In Ice Cream Headache, Billy stops in at the Supreme Dairy Bar for a milkshake. While the owner of the dairy bar, Ray, is making the milkshake, Ray thinks back to when he was a child and went to the soda fountain at Adkins’ Drug Store with his father and sister for malts and ice cream sodas.

How many of these fountain drinks have you tried? Are there any I might have left off?

On the evening of May 16th, 19 teams of 4-5 students participated in round one of the first International Market Research competition. Students had to choose an APEC country and by looking at various aspects of the country, including, but not limited to, infrastructure, economy, and industry, and then make recommendations during a ten-minute presentation for foreign investment in that country.

Round two will be held next week followed by the finals the week after next. Students who advance and win this competition will an international study trip during the summer. The second place winners will all receive digital cameras.

Win or lose, all the students are winners because they had the chance to work on their “soft skills” something you hear a lot at SolBridge. These soft skills are important for preparing students for the job market after they graduate.

Congratulations go out to all the students who participated.

Perhaps you have seen some of these films before; perhaps you haven’t. Many there are some on this list that you don’t agree with you; others that you think should be on this list. (Although Star Wars opened on Memorial Day Weekend in 1977, it is still technically a “summer movie”). There are some classics here and there are some that might you have scratching your head wondering why I would include them on this list. Regardless of whether they are classic or not, there are a lot of cinematic gems here.

I started going to a lot of movies in 1975, probably because I had a car and a job at the time. Living in the Illinois Valley, we had a lot of movie theaters to choose from: in LaSalle there were the Majestic, the LaSalle, the Illinois Valley Twin Cinema (originally the Jerry Lewis Cinema) which showed adult films on one of its screens, and the Drive-in east of town. Peru, Mendota, Princeton, and Ottawa had movie theaters as well as the drive-in theatre in Earlville (which is still open today).

I went to a lot of movies in the summer of ’75. Jaws was the big movie of the summer, but other movies like Aloha Bobby and Rose and White Line Fever (both of which I saw at the LaSalle Drive-in) were summer favorites.

It was also the summer I started making plans to go into the Air Force after I graduated.

I have seen most of the movies on the list; many I have seen several times. How about you? How many of these films have you seen?

Jay Cutler’s going to have a stellar year.

With a new head coach, drafting Kyle Long and other plays to shore up their offensive line, this could very well be the year that the Bears make it to the Super Bowl.

Here’s what some analysts have to say about this at the Bears’ official website.

If the offensive line can give Cutler more protection and Bears’ coach Marc Trestman opens up the passing game, Cutler could have an explosive passing game. Of course, the big question mark that remains will be the defense with the departure of Brian Urlacher.

Astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield has the perfect crowning touch for his time in the International Space Station: his incredible rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

Bowie would be proud of this rendition and Commander, we’re all proud of you down here on Earth and what you have done to make science and space so interesting.

Well done, Commander and welcome back to Earth.

Although there might be some truth to the claim that you can’t go home again, I most certainly did when I wrote Ice Cream Headache. And it’s only fitting, given the number of years that I have lived overseas, that I “return” home  a lot in my stories, especially when I am waxing nostalgic about “back home.”

This photo alone, brings back many memories for me: walking home from Washington Grade School, stopping in at the Supreme Dairy Bar for a milkshake or a Green River, buying candy and comic books at Balconie’s, and going to the library. This was the center of my universe from 1966-1976.

What I tried to do most with Ice Cream Headache was to capture some of the small town flavor that is rapidly disappearing across the United States.

The SolBridge Jumpers

Students cheering on the SolBridge Jumpers. The team made it to the finals, but lost.

One Spirit, One Team, One Win = SolBridge

Salsa, Salsa, Salsa

Always time for a quick photo to send to friends.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye (L) shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama at a White House meeting on May 7. (Yonhap)

If there was a contest for the worst photoshopped photo, the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea would would hands down with this photo. The person President Park is really shaking hands with is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Why couldn’t they just have used both photos?

This latest one left at Amazon for Ice Cream Headache, definitely rocks!

Jeffrey Miller is an instinctive navigator of the human heart. His ability to draw universal thoughts and emotions from commonplace characters in simple settings is reminiscent of Stephen King in Hearts in Atlantis.

In the novella, The Ice Cream Headache, the locale is a small town in rural America and the time is 1968. And while it is true that the troubling Vietnam War, combined with widespread civil dissent, enshrouds the drama which Mr. Miller slowly unfolds, the time and place could just have easily been a gloomy castle in medieval Denmark or a 19th Century whaling ship off the coast of New England. The Vietnam War as viewed from the homefront is, nevertheless, the flashpoint for the story and lends to it a certain texture, poignancy and intensity it might otherwise not have had. Under the low-lying dark cloud of war, the finely-crafted characters act out their personal dramas within a milieu of sadness, regret, guilt, envy, greed, cowardice, bitterness, prejudice, lust and small-minded cruelty. But there is also in equal measure all-consuming love, courage, loyalty, kindness, mercy, gentleness and the enduring strength of the human spirit. The well-developed characters, in Mr. Miller’s skillful hands, never trip over the central story drawn in lines which intersect at various points, many of which are only suggested and, therefore, sustain a tale suffused with psychological suspense until the end.

This is a book which is highly readable any time and anywhere, just as its events—both chronological and psychological—could have happened anytime and anywhere. The book’s powerful emotional content makes it one which can just as easily be read at one sitting or savored over time. Either way it is highly enjoyable.

Wow.

On Sunday, April 28th, I will be the special guest author at 10 Magazine’s monthly book club meeting. I’ve been looking forward to this event for some time and the chance to talk about my books, especially War Remains and Ice Cream Headache. Kudos to Barry Welsh, the organizer of this event, who personally invited me to participate in this event.

I am following in the steps of greatness, a who’s who of Korean Arts, History, and Literature including, Michael Breen, Daniel Tudor, Charles Montgomery, Andrew Salmon, and Robert Neff. I invite you to check out what they have written and done.

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