One of my favorite pleasures is reading On the Bi-Level, a monthly newsletter distributed to customers of Metra, the Chicago suburban rail service.

The newsletter is a riotous collection of commuter train news and bitchy complaints from riders outraged by the behavior of others. Check out the current issue. (Note: This will open a PDF page.)

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

The controversy surrounding flat iron steak continues unabated!

Faithful ChicagoScope followers recall, of course, that I concluded that the flat iron steak on Amtrak totally sucked.

Phil and Lingo of The Brit and Yankee took notice, too, and challenged me to try their flat iron steak and see how it measures up to that served to unsuspecting passengers on America's subsidized passenger rail service.

It turned out to be a kind of railroad experience, anyway, as I had to take a Metra train way out into the hinterlands of unincorporated DuPage County to join them in The Brit and Yankee Beer Garden. There, I consented to subject their own special flat iron steak to a taste test.

And guess what? It was great!

I also got a chance to sample some of their home-brewed beer -- and was a quest on their podcast. Listen to The Brit and Yankee.

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Maybe someone moved -- or died -- and left all of this stuff behind. I don't know the story, only that there's a pantload of crap in back of this garage in the alley that runs between Linder and Central avenues in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood.

Some of my neighbors insist that the pile used to be as high as the bottom of the roof. Some of the stuff has been taken away, but whether any there's anything worthwhile left in here is debatable.

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

I shot some footage on my way home from work this week on Metra's Northwest line. The window is tinted green, so I decided to render this in black and white.