Take my writing class (more shameless self-promotion)

Add comment October 31st, 2008

Hey, you: You can still sign up for a conversational writing class I’m teaching from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, in the Fountain View Room of Womanspace, 3333 Maria Linden Drive, Rockford. Call 815-877-0118. Cost is $20.

$1.99 gas; best part of my Kansas City trip

Add comment October 31st, 2008

Sorry for the weeklong blogging absence. Was out of a town with a friend for a business trip to Kansas City.

Best part of the trip, besides twice eating great barbecued beef and pork at Jack Stack’s, was the price of gas.

In Cameron, Mo., we paid $1.99 a gallon, and we were stoked. Then, we were really stoked when we saw a sign in Iowa a bit closer to home on our return trip at $1.97 a gallon.

But the euphoria didn’t last long. We never saw anything cheaper than $2.09 after that, and of course, when we got back to Rockford, it was $2.49.

Bummer.

But cheaper gas is a two-edged sword, I hear on the news. That’s because our economy is so bad that demand for gas is down, so the price is lower.

I get it, but even though I’m like everybody else and watching for waiting for any signs of economic uplifts, don’t look for me or anyone else to be whoopin’ it up if the price of gas climbs past $3 again.

Beyonce’s alter-ego Sasha Fierce; bloggers: what’s your’s

2 comments October 24th, 2008

OK, now that this picture of beautiful Beyonce has lured you into reading this post, it’s time for a diversion from the stock market diving and the constant news about the presidential candidates.

So, Beyonce wants to be known a “Sasha Fierce,” according to this story. She says Fierce is “the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage.” The name also is in the title of her new CD, “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” due in stores Nov. 18.

I go by “Geo” for my columns, and folks at the office call me that or my first name. My nickname is obviously a shorter version of my name, not so much an alter-ego-type name. But lots of you bloggers have unusual identifiers. Are they alter egos? Do tell.

You can hear Mancow practically all morning starting Monday

1 comment October 23rd, 2008

Erich “Mancow” Muller, host of Mancow in the Morning, a syndicated morning show that has aired from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays since March 2007 in Rockford on The Eagle, WKGL (96.7 FM), is adding more air time.

On Monday, he’ll start hosting a talk show from 9 to 11 a.m.  weekdays on WLS-AM 890, according to this Chicago Tribune story.

Becky Riojas, market manager for Cumulus Media in Rockford, which owns and operates The Eagle, said Thursday morning that she hadn’t heard that Mancow would be doing the mid-to-late-morning show in Chicago. She said programming changes typically are decided in Cumulus’ home office in Atlanta. “I’m unaware of any changes,”she said.

Riojas said Mancow is popular in Rockford. “He does well in the ratings,” she said.

I’m so glad to be an American woman

Add comment October 22nd, 2008

Parwez Kambakhsh, 24, got 20 years for blasphemy after he ran afoul of Afghan authorities last year when he circulated an article about women’s rights under Islam after downloading it from the Internet, according to today’s Los Angeles Times.

Whenever I hear anything about Afghan women in the news, I feel sad and angry, but it also makes me rejoice to be an American.

I learned, though, by reading “The Kabul Beauty School” by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson (available through the Rockford Public Library) that despite the horrendous abuse and difficulties Afghan women face, that their dreams and small wonders keep them going. The book is a true story about Rodriguez leaving the U.S., setting up a beauty school in Afghanistan and marrying an Afghan man. It’s revealing and saddening, yet humorous in parts and more uplifting than I expected.

I highly recommend reading it.

Kudos to Wisconsin newspapers pushing tougher drunken driving laws

Add comment October 22nd, 2008

This Chicago Sun Times story says that this week “the state’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is running a five-part series that examines the state’s drinking culture and drunken driving. That series follows an analysis and series of stories done by the newspaper group Gannett Wisconsin Media this summer that looked at alcohol’s impact in Wisconsin.”

“Momentum is building in the Wisconsin Legislature to increase penalties for drunken driving in the wake of two extensive newspaper series on problems associated with drinking in the state.”

The Journal Sentinel reported that “almost two-thirds of people sentenced under a state law that makes a fifth-offense drunken driving a felony spend less than a year in custody. State records show that last year alone one-third of those convicted of drunken driving in Wisconsin were repeat offenders.”

What was Biden thinking??

1 comment October 21st, 2008

“What do you do when Joe Biden guarantees an international crisis if running mate Barack Obama is elected to the presidency? If you’re the McCain team you jump on it,” according to this Christian Science Monitor post. (Jake Turcotte illustration)

Culprit of long ER waits not what you think

Add comment October 21st, 2008

This Newsweek story sets the record straight that it’s not the uninsured who are causing the long waits in emergency rooms at hospitals.

The culprits include an aging population going in for real emergencies. And fewer primary doctors are available so sick people who can’t wait to get in go to the ER instead.

I’ve heard stories that in Rockford, ER waits can be three to four hours long.

I’ve also heard that if you have a real emergency (as opposed to an unreal emergency?) call the ambulance because ERs take patients first who arrive by ambulance. Have you been told this by local medical staff? Is this true?

Does Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama change how you’ll cast your vote?

Add comment October 20th, 2008

Does Colin Powell’s breaking with the GOP ranks and endorsing Obama change how you’ll cast your vote?

When are you too old to trick-or-treat?

4 comments October 17th, 2008