Do you look for a steady supply of comic books to pass the time these days? Are you a graphic novel novice who’s wondering where to start? Luckily, there are plenty of spots in Chicago that offer wide and varied selections of comic books, graphic novels, and related products. Check out one of these local shops to dive into new worlds of entertainment.
Founded in 1991, Chicago Comics not only carries famous favorites (like superheroes), but actually specializes in “small press and hard to find indie comics titles.” In addition to the selection you’ll see on display at the store, Chicago Comics also has plenty of additional stock not on display, which may include a difficult-to-locate item you’re seeking.
This Hyde Park comic book shop not only sells comics from all eras and for all ages, but they also carry plenty of games and other memorabilia related to comic books. The shop even has a second location in Little Italy.
Voted Best Comics Shop for Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2010, Challengers opened in Bucktown in 2008, and has since established a subscription service, sold books by local artists on consignment, and stocked all sorts of comics for every kind of comic book enthusiast.
Andersonville-based AlleyCat offers a wide comic selection and a friendly atmosphere for both hardcore fans and casual perusers alike. The shop’s website even includes a blog pertaining to new releases, trends, and more.
Catering to the steady comic book consumer, Dark Tower keeps visitors to its website updated on new releases each week and offers a pullsheet that allows discounts at certain purchase levels.
At its three Chicago locations (in addition to many more beyond the city limits), Graham Crackers sells comics and all sorts of related games and memorabilia, along with a subscription service that includes discounts.
Elmhurst Brewing Company had to close over the weekend when one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19 exposure. They will announce a reopening date soon over their social media. I am waiting for confirmation whether they will still try to stage this week’s events, including a beer dinner, or cancel them out of caution.
Fresh Beer Events, occasional bacon, but always spam free, opt out any time.
Meet The Blogger
Mark McDermott
Writer, trivia maven, fan of many things. I thought to learn all there is to know about beer as a way to stay interested in learning. It is my pleasure to bring Chicago’s craft beer scene to you.
A person was shot by police Saturday in Lawndale on the West Side.
Officers with the Community Safety Team were investigating a vehicle that was illegally parked in a tow zone about 3:30 p.m. in the 1500 block of South Karlov when a female inside the car “began exhibiting characteristics of an armed person,” Chicago police said.
An “armed confrontation” broke out shortly after between the officers and the female, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Fire officials said the woman, believed to be in her 20s, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.
Two other people who were also in the car were taken into custody and are being questioned by detectives, police said.
Fire officials said a 29-year-old man was taken to Rush University Medical Center in connection with the incident, but details of his injuries were not immediately known. His condition had stabilized.
Joao Carranza, who lives around the corner from where the shooting took place, said his brother-in-law ran downstairs and said he heard 10 gun shots.
“[I told him] to stop playing … but we saw the cops and that’s when we [got] worried,” Carranza said, who added it’s not the first time his family has heard gunshots in the area.
“It’s normal here to hear gunshots but it’s scary because we have our whole family and we get scared,” he said. “We always lock down our house, [we’re] trying to buy cameras because you never know.”
“The violence has to stop here because we have kids… You never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 15: Corey Crawford #50 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates by hoisting the Stanley Cup after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 2-0 in Game Six to win the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the United Center on June 15, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Corey Crawford is one of the best players in ChicagoBlackhawks history.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been lucky to draft and develop some all-time great players during the 21st century. They have had studly skaters like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook but Corey Crawford was just as important in goal. He wasn’t the goaltender for the core’s first cup in 2010 but he was a huge part of it in 2013 and 2015. They were also a wildly successful team during those years in between but fell just short. Without elite goaltending, it is impossible to have sustained success.
On Saturday morning, Corey Crawford retired from the National Hockey League. During the offseason, he signed a two-year deal with the New Jersey Devils after the Blackhawks let him go. He never played a game with New Jersey and only participated in a few practices. He had missed the last few practices leading up to his retirement due to personal reasons. Hopefully, everything is okay with him and his family.
Crawford is one of the best players in the history of the Blackhawks. He was never the number one best goalie in the league but he was the most consistent elite goalie. He won the Stanley Cup twice and the Jennings Trophy twice. He has also had three top-ten finishes for the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the league.
He finishes his career with 488 regular-season games and 96 playoff games over 13 seasons with Chicago. His final regular-season numbers are very nice as he had a 2.45 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. He was 260-162-53 in his career as a starter. There is no doubt that it was a great career and the Hawks were lucky to have him.
All good things come to an end and that was the case with his Blackhawks tenure. The Hawks weirdly wanted to see what they have in the younger guys and Crawford left. It would have been nice to see him play for the Devils where his hero, Martin Brodeur, played but it just isn’t going to be the case.
It will be interesting to see if he ever gets consideration for the Hall of Fame but the Blackhawks need to honor him in every way possible. They need to retire his number, give him one last skate, and all of the things teams do for their all-time greats. He was as important to their success as any player over a long period of time. He deserves respect from everyone in the Chicago sports fandom because he helped bring hockey to the forefront in a city that was starving for a winner.
ChicagoBulls (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The Chicago Bulls lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-117. Even in a loss, a fight against the reigning champs portends positively for the young Bulls.
In the third leg of a tough west coast road trip, the Chicago Bulls took the Los Angeles Lakers down to the wire in a game that went long into the night.
Even though the night ended with a predictable Lakers win, the preceding 47 minutes was nothing like longtime Bulls fans were used to — meaning that the Bulls played with effort, intensity, and like a well coached team.
The Bulls played competitive basketball for 48 minutes, sometimes running out to a 10 point lead, other times fighting back from 7 point deficits. All of this was against a Lakers team that didn’t play Anthony Davis or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. But, keep in mind that the Chicago Bulls were without four players (Lauri Markkanen, Tomas Satoransky, Chandler Hutchison and Ryan Arcidiacono), and starting wing Otto Porter Jr. left with back spasms only 6 minutes into the game (per Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic).
With all of these losses, it would’ve been easy for the Bulls to let this game get away from them. Under Jim Boylen, that probably would’ve happened, but Billy Donovan has this team playing like a real, compelling, fun-to-watch basketball team.
Donovan can’t take all the credit, though. Three things stood out to me in this loss, so let me take you through them.
I have, over the last fourteen years, had many feelings about Mike’s inevitable death. Terror, anger, confusion, grief… What I never expected was to spend his last weeks overcome with gratitude.
I have lost count of the things I am grateful for, and all of them come down to what I know about glioblastoma and brain injuries and strokes. They all come down to what I feared about these inevitabilities, and how they would affect the man I love, and our family. This gratitude only manages to express itself in list form, a grim diyenu of worst-case, or even worse-case scenarios.
At no point did Mike’s brain cancer change his personality. At no point did it cause him debilitating seizures. At no point did it cause him blindness or aphasia, or deafness. Mike spent almost fourteen years with tumors in his brain, and they caused him weakness in his left leg. Mike spent almost fourteen years with tumors in his brain, and it was a stroke that took the use of his left hand, his non-dominant hand, that caused him the most grief.
It’s been more than fourteen years since the first time he mentioned brain cancer symptoms to me. It was October or November 2006, it was starting to get cold, and his nightly jogs were becoming a minor struggle as one leg didn’t move the way he expected it to.
“You need to see a doctor, that sounds neurological,” I said. He brushed me off. Healthy 24yo athletes don’t have neurological problems. Besides, just because my doctors had put me through the wringer a few times looking for brain tumors didn’t mean EVERYONE had to go looking for them. I was young, 22, and I didn’t push.
Six months later the softball season was starting, and he found himself struggling when running bases. This time, I pushed. This time, he went to the doctor. And his doctor also told him he was fine. He needed to stretch better. He was so strong. He was so healthy. I let it go.
I’m grateful for that, too. If that doctor hadn’t dismissed him, he would have been stuck getting treatment from his HMO and not the incredible team who DID find his cancer and gave him so many years. He would have started treatment before we were engaged and he might never have asked. I might not have had the chance to be his advocate, something he credits with his survival and though I credit myself less, it did teach me 90% of my organizational skills.
We wouldn’t have had our life if he’d found his tumors sooner, or differently. We wouldn’t have our children. Our happiness. And through all of it, he has made it look easy. Until 2019.
There are so many small griefs I’m grateful for. My husband, the love of my life, the best human I have ever known, has eased me into my grief in ways I am only beginning to see. After seven months of him sleeping in a hospital bed (with intermittent months of him sleeping in a hospital), I am already getting used to being in our bed alone. I am already used to not being able to ask him to help me put things on tall shelves or change lightbulbs or get rid of spiders. I am already used to being the bedtime parent, and the morning parent, and the parent who has to troubleshoot technical problems with devices and wifi and whatnot. I haven’t had sex with my husband since March, nearly a year, and while I’m full of grief over this as well, it’s another thing that is not new. After his stroke, I made myself seriously ill from lack of minimal self-care, and I’ve spent the last year learning my own husbandry.
So many of the small comforts of our life together have slipped away from me while he is still here, so there will be fewer things to mourn beyond his physical presence, his love, his person in my life. “This is a kindness,” I tell myself extemporaneously, daily, sometimes hourly, and I am grateful for it.
When from one day to the next so much is different, when one day he could stand to move to the wheelchair and the next he couldn’t, and the next he couldn’t remain sitting more than an hour, and the next he stayed in bed, I am grateful that things are moving so quickly. A man ready to die after fourteen years of constant awareness of oncoming oblivion deserves to choose his time. When he began to spend more and more hours each day asleep, I was grateful. The sleep is part of death, and the sleep spares him from so much of the anguish in the house. When he stopped being able to swallow his pills but did not start suffering sudden, violent seizures, I was grateful. When he couldn’t speak all day, but then looked at me and croaked, “I love you,” three times, I was grateful. When he watched the kids watch Fantasia, too weak to speak but happy to see his children at his side, I was grateful.
I’m less grateful now, now that I know how close we have to be. Now that his breaths are so shallow and his lungs so full of fluid, now that his kidneys are shutting down and he is so often in pain when he’s awake. We are almost at the end and part of me wishes there was so much more. Another fourteen years. Another two.
Just one more anniversary.
Just Valentine’s Day.
Just watching the inauguration of a president who wants people like Mike to have the kind of care the ACA gave us. Just long enough to see Trump impeached again. Just long enough that Mike outlasts Trump.
But these are fleeting, these wishes. He is ready to die. I am ready (as ready as I can be) for him to be out of suffering, out of pain, out of this earth. We have done so much to prepare, Mike and I. Mike leaves children who know how much he loves them. He leaves them with hours of his voice in interviews, explaining that he knows he must die and that they are his greatest joy. Their father’s voice in the Library of Congress, archived forever for anyone to find. His grandchildren. His great-grandchildren. When the two of us are no more than family legend, that love and peace will still be there.
What a gift it is, those words. And I am grateful.
He leaves a community of friends who will never abandon his children and widow. And I am grateful.
He leaves a home full to the brim of memories of love and joy, of jokes and laughter, he leaves very little that is his alone. And for that, too, I am grateful.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I felt strangely at peace with the world. People were panicking, terrified, worried about their loved ones and illness and things so far beyond their control, and it felt right. The rest of the world shared the anxiety I was living in, the world and I were in the same place.
The world spent much of 2020 moving on, blaming the calendar and not having to grapple with specifics. But as in any year, people got cancer, people died of cancer, people were married, people had babies. Life doesn’t stop because of one horrible thing taking up all your emotional bandwidth, if I have learned anything these last fourteen years, it’s that.
And as we approached 2021, the country and the world focused on 2020 as the problem, not on the conditions that created this shitstorm. I held my tongue. My 2021 would be marked, early, by Mike’s passing. My 2021 will be defined by grief and healing, by rebuilding a family of four from a family of five, by accepting changes I don’t want but also fill me with anticipation of an almost joyous sort. I don’t get to choose these things, they simply are.
Now that the country is on fire, with flames set and stoked by the exiting president, it feels comforting and appropriate that everyone around me is learning this lesson. Of course 2021 was going to start with trauma, there was never a chance Trump would leave peacefully. Of course 2021 was going to start with grief, pandemics don’t abruptly end as they’re crescendoing. Of course these pains would be.
My husband is leaving this world and doing so with more grace and dignity and peace than I have ever witnessed. It is an honor to be at his side, telling him I love him and that he has done everything right. Telling him we’re going to be okay, that he’s seen to it. Telling him he has nothing left on Earth he must do. Telling him over and over again how much I love him.
“I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to be the person you’ve always believed I already am,” I told him. His eyes stayed closed, but he whispered, “You’re perfect.”
Each time he smiles, it’s like the sun rising in my chest. His smiles, however faint, buoy me. I think again and again and again about our wedding day. In my dress and veil, I walked down the aisle. Mike put his hands on my shoulders, grinning in a dizzy, disbelieving way, lifted my veil, and leaned in.
“Not yet,” I whispered. “You have to wait to kiss me until the end!”
Now, between sleep and delirium, he smiles and purses his lips.
Lea Grover scribbles about sex-positive parenting, marriage after cancer, and vegetarian cooking. When she isn’t revising her upcoming memoir, she can be found singing opera, smeared to the elbow in pastels, or complaining/bragging about her children on twitter (@bcmgsupermommy) and facebook.
Here is my twin sister and her husband waiting to see her oncologist to talk through the rest of her breast cancer treatment plan!
This blog post is the 35th in a series about my (and twin sister’s) preventative breast cancer screening journey that began when we were 30 years old in July 2019. Here is a list of all of the posts written about our journey at Mayo Clinic’s Breast Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to date. To keep tabs on new posts, sign up for the “A Daily Miracle” email list at this link.
My twin sister traveled down to Mayo Clinic in Rochester with her husband yesterday for her 12th infusion of T-DM1/Kadcyla and now she’s 85.7% of the way done with her post-operative chemotherapy regimen!
Here are a few highlights from their visit including praises and new prayer requests for us at this moment in time (full details follow in the blog post below)–thank you so much again for your prayers for us as we travel this journey together!:
Praise!: My twin sister is 85.7% of the way done with her post-operative chemotherapy regimen of T-DM1/Kadcyla! Her side effects have been minimal, especially compared to what she experienced after her neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 2019 and early 2020. She has headaches and a bit of nausea for about a week after each of her infusions of T-DM1, but that is small potatoes compared to what she’s been through and we hope and pray and trust this is the last time she ever has to do chemotherapy EVER!!! 😀 Prayer requests for her would be that her side effects continually improve and are manageable after each of her 2 remaining chemo infusions and that her corneal cysts would miraculously disappear even now!
Prayer request!: My twin sister’s corneal cysts that developed last year get a bit worse for the week after each of her T-DM1 infusions. But we’re asking for prayers that her microcystic edema will go away now or after her T-DM1 treatment is complete in a month or so! She can still see, which is a huge praise, and she only has 2 infusions of chemotherapy left!
Praise!: My twin sister had an echocardiogram to check on her heart health and everything is looking good! T-DM1 has impacts on the left ventricle in particular and her left ventricle looks a-okay so we are very grateful for that!
Prayer request!: My baby sister is heading into the next steps of her preventative breast cancer screening journey at age 26: Her 6-month follow-up MRI is taking place at Mayo Rochester next Wednesday, January 13th, to follow up on her baseline preventative breast cancer screening that began last summer! We are asking for prayers that they find absolutely nothing suspicious on this second baseline preventative scan and that she’s cleared with a green light! You can read all about her journey that started last summer in the blog post at this link.
Here is my twin sister knocking out her 12th infusion of T-DM1 at Mayo Rochester!!!
My twin sister’s 12th infusion of T-DM1/Kadcyla: Only 2 left!!!
My twin sister knocked out her 12th infusion of T-DM1 / Kadcyla without a reaction of any kind, had a nurse that was excellent at inserting her IV, and was in and out in just over 30 minutes of infusion time!
We do not take these victories for granted and are so thankful for the excellent care she’s received on her chemo journey at Mayo Rochester!
“I’m totally over getting chemotherapy infusions, but it’s going to be weird when this is all done,” she told me yesterday. “It’s been really nice to know that I’m able to go there and get the chemo done and everyone is taking good care of me.”
“You’re right!, it’s been a huge blessing to know you’ve been taken such good care of on the chemo floor!,” I said. “But the next step of survivorship will be great! They’ll continue taking great care of you at your follow-up appointments every few months!!”
“You’re right,” she said.
But survivorship is a much different journey than breast cancer treatment is, as I’ve written about in my posts about my 6-month and 12-month survivorship consult appointments. It’s a mental game!
Here is the view from my twin sister’s chemotherapy infusion room, she was so excited to have a window room overlooking Mayo’s campus in Rochester!
My twin sister’s update with her oncologist and remaining care plan!
My twin sister had an excellent appointment with her oncologist yesterday and was able to learn more about what the journey looks like from here.
First of all, she had an update with him about her blood levels and heart health so far. She gets a blood test before each infusion to make sure her platelets and neutrophils are where they need to be, and he was pleased with her results yesterday. Apparently, oncologists don’t get concerned unless platelet levels go down to 50, and my twin sister’s are holding steady around 165-70.
By the end of 2021, all of the chemotherapy should be out of her system and everything should be back to normal! My twin sister’s platelets were in the 368 range before chemotherapy started, but according to her oncologist, invasive cancer causes inflammation and increased platelet range, so my twin sister’s “normal” platelet level is more likely around 250. Now they are at 165-170, which he said is just fine.
My twin sister’s echocardiogram came back great as well! T-DM1/Kadcyla can cause problems with the left ventricle, but my twin sister’s heart is functioning at a great level which is a huge praise!!!
This, and the positive levels of everything else, are largely due to my twin sister’s healthy diet and exercise! She’s currently enrolled in a research study at Mayo Clinic about exercise: She’s been working out at least 30 minutes every day and that’s contributing to her well-being and physical health as a breast cancer survivor!
I’m not formally enrolled in the study but I’m doing my best to get 30 minutes of exercise in per day, too. 🙂
Here is my twin sister’s blood test results from yesterday–everything is looking good thanks to healthy diet and exercise!
Second, follow-up appointments after my twin sister’s chemotherapy infusions include appointments with her oncology team every 3 to 6 months. She will either see her chemo nurse practitioner or her oncologist for a physical exam to check for recurrence. Also, at one of these appointments shortly after her chemotherapy treatments are over, they are going to do a one-off blood test to test for any changes in her DNA that could indicate recurrent cancer of any kind. The good news is that, often times with aggressive metastatic breast cancer, a recurrence happens within the first 18 months, and my twin sister’s oncologist isn’t worried about recurrence at all–she is all clear at month 9 since surgery and month 16 since diagnosis!!!
Fourth, my twin sister’s oncologist is befuddled by her microcystic edema and thinks it could be a result of T-DM1, could be a result of Tamoxifen, or could be the result of a combination of both. He said that, because T-DM1 is so new, he is not sure if it’s one or the other or drugs interplaying together because sometimes endocrine therapy and chemotherapy drugs together have interaction effects. However, he is optimistic the microcystic edema will go away at end of T-DM1 as it appears to be directly correlated with her infusions, and he’s glad she’s going to see eye doctor at Mayo again soon!
Fifth, my twin sister doesn’t need to worry about any sort of long-term side effects of T-DM1/Kadcyla! The only potential side effect her oncologist mentioned was “chemo brain,” but he also said there’s no cognitive test for “chemo brain” that can say “this person lost a few IQ points,” etc.–and, as I’ve written about my cancer survivorship before, I feel dumber now than I did last year, too, and it might just be middle age because I didn’t even go through chemotherapy. Ha, ha! But my twin sister’s oncologist said if she has trouble remembering certain things, she can blame “chemo brain” if she wants. 🙂
Sixth, my twin sister’s oncologist presented my twin sister with counseling resources that Mayo Clinic has: Cancer-focused, cancer survivorship counseling resources that he’s going to connect her with in hopes that would be helpful as she moves forward into survivorship!
We couldn’t publish a post without a photo of Gizmo, my twin sister’s baby Boston Terrier! Our mom, dad, and baby sister babysat him during my twin sister’s infusion yesterday!
Next steps
My twin sister has heard that you can ring a bell when you finish chemotherapy and she also heard she should get a pin to celebrate finishing! So she’s going to ask about that at her last chemo infusion coming up in just over a month. 🙂
Also: Here are some things coming up on the docket that we’d love prayer for and are looking forward to in 2021!:
Wednesday, January 13th: My baby sister’s second MRI as part of her baseline preventative breast cancer screening. Her journey started last summer (you can read all about it on this blog post!) and we are so proud of her for going through preventative screening at age 26!
Friday, January 29th: My twin sister’s 13th infusion of T-DM1 at Mayo Clinic Rochester
Friday, February 19th: MY TWIN SISTER’S LAST INFUSION OF T-DM1 at Mayo Clinic Rochester!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, March 8th: Dermatology appointment to remove and test a “mildly atypical” spot on my twin sister’s back (the dermatologist doesn’t think it’s skin cancer but just wants to make sure!)
Friday, March 12th: My follow-up with my plastic surgeon to ensure that I’m continuing to heal properly and there are no signs of capsular contracture; my twin sister’s one-year follow-up with her plastic surgeon!
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our health and healing, and for my baby sister’s preventative breast cancer screening journey that continues next week!!
God is good!!!
This blog post is the 35th in a series about my (and twin sister’s) preventative breast cancer screening journey that began when we were 30 years old in July 2019. Here is a list of all of the posts written about our journey at Mayo Clinic’s Breast Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to date. To keep tabs on new posts, sign up for the “A Daily Miracle” email list at this link.
Sister Christian is a blogger, reporter, editor and follower of Jesus Christ seeking to find little miracles each and every day. She especially loves finding Jesus in art, music and culture. Learn more about her on Twitter @adailymiracle, and on Facebook as “A Daily Miracle.” Send an email to [email protected] with any comments, concerns or suggestions!
I decided to take a break from all the kerfuffle and goings-on in Washington D.C. this week and expose some humor at the expense of US SENIORS…. If you cannot find at least some humor in the following stories, wait a few decades and they will all make sense. REMEMBER SENIOR JOKES ARE THE FEW REMAINING FEW WE CAN ACTUALLY POLK FUN AT BECAUSE—-MOST OF IT IS TRUE. ENJOY..
A lady helps her husband install a new computer. Once it’s completed, she tells him to select a new password, selecting a word he’ll always remember. As the computer asks him to enter it, he looks at his wife, and with a macho gesture, and a wink in his eye, he selects a word—mypenis. As he hits enter” to validate the selection, his wife collapses with laughter and rolls on the floor in hysteria. The computer had replied— TOO SHORT -ACCESS DENIED—-
Two elderly people are living in a retirement home in “HAPPILY EVER AFTER “RATAN FLORIDA” he was a widower and she is a widow. They have known each other for a number of years. One evening there was a community supper in the big arena Club House. The two were at the same table, across from one another. As the meal went on, he took a few admiring glances at her and finally gathered the courage to ask her ‘Will you marry me?” After about 6 seconds of careful consideration, she answered yes, yes I will. The meal ended and with a few more pleasant exchanges they went to their respected places. The next morning he was troubled, did she say yes or did she say no. He couldn’t remember. Try as he might he just could not recall, not even a faint memory. With trepidation, he went to the telephone and called her. First, he explained that he didn’t remember as well as he used to. Then he reviewed the lovely evening past, as he gained a little bit more courage, he inquired “when I asked you to marry me, did you say yes or did you say no? He was delighted to her say “Why I said yes, yes I will. Then she continued AND I’M SO GLAD YOU CALLED BECAUSE I COULDN’T REMEMBER WHO ASKED ME.”
Two very elderly ladies were enjoying the sunshine on a park bench in Miami. They had been meeting in the park every Sunday for over 12 years, chatting and enjoying each other’s friendship. One day the younger of the two ladies turn’s to the other and says, please don’t be angry with me dear, but I’m embarrassed. After all these years, what is your name? I’m trying to remember, but I just can’t. The older friend stares at her, looking very distressed, says nothing for a full 2 minutes and finally with tearful eyes says, HOW SOON DO YOU HAVE TO KNOW.”
The irate customer calling the newspaper offices loudly demanded to know where her Sunday edition was. Ma’am said the employee today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered until Sunday. There was a quiet pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of recognition.”SO THAT’S WHY NO ONE WAS IN CHURCH TODAY.”
An old geezer, who had been a retired farmer for a long time became very bored and decided to open a medical clinic.
He put a sign up outside that said: “Get your treatment for $500 – if not cured get back $1,000.”
Doctor “Young,” who was positive that this old geezer didn’t know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great opportunity to get $1,000.
He went to Dr. Geezer’s clinic and this is what happened.
Dr. Young: — “Dr. Geezer, I have lost all taste in my mouth.” can you please help me?
Dr. Geezer: “Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in Dr. Young’s mouth.”
Dr. Young: — Aaagh!! — This is Gasoline!”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You’ve got your taste back. That will be $500.”
Dr. Young gets annoyed and goes back after a couple of days figuring to recover his money.
Dr. Young: “I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything.”
Dr. Geezer: “Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient’s mouth.”
Dr. Young: “Oh no you don’t, — that’s Gasoline!”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You’ve got your memory back. That will be $500.”
Dr. Young (after having lost $1,000) leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.
Dr. Young: “My eyesight has become weak — I can hardly see!!!”
Dr. Geezer: “Well, I don’t have any medicine for that so — Here’s your $1,000 back.”
Dr. Young: “But this is only $500…”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500.”
The moral of the story —-just because you’re “Young” doesn’t mean you can outsmart an old GEEZER.
HANG IN THE REST ARE ONE LINERS BY LOTS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE. SOME DEAD SOME JUST OLD.
I don’t plan to grow old gracefully. I plan to have facelifts until my ears meet.
The only way I would take up jogging is so that I could hear HEAVY BREATHING AGAIN.
Regular naps prevent old age, especially if you take them while driving.
I’ve learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end the faster it goes.
I’m at an age where my back goes out more than I do.
There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It’s called THE GUILLOTINE.
My Grandmother was a very tough woman, she buried 3 husbands. Two of them while they were napping.
At my age flowers scare me.
A stockbroker urged me to buy stocks that would triple their value every year. I told him at my age I don’t even buy green Bananas.
You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
Whatever you may look like marry a man your own age, as your beauty fades so does his eyesight.
By the time a man is old enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere.
How young can you die of old age?
He’s so old that when he orders a 3-minute egg they ask for the money upfront.
Looking 50 is great if your 60.
TRUE TERROR IS TO WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND DISCOVER THAT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL CLASS IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY.
Bob Angone is a Marine VETERAN and a retired Chicago Police Lieutenant. He worked his entire Career covering the streets of Chicago as a Tactical Officer, Tactical Sergeant, and Tactical Lieutenant. His last assignments were in special Functions, he was the C/O of the CPD Swat teams his last five years and was an HBT (Hostage Barricade Terrorist) Sergeant for 10 years.
You know that person in your life who is unflinchingly adamant that “music these days isn’t what it used to be” and “kids these days want to grow up too fast?” That’s me now. Well, not exactly about music; there’s no Avril Lavigne and B2K but I can certainly notice the evolution of music in the last three decades.
It’s the first time that the transition of no longer being “in the know” is apparent to me. I finally sucked it up yesterday and asked Google to define “stan” and I kind of already forgot what it means. I also realized that I now have friends I’ve known for half my life. I am an aunt. A homeowner. More politically aware than ever before. Acknowledging with greater urgency that none of us will ever be younger than we are right now. I’m also realizing how atrocious my spelling is since a simple right click of my track-pad will solve my spelling woes without even needing to know what I did wrong.
This is the fist time I have really felt like time has been moving. Meanwhile, I’ve been behaving as if I’m going to exist forever–but I will not, nor will the people around me. And that’s a really sobering thought.
Things are changing, and I wanted to focus a bit on that today. 15 years ago I remember letting go of my mom’s hand while we were crossing the street because I realized I was growing up. Now I simply feel older. I’m guessing many of us have memories like this; that shifting moment after which nothing was really the same anymore. What’s yours?
I was listening to the audiobook of Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella when she opened my eyes to something I hadn’t really thought about. In the book, the main character is visited by the ghost of her great-aunt. She’s elderly when she dies, but when the ghost version of her appears, she’s clad in her twenties…in the twenties. At some point, the great-niece remarks that someone who’s 80 doesn’t really see themselves as 80. That they may perceive themselves as 25 or 30 on the inside, only their body isn’t what it used to be. And there is something so sobering about that, too. About being older but retaining the memories of being younger. Seeing your body aged but feeling youthful inside; like some sort of inexplicable disconnect. We feel like we are the center of the universe when we’re younger, but as we age, we dissolve more and more until we’re well near invisible to other people.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about the things we do that waste time; things that usually manifesting themselves in the form of fear. I’ve held off working on writing projects because of my fear of failure. Refrained from applying to certain jobs due to a fear of rejection. Been reluctant to let a relationship play out due to fear of the furture.
But the things is, the Earth is just going to keep turning, and the people around us–even the ones who know us and love us–are going to keep moving too. So it doesn’t make sense for fear to have this much power over our lives. I don’t know what this post is except maybe a wish for both you and myself. So here it is:
I hope you go out there this year, and every day after, and do what you want; what you’ve been too afraid to do.
I hope you and I take our chances.
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Mahjabeen is an essayist, young adult librarian, book reviewer, and storyteller. She has a BA in creative writing and an MA in library and information science. She loves to laugh, talk books, and send you unsolicited photos of her cats. Learn more at mahjabeensyed.com or on Twitter @WMagicS
Indian Creek’s Cooper Larsen works the ball down low as the Timberwolves play Newark in the Little Ten Conference Championship game. | Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times
The Sun-Times is counting down the 50 high school basketball programs with the most wins during the decade.
When high school basketball fans think back to the 1980s, programs like Quincy, Providence St. Mel, East St. Louis Lincoln and the arrival of city powers King and Simeon are easy to think back on.
The 1990s brought us memorable basketball giants in Peoria Manual and Thornton, a few steamrolling Proviso East teams and the continued dominance of King.
The first 10 years of the 2000s included Glenbrook North, Peoria High and the beginning of a Simeon juggernaut.
Earlier this year we broke down the decade’s best teams and best players. Now, with every season of the past decade complete, it’s time to look at the Chicago area programs who won the most.
This list is comprised of the 50 winningest programs over the past 10 years, starting with the 2010-11 season and concluding with the 2019-20 season. Every team in every class throughout the Chicago area will be broken down in a variety of ways. But total wins, with winning percentage used as tie-breaker, determined the rankings.
We present No. 25 Indian Creek today and will add one program a day going forward.
25. INDIAN CREEK: 209-93
Decade’s biggest storyline: Even with all the decade wins and success from this tiny school in the remote town of Shabbona, which is roughly 60 miles west of Chicago, there is nothing close to what transpired last year. The Timberwolves went 35-1 and were the No. 1 ranked team in the state while cracking the Sun Times’ Super 25 rankings at one point.
The small, tight-knit community rallied around a team that captured a sectional championship before falling to Aurora Christian in the super-sectional.
Underrated highlight: Impressively, thebasketball program had 12 different players throughout the decade that were either class valedictorian or salutatorian.
Player of the Decade: Cooper Larson (2020)
Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-TimesIndian Creek’s Cameron Russell hits a three as the Timberwolves play Newark in the Little Ten Conference Championship game last season.
All-Decade Team: Seth Sanderson (2011), Nolan Govig (2018), Cooper Larson (2020), Drew Gaston (2021) and Cameron Russell (2021)
Other decade highlights:
–There are five 1,000-plus point scorers in program history and four (Seth Sanderson, Garrison Govig, Trevor Guerra and Cooper Larsen) all played in the decade.
-Paw Paw consolidated with Indian Creek in 2018 with two starters from the 2019-20 team (Michael Lampson and Brennen McNally) coming from Paw Paw.
-The last four years of the decade produced an impressive 102-22 record overall.
-The history of the Little Ten Tournament is over a century old. Indian Creek won its first tournament title in school history in 2020.
-The Timberwolves won three regional titles and appeared in two sectional title games in the decade.
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