Susanne Nestory has been a resident of Peoria for a little more than a decade. She came from New Jersey as the interim director of Bradley University’s Gallery and Collections and is currently and has been an adjunct professor since…
Ordinarily, I write this column on one topic. This month I’m writing on three topics. One of the saddest phone calls I received from my son Darin was to tell me of Randy Simmons passing. I have known Randy for…
It’s a gigantic pissing contest between two of Peoria’s major icons. Bradley’s basketball coach is ticked off at the PJ Star sports department. Wardle’s team this year made it to the NCAA tournament and suddenly the coach decided to get…
After a career as a chef and restauranteur – including running Coop’s in Princeville for eight years – Sherri Cooper was looking forward to a retirement renovating the Washington C. Wear homestead, a property on the National Register of Historic…
Yesterday, I was at a dinner hosted at a friend’s house when the person sitting opposite me introduced himself. In turn I introduced myself by just the name and expected to return to casual polite conversation with everyone. But he…
Candles on birthday cakes add a festive look and provide opportunities to coerce the celebrant into admitting how many years those candles represent. Some folks skirt around the truth while others rejoice every 12 months that another year of life…
(First of two parts. Second part to be published in May.) The universal feeling that we as human beings can relate to is loss, if that is in the form of losing a job, or game, a loved one, losing…
As a blustery March gives way to the hope of spring, we look forward to an April of warmer temperatures and some greenery in an otherwise sleeping landscape. Already, birds are migrating in support of the coming changes in the…
“When I lived on Lincoln, and then further up north on Damen, I loved taking walks at night on Ravenswood, which then was a deserted industrial strip. It’s now a Hipster haven. Thinking about this may account for my more…
When you think of “the arts” what comes to mind? How about when someone says they’re an artist? Upon asking most people this question their answer is somewhere along the lines of fine arts and visual arts. That couldn’t be…
