A trip to the Geneva Green Market always involves a surprise or two. Will the fruit stand have cherries this week, or are they still ripening in the orchard? Will local musicians be entertaining customers with folk tunes or string quartets? What flavor of free soup will market managers Mark and Connie Weaver concoct from the ingredients brought by local farmers? But I never expected to find a bicycle built for smoothies. “We’re always trying to be playful and think outside the box,” said Elan Margulies, farm manager and educator at Pushing the Envelope Farm on Geneva’s southeast side, as he …

Last week, a magazine assignment took me into downtown Chicago to interview an authority on dental implants. When I mentioned my travel plans to friends and acquaintances, I was surprised by the responses I heard regarding our metropolitan neighbor to the east. First there were the usual cautions: “Don’t take a cab—they’ll rip you off every time” and “Watch your purse—there’s thieves everywhere downtown." Then there were those who wanted to share a special memory linked to Chicago, whether it was petting the stone lions guarding the Art Institute, seeing themselves in the Bean sculpture or …

Tuesday night I came home from covering a Batavia School Board meeting with one mission in mind: to watch as many innings as possible of the in-progress Cubs-Rockies game. Yes, I know all the true Chicago-area sports fans were glued to either the Bulls’ or the Blackhawks’ playoff games last night. All I can say in my own defense is that I’m not really a pro sports fan—I’m just a congenital, incurable, third-generation Cubs fan. Someday I hope to have my own telethon. But I digress. When I dashed to the TV and turned on WGN, I found to my dismay that the picture came in fine but the sound was …

After more than 15 years writing about Geneva and nearly 10 years living here, I always knew there was something special about the preview night for the library's Christmas Walk used book sale. At past Christmas Walks, as I watched the lucky ticket holders wait eagerly for their chance to enter the sale room on the first Thursday in December, I couldn't miss the fact that this was one of the hottest tickets in town. This year, I decided to find out why. First, I hustled over to the library at 8:45 a.m. to make sure I was one of the 75 ticket holders allowed in at 5 p.m., when the sale …

Veterans who made the long trip down Viking Drive Thursday morning found it lined with red, white and blue signs welcoming them to Geneva Middle Schools' Veterans Day festivities. The welcome inside Geneva Middle School North's cafeteria was even warmer, as students from both GMS North and South thanked them for their military service in speech, song and applause. "My definition of a hero is exactly what you did: keeping our country free," said student Karli Vass. Patriotic songs performed by the combined middle school bands and eighth-grade choirs got the ceremony off to a rousing start. …