Visit my Flickr set for more photos from the 2009 Illinois State Fair.

P.S. This is my 100th post!

I just returned from sunny Pasadena, CA after watching USC beat up on Illinois. While the game itself was disappointing, we at least had the better marching band.

More pictures and (possibly) video to come…

The Illinois Bureau of Tourism is having a contest on their official site to determine the 7 Wonders of Illinois. No registration is necessary and you can vote once every day. The 7 Wonders nominees are separated into geographic regions where you can vote for one Wonder for each region. The voting will take place everyday until Saturday March 31st, with the field of nominees diminishing each week. Don’t forget to tell all your friends and as they say in Chicago, Vote Early and Vote Often (or just everyday)!

Click Here to Vote for Cozy Dog!

Also if you would like to vote for other regions, I would suggest voting for the I & M Canal in the Chicagoland region, Starved Rock State Park in the Northern region, Cahokia Mounds in the Southwest region and the Dickson Mounds in the Western region.

Update!
Cozy Dog and Allerton Park have advanced to the final round. It’ll be a close race, so keep voting, Cozy Doggers!

Here is an interesting site concerning the recent decision by Lawrence C. Eppley, President of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, to remove Chief Illiniwek as the official symbol for the University of Illinois. Pro-Chiefers are saying that Eppley acted unjustly by not actually having the Board of Trustees vote on the issue.

From the Chicago Sun-Times article by Dave Newbart published on 28 Feb 07:
“School spokesman Tom Hardy said the decision was made by “university leadership.” A statement posted on the board’s Web site — and later quietly removed — said board Chairman Larry Eppley conferred individually with colleagues and they reached a consensus. No public vote by the board of trustees was necessary, the statement claimed. Trustee David Dorris said his understanding was this decision would be made by the university administration, which oversees things like athletics and the marching band. (Presumably, even the assistant band director could have pulled the plug, considering it was his predecessor in 1926 who created the chief in the first place.) “

From DumpEppley.com:
“Eppley Violated By-Law by Reversing 1990 Board Resolution (updated 02/26/07)

After Trustee David Dorris said Eppley could not legally take the action he did, DumpEppley.com did some research and found the minutes from the 1990 meeting (pg 109 and 110) that officially named the Chief as the University’s official symbol. We found that Article IV, Section 3 of the Board of Trustees By-Laws, clearly states, “The Executive Committee functions as an instrument of the board and shall possess all the powers of the board when in session, provided that it shall not overrule, revise, or change the previous acts of the board, or take from regular or special committees any business referred to them by the board.”

The site is worth a look no matter your position on the Chief. The fact that this decision was done in such a seemingly “underhanded manner” does raise a few eye brows. No one seems to be proud of the decision because that would almost certainly affect their alumni donations, which is a vital resource for this (if not all) universities.

Update:
It looks like because of all the confusion over the decision to oust Chief Illiniwek, the Board of Trustees has agreed to a formal vote on the matter at their next board meeting. -via Chicago Sun-Times
The vote was made and the Chief is out. -via Daily Illini

On Friday March 4th 2005, I awoke to the sound of the neighboring frat house’s stereo system pumping out the same Rick Dee’s Top 40 garbage it always did. It was unusually early for the partying to be taking place, but I shrugged it off and readied myself for the end of the week trudge to class. I put on my favorite shirt at the time, which happened to be blue, not knowing that this decision would later play a significant role in the day’s events.

As soon as I stepped outside, I knew something was up. At first I credited the surge of drunk sorostitutes and the like to the seeming coincidence of it being one of the first nice days of the year and the beginning of a weekend. However, my life as a blissfully unaware freshman changed with the first drunken slur that was thrown my way. “Hey! Why aren’t you wearin’ green?! What’s your f*ckin’ problem?!”, yelled the Abercrombieaglepostal clad FratBrat. Yes, it was true. I was not wearing green. But why would this boy and his friends, who were all curiously tan for early March, find it so important to point out to me the obvious fact that I was not wearing green. What was the big deal? Although I was annoyed at the comment, it jostled me into noticing that there really was an overabundance of green t-shirt wearing going on that Friday. When I finally made it to class, I asked one of my friends what was with all the green and carrying-on in the streets? I mean, didn’t those idiots know that St. Patrick’s day was well over a week away? My friend guilelessly replied, “Dude, it’s Unofficial. You know, the Friday before St. Patrick’s Day? Well, it’s actually two Friday’s ahead this year because of Open House, but yeah it’s basically a day where you wake up and start drinking and drink all day or until you pass out, get arrested or die”. This new holiday that I had just been informed of seemed to be pretty amazing to me, mostly because of the influence it had on people. I mean, most of the kids out there celebrating wouldn’t wake up that early early to go to class. But give them a good reason, say to start working on their keg, then no problem. They’re all over it.

2 years later, I still loathe having to leave an extra 10 minutes early for class in order to pick my way through the vomit covered sidewalks. The insulting comments still come my way, as I refuse to wear green, but I just smile and know that I’m really not missing out on anything.