We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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People have liked our Fat Guys With Forks reviews, but in all fairness – they are flawed. I mean, everyone who knows me, knows that I despise vegetables – all kinds of vegetables – so the only dishes I will even eat are your basic meat and potatoes. As my wife puts it, “I have the pallet of a ten year old.” I readily admit that, so my personal taste is skewed – if it’s fried with hot sauce on it, I like it. But something healthy made with avocadoes, onions or peppers … Make me gag! In additio...
In many ways, covering the Stephenson County Board was a refreshing break from the idiocy found at Freeport City Council meetings. But, admittedly, in many ways the County Board still has its’ own issues to deal with as agendas – that aren’t hidden very well at all – repeatedly come to the surface. Case in point, Bill Hadley and Jim Hart got back on their, “We need to do an RFP for an Insurance Broker,” soapbox again. Now, when you hear them speak, on the surface, it sounds credible – after all...
By the time you are reading this, I will be in Las Vegas. Someone, back when we were all living under the same roof when it was cold, got the idea for the four of us – Chuck, his wife Jules, Me and my wife, Cathy – to go out to Vegas and renew our wedding vows. Now, I wasn’t even in on the original idea, but what began as a conversation piece turned into a concrete plan complete with airline tickets and rooms reserved at the Paris Casino on the Vegas Strip. Admittedly, some of the plan chang...
Anyone who has been following the Freeport City Council knows – they have some serious issues. At the last Committee of the Whole meeting, the ordinance they had been "discussing" for two months came up once again. Specifically, the Police Department was having a serious issue with people who would be caught driving on a suspended license for the third time in a month, that they were powerless to stop. As a remedy, the proposal was made to allow the Police Department to impound a vehicle that wa...
There is a big difference between the national political races we follow on television, and the small town elected officials we put into office. As one politician put it, "There are no Republicans or Democrats on a Village Board. It's all public service, permits, road repairs and putting on festivals." But, as we all know, and many of you are following with our coverage of the Freeport City Council – there are good Village Governments, and bad ones as well. The one point I have found apparent i...
OK, at the risk of embarrassing people who don’t deserve it, let me begin by saying that the names have been changed in the following story to protect the guilty. Now, with that being said … I came to a pretty obvious conclusion recently. The easiest way to get a man to revert back to his days as a wide eyed ten year-old kid with a big grin and runny nose, is to take him into a fireworks store. Now, I’m not talking about the wanna-be tent displays you have in the area where all you can buy a...
I've been to a ton of board meetings – county, city, village, schools – and an underlying concern throughout all of them is always economic development. Specifically, how do we grow our tax base, get more businesses to open, or more families to relocate into our area? Thanks to a Federal Grant, one organization is not only able to answer that question, but is also providing all kinds of support and information to help solve the problem. I give you the Birth to Five team. Three individuals: Lou...
There is a serious question people often need to ask themselves when they go out to eat. Specifically – what is your priority? For some, it is low cost; for others they need a quick meal to get back to work – especially at lunch; and for many – the answer to the first two comes before the third one … finding something that tastes good. Last week, the Fat Guys made our way to the Riverside 7 Restaurant in Freeport – located behind the Wendy’s. And the end result was a really good meal … just not...
This time of year at the newspaper is one of the most nerve wracking, as well as one of the most rewarding. Over the last few weeks, if you are a loyal subscriber who signed up when we first converted over to a paid subscription publication, then you already have received your subscription renewal notice in the mail. Being a subscription newspaper is the biggest thing that sets us apart from all of the freebies people get in the mail. For those who care – the subscription price basically only c...
Yes, the agenda was light, and it was the Monday before the Fourth of July. But every Freeport City Council member was in attendance, so when the meeting actually evolved into a productive, and rather smooth, outcome … nobody was more shocked than I was. Admittedly, a big reason was that Larry Sanders never said anything until the very end. So, there were no lengthy incoherent ramblings, and no moronic questions … well, okay, there was one, but still – he spent almost the entire meeting playi...
Grab the kids, call your friends, and tie the dog up under a tree with a bowl of water because this Thursday is the biggest gathering of the summer. Lanark's Old Settlers' Days, and Fun Days in Scales Mound, and even Pumpkin Fest in Warren are very special celebrations, but for the most part they are locally based. The whole town of Lanark was on hand to enjoy Old Settler's Days last weekend, which was a ton of fun to see, and the same can be said for all of the local town festivals. But the...
Do you have a secret vocabulary with your wife? You know, words that might mean one thing to someone listening, but you and your wife know they mean something totally different? Now, I’m not talking sexual – although I know a lot of couples have a secret vocabulary for that too. No, I mean things like quotes from a movie or something that you tend to throw back and forth at each other. “Wow, that really escalated quickly didn’t it?” (I mean, Anchorman, lends itself to a lot of them – but tha...
Stephenson County Sheriff, Steve Stovall, stood in front of the County Board and asked them to fund a new CSU (Crime Suppression Unit) that he wanted to form. "All too often, our officers are simply reacting to crime – answering calls when they come in," Stovall explained. "We want to set up a unit that is proactive, and looks to take the fight against crime right to them." The vote was approved to begin a special four officer unit, but as it opened up operations, the County only had two d...
Let me ask you something, if you had been told before you decided to run for office, that if you won it would mean doing work on Saturdays in order to prepare for the Monday meetings, would you have the intestinal fortitude to complain about it, and try to change the entire system? During last week’s Freeport City COW (Committee of the Whole) meeting, Alderman Cecelia Stacy and Rachel Simmons put forth a discussion that asked for the Agenda for the Monday meetings to come out before late F...
People ask me why I love going to all of the High School sports contests all the time. When taken as a whole, it does seem rather exhausting. Driving to the four corners of our region to watch a battle between Scales Mound and Warren, then staying up late at night making sure the story is written on the internet, then getting up the next day knowing that I will repeat the process yet again once the sun begins to go down. Friday nights in the Fall are the most hectic - I try and get to at least...
China Buffet A Fat Guy Favorite In all honesty, the plan was to restart the Fat Guys. With Forks restaurant reviews at Cimmino's Pizza for their pasta buffet. I mean, it's listed on their menu, and when we had tried it before, it rocked. But upon entry, we found out the hard way that the staff had no idea what buffet we were talking about, so ... off to China Buffet. I would be the first one to admit that the Pandemic hit area restaurants hard, and the China Buffet was no different. For a long...
Most readers who follow the adventure that is known as the Freeport City Council knows that I filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Request) regarding the text messages being sent during the meeting by Freeport Councilman, Larry Sanders and Cecelia Stacey. Specifically, there were two incidents – the first being when Sanders said over Zoom for all to hear, “Have Councilman Stacey text me back”, and the second when we took a picture of him plugging away on his phone during a meeting. Anywa...
Many years ago, after I first got married, I needed a new car and ended up buying a Buick LeSabre from Confer Chevrolet in Lena (So, you know we’re talking MANY years ago). I liked the car for one main reason – I fit into it. With big fabric bench seats in the front and back, I was never having my hips pinched, and it had plenty of head room. And the engine in it had a little “pick-up” too so … I thought I was set. Until I told my Dad. “Why’d you buy an ‘Old man’ car?” “A what?” “An old man ca...
The circus side show, otherwise known as the Freeport City Council meeting, took place last Monday night, with very few things on the agenda … but that didn’t mean it didn’t last more than three hours. It all started with a report from the Albertus Airport Manager, Angie Janssen, who explained the issues the airport was facing. Currently, there are 53 hangers occupied, with 12 still vacant, but all of them – according to Janssen – were in need of some form of repair. Apparently one hanger has be...
The third annual Volleyball All Star Game is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday, June 4th at Eastland High School beginning at 6:00 pm. In order to be invited to play, a girl had to be a senior who graduated this year as per IHSA rules. Anyone within the Voices circulation area that was named to an All Conference team was invited. In addition, players from outside of our coverage area - ie Galena, Dakota, Durand, etc - was invited if they were named to their respective First Team All Co...
What is a dog? I mean, can you describe a dog? Some might say, “A four-legged carnivorous mammal with floppy ears and a tail.” But that doesn’t fit because not all dogs have floppy ears, and I swear my family once had a dog who loved grapefruit! You can try to look up “dog” in the dictionary, but even they can’t lock it down in spite of multiple paragraphs all trying to answer one simple question – What is a dog? If you think about it, the question is nearly impossible to define. And yet, I co...
For the third time, the Orangeville Broncos squared off against the Dakota Indians – this time in the Softball Sectional semi-final – but unlike any game played between the two ... ever – things got out of hand early. The Broncos got the lead batter out – which was big, because Finley Banks is already a star. But the next one hit a short fly to right that was dropped for an error – putting a runner on first with one out. That was when catcher, Kendra Nehring stepped into the box. The only left...
The old saying in baseball is pretty simple, Get 'em on, Get 'em over, Get 'em in." In the Sectional semi-final against the host Forreston Cardinals, the Panthers certainly got 'em on – in fact they had runners on base in every single inning of the game. They also got 'em over – Lena-Winslow had runners in scoring position in every inning except the first, and in four of the seven innings, they had a runner at third. But getting them in, was a problem. The Panthers left 11 runners on base in...
There was a wedding ceremony last Saturday. And while the days of being a participant are well and gone for me, I was still caught off guard when my loving wife began to present her list of things I needed to do leading up to it. “Get a haircut.” Now, being told on Saturday that I needed a haircut before the following Saturday seemed like a relatively easy task. But when I still hadn’t done it by Tuesday, I could tell she was getting a little flustered. She never said anything, but … trust m...
Before going into their Regional championship game against Rockford Lutheran, Panther head coach, Nick Werhane, gave a brief scouting report on what he hoped to see. "Well, I know their starting pitcher is a little erratic," he explained. "So we're going to try and see a lot of pitches, crowd the plate, make him work, and hopefully we'll be able to get him out of the game early." By the second inning, Werhane needed to apply for prophet status. The Panthers loaded the bases in the bottom of the...
