Good for you

Has anyone else noticed the growing popularity of the brain tumor/hallucination storyline on TV?  More than ever, networks have their most beloved characters seeing cartoon characters and talking to dead people.

Here’s the count so far:

• House
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Bones
• Lost (only because people are always acting crazy on Lost, so why not?)
• The Unusuals

If anyone else is seeing crazies on primetime, please do let us know!

And, for good measure, here are the real symptons of a brain tumor, courtesy of WebMD.

The AP is reporting that the Chicago City Council voted today to ban the sale of  baby bottles and sippy cups containing BPA in Chicago.  This is very good for babies.

The Architecture and Design gallery in The Art Institute's new Modern Wing. Nicole Cohen/Good for You

The Art Institute of Chicago will be opening its Modern Wing with a week of free admission starting this Saturday, May 16 until Friday, May 22.

Designed by architect Renzo Piano (who also designed Paris’ Centre Pompidou), the Modern Wing was built to provide more room for the museum’s growing collection (the third largest in the United States).

The $294 million project includes a bridge that links the museum to Millennium Park, an education center, and a restaurant featuring concoctions from Spiaggia chef Tony Mantuano.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  The point here is that admission is free next week, so pick a sunny day (the better to enjoy the wing’s views and naturally lit galleries) and don’t forget your canned goods (which the museum will be collecting for the Greater Chicago Food Dispensitory during its opening week).

Some highlights from the new wing:

Jeff Wall’s decidely spooky graveyeard photography.

Candyass’s (a.k.a Cary Leibowitz) “Photo Booth Fortune” featuring fortune cookie fortunes and a hairy man in a photo booth.

Steve McQueen’s video “Girls, Tricky” featuring “trip-hop” artist Tricky (a.k.a Adrian Thaws) in the recording studio and smoking what I will, for the sake of the blog, only identify as a cigarette.

Architecture and Design galleries’ (pictured above) seat-provoking chairs

Add to that the names like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and  Joan Miro and you’ll wonder how the institute every got by without this space.

Check out NYTimes‘ Mark Bittman’s video on how to stock up your kitchen with the cooking tools you actually need.

tschorda/FLICKR

This morning’s All Things Considered featured a brainy piece about mind exercise by Linton Weeks.

Some of the things we learned:

• more sleep, less food, and lots of exercise can make you smarter
• one way to improve your memory is to give it a workout by (drum roll please…….) remembering things
• you can improve sensory memory by closing your eyes and smelling everything in your kitchen
• working memory can be improved by doing something I’m pretty sure no one reading this will actually try:

Name the U.S. presidents, going backward from Barack Obama to John F. Kennedy. Then, arrange them in chronological order starting with Kennedy, assigning each his proper party affiliation (so, Kennedy — Democrat; Johnson — Democrat; etc.). Next, list them alphabetically.

limajulija/FLCKR

Who says investigative journalism is dead?

Chicago Tribune published an investigation in April that uncovered how the city of Crestwood, IL knowingly drew from a contaminated well for the city’s water supply for years.

The story sparked an EPA investigation and calls for health studies on the use of well water.

Just another reason we should be paying attention to where we get our water.

Vilseskogen/Flickr

‘Tis the season for green beans!  Or so says the June issue of Bon Appetit.  Alma Albert of Bon Appetit writes that green or string beans (they are one in the same) are a good source of vitamins A, C, and K along with potassium and iron.

Albert has these tips for how to buy green beans at the market:

• go for beans that have “full, even color”
• “beans should snap when broken in half; the insides should be crisp and juicy”
• avoid bulging beans which usually mean pods are too mature to be crisp and tender

Another interesting tidbit: green beans come in all colors (green, yellow, purple) but for the most part they all taste the same.  So mix it up!

jarnott/Flickr

Melting ice caps, slumping economy, H1N1 … the world is a scary place these days but not every tight spot comes with a doomsday.

Case in point: water in Illinois.

Josh Ellis is a Community Development Associate at the Metropolitan Planning Council who specializes in - you guessed it - H2O.

Josh talked to us about the need for state-wide water supply plan and a water metering system in Chicago.

State-wide water supply plan:

Chicago water meters: