We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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Once again, the question regarding Stephenson County's Walnut Acres nursing Home was on the agenda at the County Board Meeting Thursday night. Once again, several people showed up with their signs of support, and pleaded with the Board not to close the facility with questions about "How much is human life worth?". And yet, once again, the issue remains unresolved. The biggest problem surrounding the facility is that it has been chronically mis-managed for years – not only by administrators w...
What you are reading right now is both my greatest treasure, as well as the biggest bane of my existence. “I love your column!” If I had a dollar for every person who said that … well … I might be able to buy lunch. (At least a Happy Meal) But, in all seriousness, I know a lot of people read this, and it is for that very reason that it causes me so many headaches – I don’t want it to suck. (Admittedly, it often does – I know that.) I have used my column to go off on a personal tirade agains...
Sheriff Dave Snyders has already made it clear that he is leaving his office after his announcement not to run for another term. But even though he is on his way out, that apparently doesn’t mean he isn’t still trying to pull a few fast ones before he turns in his keys. The County decided it was time to make some significant improvements to the Stephenson County Jail, Public Safety Building and Stephenson County Courthouse. So, an RFP (Request For Proposal) was designated to put the pro...
Baseball Forreston 6 Lena-Winslow 1 The Cardinals jumped on top of Drew Streckwald in the first inning, then used three different pitchers to hold off the Panther bats, with a combined 12 strikeouts in order to claim the non-conference victory at home. The Panthers had five hits in the game, while Forreston only had seven, but the Cardinals were able to group their hits together, while one critical error opened the door for what ended up being a four-run inning in the bottom of the third for...
We heard it a ton before the Super Sectional contest Monday night at Northern Illinois University as the small town, 77 total student, Scales Mound Hornets didn't stand a chance in hell against the high powered, more athletic, more experienced, and much bigger Chicago Marshall Commodores. "They'll be out-classed," I was told by some local "experts". "Chicago Marshall is a power. They've been to the State finals before and won it all. They're used to this kind of pressure, but Scales Mound ......
OK, so last week I went through the ten worst foods known to man. (Correction, the ten foods Dan is too juvenile to eat!) Seriously, you have to participate in this column too? (Hey, as long as you are going to represent yourself as some sort of authority on food, it is my responsibility to point out that you are full of crap.) Uhm, are you speaking metaphorically, or literally? (I could make an argument for both.) Well, with the – rather intrusive – opinion of my wife not-withstanding, I now...
As the Girls' Basketball season came to an end, and the Galena Pirates came within a single point of claiming the 1A State Championship, one thing was certain – nobody will ever look lightly at our region again. This past season was blessed with a ton of talented players, excellent coaches, and epic match-ups as the best of the area seemed to always be taking one another on in the battle for conference supremacy. So, trying to pick an All Area team is not an easy task, but ... whether you a...
Ok, let me start off by saying I hate horror movies. Give me a monster I can see and is difficult to kill, no problem. But the scary slasher movies or something that comes out and tries to make you jump out of your skin ... no thank you. So, while I will be the first one to put on record that Orangeville's production over the weekend of the Haunting of Hill House, had some really strong performances in it ... as a former theater teacher/director, I'm not sure I would ever pick a psychological th...
While Waiting for the fat man elevator to go to the media room for the postgame press conference, a fan dressed in green called over and thanked me for all the coverage this past season. But the honor was mine. It might take several weeks before people truly realize just what we all witnessed this past season. The Scales Mound Hornets might have come from a school with only 77 students, but they captured the hearts of thousands. Almost everywhere you looked you could see shirts proudly saying th...
And David picked up a stone and slung it ... Unfortunately, Goliath ducked, swung his club and delivered a death blow. The hearts of Scales Mound Hornet fans had a hard time watching as the Liberty Eagles dashed their hopes of meeting top ranked Yorkville Christian in the 1A State finals. The Eagles were physically bigger and stronger – standing 6'6", 6'5", 6'4" and 6'2" – and none of them were what anyone would call "lean". But size alone was not the entire factor. Liberty was strong, ath...
Most basketball fans saw the Third Place game at the IHSA State finals last weekend as the contest to determine who was going to claim the trophy. Who would be the only other team in the state to end their season with a win. But for the Scales Mound Hornets, that was far from being important. Stepping out onto the floor in front of all of their friends, family and a ton of people from throughout northwest Illinois who made the trip down to support them ... none of that mattered either. Ever...
After struggling to keep the stage alive via video and behind masks, Lena-Winslow was finally able to bring back a legitimate show with their production of Beauty And The Beast last weekend. The production allowed a lot of veterans the chance to shine, but also introduced several new faces as the casting was incredibly good. Let's start with the leads – Michael Decker pulled off a major acting job as the scary beast, the vocal range was a bit too low for him, but he was still solid. And Ava F...
Once again they made their fans have to change batteries in the pacemakers, but after some critical halftime adjustments the Scales Mound Hornets knocked off the Pecatonica Indians to advance into the Class 1A Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history 60-57. Both teams made drives to the basket off the dribble in the first quarter – which basically served as an opportunity to see who should be guarding who as they were both playing man to man defense. Neither team took control as they w...
During the first quarter of the Pecatonica Sectional Championship, the Sterling Newman Cheerleaders began to get their crowd up doing a cheer. No sooner did they begin, then they were completely drowned out by the entire Scales Mound side in green screaming, "We Are ... S.M.!" "Ok, they might have a good cheering section," the students from Polo said to each other behind me, "But Scales Mound is for real – they are loud!" The running joke is that when the Hornets are in the state tournament ...
Undoubtedly, the best comment about food that tastes bad came from George W. Bush when he said,” I don’t like broccoli, I’ve never liked broccoli, I’m President of the United States and I don’t have to eat broccoli ever again!” It was direct, to the point, and carried a ton of weight behind hit. Unfortunately, I’ve never held that kind of power - although I have uttered many comments about the food people have tried to force down my throat. My first one as a kid, or so I have been told, was whe...
At halftime of the Sectional semi-final at Forreston, the game appeared to be over. The Stockton Blackhawks had almost completely shut down the Pecatonica Indians if not for a last second first quarter throw it up and – hey – nice shot, by freshman Kianna Degner. As the teams went into the halftime break, Stockton was up 22 – 2. Yes ... two. "We were doing a nice job of closing out on their shooters in the first half," said Blackhawk head coach Robyn Schulz. "but it helped that they were off."...
When the Galena Pirates and Aquin Lady Bulldogs took each other on in the semi-final of the Forreston Girls Sectional, both teams knew what athletes they needed to try and stop in the other colored jersey. For Galena, they had to stop Megan Holder and Meghan Carlisle from lighting them up from the perimeter, while Aquin needed to stop Maggie Furlong and Addie Hefel from driving into the paint and carving their defense up. The argument could be made that both teams accomplished their respective...
The Lena-Winslow Panthers, when they look back on their season, will be haunted by some unorthodox shots that their opponents have made. Of course, the most memorable was the one by Kellen Henze in the final seconds when he caught his own rebound and made a shot while sitting on the floor. But the “Oh My God” shot made by Scales Mound’s Sam Cocagne will go down as the one that ultimately ended their season in a 50-32 loss to the top team in the State Wednesday night in Scales Mound. Lena-...
On paper, Sterling Newman was stronger than the Eastland Cougars – with a pair of high scoring stars in seniors Marcus Williams and Ethan Van Lunduit. Even at full strength the Cougars would have been hard pressed to pull out the win – but they were already down a player as Carson Heeren was out with an emergency appendectomy the morning of the game. Things didn’t start well for the Cougars either as Williams drained a pair of three point bombs as the Comets pulled out to the early 13-11 lead at...
Everyone agreed on the scouting report – don't let the Pirates penetrate into the paint. In order to win, you need to force Galena to shoot from the perimeter where they are streaky at best. Stockton did that. But the other scouting report was pretty consistent too – press the snot out of the Blackhawks and don't let them get into their half court set where Brynn and Kenzie Haas can kill you. Galena did that. So, what you ended up with was a classic battle between two teams that knew each oth...
Three times the Scales Mound Hornets had taken on their nemesis East Dubuque, and all three times the games had been one sided double digit wins for the Hornets that most put into the "ho hum" category. But if there was one team the Hornets could not lose to in the Regional finals, it was East Dubuque. The team that had owned them throughout most of their high school careers, simply could not being an end to their amazing senior season ... Scales Mound should have been in total control of the ga...
I know that many of you might find this hard to believe, but food has always been important to me. When most babies growing up uttered the first word of “ma ma” or “da da”, my first word in life was “gookie”. So, with a priority being placed upon edible delicacies like Peanut Butter Cups and Hot Wings, it often amazes me to realize that I really don’t know my way around a kitchen. Last week, my wife had pulled out a container of taco meat, and placed it in a pot on the stove to heat up for d...
The one certainty that came out of Monday's conference battle between Lena-Winslow and Orangeville, was that the Panthers can't match up against the Broncos in man. After a sloppy but close first quarter, Lena-Winslow went away from their 1-3-1 zone defense and played straight man-to-man against the Broncos. But aside from a third quarter burst, the Panther offense couldn't keep up as Orangeville pulled away for a convincing 51-33 victory. When the game began, the Bronco's advantage in...
Upsets abounded in the Girls Regionals Tuesday night, with Stockton taking advantage of a raucous crowd to battle back and claim a 43-30 victory over Orangeville. Early on it was the Broncos who set the tone. Kylie Wirth drained a short jumper for the lead at 7-5, then Laney Cahoon added one of her own for a 9-5 advantage. With only 21.3 seconds left, Brynn Haas made an old fashioned three point play to cut it to one, but Ella Doyle beat the buzzer from the deep baseline corner to give the...
Lena-Winslow seniors, Cierra Mapes and Kalli Humphrey, were a bit irked after reading my prediction that they would fall to RR/SM in the Regional semi-finals. "If you don't like it, prove me wrong." "We're going to, you'll see," Kalli said. "And when we do you better put us in the paper," added Cierra. After storming out to a commanding 31-13 lead over the higher seeded Wildcats, the Panthers tried to do everything they could to give the game away in the second half ... but RR/SM simply wasn't a...
