Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole country is under the Stay-at-home order. In obeying the order, I have kept myself at home for social-distancing. In such an unusual circumstance there are two things I found most suitable to do: reviewing life and reading books.
In any other downturn, they could print out a stack of resumes, pound the pavement and press flesh. Not today. Entire sectors of the economy are comatose and “non-essential” workers stay at home. Illinois’ unemployment website is crashing under duress.
A time to reflect on salvation
To the editor:
We are being reminded daily about the state of the world we live in and the pandemic effects of a virus that has literally put a stop to most daily business.
This emergency lockdown we’re under is all the talk on social media. What else is there to do but socialize online? You know, like most of us have been doing anyway.
The words of the following passage ring loudly for this present year. They are spoken from of a man who wonders why so much destruction. But the prophet recalls something to mind, and therefore has hope:
As former Vice President Joe Biden surges to the lead for the Democratic presidential nomination, he’ll soon need to pick a running mate who will attract votes he might otherwise not receive.
Around the Ides of March, life as we have known it changed. What has since ensued has had the air of a fantasy — a “this-can’t-be-happening” quality. For some, the fantasy has been a nightmare, for neither a Katrina, nor a West Coast earthquake, nor 9/11, nor Middle East wars, nor a stock ma…
The last few months here in the Washington bubble have given me ‘whip-lash.’ You couldn’t write this stuff and get anyone to believe it. Yet people are writing books about it.
I saw a notice for a new Optimists Club in Lebanon. I thought, of course they’re forming a club. Why wouldn’t they? They’re optimists. They see the good in everything, so it’s only natural that they’d want to combine their sunshine with like-minded people and build on that positivity.
RURAL DEWEY — At Society for Hooved Animals Rescue and Emergency, horses are looking forward to the volunteers coming to get them out of the pasture and open those gates so they can run into their stalls.
Looks like Adrian Monk was right.
It was just me and Big Vince in the cigar shop. A rare opportunity to converse without others feeling compelled to weigh in and turning it into a circus.
I first met Satomi Kamei last year at her watercolor painting exhibition at the Gilbert Art Gallery in downtown Urbana. This year on Valentine’s Day, the Gilbert Art Gallery organized A Love of Art celebration party and art show and sale.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is going all in on his bet that Illinois voters will back a proposal for a graduated income tax that will make it far easier for state lawmakers to raise taxes in a state beset by public corruption.
My granddaughter handed me a slip of paper and a plastic card. It looked like a credit card but was a promotional piece of some sort. “You’ll need these, Paw Paw Dave,” she said.
Remember the soda tax? It may go down as the shortest-lived tax hike in Illinois history, lasting just four months in 2017.
Two months ago, I shared with you my hopes of interviewing my co-worker about her experience growing up with parents who use sign language. Without further ado, here is the interview:
SPRINGFIELD – A fellow sat down next to me Saturday on a flight from San Antonio to Chicago and let out a sigh.
A few months back, I wrote a column on soup. Hearty soup; the kind of soup that can see you through a blizzard; soup that isn’t soupy soup.
My husband and I are fans of the Hallmark Channel. We like to watch the seasonal shows, especially the mysteries, and guess who did what?
Last week, I stopped by a friend’s house, ate some pizza, talked about old times, and was shown the latest acquisitions to his gun collection.
Filmmakers John Davies and Brian Kallies last year held screenings across the state of their documentary on Illinois corruption, titled “Lincoln is Crying.”
RURAL DEWEY — So many horses have been rescued and homed at Society for Hooved Animals Rescue and Emergency. Some have been adopted, some passed away and some just stay at the facility.
Sleep sometimes comes at the most inopportune times. But at my age, you take it when you can get it.
According to a late 2019 piece in the New York Times, one in five newspapers in America has been shuttered over the past 15 years, and journalist numbers cut in half. This bodes ill for the vibrancy of communities, for which newspapers have been the essential glue, prod and town crier.
In my inaugural Art = Life column article Dec. 5, 2007, I wrote about Rantoul resident Dan Barrett and his Illinois state award-winning art. A couple of years later, Dan’s wife, Sharon Davie Barrett, won the same award, and I also featured her in my column in the Rantoul Press.
To the editor:
To the editor:
Recently, while out at a weekday lunch, some people whom I used to work with were on their way out while we were on our way in. It was the first time I had seen anyone from work in a long while, as the first full year of retirement culminates.
Not long after the holidays are past — Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and even their close relative, New Year’s Day, heart-shaped balloons, giant Tedd bears and limitless boxes of chocolate crowd the shelves at Wal-Mart — you guessed it: St. Valentine’s Day!
Karen Finley was the head of an international tech company. She left prison a little more than a year ago, at age 60.
Champaign County residents voted to change to a county-executive form of government in 2016. This is like the state and federal levels of government, where executive, legislative and judicial branches exist for checks and balances. In the former township form of government, executive and leg…
Illinois is home to a small, powerful and protected class of wealth.
I had the weirdest dream last night. I woke up and I was in a pickle. Besides being in a precarious situation, I was literally inside a pickle. Worse yet, it was a dill pickle, and I prefer sweet cucumbers.
SPRINGFIELD — Arrogant and combative have become servile and obsequious.
Four years ago the Rantoul Tomorrow initiative got off the ground with Mayor Chuck Smith championing the cause and its goal toward improving Rantoul as a community.
The organization of Champaign County government, only one of many levels of government in Illinois, can be confusing to its constituents.
I’ve tried my hand at writing over the years. I really love it. It’s like talking without being interrupted.
SPRINGFIELD It’s got to be rough to be the child of a politician.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan doesn’t know anything about his lobbyist buddy’s appalling 2012 email advocating on behalf of a politically connected worker who kept his mouth shut about a rape and ghost payroll practices.
Some things are objectively subjective. Is a Ford better than a Chevrolet? Is a Nikon camera better than a Canon?
Illinoisans awoke to a brand new industry on New Year’s Day, with legal recreational marijuana sales coming online Jan. 1.
I’ve always wanted to write an advice column but, not surprisingly, nobody asks me for advice.
RURAL DEWEY — Wow. SHARE has a secret Santa!
What must it take to be a star that shines brightly? I am not sure if I can even come close to explaining what I think it is to be a bright star.
US-China Cultural Arts Exchange Center is a subsidiary of Amerinvest International, LLC.
