Peoria Illinoisan

Recently my wife and I celebrated our 14th anniversary with dinner at a newly opened fine dining establishment.*  It was a wonderful evening and a wonderful dinner.

But…

Strike 1: If the fine establishment’s spacious dining area is nearly empty on a Tuesday night, please don’t sit me right next to another couple, and please don’t seat a group of businessmen next to us  on the other side.

Strike 2: If I am paying for a fine dining experience, ordered a bottle of wine and appetizer, please wait until we’re at least halfway through with our salads before you bring out our perfectly prepared steaks. The last time that happened to me was at Perkins, and it annoyed me then too.

Foul Ball: When my wife says “can you bring back that back after we have finished our salad?” the wrong answer is “but it will be cold.” We pushed our salads aside and ate our expertly prepared entrees.

Strike 3: “Are you still working on your salads?” is what a young kid trying to finish clearing our table asked after we had dessert, our server had put what remained of our dinner in to-go containers, and I was waiting for the credit card slip to sign. At that point the all we could do was laugh.

I was fore-warned that the food was outstanding, but the service needed some improvement. I found that to be the case. Will we go back? Only if I hear word that I will be served at a level deserving of a $100 dinner for two.

* I will not mention the establishment by name because I don’t want to harm this locally owned restaurant’s reputation in hopes that they improve, because the food was exceptional.

… or maybe it’s the layout guy … or maybe no-one notices these things besides me.

Summer Opens With Bang: Peorian shot in arm after alleged dispute.

From my inbox:

“Try to spread the word about the June 27 event. It would be heartening to see a lot of local folks support the memory of Mark Clark. Thank you.

Best regards,
Lawrence Maushard
Portland, Oregon”

A link to this article was included:

Perhaps the Peoria Journal Star’s Op-Ed pages might someday find the space to finally start its atonement process with a simple public apology to Mark Clark and his remaining family members.

The Peoria Journal Star owes a long overdue public apology to the late Mark Clark, and especially to his remaining family members.

Peorian Mark Clark, then 22, was murdered by Chicago police authorities during the infamous predawn raid on December 4, 1969 at a West Side apartment where he and a group of fellow Black Panthers were sleeping. The renowned and charismatic Panther Fred Hampton, age 21, also was killed by police, shot point blank in the head while still on his mattress.

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After you fix the lights at Main & Maplewood, would you fix this one too?

It’s at Willow Knolls and Radnor Road.  Thanks.  You guys are great!

Ranked from least to most cheesy.

Admit it. It’s ok. I won’t tell. You secretly like some of these too, don’t you?

Gift bags.  What’s the point of a gift bag?  They’re for the lazy.  C’mon, do people really want to pull their present out of a bag?  I deal with enough pulling stuff out of bags from the grocery store.  If I get a gift, I want to know that even if they put no thought whatsoever into picking it out, at least they took the time and effort to wrap it.  Am I missing something here?  Is there cuteness factor or something else that I don’t get, because I sure don’t get it.

(hoping my wife doesn’t read this - i can hear her now - “Sure you say that, but who’s the one stuck with wrapping all the presents for Birthdays and Christmas?  Uh-huh.  That’s what I thought.”)

PJStar:

About six months after allegedly being badly beaten by his ex-wife and son, a Peoria man died Sunday at Methodist Medical Center.

His death, however, was deemed natural and was not linked to the earlier assault, Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll said Monday afternoon.

[...]

It was unclear whether his death was a result of the beating. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Does anyone read what is written before it is published? Do we just accept this as the norm now and write it off to the bad economy and layoffs at the Journal Star? Personally, I find it a bit annoying.

For me, it hardly gets any better than this. From Springsteen’s 1973 debut album “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” - tracks 7 & 8 - “For You” and “Spirit In The Night”

The rest of the album is good, and of course everything he recorded up to and including Nebraska is awesome, but I always come back to these two songs, and when I do, I play them more than once.

I was excited that the Titanic exhibit was coming to Peoria, but after hearing horror stories about the lines, I grudgingly accepted the fact that I just wasn’t going to be able to see it. As luck would have it, someone from the PR department emailed and invited me as a guest VIP. After arriving I realized being a VIP wasn’t all it was cracked up to be as I still had to wait 45 minutes, but I’m not complaining becuase that was a far cry from the FOUR HOURS the general public had to wait. And it was free. And they weren’t selling T-Shirts @ 20 bucks a pop (x3 children.)

The exhibit was nicely done with excellent use of lighting, visuals, and storyboards. The line went just slow enough to be able to read the history, from the design, building, send off and ultimate demise. Along the journey through the exhibit were stories of various passengers and some of their personal effects.

I’m sad to say I was a bit disappointed with the artifacts. There weren’t that many, and seeing a comb or a fountain pen just didn’t do much for me, but on the other hand, there were a few interesting items and it is quite amazing that these things could survive on the bottom of the ocean floor for the better part of 75 years.

Before beginning the self-guided tour, each person is given a “boarding pass” with the name and brief history of a real passenger. The tour climaxes at the end with a wall listing all of the passengers and crew, showing if they had lived or died.

My character, a 15 year old newly married Lebanese immigrant survived. Her husband did not make it. Looking up her name online using the Encyclopedia Titanica I see she remarried, had nine children and died at the age of 70.  She is buried in Norfold, Va.

If given the chance, would I see this exhibit again? You betcha. Would I wait in line for four hours to see it? Not on your life.

After 14,000+ years, I don’t think this water is going to run dry for a long, long time. As I posted a few months ago, the Peoria Mineral Springs, a registered U.S. National Historic Place (and NTPL #237) had a cave-in. Today I noticed spring water flowing down Martin Luther King Jr Dr (which will eventually combine with raw sewage and drain into the Illinois River,) so of course I had to check it out.

Dang… the water is really moving!

As far as the stones from the stairway that commenter Scio said had recently gone missing seem to have been used as retaining walls to direct and keep the flow of water out of the neighboring house’s back yard, and likely basement.

I don’t really care to be threatened with lawsuits or have private investigators knocking on my door over something as silly as a blog post. Billy, on the other hand..

I call this one “Rooster Radar” and he looks angry.

Randall was a bit ahead of himself, but he was right - the Peoria Radisson @ Jumer’s is no longer. There was no-one at the front desk, but a cleaning lady told me the name change occurred last week. She wasn’t sure why. It is now called the Peoria Castle Lodge. “Nothing’s changed except the name,” she said.

One has to wonder if this west bluff icon will have a future as a Hotel. For the sake of the nice cleaning lady, I hope so, but I’m not optimistic.

WMBD 1470:

Two 19 year old male teenagers are in custody Wednesday afternoon after being positively identified as the suspects by the victim of an alleged attempted armed robbery on Newman Golf Course.

Peoria Police report the incident occurred on the 16th Fairway of the course about 1:15pm. The victim told police the two approached and attempted to rob him at gunpoint. As the victim fled on a golf cart, one of the suspects fired a shot, but the victim was not struck. The teens then fled on foot. Officers apprehended the suspects about 10 minutes later in the 2000 block of Forrest Hill after a foot chase.

The suspects are identified as 19 year old Tyler Williams and 19 year old Nicholas Williams. They are both charged with aggravated and reckless discharge of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon, attempted armed robbery and no FOID card. Peoria Park District Police are assisting Peoria Police in the investigation.

Note to thugs - rob me in the Campustown parking lot, rob me walking around downtown, rob me when I’m driving around not so great areas of town taking photos, rob me damn near anywhere, but STAY OFF MY GOLF COURSE! Churches, Schools & Golf Courses are OFF LIMITS. Got it!?

* filmed at the intersection of Main St & Maplewood Ave.  Bradley’s new parking deck is in the background.