respublica

Ahhhh The news just gets better and better

The reports on the health benefits of chocolate keep on coming and so far no scientist has come out with his/her own study debunking it.  A new Dutch study of older men "indicates those who eat the equivalent of a third of a chocolate bar every day have lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death." 

A "reduced risk of death?"  Maybe the conclusions have gone a bit too far, but the benefits of chocolate, especially the dark kind keep getting better and better.  But, it seems all kinds of chocolate have benefits which come from something called flavanols which improve the function of the blood vessels. 

Whatever the science behind the study, I say hurray.  I already break off two pieces of a Fannie May milk chocolate bar as dessert each night and now, for sure, the MAtH (man about the house) is going to get his two pieces as well. Fannie May has begun selling a dark chocolate candy bar so we may try that too.  Ambrosia!

Sold at all St. Louis Schnuck's grocery stores and at many Hallmark stores in Illinois. 

Welcome back to southern Illinois

Members of C Company, 2-132rd Field Artillery of the Army National Guard were welcomed home from Iraq in Mt. Vernon.  Story and nice photos of the homecoming are on Gateway Pundit's site. 

Crestwood Illinois library saga continues

When I first posted the story of the Crestwood library trustees receiving badges as a "perk" of service, I figured this was one of those "15 minutes of fame" type sagas.  But I was wrong.  Crestwood residents crowded the village library Monday night and demanded library trustees display the police-style badges they issued themselves using $602 in district funds.

Library board president, Clyde Petersen told the angry group, "Let's put this to rest. The credentials were purchased ... the credentials have been given to the trustees. Money was not taken away from books or children.  The money spent on the badges came from an existing trustee fund."

Former library president, Karen Perez disagreed and told Petersen and the rest of the board that the special fund was never designed to buy badges, but instead to be used for the funding of seminars and magazines and other materials.

Then Petersen dropped his ace in the hole when he announced that an anonymous donor has given the money to cover the cost of the badges.  So now they get to keep the badges guiltfree. 

More trouble reared its ugly head at the meeting as a Crestwood woman questioned some of Petersen's appointments to the board of trustees, men who seem interconnected in business and police work and politics. The critics claim that one appointee in particular, John Toscas, is using the library as a springboard for higher office, a place to build a political powerbase.  Toscas claims this is nonsense.

As an outsider I have to say, that Crestwood library must be quite the place if its citizens think it can be that influential politically.  Its influence sounds almost like a county board position, a far cry from what goes on at most Illinois libraries.  But, back to the badges which are now off the tax rolls, their fame just might have made them quite the collector's item on e Bay.

Roseland love

My parents grew up in Roseland during the Great Depression.  After WWII they settled into a home on S. Stewart previously owned by my dad's aunt and uncle, just down the street from where he was raised.  I spent the funnest part of my childhood in Roseland and have written about it several times on this site.  The response by internet searchers looking for anything about Roseland has been quite amazing, each day brings more former residents of that part of far south Chicago here, some email me, others comment.  Thanks to one commenter I was able to find a photo of my childhood home online, and to another a description of what Brenan School looks like now. 

The greatest internet tool is from the Cook County Assessor's office which lists tax assessments along with photos of the property in question.  Since it's difficult for us to hop in the car and head for Chicago to see the neighborhood in person, this is the next best thing.  But, as the most recent commenter related last night, Brenan looks much the same inside and out, the gym still has those wonderful built in ladders along the wall...I have to get back there.

Bland and blander

Chris Muir of Day by Day weighs in on New Hampshire officials wanting to replace their most unique state motto found on their license plates, "Live Free or Die" with "You're going to love it here".  Click to enlarge

Around the state in no time at all

Interesting bits of Illinois news you may have missed or want to read again.

When March begins the state police will start deploying vans with radar activated cameras in construction and speeders will receive tickets in the mail with a first offense penalty of $375.  Interestingly, only one of the three initial vans will be south of I-80 which means one van for practically the entire state.  Hard to believe this program will be all that effective outside the Chicago area.

Frank Thomas and White Sox general manager Ken Williams got into a cat fight in the press after Thomas complained he wasn't respected when he was sent to the Oakland A's and Williams responding by saying, that Thomas is "an idiot" and "selfish" and insisting, "I don't respect the man enough to care what he says about me."

The Illinois GOP is perilously close to matching Thomas and Williams for sheer back biting and sniping and all around bad manners among the five candidates for Governor.  This should come as no surprise as the state GOP leadership hasn't been impressive for quite a few years now.   No way would things have gotten to this point if the party had someone who could lead.  Blagojevich's staff are probably taking good notes to use in the fall campaign.  Oh, wait, his staff is made up of people who didn't tell him the Daily Show was a comedy.

And speaking of biting, two Crete women were attacked by a squirrel, scratched actually, on two different days in the same neighborhood.  The women are fine, the squirrel was trapped and is undergoing medical testing.  Question.  How could anyone be sure the squirrel that was trapped was the right one?

Eating out and behaving

In today's Belleville News-Democrat's Monday Etiquette column, Dianne Isbell's readers ask some questions about proper behavior while eating out and the MAtH (man about the house) and I mull them over.

Me:  Have you ever been given two napkins when you've been out to eat?

MAtH:  Is this a Dianne thing again?  Boy, Mondays sure come around fast.

Me:  Yes, and she got a question from someone who wanted to know if it would be proper to ask for a second napkin to keep at the left of the plate if "you know you use a napkin a lot?"

MAtH:  Is this a bar b que restaurant?

Me:  It doesn't say, but it doesn't sound like it.

MAtH:  What does Dianne say?

Me:  "Although some restaurants now provide two napkins, which the waiter open and place on your lap, one under the other, it would draw unwanted attention to ask for a second napkin. Be careful when using your one napkin so as not to place it back on your lap with butter or food crumbs on the bottom."

MAtH:  It's just too early to think about stuff like this, but you know what I'ved noticed about restaurant cloth napkins these days, they're....

Me:  ...slick and slippery and nothing seems to absorb into them!  Like they've been cleaned in Scotch Guard!

MAtH:  Exactly.  They're so slippery they slide off onto the floor constantly and you really have to work your hands into them to get your hands cleaned off.

Me:  And then the napkin turns into an ugly wrinkled ball that won't straighten up again.  Hahahaha, what an image.

MAtH:  One of the under reported realities of restaurants, someone should do an expose of the napkin issue and write a story about it for the paper.  Have the story rate restaurants by their napkins.

Me:  Good subject for the Wednesday food sections.  Another person asks: "What if you are not in charge of the menu at a business dinner and you don't like something being served?"

MAtH:  Stay home.

Me:  Ask for a doggy bag.

MAtH:  Make sure you're in charge of the next dinner.

Me:  Offer it to the hearty eater next to you.

MAtH:  Like you always do to me.

Me:  Only when it's fish.

MAtH:  Which reminds me, did I mention we are meeting some people for dinner on Thursday night? 

Me:  noooo, you didn't.

MAtH:  They're very nice, but I am always uncomfortable knowing whether or not it will be ok to order wine when I go out with people I don't know well.

Me:  Hey, you're in luck, Dianne has the answer to that question today too!

MAtH:  Please, no more.  It's more than I can take on Monday morning.

Me:  Every other day, every other day, every other day of the week is fine, ye-ah, but whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes, you can find me.....

MAtH: 

About that lawnmower

We've had a flapper problem lately, you know what I'm talking about, the rubber thing that drops down over the water release drain in the toilet tank.  It wasn't a major thing, but every half hour or so the pump came on and added more water to the tank, making a terribly loud noise.  So, we lifted the top off the tank and peered inside and said to each other, "It looks ok, wonder why it's making that noise?"

Problem is the flapper isn't like the kind you see at most stores that sell plumbing supplies, it is totally round and made of a soft, pink-pencil eraser-rubber.  After much hmmming and hmmming about it, I decided to take advantage of the MAtH's being out of town and went off to Home Depot.  A really nice man working there told me they surely must have that kind of flapper because they had 9000 of the things and led me right to the perfect one.  I went home and slipped it on the other thing and bob's your uncle, it is fixed.

Which reminded me that we are getting very close to lawnmowing season and if you are one of those who sends your mower out for a new season tune up, you better get at it because the guys who do that work will be getting backed up and your mower won't be ready when you are.  If you plan to do it yourself and don't know where to start, here's a lesson from last year.

Belief v unbelief

Ann Althouse linked to a page of quotes by H.L. Mencken she found the other day after seeing a photo of one of the signs held by someone who attended the "support Denmark rally" in Washington D.C.  The sign said: "The most curious social convention is that religious opinions should be respected."

I clicked the link to Mencken which happened to be a page of his thoughts on atheism, the ridiculousness of religious belief and those who believe.  Which got me to thinking.  Thinking not only about what he once wrote, but about religion, faith, God and those who believe or do not believe.  What would it have been like to sit across from Mencken and converse about this?  Would the conversation be hindered by layers upon layers of distortion, such as you hear in audio recordings which are tinkered with?

Is it possible to have a connection with someone who believed, "People say we need religion when what they really mean is we need police?"

There are those who call themselves Christian leaders doing great harm to the faith by their public actions. Think about that Phelps guy who goes around the country protesting at military funerals.  Other public "pastoral" voices abound in this country, leaving no impression but that of, sad to have to say it, "eccesiastical police".

So what did a contemporary of Mencken have to say? C.S. Lewis wrote: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.  It is because Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

Our age is full of Menckens who practice a tyranny of the articulate.  It is also full of public square church spokemen doing much the same thing.  Lent is coming.  Maybe it's time for reflection and meditation on things not of this world...on words not easily categorized for us online.  Words which point us to the world to come.

Zoo go round

What could be a more obvious attraction for a zoo than a merry-go-round made up of animals commonly found in zoos?  Brookfield zoo has contracted with a Mansfield, Ohio, firm to carve 6 dozen animals for their future carousel which will be the focal point of what zoo officials are calling "a kind of town square" at Brookfield.  The hand carved wooden animals will include a barburusa (wild hog), zebra, fish and insects among other exotic delights.  Sounds like fun.