It’s beginning to look like Gov. Bruce Rauner and Speaker Mike Madigan will be spending another summer cooped up in the Statehouse, but the rest of us plan our time better. With the 72-page Illinois Times Summerlong Summerguide in hand, we can pick from hundreds of good things to do. We’ll order tickets for Hamlet at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival (p. 51) and register for the Insane Inflatable 5K (p. 35) in Centennial Park Aug. 6. The second annual Bacon Throwdown is downtown July 22 and 23, don’t forget, and the Legacy Theatre is offering many performances of Sister Act in June and July (p. 50). Plan to go to SOHO this summer (p. 16); the street festival is bringing more than 60 musical acts to downtown. For a change of pace, we’ll take a hike in Carpenter Park (p. 44), then try our hand at mixing that new summer drink, The Cuke (p. 46). Planning a sublime summer – that’s what we call a grand bargain. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher