Blogging Forgottonia

I regret to report that 12/31/2011 will be the final business day for Warren County Pharmacy in County Market.

I wondered before Warren County Pharmacy opened whether Monmouth could support four pharmacies.  I’m sad to see my suspicions born out and another locally owned & operated business close its doors.  The Gracey’s are good people, and I wish them well in the future.

I just wanted to congratulate the Monmouth-Roseville High School soccer program on a fantastic season.  Unfortunately the team lost their sectional match against Warrensburg-Latham, but there can’t be any doubt that they fought hard.  The score was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, putting the game into sudden death overtime.  The Review Atlas doesn’t have anything up about the game yet, but here is the article from the Decatur Herald & Review.

Again, congratulations to the Titans soccer program!

Two brothers, Keith & Brian Collins, made quite a discovery at  Carriage House Antiques in Hesperia, CA.  There they found & purchased (for $50) a family photo album of Monmouth’s most famous son, Wyatt Earp.

The Collins brothers suggest that the album’s photos could fetch $1 million if sold. But they intend to keep them and lease out the rights to them.

Quite the find!

Local blogger & Review Atlas columnist Stephanie Sikorski asked for positive media coverage of the Monmouth-Roseville Titans soccer program as they advance to sectional championship on Saturday.   Sikorski’s husband Aaron coaches the team.  The Titans soccer program was in the local media spotlight earlier this year, but unfortunately that was due to the IHSA suspension of star player “Chino” Ayala & the resulting forfeiture of a tie game with Peoria Manual.  Sikorski’s blog post highlights how the team has struggled through multiple adversities with little fan & community support to achieve a very successful season.

Well Stephanie, ask and ye shall receive!  I’ll add my voice, too … best of luck to the Titans on Saturday!

I bit the bullet and spent the money to buy my own domain.  Blogging Forgottonia is now officially housed at bloggingforgottonia.com.  I did this in part to encourage myself to start blogging again.  It was $25 for a year through WordPress, so it’s not exactly a titanic financial sacrifice.  Still, I paid for the domain, so I better make some use of it, eh?

My voting tendencies are liberal, especially for rural Illinois.  I usually vote for Democratic candidates.  Yet I find the proposed Illinois redistricting map an obscenity, and the arrogance involved in creating it astonishing in its disregard for our country’s democratic principles.

Capitol Fax has a thorough summary.  Harry Bulkeley has fired off a rant that I actually agree with, although if the shoe were on the other foot and Republicans controlled redistricting, I’m certain that we’d simply have a clutch of red gerrymanders instead of the blue ones we have now.  ”To the victor belong the spoils” a la Andrew Jackson.

When are we going to stop letting our elected officials brazenly abuse the system like this?

Matt Hutton, the paper’s editor, is leaving.  His farewell article gives no indication regarding who will be replacing him.  The paper’s building at 400 S. Main was for sale, but now the listing has disappeared from the Mel Foster Co website.  What does GateHouse Media Inc have planned for the Review Atlas?

OK, can someone tell me why this article about the recent addition of 80 acres to the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center in Monmouth was printed in the Aledo Times Record, and why this article about the new Monmouth underage club AfterDark was printed in the Galesburg Register-Mail?  Better question … why was there nothing in the Review Atlas regarding these rather newsworthy local events???

Matt Hutton, editor of the Daily Review Atlas, announced recently that the Review Atlas, the Galesburg Register-Mail and the Macomb Journal would all be printed in Galesburg instead of Peoria.  This will result in some minor cosmetic changes to the papers.  Hutton also announced that the Review Atlas will begin charging for obituaries.

I’m glad to hear that the local papers will be printed closer to home, but I’m more interested in hearing the story behind the “For Sale” sign on the Review Atlas building.  Still no official word on that front.

Another local media change is the revamp of the Galesburg.com blog page.  I’m not sure when this happened, and it may have been a while ago.  The old page was so antiquated & unappealing that I rarely visited it.  The new version is certainly a big step up.

If Forgottonia was an independent country, it would be ranked #153, between El Salvador & Slovenia, based on total area (7906.37 square miles).  Based on population, Forgottonia would be ranked #175, between Belize and Iceland.