December 2nd, 2008
I’m covering Thursday’s Excalibur and Excelsior awards, an honor the Rockford Register Star bestows each year.
One of the questions we’ve asked this year and last of the finalists for the Excalibur award, which recognizes a local individual’s community contributions, is this:
If you had a $1 million to give away, whom/what would you give the money to and why?
You can read the finalists’ answers to the question at the link above.
But I’m wondering if you had $1 million to give away, whom/what would you give the money to and why? Do tell in the comments section.
As for me, I’d give the money to a local youth services bureau to set up/expand ongoing parenting classes for single mothers.
Another question we asked was this: Name something positive going on in the Rock River Valley that you’d like to see further developed.
Again, read the finalists’ comments at the link above.
As for me, I’d like to see more job programs such as Youth Build developed for at-risk youth.
How ’bout you?
December 2nd, 2008
Seems like this whole waiting-in-line-outside-all-night-at-Best Buy-til-your-fingers-are-numb-and-your-patience-has-run-out thing could be avoided by doing what MetroCentre and TicketMaster outlets have done for years when selling tickets for big concerts:
Have everyone who is standing in line at a preselected time choose a number out of a hat.
Then everyone can go home or sit in their warm cars for hours until another preselected time, just an hour or so before the store opens. Everyone lines up according to the number they’ve drawn.
Sure, it’s random. But it’s fair enough.
And the retailer sure doesn’t lose any money.
December 2nd, 2008
Just returning to blogging after a few days off around Thanksgiving.
My editor posted the story below to rrstar.com after last Tuesday’s finale of “The Shield.”
I watched the episode on TV that night and thought Cathy Cahlin Ryan’s facial expressions spoke volumes. She is the real-life wife of the show’s creator, Rockford native Shawn Ryan, who wrote the finale. And she’s visited Rockford.
What I read into her expressions as an actress, the ex-wife of rogue cop Vic Mackey, and mom to their three kids:
that she wasn’t impressed with the modest-by-L.A.-standards house their family would be relocating to. The house that was filmed did look like an average Rockford home.
But that judging by the smile on the face of her youngest TV child as a kid rode by on his bike, that she had resigned herself to living here and was putting on a good face for her family with her “it’s perfect” comment.
Hmm. I wonder how many other folks who have moved to Rockford have felt similar feelings. … Do tell.
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RRSTAR.COM STAFF REPORTS
Posted Nov 25, 2008 @ 11:44 PM
FX cop drama “The Shield,” created, written and produced by Rockford native Shawn Ryan, ended Tuesday after seven seasons.
Ryan told GO Columnist Georgette Braun last month that Rockford would be mentioned in the one-hour-45-minute finale, and he was true to his word.
(SPOILER ALERT — do not read on if you don’t want to know how the show or series ends.)
In one of the final scenes, Corrine Mackey — ex-wife of “Shield” main character Vic Mackey — and her children are relocated from L.A. through the Witness Protection Program to Rockford.
The town isn’t mentioned by name, but as the family is introduced to their new house, a federal agent tells them about the “quiet” town where the “schools are getting better, there’s an ice rink a couple of miles away” and a “museum here with an actual dinosaur. The largest and finest juvenile T. rex in the world is right here at the fabulous Burpee Museum. Her name’s Jane.” To which Corrine — played by Ryan’s real-life wife Cathy Cahlin Ryan — says, “It’s perfect.”
