Daily roundup: Chitown strikes back in cupcake wars, Evanston aldermen possibly cracked out, PLAY says drink and be mind-fucked by Freddie Kruger

From Thursday's PLAY-infused tab:

• Finally Forum produces a decent column. It has, you know, a feasible point and it's grounded in fact, unlike this week's uninspiringly concocted, mildly racist American Dishwasher in Hong Kong. This one's Goldbeck vs. Bienen, folks. Who wants to pick a winner?

• To the defense of pretension comes letter-writer and PLAY staffer Matt Weir, who says he just doesn't nod his head the same way y'all do to those recycled Timbaland beats. Sadly he avoids the obvious yet dazzling syntactical refutation to this week's anti-pretension screed: Pretension is so in, guys. It's so in.

• Evanston mulls moving its civic center to an NU-owned parking lot. Drive in your car, eat in your car, govern in your car.

• Go solar, so long as your conservative neighbors can't see it. Despite the fact that these two stories on bizarro decisions by city aldermen are written by dynamic devo duo Matt Presser and Vincent Bradshaw, no word yet on what's in the water over at city hall.

• PLAY says host your pre-Le Pasage party at Elm Street Liquors. I say that name's a fucking weird fusion of shady and mediocre horror film and if you're going to pay $185 for bottle service just head to Le Pasage instead.

• Chicago catches up (or cashes in, depending on your perspective) on the cupcake craze that swept the country in 2002. So, this is def. a prime reason the Windy City remains superior to cupcake-incapacitated cities like Dubuque and Hoboken. Yeah, o.k.