Around town

My Grandpa was a small-town building contractor in his younger days in Findlay, Illinois, and it's good to see that the houses he built are still lived in today. Here's one on the north edge of town that was rented by some hippie painter back in the early 70s - Mom may still have one of his psychedelic works in her closet. Here are a couple more; I grew up in the one on the left and Grandma and Grandpa lived in the other (hey - they cut down his evergreen tree!)

If you look to the north from that first house, you'll see a gloriously flat horizon.

Mr Illinois

John Cribbet died Saturday, May 23, 2009 in Urbana, IL. He was born in my hometown, Findlay, IL, back in 1918 and he left an impressive legacy at the University of Illinois as a professor of law, dean of the College of Law and Chancellor of the University.

Come to think of it, that was odd

Back in 1980 or '81 a girl named Stefania Somethingorother joined our high school class for a few months. Her family had moved from Oman where her father had been stationed (she said), and it made for an interesting story. Now, though, I wonder - a guy stationed in Oman, just across the Gulf of Oman from Iran, at the end of the Iran hostage crisis (there's a link for you youngins), is suddenly sent to a perfectly quiet little Illinois farm town of 800... what the heck was going on?

I was reminded of that by the obituary of David Smiley, who, among his other improbable activities, served as the commander of the Sultan of Oman's armed forces.