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It'll be freaktacular, that's for sure

May 15, 201416 CommentsPosted in blindness, memoir writing, travel, Uncategorized

Know what a beer circus is?

Me, neither.

I’m about to find out, though: On Sunday Mike and I are joining our friends Art and Dana Bergeron to head over to the Lagunitas Beer Circus to celebrate the new brewery the California-based company is  opening on Chicago’s south side. A story in Time Out Chicago says the beer circus (more…)

Mondays with Mike: Slumgullion

May 12, 20146 CommentsPosted in baseball, Mike Knezovich, Mondays with Mike, Uncategorized

I’ve come down with spring fever. OK, given that it was 80+ degrees yesterday, muggy, and that we seem to be skipping the spring thing altogether so far here in Chicago, spring fever might be a stretch. But I’ve got the symptoms: Day dreaming, distracted, don’t much want to focus on anything. So today’s MwM will be a slumgullion of sorts. What’s a slumgullion? Well, growing up, I’d wander into the kitchen to bug my mom about dinner. “What’re you cooking?” I’d ask, (more…)

This Mother's Day, go with the Flo

May 7, 201430 CommentsPosted in blindness, Flo, Uncategorized

I refer to my mom by her first name, and if you follow this blog, you already know a lot about Flo. Over the years, you may have read:

Hmm. Maybe I’ll end the list with the link to that last provocative post. What can I say? The gal is game! (more…)

Mondays with Mike: Rehabilitating Ralph

May 5, 20142 CommentsPosted in Mike Knezovich, Mondays with Mike, Uncategorized

Back in the spring of 1975, I was co-editor of my high school newspaper. I would be heading to the University of Illinois in the fall, and though I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to raise some hell in the service of the public good. Like Woodward and Bernstein, maybe. Or better yet, like Ralph Nader. (more…)

Myths and facts about donating your eyes

May 3, 20147 CommentsPosted in blindness, Braille, parenting a child with special needs, travel, Uncategorized, Writing for Children

You might remember Bennett, the six-year-old boy who gave the Braille/print copy of my children’s book, Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound a thumbs up after reading it with his dad. “I like that book you got me, ” he told his mom. “It’s a true story, and no one ever writes true stories for kids about people who are blind like me.”

Bennett and his companion dog Journey.

Bennett and his companion dog Journey.

I’ve kept up with Bennett ever since his mom emailed me with that stellar review, and in March I wrote a post about Bennett and his parents traveling from Wisconsin to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to have Dr. Ken Nischal, one of the world’s foremost children’s eye specialists, try a cornea transplant in Bennett’s right eye. (more…)