Columns

LOSING MY FRIEND JONATHAN WINTERS It was a stunning loss, especially the way I learned it. I was driving home listening to the news on WOAM when the reporter announced Jonathan Winters had died. I couldn’t believe it. We had talked as usual about three weeks before. While frail in voice, I...
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The week of the Boston Marathon bombing, the workplace explosion in West, Texas, and the death of Peoria comic stalwart Royce Elliott, it was impossible not to feel guilty about a nagging sense of loss from flooding. Even there, many people in greater west-central Illinois were hit far harder, losing everything short of their lives. Still,...
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Elroy Limmer was in a pretty good position to help people see the forest as well as the trees. As Peoria’s City Arborist, he dealt with numerous questions and concerns regarding proper tree care. For example, a home owner once complained that his sizable catalpa tree had so many caterpillars feeding on it, he...
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I don’t care what ANYONE says, THIS is wrong. A man realized his Chryster 500 was being stolen from his driveway. So, he jumps in his car and gives chase, caught up a few blocks away and fired off a few rounds into the fleeing car. The thief, a woman, is wounded. The problem? Well,...
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“America took my kids away from me,” said a woman who is wanted in the U.S. on a felony charge; a woman who left her two sons here to fend for themselves. This woman, the mother of the Boston bombers, wailed and screamed into a camera on the other side of the world, blaming America...
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Dear Amelie Estelle, When your Daddy greeted your Papa and me in the hospital room while holding you, my heart skipped a beat. I’ve seen him with his newborn nieces and nephews, but you are his first newborn daughter and the memory of you two together is forever etched in my mind. Welcome to our family,...
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Today, Friday, April 26, is supposed to be in the sixties and I’m looking forward to going out in to my yard without a coat, I’ve been trying to clean up the yard from the winter, but it is hard when it rains so much and then gets so cold. But everything we do...
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STUNNING! The recent announcement that Proctor Hospital had sold all of its Prompt Care offices to OSF St. Francis Medical Center was a stunning surprise, especially to officials at Methodist Medical Center, past and present. Truth is, historically, Methodist and Proctor have had a close and cooperative relationship dating back to the days when Norm...
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It’s tempting to characterize opponents of the City/County Health Department’s proposed ordinance on wastewater systems to be as full of crap as the Illinois River and nearby Kickapoo Creek, both of which are considered by the state EPA, the Illinois State Water Survey and IDOT to be in poor condition due to human waste...
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Elsie stood on my grandmother’s front porch one day looking not the least bit guilty. This was Gramma’s beloved “house” cat, and dangling from its mouth was a very dead purple finch. From that day on, the backyard was quiet. No more beautiful complex song of the purple finch, and the nest he’d been...
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