2004 . . . in winter 2012, keep an eye out for the Enemy Kitchen mobile food truck in Chicago as part of FEAST, an exhibition that will open at the Smart Museum of Art. The food truck will feature a different Iraqi cook every day, serving cuisine from different regions of the country, and will be staffed by American veterans of the Iraq War who will act as servers and sous-chefs.”
7. “Ever since the economic meltdown in 2008, the Chicago Board Option Exchange (CBOE) volatility indicator for the S&P 500 (VIX) has gained a lot of popularity among traders trying to capitalize on the wild market swings,” Kevin O’Brien writes for Seeking Alpha.
8. “Wheaton’s (Unofficial) Homecoming For Gay Evangelicals.”
9. The legacy of REM on this weekend’s Sound Opinions.
10. “You might think that Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo left Chicago two years ago with a plan in mind,” Melissa Harris writes for the Tribune.
“But the truth is, the former Chicago entrepreneur and improv comic was just sick of the weather.”
11. “A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) manager at Midway International Airport in Chicago will begin serving a 46 month sentence for accepting $28,500 in bribes and immigration fraud on Oct. 28, 2011,” the Examiner reports.
“In February, Department of Homeland Security supervisor William Mann pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery and immigration fraud after taking bribes from foreign restaurant employees seeking to remain in the United States.”
12. Beavis And Butt-Head Are Gonna Score.
13. TrackNotes: See You At The Haw.
14. The Week in Occupy Chicago.
15. The Week in Chicago Rock.
16. The Week in WTF.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Occupiable.
Posted on October 7, 2011