Flying and falling

Remnants and ramblings:

CATCH THE BUS: I'm sorry, but no matter how serious they sounded in their meeting (at least from what I read and heard on the radio) I don't believe Savoy will go ahead with its own MTD district. As angry as some city officials are about how the CU MTD has gone about its annexation business in the last few months, it simply would not be to Savoy's advantage to go it alone. In fact, it would be stupid in the long run. What MIGHT work, however, is the leverage the threat carries. Savoy just might get the kind of bus service it wants that way. But to break off from the 'metropolitan area' serves no one particularly well. I cannot imagine how Wal-Mart, the Orchard Lanes complex and every other Savoy business could want anything other than access to every C-U dollar it can get its hands on.

DROP IT: Is is possible that the tourism dollars Rantoul receives from the World Free Fall Convention can overcome the bad publicity of dead skydivers? At what point does the community begin to measure the profit and loss?

APPLAUSE APPLAUSE: Everyone applauds Carle and others for the generous actions in helping the Francis Nelson Health Center relocate to the old Leath Furniture store on Bloomington Road in Champaign. What they're doing is great. It's completely necessary while at the same time it's something that Carle and Provena and the banks didn't have to do.

But let us not forget the other side of the equation. The rent-free agreement has a couple nice benefits for Carle: It should be a very nice tax deduction for the Foundation, plus it does provide good, positive publicity for a company that needs it.

And don't forget one other little thing: The more low-income, Medicaid and Medicare patients Frances Nelson handles, the fewer Carle (and Provena) have to handle. Good for that bottom line, too.

ONE FOR ROD: It's hard to find too much to cheer about when it comes to our governor. But I did appreciate his veto of the measure that would have lowered the age at which a kid could get a tattoo from 21 to 18. Personally, I find tattoos stupid at any age (I like to quote Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III: 'An attempt to provide distinction from without where nature has failed to provide it from within...'). But to a generation of young people trained by TV to believe that life is a 30-minute sitcom, a tattoo is just another impulse buy that they will regret later. Those who fall into the trap should at least have the maturity to understand that permanent doesn't mean 'until next week.'

DON'T CALL ME: I'm still waiting for the first teenager to be ticketed for driving while talking on a cellphone. I believe the law's been signed and has taken effect.

SMOKIN' I see at The Eleventh Hour blog that Springfield is getting closer to going smokeless, at least in its restaurants.
I also see in today's News-Gazette that

A fundraiser for C-U Smoke Free Alliance will be held Monday at Ned Kelly's Steakhouse, 1601 N. Cunningham Ave., U.
The group is working to create smoke-free workplaces in Champaign-Urbana, and Ned Kelly's has been smoke-free since Feb. 1.
The restaurant has promised anyone buying a meal from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday who mentions the fundraiser will get a 10 percent discount, and it will donate 10 percent of the cost of the meal to C-U Smoke Free Alliance.

Get there, if you can. The more that show up, the closer we can come to clearing the air around here.

Really; if Springfield can do it...

And so it goes.