I must completely ignore traffic reports for downtown - you know, the few occasions I have to listen to traffic reports at all.

Borders is closing their MagMile flagship store here in Chicago

Publishers Weekly had a piece last week about them not paying a lot of their vendors, and all kinds of talk of "restructuring," which seems to be code for possible bankruptcy.

(soapbox) Support your locally-owned bookseller! There are still plenty of independent bookstores in Chicago, for example, plus there's always online. (gettin' off it)

Also I like to call stores "the [whatever]'s" myself, and I'm all northeast.

I do too! Although I'm all mid-atlantic-y.

Here's info on Hubbard's Cave.

The Hubbard Cave is downtown--it's the tunnel you go through on the Kennedy southbound on your way into the Loop before you meet up with the Dan Ryan and the Eisenhower.

Oh, okay. I think they just skip that and say to the Loop these days.

I don't think I put "the" in front of store names or possessives that weren't already there (except Penney's, but as Sophia says, not with the JC). When I lived on St. Mary St. I always called it St. Mary's, though.

I hope that all the Border's don't go. My local Borders actually does events for local authors and community outreach stuff - where the B&N does not.

I did just buy one of the two copies of Barb's book at the State St. Borders today.

Not only are there no locally-owned bookstores in my town (or the next town over which is practically my town), people come here from Vallejo to go to B&N (I think that's it) because there are no bookstores at all there. None!

We do have a comic book shop, though, and I patronise the hell out of that place.

The only reason I know those stores apart is that Borders lets you do your own computer searches while B&N makes you actually search out and talk to a human.

Not true! At least, the Barnes and Noble('s) I go to most often lets you search yourself.

On reflection, I think I add "the" more than the possessive.