* Jonathan Rosenbaum's critical obituary of Ingmar Bergman led to a polite blog tiff with Roger Ebert. TOC's Hank Sartin weighs in here. There's a lot more where that came from. 

* Prices for Illinois farmland are skyrocketing thanks to current (and presumably future) demand for ethanol.

* Alex Kotlowitz has a long, engaging piece on conflicts over immigration in Carpentersville in this week's New York Times Magazine.

* The Trib has a piece on FoundClothing, a blog about clothes found around the city's streets by Lauri Apple, a frequent and talented contributor to the Reader's flickr group (you can see her photos here).

* Sure, the Reader got bought, but it could have been worse--we could be delivered by TOC. (h/t Gapers Block)

* Mike Quigley is preparing an ordinance that would ban the use of county funds to buy bottled water, with the rationale that it's free and less wasteful to use a glass or a water fountain. If we're following New York's lead on taking an environmentally responsible position on drinking water, perhaps we can get some local seltzer delivery.

* Wondering why the Dow's slide is bad? This will help. So will this.