Elgin is the best ever!

According to Best Life magazine, Elgin is the 52nd best place in the US to raise a family. Woo hoo! They looked at 257 American cities total–Honolulu is #1 and Clarkesville, Tennessee came in dead last.

Here’s how other Illinois cities stacked up:
17. Naperville
19. Springfield
52. Elgin
60. Chicago

I’m not sure if I trust the ratings though because #32 is Las Vegas. Why would Vegas rank higher than Elgin? More casinos?

Tags: best place to raise a family, Chicago, Elgin, IL, Illinois, magazine, MSN, Naperville, quality of life, ranking, Springfield
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Abe Lincoln Mania!

*Meet Abe Lincoln & his wife at Gail Borden Library! No seriously, for $50 you can hobnob with some people dressed up in costume tomorrow (4/18) night at 7 pm. Champagne will be provided. Proceeds benefit the library.

Though this is one of the craziest and most unique things I’ve ever heard of, I think it could be insanely fun. Seriously, how often can you drink alcohol in the library without getting in trouble?

*Guess the idea isn’t completely unique after all! Wheaton’s Center for History has “An Evening with the Lincolns” tonight (4/17) at 7 pm. I’m pretty sure they aren’t serving alcohol though.

*Gail Borden has a ton of Lincoln-themed events coming up:
****4/22 @ 3 PM. Tea with Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. Sounds similar to the $50 fundraiser, except it’s free and instead of champagne they’re serving lemonade. Count me in!
****4/28 @ 4 PM. Lincoln Studies and Stuff. Have a chat with the curator of Springfield’s Lincoln Presidential Library.
****4/28 @ 7 PM. Images of “Honest Abe.” Watch a slide show of how Lincoln’s image changed over the years.
****4/30 @ 7 PM. Lincoln’s Table. Learn about recipes that Lincoln’s family used. Now this one sounds interesting!

*If you love riding bikes and want to learn more about Lincoln, there is the Tour de Lincoln this August. It starts in Kentucky and ends in Illinois, stopping at Lincoln’s birth place, historic boyhood cabin, burial place, museum, and more.

*If you don’t love riding bikes but still want to learn more about Lincoln, there is a Legendary Lincoln Smithsonian Journey in May. It starts in Kentucky and ends in Illinois, similar to the bike ride mentioned above, but you travel by motorcoach and sleep in hotels.

Tags: Abe Lincoln, cooking, fundraiser, history, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Land of Lincoln, Legendary Lincoln Smithsonian Journey, Lincoln Presidential Library, recipes, Springfield, Tour de Lincoln, Wheaton Center for History
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Allow me to make fun of my state’s capital for a minute.

I went to the Springfield, IL website for work-related reasons, where I saw a funny headline.

First vehicle “booted” as city goes after parking scofflaws.

Photo of a booted car, for those who have never seen one. Photo from dcist.com

I wondered, why is booted in quotes, and who uses the word scofflaws? I mean, they have a nice photo of Abe Lincoln on their site, but they’re still in the year 2008 right?

Springfield’s Honest Abe graphic.

So I clicked the link. To a former Chicagoan who thinks of “the boot” as a regular occurrence, the article was pretty funny. They actually published who got the first boot on their car!

The City of Springfield has applied the “boot” to the first vehicle that belongs to an individual who owes $500 or more in unpaid parking tickets. The vehicle was located in the 100 block of North Fourth Street. It is owned by Gary Corcoran, who has since come forward and paid all of his past due parking tickets.

Poor Gary! Though I’m glad to hear he came forward and paid his tickets.

Sometimes small towns are cute. I wonder what other things people can get their name in the paper over? And how many people do you think have been gossiping about that scofflaw Gary Corcoran?

Tags: Abe Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, articles, cars, humor, Illinois, joke, news, parking tickets, parking violation, small towns, Springfield, the boot, tickets
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