RJA Blog

If you’ve lived in Illinois you’ve probably been called ‘flatlander’ at least once. But just like there’s more to Wisconsin than cheese, there’s a lot more to Illinois than miles and miles of flat land. If everyone knew that we were held underwater, bulldozed, swamped on and stomped on to get fabulous farmland unobstructed by hills and valleys, they’d appreciate flatlanders.  read more >

I have hoarding guilt about books…especially used books, because I can fill my shelves without going broke. There are little stashes of books all over my house from musty classics and crime novels to giant pictorials of places I’ve been or want to visit.  read more >

Can regret save your life? Woodland creatures seem to love road games. Like the large doe that ran next to my driver’s door for a few hundred yards before speeding up and turning right in front of me. Or the birds and squirrels that wait until you’re almost on top of them before they get out of your way. Remember when you learned that playing chicken can have a bad ending?  read more >

April has more than its share of historic horrors, from the San Fran earthquake, MLK assassination, and Lincoln’s night at the theater, to Waco, Chernobyl, the Great Mississippi flood, and Titanic. But enough about tragedies. We need to lighten up. Here are some other things that happened each day in Aprils past...  read more >

No matter what we do or where we go in life, doesn't everything boil down to tiny memorable moments? Listen to the stories people tell at work-they're about moments that made them feel great or awful. This is about 2 moments.  read more >

Between novels and extraordinary film making technology, today’s planetarians can experience just about any historical event personally. But what happens to our world view when the drama is unfolding now, on tv, in real time?  read more >

Mergers and acquisitions of behemoth corporations dominate the news with combined assets that are incomprehensible. Throwing in the impact of the new alliances on their markets makes for some stunning headlines. Meanwhile, another story goes unreported…the story of commercial enterprises loosely referred to as “small business.”  read more >

This time of year always reminds me of being spellbound by the stories read to us during the holidays.Not a creature stirred until the end. Even now, kids enjoy those classics because they take us out of our world and into another. So why not tap into another vast resource of memorable stories?  read more >

Not everyone will spend this Thanksgiving with family huddled around a fat roasted turkey. There are just some years when you end up alone on the fourth Thursday of November.  read more >

Back during my youthful struggle to stay afloat, decisions were so easy. Should I buy the blue jacket or the pink one? Should I go to this movie or that one? The answer was always ‘none of the above.’ It was very simple. My boundaries were clearly defined by reality. I never had to waste time shopping or ordering food because new cars, clothes and restaurants were not in the budget. So, I stopped asking myself to choose.  read more >