I’ll be blogging again on Tuesday

Add comment November 26th, 2008

Taking a few days off around Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday. Geo

Your favorite Thanksgiving pie poll

Add comment November 25th, 2008

Last year at this time, former Register Star business reporter Nate Legue taste-tested pies popular at Thanksgiving at Bakers Square in Cherry Valley.

Now that the place has closed, just wondering where the best places are to buy great-tasting pies in the Rockford area? Do tell in the comments section here.

If Obama starts shopping for shoes where Bill Clinton did …

6 comments November 21st, 2008

Former Clinton staffers have been picked for Obama’s team, reportedly including Hillary for Secretary of State.

And the Obamas have chosen the school for their daughters, the same one that Chelsea Clinton went to.

Now if I hear that Barack starts shopping for shoes at the same place Bill did, I’m really going to start to wonder if the big changes Obama talked about during his campaign will be shortchanged by perceptions of the same-old.

What should couples do to win free wedding at IceHogs game?

2 comments November 20th, 2008

I can’t wait to see who signs up to get married on-ice at a Rockford IceHogs hockey game April 4 at the MetroCentre.

You have until Dec. 26 to apply at icehogs.com/wedding. Up to 25 couples will be narrowed down to five during five IceHogs home games in January and February. The finalists will compete for the grand prize during a series of home games and public events in February and March.

The grand-prize-winning couple will be selected by online voting on the wedding giveaway page and by fan reaction at IceHogs home games. And they’ll get their dress, tux, rings, photographer, flowers and more paid for, as well as airfare to Las Vegas.

More ‘isms’ rearing their ugly heads

2 comments November 19th, 2008

“Socialism” was the word conservatives smeared around Obama during the presidential campaign.

Now that he’s been elected, today’s nasty “isms” are “protectionism” and “isolationism,” describing Obama shifting trade policies.

Me thinks less alarmism and more realism would foster more patriotism. Don’t you?

Mountainclimbing expert from Rockford advises Today’s Ann Curry

Add comment November 19th, 2008

Rockford native Ed Viesturs appeared on the “Today” show this morning to advise Ann Curry, the NBC reporter on assignment climbing Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. (NBC-released photo)

Curry is climbing the mountain as part of the morning show’s “Ends of the Earth” feature series to illustrate environmental stories.

Viesturs is the first American to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks and is a Rockford East High School graduate who lives in Seattle with his wife and children.

Curry and crew have been having physical ailments on their trek. “Sounds like acute mountain sickness,” Viesturs said.

“If, in the morning, any one of us has a headache or any symptoms, would it be prudent” for us to go on? Curry asked. “Definitely, you do not want to go up,” Viesturs said. “The best option would be to go down.”

Dear Virginia: Why Santa can’t bail out the auto industry

6 comments November 18th, 2008

Dear Virginia:

You’ve asked why can’t Santa bail out the auto industry.

Being such a smart 8-year-old, you already know that Santa has said he’ll bail out the banks.

So let me tell you the difference between the auto industry and the banking industry, and why Santa’s helpers (we call them “legislators”) are having a tough time giving a bag of money to carmakers.

It comes down to what the good little girls and boys in the United States are thinking.

The good little girls and boys can’t put a bad-man face on the banks, like they can with the Big Three automakers. There are just too many banks, all with somebody in charge, that are having trouble. And they don’t know those people like they know the name of Robert Lutz. He’s in charge at General Motors, the big American carmaker, and he used to be a big wig at Chrysler, the littlest of the U.S. carmakers.

Plus, while the good little girls and boys around here know that bank presidents make a lot of money, they know that the tellers and the clerks they see when they go to the bank don’t.

That’s different with the carmakers. Good little girls and boys who know someone who works at a car factory know they make a lot of money compared with what many of their other friends are making.

So, Santa’s helpers can’t very well tell all of us that they’re going to give money to your neighbor, who makes more money than your parents, but your parents aren’t going to get any.

That’s not fair, is it Virginia?

Deja vu: Emily revisits Ellen, Thanksgiving parade

Add comment November 18th, 2008

Is it “Groundhog Day” again?

No, it just seems that Emily Bear, Rockford’s pint-sized piano prodigy, is redoing what she did a year ago around Thanksgiving time in a high-profile, Bill Murray kind of way.

First, Bear’s fourth appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” aired Monday. Bear’s second appearance was last November.

This time around, the 7-year-old talked about having a broken nose last summer and played a classical number she wrote to celebrate DeGeneres’ wedding, “Once Upon a Wish.” The song is one of 26 Emily has penned. Ellen told Emily: “You are a special, special girl. I love you. I do.” And so does everyone else, judging by the comments on the TV show’s Web site.

Emily also will have another role in this year’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, the 75th annual, on State Street in Chicago.

Emily and Ronald McDonald will crank a large key to start an ice-skating princess inside the McCafe Wonderland Snow Globe. Her piece, “Christmas Bells,” will play as that parade entry winds through the route. Another piece she wrote, “Giving,” will play with another unit, the Ronald McDonald House Charities Care Mobile entry. Emily’s pieces will be heard by parade spectators who hear her crank the key, along with 1.5 million TV viewers, Julie Sestan, a spokeswoman for the parade said in an e-mail.

What’s Emily think about that? “I love it,” she said. “It makes me feel good. I like to touch people (with my music).”

Last year, Emily prerecorded and composed the parade’s opening number, “Waterlights.”

The parade airs from 8 to 11 a.m. Nov. 27 on WGN (Comcast 18).

New Joan Baez song mentions Rockford

1 comment November 17th, 2008

Joan Baez’s CD released in September, “Day After Tomorrow,” mentions Rockford in the anti-war title track.

The song was written by Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. It is a letter from a soldier to his wife in Rockford on his 21st birthday.

I tried to get in touch with Waits to ask him about writing the song. But his publicist, Tresa Redburn, told me on the phone last week that he wouldn’t be getting in touch with me. “He rarely does interviews,” she said. So I asked her if the Waits interviewed a real soldier or had a real letter from a soldier on which they based the song. She said they didn’t.

But I read a story on the Internet that said Waits had read an article about a soldier who died, and the soldier was from Rockford.

Here are the lyrics for the song sung by Baez, a 67-year-old folk singer/songwriter known for her social activism:

“Day After Tomorrow”

And the summer
It too will fade
And with it comes the winter’s frost, dear
And I know we too are made
Of all the things that we have lost here
I’ll be twenty-one today
I’ve been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down
On the day after tomorrow
And my plane it will touch down
On the day after tomorrow

Obama balm reordered

Add comment November 17th, 2008

(Sorry about the blogging absence. Had a few days off.)

Obama Balm outsold by 3-to-1 the McCain Conditioner lip balm created by Colorlab Custom Cosmetics of Rockford, says Justine Markese, senior brand manager for the company at 1112 Fifth Ave., Rockford. The company sold more than 100,000 of both balms before the election.

Colorlab has reordered more, but only of the Obama Balm. Originally, the Campaign Beauty Balms had a sticker on the outside packaging reminding users that “your vote counts.” The new packaging says “America’s Choice for Change.”

Cost is $8 for the clear lip shine product. Call 815-965-2001 to get your Obama Balm.