Tell here in comments about your stress-busters.

Each group is given one glow stick and upon entering the haunted path at 6512 Manchester Road, the group is left alone to find its way out in darkness. If you lose your glow stick, you won’t be given another. There is no time limit. It could take you 20 minutes or more than an hour. The creatures, Screamatorium staff who are known for their intense in-your-face effects, will run customers in endless circles around the detailed horror scenes.

No one under age 13 will be admitted without a parent or guardian. Tickets available only on-site, and there are no advance ticket sales. Cost is $10.

SCOTT MORGAN | ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR
Cassi Canaday, 14, of South Beloit gets ready Oct. 23 for the haunted house in South Beloit.

So says the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, which is hosting its own “Iron Chef” competition Monday through Wednesday at McCcormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago. The group has 5,300 member organizations.

Christina Fox of Wesley Willows Retirement Community  in Rockford is among competitors from the Chicago area and Maryland and California as well who will race against the clock to create dishes using a secret ingredient. Area chefs will judge their culinary creations.

I’ll follow up to see how Fox fares.

I’ve used the one at the Hilander (a Kroger store) on Main Street and Riverside Boulevard in Rockford just once. I tend to avoid it because I don’t want to make a mistake and feel foolish. I’m not alone.

Researchers studied the patterns at a lane of self-checkout machines in a Kroger Co.  grocery store in North Carolina, and interviewed the users afterward, according to this Daily Finance story. “They found that shoppers felt more comfortable ringing up their own purchases if they were alone or in a crowd. But if there was just one other person waiting in line behind them, they felt more pressured and less confident and were less likely to use the machine again or recommend it to others.

“Retail Banking Research estimated the number of self-checkout machines in the U.S. will grow to nearly 192,000 in 2011, more than tripling the 59,000 that were in use in 2007.”

Yikes. We best shed our fears of embarrassment and get with the program or we could be waiting in lines longer as retailers increasingly cut checkers to cut costs. We can do it. Remember, some of us didn’t used to pump our own gas, either.

Tickets cost $32.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at metrocentre.com, 815-968-5222 and the MetroCentre box office.

Shinedown is known for hits “Save Me,” “Devour,” “Second Chance” and “Sound of Madness.” Papa Roach’s hits include “Last Resort” and “Lifeline.” Halestorm, led by siblings Elizabeth and Arejay Hale,  has had one hit: “I Get Off.” A fourth band may be added.

So Hometown Holiday will not be held this December, but is expected to return next year, according to a news release by Charlotte’s Web for the Performing Arts, which presented the show.

Sullivan is the new artistic director of the Pearl Theatre Company in New York City, and the job is keeping him busy in the Big Apple this year. “I can only say that I know this to be a one-year break, and the Hometown Holiday show will be back in 2010,” Sullivan said in the news release.

The film is one of eight documentaries in the American Stories film series presented with the Nebraska Humanities Council and Federation of State Humanities Councils. It is part of a series presented with the 2009 National Humanities Conference in Omaha. The Illinois Humanities Council submitted the film for consideration.

From a story I wrote in April 2006: Peterson “embraced the ’60s and ’70s, and his friends flocked to the farm with all their flamboyant artistic expressions. Some neighbors thought he was wacky and wrongly believed worse, like he was a drug king and ritualistic killing was going on down on the farm.

“The farm debt crisis of the ’80s cost him all but 22 acres. He was depressed and went to Mexico to find himself. After his return, he started farming organically on the property and now owns and operates ecologically friendly Angelic Organics. It’s a Community Supported Agriculture farm in which about 1,200 consumers, mostly from the Chicago and Rockford areas, are invested in the expenses of producing food.”

Tell here in Comments what you like about going to Angelic Organics.

Jan. 19, 2006

Coming up soon is Emily Bear, 8, of Rockford performing  at 7 p.m. Nov. 19, at the center at 415 N. Church St. Cost is $15. 815-964-9713. She’ll play piano after a screening of the film, “Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037.”

It was the fifth annual event for the Pecatonica theater, and money from “Terror in TV Land” will help fund theater programs and pay the theater’s mortgage.