* America is too delicate for pictures of Conrad Black giving a Reuters photog a one-fingered salute, which comes as a great disappointment to Canadians.

* Why Costco works.

* The Tribune previews its new Web site. It looks fine; if you ignore the aesthetic changes, it’s more or less the same structure. I’ll believe the Google mashups when I see them. (h/t Gapers Block)

* Park Ridge native Hillary Clinton will attend next month’s YearlyKos convention. 

* Lynn Becker on the man who designed the south-side Red Line El stops and the masterful Kitt Peak National Observatory, Myron Goldsmith.

* It’s not just farmers who are subdividing midwestern heritage.

* The CSO is in the black again.

* Please, please please let it be November 2008 soon.