Sorted by date Results 626 - 650 of 1092
No question, Hinsdale is demolishing the stories that reside in its old homes. The village is in the throes of a building boom. Lots of stone and brick delivered to job sights. Loads of slate roofing and copper downspouts, too. Weird little dormers sticking out of slate roofs. Massive ground to roofline windows reflecting multi-story staircases. Some of the homes that are being built seem to possess a design that, in my opinion, is cookie-cutter and lacks a certain aesthetic beauty. It seems doubtful that in 100 years, these...
The house next door to us is going to be torn down. I know that isn't news in this town where old homes are torn down everyday. But there are many things that happen all the time - every day - and until they happen to you, well, they don't mean as much. I should add that while it is accurate to say that homes are torn down all the time, it is not accurate to say that it has happened on our block. In fact, except for a couple of homes on the edges of our block, it, and the home...
Cartoon by Dan Ackley...
Pat Kenny made a list of promises to his wife, Eileen, before she died in 2016. The final one was to write a book about their son Sean's struggles with mental illness and death by suicide in 2006. The former Hinsdale fire chief had been traveling the country for years sharing with other first responders his experience about losing his son. "You can't tell enough people, and emotionally it's not good for you," Kenny remembers his wife telling him. "Write the book and tell the...
In the span of six weeks, the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board voted to dismantle plans that had been in the works for months or even years. Board members voted in June to halt the shift to an integrated math curriculum and then in July rejected “physics first” as the appropriate science sequence for all students. We wonder what they will tackle next. The board majority, which consists of four newcomers who beat out three incumbents in the April election, has been operating under the rallying cry that it is doing the...
Dan Ackley for The Hinsdalean...
What would people think of you if they judged you at your most difficult moment? That’s not a question I like to ponder. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and would like to believe they are tempered by the moments I did my best. Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles received her share of hate after she decided Tuesday to withdraw from the team finals in order to focus on her mental health. A day later the 24-year-old also withdrew from the individual all-around com...
When I last wrote an article for the paper, I had just finished my senior year of high school and was getting ready to begin a new chapter of my life at the University of Georgia. My first year at school was filled with new friendships, lots of school work, fun nights out, a new sorority and many memories. Despite some COVID-19 setbacks, such as online classes and limited events, I am grateful to say that I was able to have a much more normal year than many other students....
July talk of returning to the classroom may seem premature — even cruel — for some. But school administrators, as they have since March of 2020, are working to navigate COVID-19 waters that have suddenly turned choppier, reminding all of us that the pandemic is not over. In just 10 days this month, the average test positivity rate in DuPage County more than doubled, increasing from 1.7 percent on July 14 to 3.7 percent on July 24. While the availability of ICU beds remains relatively stable, the average number of pat...
Sticky toffee pudding eluded me for most of my life. A lover of cakes and cheesecakes, I didn't discover this amazing dessert until I was almost 40. Dan and I were on my dream "Jane Austen trip" to England (with some dungeon visits thrown in to keep him happy) to celebrate my milestone birthday. In addition to visiting her grave in Winchester and her museum in Bath, both of which brought me great joy, I discovered sticky toffee pudding. I can't remember what prompted me to ord...
July 22, 2021...
It was a bright June day. Prior to that moment, I had never wielded a golf club in my 31 years of life. It was my turn to tee off, and I stepped up to the golf ball, took my first swing - and missed the ball. Everyone gave me an encouraging nod to try again. I swung again and missed a second time. I could feel the tension growing, and so I hastily swung a third time. I missed yet again. I quickly swung again, and I finally hit the golf ball, which traveled about 10 feet along...
The Tokyo Olympics — which start Friday — will feature 11,000 athletes competing in 339 events across 33 sports over 17 days. The 621 members of Team USA hope to capture their fair share of the 5,000 medals available (made out of 79,000 tons of recycled electronics). NBCUniversal will air more than 7,000 hours of Olympics coverage on TV and streaming video, starting at 6:55 a.m. Friday with a live broadcast of the opening ceremony. After waiting for almost a year for these Summer Games, we’re more than ready. We’re so exci...
My brother-in-law recalls a time in the early '60s when flying to a vacation destination with his parents meant wearing a suit. He was 8 or 9 years old. Everyone laughs along with him when it's brought up, because seeing a child dressed so formally for a flight these days would be something of an oddity. And yet, I have to admire the implied degree of respect for air travel that existed back when flying was more of a novelty. Now that commercial passenger flights have become...
I have friends who went to summer camp - out-of-state camps in beautiful locations like Colorado and North Carolina and New Hampshire. My own summer camp experience was limited to the kind offered by the park district. Money was tight when I was a kid. Traveling out of state - or even out of town - for camp was not a possibility. So when Ainsley said, toward the end of third grade, that she wanted to go to sleep-away camp, I was excited that we would be able to send her. She...
How often do you give thanks for your nearby park? We often take these refreshingly open and family-friendly expanses for granted, local features that are just another part of the landscape. But while the style and footprints of the housing stock morph over time, these parks hold their ground, inviting generation after generation to enjoy both the active and leisurely pleasures they provide. Since 1985, America has celebrated July as the nation’s official Park and Recreation Month. Created by the National Recreation and P...
A curricular emergency is in progress at Hinsdale Central High School. We need immediate action by the board of education to address the harm already imposed on rising 10th-graders who took Physics in the Universe and give rising ninth-graders the option to transfer into biology, the College Board-recommended prerequisite for AP Biology. Science courses scheduled to be eliminated from the curriculum — introductory honors biology and AP Physics 1 — must be retained. Under PITU, the first in a science course sequence that has n...
As we celebrate our country's independence this week, I can't help but chuckle about some of the crazy holidays the world has conjured up over the years. How do you celebrate National Zipper Day or World Mosquito Day in your household? What about Count Your Buttons Day or Super Mario Day? Want to know my opinion of Sweetest Day? Just ask my wife. Father's Day, however, is a different story, or at least it has been since I became a dad some 26 years ago. I never gave it much...
Summer is always an interesting time for newspapers. Government bodies — like village and school boards — typically shorten their agendas and might skip a meeting or two. Kids aren’t going to school and athletes aren’t playing high school sports. Typically, there just isn’t a lot of big news. Last summer was quite unusual, as Hinsdale and communities around the country dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd. Here’s a sampling of headlines from stories we ran last summer...
Dan and I absolutely hated the first road trip we took, to visit Boston some 984 miles away. We split the 15-hour drive into two, complaint-filled days. Looking back, I see two problems: 1. We planned to camp on the way there and when we missed an exit, we decided to stay in a hotel, but we didn't have reservations, and there was a quilt convention in town, so it took forever to find a room. Whew! 2. We didn't bring enough snacks. We felt much different after our second road...
Cartoons week of 7-1-21...
We often find our best selves during our toughest moments. Unfortunately, that simple truth seems to be going the wrong way. Consider a recent morning in Hinsdale. A woman finishes her workout and gleefully punches in an order for a tall Starbucks on the iPhone tucked into her Lululemon pants. She jumps in her SUV to pick up her mobile order, which looks to be ready in three minutes. However, her mood collapses when she walks into the store and realizes the order is not...
I'm not very skilled at saying no. I have such a hard time, in fact, that one of my friends/co-workers once suggested a simple remedy if I find myself unable to respond in the negative when asked to do something I don't want to do. I should write "No" on an index card and hold it up. I know I'm not the only person who struggles with this. And the reasons why I do are many. First of all, I'm a people pleaser. This is a role many of us - especially women - have been raised to...
Almost two and a half centuries have passed since the 13 colonies issued the declaration that led to our country’s independence. Among those 1,300 words are the lines from Thomas Jefferson that are most frequently quoted. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Jefferson and other signers were in search of freedom from the tyrannical rule of King Georg...
