Ask an Angel: December 18, 2025

As the holidays approach, I recognize that I need more help than in previous years. Although my children and grandchildren keep offering to help with shopping, cooking, decorating, and all the other little tasks that make the holidays special, I can’t shake this feeling of guilt. I truly appreciate my family’s willingness to support me, but it feels like asking for help only adds to their already busy schedules.

2025 B.E.L.C.H. awards

Time really does fly by. It seems like only yesterday Nancy was careening out of Skip’s Drive-In in her Ford XL with a 429 cu. in. engine and drag racing down North Avenue. I was in a garage band playing all the high school sock-hops on the northwest side of Chicago. All of a sudden, cars are electric and people now listen to music with their phones and ear buds. But let’s not dwell on the good old days. Another year has gone by, and it’s time for our annual top ten winners of the coveted B.E.L.C.H. Awards (Best Eating Locations Close to Huntley).

Worms, and worms, and still more worms

In the last issue of this paper, I wrote about some of those ear-worms that can drive you crazy.

Not the musical ear-worms, like that song you hear once in the morning that still haunts you as you go to bed at night. No, I discussed those linguistic ear-worms that you hear other people say over and over again every time they open their mouths.

Everything old is new again

The universe is conspiring to tell me something, to impart some wise lesson to remind me what this season is supposed to be about.

I felt a twinge of it with the first snowfall of the season. I woke up to a beautiful wonderland blanketed with snow and something bubbled up inside me. Instead of checking the temperature and worrying about levels of antifreeze in my car, I poured a second cup of coffee, sat in my comfy chair, and swiveled to face my picture window. Everything was still and sparkling and bright, while I sat in jammies and slippers thinking how lucky we were to have a cozy house.

You know what I mean — that teenager who can’t keep his mouth from saying “You know” after every six or eight words.

Or his sister who spews “Like” before every sentence when she recounts a conversation she had.

Or your brother-in-law who says “Literally” like literally a million times, you know?

Wild interpretations

What makes for a good adaptation from the written word to a visual medium? This is a question that has launched many a film review in the past. Also, it has plagued filmmakers for over a century now. Most fall into two camps. Either you stay so completely faithful as to be a direct copy, think No Country for Old Men. Or you take the Baz Luhrmann approach, tossing every strange anachronism at the screen a la his Romeo + Juliet. Recent internet discourse has surrounded next year’s reinvention of Wuthering Heights. Although after watching the music video featuring Charli XCX with The Velvet Underground’s John Cale titled house, the Goth rock aesthetic has me intrigued in the soundtrack at least. As one commenter put it, Count Brat-cula indeed.

Let’s go Dutch

We just returned from ten wonderful days in Aruba, which, if you don’t know, is a Dutch island in the southern Caribbean. The weather was gorgeous and believe it or not, they have some of the best restaurants we have ever been to. When we came home, we were still in a Dutch state of mind and thought of a Dutch pancake that Jim makes for me at home. To give him a day off, we remembered that Richard Walkers Pancake House in Crystal Lake offers the same thing and off we went.

The holly and the ivy: plants for the holidays

Holidays are filled with traditions, celebrating with family and the giving of gifts. This year, our family is altering the tradition of giving store-bought gifts. We are giving each other homemade gifts. Thankfully, there are some very creative and talented members of my family. I, unfortunately, am not one of them.

Now you Know: November 20, 2025

M&T of Neighborhood 26 asks: “We moved here in August and love the summer and fall plantings around the entrance to Sun City from Rt.47, together with those around the lodge. Will Sun City be putting up a Christmas tree? If so, where will it be and will it be lit?”

The glow in the courthouse basement

We stood in line for nearly an hour at the Cook County Courthouse across from the Daley Center. It made for excellent people watching — an assembly line of brides and grooms, gripping their marriage licenses in sweaty palms, slowly advancing through the line one by one, as each couple went into the small room where they took their vows in front of a judge. There were brides of all shapes and sizes, wearing short dresses, long dresses, full makeup and eyelashes or just a modest white dress. There, as if illuminated by a spotlight, I saw my oldest son, Clark, and his beautiful bride Lizzy, waiting patiently for their turn to get married.

A story about a story that almost happened

It’s always a bit strange when a famous person dies, and you realize that you have a unique personal connection to him. I thought of that recently when “Ace” (Paul Daniel) Frehley died on October 16. Frehley was the lead guitarist for the iconic rock band Kiss — and I once owned an electric guitar that he once almost owned.

OK, that’s going to take some explaining.

Let’s go back about 25 years, to the day I went into a music shop, hoping to sell a black Les Paul electric guitar that I owned.

Don’t fall behind, spring ahead and prepare now for next year

Each evening, I spend about 10 minutes preparing for the next morning. It is a habit started a few years ago that makes my mornings less busy. I choose and set out my clothes, put water in the tea kettle, and make my overnight oats. I also set out the dishes and utensils needed for breakfast, set out my dog’s food and review what I need to do the next day. Evenings are generally less busy, and by doing things the night before, it gives me a head start on the next day. It makes the next day more pleasant and productive.

Like grandma used to make

A senior citizen’s sleeping habits are very strange indeed. You wake up at the butt crack of dawn and fall asleep right after Wheel of Fortune. Even when you are sleeping, your bladder decides to wake you up, or your brain suddenly remembers something you were trying to think of two days ago. Such was the case when Jim woke up screaming the name of a restaurant that we haven’t been to in over 25 years. The name in this sudden epiphany was Tony Spavone’s Ristorante in Bloomingdale, so off we went for a late lunch.

Lovable losers

A good film doesn’t require a good protagonist. There is no obligation to the audience from any screenwriter that the character we follow throughout the feature be as flawless as Teflon, no moral ambiguity whatsoever. The Hays Code has been long gone now and we are adults that can discern right from wrong. The only sin of the filmmaker is to make characters that are boring.

Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt would never be described as maximalist. Her dramas are quiet fly-on-the-wall observations of very grounded human beings. This is why the idea of creating a heist film felt so strange a genre for her to tackle. The Mastermind plays like a lost heir apparent to the works of Hal Ashby and Monte Hellman, a film that not only takes place in the 70s but beamed to us from that decade. Here we meet James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor), a failure in the truest sense of the word. He is the son of a judge and comes from wealth; went to school for architecture and can build furniture. However, he is jobless not because of outside forces but his lack of ambition.

Ask an Angel: November 6, 2025

I’m a 78-year-old veteran, and lately, the days have been feeling long and quiet. My wife passed away two years ago, and while I’ve done my best to keep going, it’s been tough. We were married for over 50 years. She was my rock, and the house hasn’t felt the same without her.

I still get around okay, but some days I just don’t have the energy to cook or drive myself to the store. I miss having someone to talk to, share a meal with, or even just sit and watch TV. I know there are other vets out there like me, I just don’t know how to find them.

When one ring meant ‘I’m here’

Waaaaaay back in the 1990s, when calling long-distance (outside my area code! On a landline!) was cost-prohibitive, my mother devised a system: In my college dorm, I would wait until Sunday evening when the phone rates went down after 10 p.m. I would call her at the top of the hour, ring once, then hang up. That was our signal. She would know that I was ready for our weekly phone call, so she called me back, usually while puttering in the kitchen, while my Dad picked up the extension in the living room close to his favorite chair.

The bindle made all the difference

When I was a kid, I was usually a bum.

I’m talking about my Halloween costume, of course. I wasn’t a bum every day, though there are those who might dispute that.

Ask an Angel: October 23, 2025

During a recent visit to my parents’ home, I noticed a small plate on the kitchen counter with several pills just sitting there. It wasn’t the first time. My parents are both in their early 80s, no dementia, but I have started noticing some forgetfulness here and there — nothing major, just little things like repeating a story or losing track of time.

For the birds: how to create a backyard haven this winter

Annie, our English springer spaniel dog, brings my husband and me an indescribable amount of joy. Her exuberance for life, extreme loyalty, and constant affection lift our spirits each and every day. She is a blessing to us and by providing food, shelter and care we, hopefully, we bring her happiness.

A Huntley trifecta

People say we should review restaurants in Huntley. Be careful what you wish for, as you will soon see. Most suburbs have icons which differentiate them from their surrounding suburbs. Schaumburg has Woodfield, Rosemont has the Chicago Dogs Baseball Stadium, and even Berwyn has Svengoolie. We were wracking our brains on what Huntley could be famous for, then suddenly, it dawned on us.

Enter at your own risk

2025 has been an amazing year for getting the creeps in cinema. From Sinners and Presence earlier to Bring Her Back and Weapons during the summer, the multiplexes have hosted so many superb entries in this genre. Many of which I have reviewed if you are interested in checking them out again. Currently, The Conjuring series is wrapping up with Last Rites having been in theaters for over a month now. Some of these are also streaming and on video-on-demand for home. However, I want to talk about some classic fare you might also see scrolling through the service queues as you search.

Now You Know: October 23, 2025

One of the most magnificent features of our community’s landscape is the fountain in the lake adjacent to the lodge. My husband and I just love seeing it as we drive up Del Webb Boulevard. It is beautiful at any time of day. What can you tell us about it?

Finding a new groove

We’re barely 30 days out from the day our youngest child moved away from home, and my Gentleman Friend and I are still rattling around, trying to find our groove.

We knew this day would come, when we no longer lived with dependent children, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that we had no idea what that really entailed. We have both been hopelessly knocked off our game.

The a-maizing life of sweet Illinois summer corn

I’ve spent a lot of time lately pondering the life cycle of corn, as I’m sure you have, too. If there is any better way to mark the passage of summer in Illinois, I don’t know what it is.

That thought came home to me the other day as I sat on the patio, shucking what would probably be the last of the best farmer’s market corn for this season. I was in no hurry, sitting in the Huntley autumn sunshine, admiring the perfect symmetry of a perfect ear of corn that would perfectly grace my dinner table that night.