"Going Public" braced for a CTA avalanche Monday and got light snow showers instead.

After weeks of fielding readers' concerns about doomsday scenarios, "GP" prepared for the worst this week. Some riders wrote in that their commutes were aggravated by packed buses and delayed trains, but many of you wrote in to say you didn't notice a change to your morning schedules.

I remember landing my first journalism job after college. It was three weeks before graduation, and I drove exactly 89 miles each way on six occasions for interviews.
 
Even if Facebook and online social networking tools in general existed in (cough, cough) 1995, I probably wouldn't have thought of what Thomas Pardee did. But that said, I think his idea is pretty genius.

Pardee, 22, of Lakeview, paid for self-promotional ads on Facebook and specifically targeted the company he wants to work for most. That means Conde Nast employees may feel like they know Pardee, even though he doesn't work there.

I chatted with Pardee online (of course). Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
For my first job, I called, sent resumes and dressed up for interviews. Times have sure changed.

The best part of the Super Bowl is the ads. The game is usually long and boring and features two teams most people don't give a lick about, but the commercials are always great. This year a couple of ads already are stealing the spotlight from Sunday's game.

CBS has banned two commercials that were set to air during the Super Bowl, citing "offensive content" as the reason for rejection. Both ads were aimed at a target demographic: the gay community. CBS, however, has approved a pro-life ad by the notoriously anti-gay evangelical group Focus On The Family.

Jenny Whaley participates in the stitch'n'bitch event she founded at Mother's Too, where she works. (Photo by Nolan Wells)

By Nate Martin
FOR REDEYE

It's a Wednesday night in the Gold Coast, and elbows squirm for leverage on the bar.
A weeknight crowd battling for the bartender's attention? Nope.

Patrons served too much whiskey? Not even.

They're crocheting.

This is stitch 'n' bitch at Mother's Too, where every Wednesday the bar becomes the hangout for a group of women who chat a bit and sip their drinks, but mostly concentrate on their needles and yarn.

Informal meetings set in bars that blast rock music and feature pool tables eschew the perception that crochet is "boring," "stuffy" or "grandma" stuff, said Jenny Whaley, 37, founder of the Mother's Too stitch 'n' bitch, called Happy Hookers.

"My grandmother was a burlesque dancer in the '30s, and she took her crochet wherever she went," said Whaley, a bartender at Mother's Too.

You know where you'll be Sunday: Firmly planted in front of the TV watching the New Orleans Saints battle it out against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

An Open Letter to the Gentlemen Who When Asked Last Week by a Waitress at a Wrigleyville Bar If They Wanted Guacamole or Sour Cream on Top of Their Nachos Replied, "We Want You on Top of the Nachos":

Fellas, how the heck are you? My friend, the waitress whom you'd like atop your nachos, told me what you said to her, and ... wow.

Hey, I get what you were doing. She offered you two choices, and you responded with a third option not offered to you! That's a time-honored trick taught by all the best comedy correspondence courses. Your diploma is in the mail.

By Tracy Swartz
RedEye

Three people were shot to death in Auburn Gresham on Tuesday, including a double homicide on Morgan Street, a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data found.

A man and a woman were fatally shot Tuesday in the 8500 block of South Morgan Street hours after an 18-year-old man was shot to death in the 8300 block of South Hermitage Avenue, police said.

Auburn Gresham recorded 14 homicides last year, a RedEye study found.

January ended this week with 20 homicides, down from 24 homicides in 2009 and 35 homicides in 2008, a RedEye analysis shows.

Four homicides, all shooting deaths, have been recorded so far this month. Chicago police recorded 25 homicides in February last year, RedEye found.

To check the homicides in your neighborhood, go to the RedEye homicide map.

Riders on the No. X49-Western-Express bus can expect their commutes to be at least a few minutes longer should CTA service cuts go into effect Sunday.

The height of awards season might be over for the music industry now that the Grammys are gone until 2011, but the celebrations don't have to stop for local artists.