little blog on the prairie

It’s about time for the annual rite of summer, the television/radio/print media story about how bad business is in Campustown because the students have returned to wherever they came from.

Funny how some Campustown businesses are avoiding the whole issue by closing up shop until Move-In day. One, Insomnia Cookies — who caters who chemically altered students by delivering hot-out-of-the-oven treats at all hours of the night — isn’t really surprising. In fact, I might think they were crazy if they didn’t go on summer hiatus. But another, Chicago-based chain Bar Louie, is quite interesting. A sign on the door says they are closed for the summer, no word on a re-opening date. One would think that BL’s clientelle is a little more sophisticated — think grad students, many of whom don’t leave for the summer — and includes a good lunch crowd of University employees. Or maybe the real reason is that the service was so bad last summer that they didn’t want to one-up themselves this year. Whatever the reason, I have to wonder what that does to the balance sheet.

Anyway, I use this story as a prelude to wish everyone an early Happy 4th of July, as posting will be light-to-non-existent next week. If you show up at Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, you might have a hard time seeing those fireworks. Don’t strain the neck too bad.

I don’t know about you, but the last few days have been an exercise in meteorology at the lbotp household. Reading radars and trying to utilize weather.com and other forecasting resources has been imperative with the wild weather around here. The end result has been (generally) good — the farmers are happy, my plants are happy, I managed not to get caught in a downpour, my van still needs to be washed (but what else is new).

I still haven’t quite figured out what source is best in these situations. WCIA’s old website had a great weather section; the new website isn’t as user-friendly. Weather.com is a mainstay. I usually forget to look at the National Weather Service site, but when I went over there recently I found a brand new graphical feature they have for Central Illinois. It’s called “Weather Story” and its stated goal is to “provide a snap shot of the most important weather feature affecting the local forecast area.”

I don’t know if it will add much to our understanding of the weather around here, but I’m willing to give it a chance — if I can remember to look at it.

Our title is gone.

Champaign-Urbana no longer can claim to be the home of North America’s best tasting tap water. That honor was recently bestowed upon Oklahoma City in this year’s taste test. Perhaps the OKC water folks were the sentimental favorite because this year is the state’s centennial. Worst of all, Illinois American Water wasn’t even a finalist in the competition after winning it in 2005 and 2006.
They might want to change their advertising campaign.

In Saturday’s paper, the News-Gazette’s Deb Pressey visited the heated controversy over the store selling puppies at Marketplace Mall.

Owner Kari Prior doesn’t do much for her case. She says she refuses to discuss issues regarding her store in person, only over the phone.

“They’re like your antiabortionists, your tree-huggers,” she said. “Those people, no matter what you say to them, it’s never going to be good enough for them.”

“Those people” include many in this community who care about animals, and would probably shop in your store if you were not selling puppies. Maybe, just maybe, if you were more forthcoming about your suppliers, the issue would go away. Instead, this just adds fuel to the fire.

Makes you wonder what she has to hide. Now that’s good business sense.

The lbotp family recently spent some time with our nephews, ages 11 (bookworm) and 14 (jock). The 11-year-old is a latecomer to Harry Potter mania, and I spent much of the weekend debating whether or not Harry dies in the seventh and purportedly final book (I’m not convinced), which in case you’ve been living under a rock, comes out on July 21. Of course, the 14-year-old jock thinks that anything his brother does is dorky, and so by extension that makes me a dork too. Oh well.

The reason I recall this story is that someone at the News-Gazette enjoys Potter mania just as much as I do. For the past several days the N-G has featured a Harry Potter countdown (movie and book) on the front page of the Living section, and it refers readers to a special feature on its Web site. So I took the bait, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. It has a calendar of upcoming local Harry happenings, the obligatory blog and other interactive features that are mostly aimed at kids (or kids at heart).

So if you’re a muggle like me, check it out.

UPDATE: Evidently, this was reported on Channel 3 last night (thanks gnightgirl!). I guess that’s what I get for a) sitting on information too long and b) not watching the news!

A source tells lbotp that the new Greek restaurant Papageorge, which has kept its location a mystery because they will be taking over an existing business, allegedly will occupy the space currently inhabited by locally owned family fare purveyor Pickles.

It could make sense, since that place is in desperate need of a makeover of its early 1980s interior. If this is true, Mr. lbotp will miss his cajun chicken dinner. I won’t be shedding any tears.

Perhaps we’ll know for sure on June 30, the date when the Papageorge owners say they will reveal their bricks and mortar location.

• Congrats to Mike Cation, local radio personality and all-around good guy, on winning the job to become the new public address announcer at Illinois men’s basketball games. Cation paid his dues and worked his way up the food chain. He’s probably the hardest working radio guy in C-U.
• Don’t go to Lincoln Square Mall on a Sunday this summer and expect to find much open (not that there’s much open there to begin with, hardy har har). The Hallmark store, International Galleries and other stores have posted signage indicating that they will be closed on Sundays, until further notice. Not sure what that means for Art Mart.
• Maybe we should think about moving to Bloomington. It seems that their politicians may have a little more common sense than ours.
• Just wanted to direct everyone’s attention to the letter to the editor in yesterday’s News-Gazette regarding the puppy sales at Market Place Mall. Hope there will be more to come.

I am sitting at my desk overlooking the rooftops of Champaign-Urbana, but I am anywhere but here today.

I am back at camp.

I was fortunate that my parents “shipped” me off to an all-girls overnight camp in Minnesota during the summers of my youth. It was at camp where I learned to sail a boat, make a fire and shoot a bow and arrow. It was at camp where I became me.

Today is the first day of camp. I remember the feeling of stepping off the bus and seeing old friends who I hadn’t seen since we said our goodbyes at summer’s end the year before. I can sense the anticipation of meeting our new counselors and heading off to our new cabins. I recall the annual rituals of that first night, playing a circle game while singing John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt and if the weather permitted, getting into our swimsuits and taking a leap down a slip and slide.

Now I sing that song to my daughter. I will definitely hum it to her tonight.

Coming soon to West Side Park: the Taste of Champaign. In addition to your pets, please leave your guns at home during our town’s fine annual culinary festival. This is a great opportunity to try some C-U dining establishments without a huge investment of time and/or money. The list of vendors is out, and there are many newbies on the roster (18, in fact). Some interest us more than others.

Some initial thoughts:

• Nice to see a soy dog on the menu (Coast to Coast). Vegetarians (even quasi-vegetarians such as myself) appreciate the opportunity to eat good food, too.
• Love the cider slush from Curtis Orchard. It’s kind of a tease, since the orchard doesn’t open until July 20.
• Might have to try Sail’s pizza and his/her “patent-pending recipes.”
• Ditto for the saltenas (a South American pastry similar to an empanada).

If you don’t care to eat, the free musical entertainment and art show are definitley worth a trip. This is a very kid-friendly event, with a petting zoo, a children’s stage, and inflatables.

I hear my stomach growling already.

Anyone else think it’s ironic that there are no less than three new banks being built or were recently completed in Champaign and now Main Street Bank and Trust has to sell off five local branches?

Confidential to my family readers: There are TOO MANY BANKS in Champaign.