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Holiday Concerts Select dates at Noon beginning Wed., Nov. 30

Celebrate the sounds of the season as they ring out at the Chicago Public Library.

SHOAH: The Unseen Interviews Wed., Dec. 7 at 6 p.m.

Join Marlene Iglitzen and featured speaker Raye Farr, director of the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for a screening and discussion of rich interview outtakes from Shoah. Presented in partnership
with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Am Shalom. Registration is required for this free event. Please go to ushmm.org/events/chicago to register. If you do not have access to a computer, please call (847) 2662718 to register.

Edited by

Jonathan Messinger

books@timeoutchicago.com

PIECE OF CAKE Irby makes writing funny look easy.

Chicago famous
Samantha Irby is one of the citys must-reads. By Jonathan Messinger
Samantha Irby doesnt want to be regular famous, just Chicago famous. The bawdy blogger (bitchesgottaeat.blogspot.com) and now advice columnist (irbyandian. blogspot.com) says she wants to be known around town, but not so wellknown that shes watched whenever she goes out. I dont want people to know what I search for on Google or what I buy at the grocery store, she says. I still want to be able to shoplift if I need to. Irby, 31, and I sit across from each other at a Lincoln Park coffee shop, a number of train stops from her Rogers Park apartment. And sure enough, about an hour into the interview, a woman approaches to introduce herself and her ninemonth-old baby. She tells Irby she saw her at one of the many readings the writer does around town: I just love what you do. And Irby replies humbly and sweetly, smiling and cooing at the womans daughter. Readers of Irbys gutbusting blog may find irony here, given that one of her more infamous posts is titled FUCK YOUR STUPID BABY. The all-caps is one of the many weapons in the arsenal of Irby, a formidably funny writer who started bitches gotta eat in 2009 after abandoning her MySpace blogcopping to the fact that she blogged on MySpace is the only instance during a two-hour conversation that elicits genuine embarrassment. Another of those

Chef Tony Mantuano Mon., Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.

Awardwinning chef/partner of the world renowned restaurant Spiaggia discusses the revised edition of The Silver Spoon. Mantuano adds his own menu to this classic and iconic cookbook. In addition, coauthor and wine expert Cathy Mantuano, discusses their celebrated cookbook Wine Bar Food which explores the world of Mediterranean wine and cuisine.
For more information, please call (312) 747 4050 or visit chipublib.org. Read, Learn, Discover!

My idea of female empowerment is making dudes feel bad because their balls stink.

weapons is profanity, used as either a blunt instrument or a precision blade, depending on the target. Her candor in style and subject mattermostly sex, dating and the general lousiness of menhas earned her a cult following both online and on the citys live reading scene. That honesty mixed with self-deprecating humor is what propels readersIrby estimates that she has a few hundred unique visitors a daythrough longer-than-average blog posts that open up about her dating history, struggles with Crohns disease, weight loss and whatever shes angry about on any given day. Sometimes they all run together, as in one post about her improving health: the only thing that has really changed in the last yearis that i havent been messing around with any goddamned DUDES. celebacy cured my shit disease. alert the new england journal of medicine. I feel like women are made to feel insecure by so many things, Irby says. You know, I watched Sex and the City, and I was like, I dont have that much money, and I dont walk out the door and trip over awesome dudes. So I talk about all the dumb things Ive done and the times Ive shit myself and all the things that get me enraged. Irby recently dove headfirst into giving direct advice with the new blog, irby + ian, teaming up with writer Ian Belknap, the beloved misanthropic monologuist and Write Club host. The two answer unsolicited questions, berating someone along the way. Ian is mean, Irby says. Hes mean to everyone. But Im never mean to women. My idea of female empowerment is making dudes feel bad because their balls stink. Though frank about sex in her writing, Irby says the blog has done little to improve her sex life. Im hoping this article gets me laid, she says. If youre a funny dude, it doesnt matter what you say and people still want to swing off your nuts. I get up and say, you know, diarrhea and African pee, and dudes will be like, Youre funny, but Im going to go home. But, a few days after our interview, she had a date with a fan of her blog. The dude used the word paroxysm in an e-mail, she says. I was like, Oh, were going to do it with the lights on. Its demoralizing banging dumb dudes. I always take it so personally when I let some asshole with no vocabulary put it in my butt. Irby is skeptical that half the things she says will make this story. But they have to. Its the fearlessness in the way she talks and writes that will eventually propel Irby to the level of fame she desires, and may even take her out of the shoplifting game once and for all. Irby hosts the Sunday Night Sex Show Sunday 30. See Listings.

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