Wren is a three-week-old, wiggly but fun Golden hamster baby looking for a loving guardian.

Wren is learning to appreciate attention from his people, lots of different foods and treats, spinning on his wheel and exploring his surroundings.

Golden hamsters live alone in their habitats so it’s important to give daily attention and love.

Since this is a baby, he will need patient daily handling and socialization to tame, so he will be gentle and not afraid of humans.

His adoption fee of $15 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue.

If you need an entire hamster habitat, aquarium, bedding, food, toys, exercise wheel, hidey hut and water bottle – everything you need including the hamster – the whole package is available for $75.

To meet and possibly adopt Wren please contact [email protected].

Wren is being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

There are Democrats praying to God

That Sanders will not get the nod.

To them he does seem

On the left too extreme;

They’d prefer someone totally mod.

This will be DINO-mite! Dive deep into the Ancient Oceans with Jurassic Quest, the largest and most realistic dinosaur exhibition in North America is coming and is BIGGER and BETTER than EVER!

With Ancient Oceans, Jurassic Quest guests will be transported back in time and under the sea into an immersive and interactive environment. This new Jurassic Quest exhibit (included with general admission) will feature gigantic, moving, water dwellers from the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Neogene Periods, including the ultimate apex predator of it’s time, the Megalodon!

Now with new animatronic water dwellers, Jurassic Quest is the only dinosaur event that has over 100, true to life-sized dinosaur replicas from the very small, to the gigantic, to those found under the sea. Guests will witness their favorite dinosaurs move, roar and roam and have the chance to interact with baby dinosaurs and adolescent dinosaurs, including the T. Rex, Spinosaurus, Triceratops and many others. With the addition of Ancient Oceans, guests will also be able to “swim” with our 50 foot long, prehistoric Megalodon!

Unique to the exhibit, and available only to be experienced in this immersive setting, new animatronic exhibits will include: the Jurassic “dolphin” Ichthyosaurus, Liopleurodon, Ammonite, Plesiosaurus, Tylosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Archelon (giant sea turtle), Xiphactinus and of course, the legendary Megalodon. Popular YouTubers, Park Ranger Aaron and Park Ranger LB of T-Rex Ranch are your virtual guides for this engaging “deep dive” into the Ancient Oceans!

Happening at Navy Pier, Jurassic Quest worked in collaboration with leading paleontologists to ensure each dinosaur was painstakingly replicated in every detail. Guests will have the chance to learn all things paleontology at the excavation station, where they can dig up fossils and by visiting the dinosaur museum to see real dinosaur fossils dating back over 60 million years, including bones that originated in North America.

In addition to the life-like dinosaur exhibits, there will be countless activities throughout the event that suit all ages, including a host of dinosaur themed rides, baby dinosaur shows, walking dinosaur shows, dinosaur themed bounce houses, science stations and a dino cinema! There will also be face painting, crafts and coloring stations and much more.  Whether they are big or small, young or old, guests of Jurassic Quest have a dino-mite time!

For more information and to buy tickets visit www.JurassicQuest.com.

Event:                 Jurassic Quest

Place:                  Navy Pier

Date:                    March 6-8, 2020

Time:                  Friday 3pm-8pm, Saturday 9am-8pm, Sunday 9am-7pm

Institutions are permanent, which means that they do not end when one person is gone. 

I’m not sure if eight years is long enough to call something an institution but, if so, Found Kitchen & Social House definitely meets that definition. If not, it still feels like an institution–in a very good way.

Certainly the Morton family of which Found Kitchen proprietor Amy Morton is a member is an institution.

Through the years, generations of the Morton family have created a lineup of innovative and highly successful restaurants.

Perhaps most notable of all the Morton’s is Amy’s dad, Arnie Morton, who played a large role in making Chicago the international food destination that it is today.

Amy Morton opened Found Kitchen in Evanston in 2012–so named because as Morton says “life is a journey” and we are always finding something.

Her latest find is “Gold.” (more about that later).

Found Kitchen became an instant destination upon its 2012 opening and remains so today.

We stopped by the restaurant on Sunday for their “Brunch with the Beatles” a brainchild of Amy’s two years ago when she felt the then 6-year-old restaurant needed an update.

Found kitchen. Photo: Carole Kuhrt-Brewer

Amy’s original vision for Found was a 1920’s “salon style” restaurant serving as an inspiration for culture, art, literature and politics to be discussed over outstanding food. 

The formula was quite successful but Amy decided to move things up a few decades to what she describes as “Jackie O and the 60’s” style that is now reflected in the decor, the music and the menu.

The bar at Found. Photo: Carole Kuhrt-Brewer

Changes at the restaurant are ongoing including Amy reuniting with Debbie Gold, a James Beard Award-winning chef, who was chef at Amy’s Chicago restaurant, Mirador, until its closing in 1993.

Chef Debbie Gold, (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

The two have kept in touch through the years and when Debbie decided to leave Tied House in November 2019, the time was right for the pair to reunite.

We caught up with Gold on Sunday. She is  currently working on the menus at Amy’s new restaurant Stolp Island Social in Aurora while also getting the lay of the land at Found Kitchen.

Gold hopes to have new menus in place at Found in April–adding twists to some of the originals, creating some new dishes and retaining some of the favorites from the current menus.

Yoko’s popular housemade donuts will remain on the brunch menu and many of the “storied” drinks on the cocktail menu, including the Vera Charles and the Clover Club, will most likely remain. The menus will continue to be seasonal and local.

But until April, we’ll just have to wait to see what the James Beard award-winning chef, Gold,  has in store for Found Kitchen.

Found Kitchen
1631 Chicago Ave.
Evanston, IL 60201
847-868-8945

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Another interesting and poignant fact about this memorial service and record-breaking game for Ionescu, it all happened on 2/24/20. Those are the basketball jersey numbers of Gianna, Kobe and herself. Ionescu had developed a friendship with Kobe and Gianna, working out with Gianna in the summer while helping Kobe coach games. Ionescu said at the memorial service, “To do it on 2/24/20 is huge…I can’t really put that into words. I just know Kobe’s looking down and really proud of me.”

She continued at the service saying, “I still text (Kobe) even though he’s not here.” “Thank you for everything. The rest is for you. Rest easy, my guy. The last one I sent him said, ‘I miss you. May you rest in peace my dear friend.’ “The texts go through but no response. It still feels like he’s there, on the other end, that the next time I pick up my phone, he would have hit me back. Sometimes I find myself still waiting.”

Later that day after the emotional day and with a big win over Stanford, Ionescu was asked what the hardest part of her long day was by the media: “Everything,” she said. “You know, you kind of try and hide some of those emotions and so you get there in Staples Center and they all come back to you. Being able to speak was such an honor for me and being able to hear everyone speak. I tried to do everything I could to try and hold it together earlier in the day and tonight and my team helped me a lot doing that.”

Ionescu, who last year led Oregon to the Final Four and was considered the top prospect for the WNBA, opted to return to Oregon for her senior season. Once again, she’s projected to be the top pick in the WNBA draft, which is in April. Sabrina Ionescu is a collegiate sports icon and secured that hard earned title on 2/24/20 in more ways than one. She is impressive to watch and bound for greatness in the WNBA but first up – winning the NCAA Championship with two guiding spirits helping her along.

Gianna, Kobe and Sabrina (2/24/20)

Photo courtesy of Fox Sports

S&P Dow Jones CoreLogic released their December home price data this morning and the Case Shiller Chicago area home price index showed faster appreciation than it did in November. On a year over year basis single family home prices rose by 1.0% vs. 0.3% in November, which was the highest rate in 4 months and also marks the 86th consecutive month of annual gains. The fact that the annual appreciation rate rose is comforting because you can see how it has been trending down in the graph below.

The only problem was that that put the Chicago area at the bottom of the list of 20 metro areas that the Case Shiller index covers. One bit of good news though: we had company at the bottom with New York which also had a mere 1.0% growth rate.

For the 20 largest metro areas they cover the average year over year gain in December was 2.9% vs. 2.5% in November. And if you look across the entire nation home prices rose by 3.8% from the previous December, also an improvement from the 3.5% one year gain in November.

But there is another fly in Chicago’s ointment in that condominium prices were flat to the previous December and that’s the first time that has happened in 86 months. The obvious concern is that they are about to start going negative. It wouldn’t surprise me since this is consistent with the rising inventories and market times of condos that I have been discussing for the last year.

Chicago area home prices have shown annual gains for 86 consecutive months but they appear to be losing steam.

Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, provided some historical and geographical perspective:

This marks eight consecutive years of increasing housing prices (an increase which is echoed in our 10- and 20-City Composites). At the national level, home prices are 59% above the trough reached in February 2012, and 15% above their pre-financial crisis peak. Results for 2019 were broad-based, with gains in every city in our 20-City Composite.

At a regional level, Phoenix retains the top spot for the seventh consecutive month, with a gain of 6.5% for December. Charlotte and Tampa rose by 5.3% and 5.2% respectively, leading the Southeast region. The Southeast has led all regions for the past year.

As was the case last month, after a long period of decelerating price increases, the National, 10-City, and 20-City Composites all rose at a faster rate in December than they had done in November; 12 of our 20 cities likewise saw accelerating prices. It is, of course, too soon to say whether this marks an end to the deceleration or is merely a pause in the longer-term trend.

Case Shiller Chicago Area Home Price Index By Month

The graph below shows the underlying Case Shiller Chicago index numbers by month and you can clearly see the seasonal fluctuations in the values. December is still in the season when prices decline so the single family index actually dropped by 0.1% from November while the condo index fell by 0.9%.

If you compare the graph below to what Craig Lazarra said above you can see that the Chicago real estate market really sucks compared to the rest of the country. Our single family home prices are still 14.7% below the bubble peak and condo prices are 8.4% below the peak while the rest of the country has surpassed those values. To put it in even more stark terms, single family home prices are below the levels they were from July 2004 – October 2008 and condo prices are below the levels from April 2005 – November 2008.

From the ashes of the housing bust single family home prices have recovered by 39.9% and condo prices have bounced back 51.6%, which again pales in comparison to the rest of the nation. But perhaps the saddest part of the Chicago real estate market story is captured in that red trendline in the graph below. I drew it based on home prices before the bubble. Not only are we not catching up to that trendline but we are actually falling further and further behind. Right now we lag it by 28.4%.

The Chicago real estate market still has a long way to go before catching up to bubble peak prices.

#CaseShiller #ChicagoHomePrices #HomePrices

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.

In this week’s podcast there was one section where I literally couldn’t stop laughing. So, I think this is probably one of our more entertaining episodes.

We start off talking about Nissan’s foray into vehicle subscriptions with the Nissan Switch program, then have a great discussion about the Ford Escape, which is all-new for 2020 and has a hybrid version. The bulk of our discussion, however, is about the cool Toyota Motor Manufacturing Assembly Plant in Princeton, Indiana, with our guest Larry Nutson, the executive producer and Chicago Bureau Chief at The Auto Channel.

This week’s quiz was about fake trim levels. Spoiler alert: I did not win. And, we also talk about whether or not we’d “subscribe” to a vehicle program. Interesting concept, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast for my answer and my reasoning.

Be sure to let us know if you have questions or if there are any topics you’d like us to cover on future podcasts.

You can follow us on social at:

• Jill: @jillciminillo (instagram/twitter)
• Tom: @car_guy_tom (twitter)
• Damon: @DBell72333786 (twitter)
• Consumer Guide Automotive: @cgautomotive (twitter/facebook)
• Consumer Guide Car Stuff on facebook

I’ve dug deep into  20th century Europe to uproot  this postulate concerning the Ford Motor Company.

In 1903, a piece of short fiction entitled “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was initially published in Russia. As time crept by, somehow the fiction–with rampant anti-Semitism as its injection–morphed into counterfeit fact. A  vicious  hard-bound treatise  under the same title was published and widely circulated on the continent, then spread  like bubonic plague.  In a nutshell, this virulent canard-posing-as-reality held that a cabal of Jewish Elders gathered at a Prague cemetery  in order to hatch an elaborately devious plan  to seed a plot whose  goal was  Jewish hegemony of the world.  Moreover, two separate nets were woven, one for Jewish control of Capitalism, the other for the stewardship of Communism.  This preposterous fake-history tale took such deep and wide root that it eventually landed in the lap  of Henry Ford, who swallowed whole its content and became  a zealous advocate. Not satisfied with merely mass producing automobiles, he tried to mass produce mass anti-Semitic  hysteria by having half a million copies printed and distributed  freely ( it was literally free-of-charge) to any and all.. Owing to this legacy of toxic enmity, many Jews for many years  unofficially boycotted Ford dealerships.

Fast forward to the present:  The Henry Ford stain  has faded  to mere palimpsest. But  Ford marketing–with the introduction of the electric Mach E– may have unwittingly  placed the stain under threat of resurfacing.. Seems that in Henry’s day, when anti-semitism was more openly expressed, three derogatory epithets were being  maliciously flung at American Jewry.  The two most popular were “Kike” and “Sheenie”, both in pale currency these days.  The third, more obscure, slur is  near extinction, but nonetheless still exists, if only as a vague memory.  The name of this mock, is  “Mockey.”

Its oral similarity of  “Mockey” an ” Mach E” is, well, startling at least.  So here’s some free advise to Ford Marketing from an old Jew, retired from a career in marketing and advertising.  Scrap the Mach E monicker into the Edsel dumpster and rename it.  With anything else.  If–owing to the brand- equity you’ve already baked into the name, you find abandonment unwise enough to keep the branding alive , at least remember this: When the TV voiceover announcer intones the brand name, make sure he or she is directed to pump some oxygen between “Mach” and “E”, as in “Mach…E.”

Bear in mind, though,  that you have missed a blind spot in the corporate rear-view mirror, and that if you don’t re-call the name “Mach E”,  that some old Jews like me may recall the name “Mockey.”

NOTE:  The preceding isn’t  the first account of gaffes committed by our captains of industry. Not very long ago, bumping over our rutted roads was  a monument to unintentional cognitive dissonance, a model of Jeep named after two of populations that  history records as lethal enemies of each other.  The model’s name?   The Cherokee Pioneer.  They may as well  have named it the Jeep Contradiction. Who knows? Maybe I was the only one who noticed.

 Quite a while ago the GE Marketing Department was flummoxed over the drooping sale of a Chevrolet model across Latin America.The name? The  NOVA.  Apparently, in the ears of Hispanics, the  designation “Nova”suggested the car couldn’t go very fast.

My third example made its way around the marketing  community  for decades and may be apocryphal.  But I, for one, am buying it.   In the era when short, punchy detergent brand names (e.g. Duz, Biz, Tide, etc.) were born,  one of the Proctor &Gamble’s few Jewish employees was ambling through the plant when he noticed  that–racing down a printing press–were  boxes of a new detergent bearing the name, “Dreck.” Immediately he dashed up to the Marketing Department and explained that the word “dreck” in Yiddish meant “shit”.  Stop the presses!!!! Immediately!!! And thusly  ‘Dreck” was renamed “Dreft.”