Columns

It was a question I’d heard before. In August I was presenting a bird program when a lady asked, “Is it true that humming birds migrate south by hitching a ride on the backs of Canada geese?” This is a surprisingly common notion. It’s understandably hard to believe something as miniature as a humming...
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I was deeply involved in covering the 2005 city council/mayoral elections. At the time, I strongly opposed Dave Ransburg, and I did back Jim Ardis. I liked his strong anti-crime message. I was critical of the Journal Star for accusing Mayor Ardis of being mean to black people because he held press conferences in poor neighborhoods where police...
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When most girls were playing with dolls, I was rummaging through my Daddy’s wire box in the basement. These multi-colored coated wires of various lengths were abandoned, hopelessly entwined in a huge cardboard box. Most of the wires were white with thin ribbons of red, yellow, green or blue twisted around it like candy cane...
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Dear Brinley Mae, Your arrival into this world on September 13th has caused significant increases in Facebook postings, the use of cameras and recording devices, emails, texts, phone calls, prayers, and love spread all around.  While you are currently capable of only very basic feats, you have taught us lessons about living. Some of us...
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Under the leadership of Mayor Jim Ardis, Peoria County State’s Attorney, Jerry Brady, Sheriff Mike McCoy and several others, Peoria is implementing a new program to combat youth violence. Badly needed in our city, it’s called “Don’t Shoot.” It was developed by Boston criminologist David M. Kennedy after extensive research that included riding in...
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Super Political Action Committees (super PACs) spent almost a quarter of a million dollars in the Peoria TV market during the campaign from January-March, records show, together paying $3.74 per vote for the March 20 primary. That’s lousy for democracy – made worse by many negative or misleading commercials – and TV stations should...
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Every once in a while something comes along that changes everything. For example: in the mid seventeenth century, Dutch scientist, Antonin Van Leeuwenhoek, invented the first microscope. He could actually see previously unknown single-celled critters we now call microorganisms. This opened up a whole new tiny universe to science and paved the way to...
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First, my Uncle Joe Binder died after a long illness. Uncle Joe was born in Hungary, but escaped to the United States in the 1950s to avoid having to serve in the Army. He met my Aunt Barbara in a bar in Peoria. He asked her for a kiss, which in his native language resembled as risqué euphemism for...
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Are you still in school? That’s a rhetorical question. The wisest man who ever lived told me you are. I am, too. We are all born into a classroom, and whether we learn or not, the lessons and tests will come as surely as the sun rises. In his book titled, Ecclesiastes, King Solomon penned his...
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Back in the day, a euphemism for non-specific but multiple numbers of decades ago, school reconvened in September. More specifically, the day after Labor Day, regardless of the calendar date. With no regard to outside temperatures, we parochial school students dressed in the prescribed uniform and typically walked to school, toting a new lunch...
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