Author: Andrea Brown

The organizers of this safety fair had it all figured out. If you give away whistles to blow, better give away something else to stuff mouths, too, such as free food. Either that, or earplugs. Noise-toys, sidewalk chalk, games and hot dogs were among the fun freebies at Saturday’s fair outside Target, 335 N. Academy…

I’ve often written about people who shake up their lives. Now it’s my turn. But, first one more last tale. I got this e-mail recently from Terry Vice: “I am the guy that contacted you two years ago about the article you did on the gentleman in the Foreign Service. Thanks in part to your…

FALCON • Ray Balsick likes to surround himself with his old cronies, like Aermotor, Eclipse and Dandy. It doesn’t matter that all Dandy and the gang do is squeak, creak and moan all day. That’s what retired windmills do. And if they get too noisy, Balsick, 80, pulls the switch. Like Balsick, the old-timers worked…

Frank Farinaro is 23, 6-foot-3, with a washboard stomach. It’s what he does with that stomach that separates him from most of mankind. After all, not many guys are professional belly dancers. “People aren’t sure how to react,” he says. “People say, ‘Are you a stripper?’ I say, ‘No, my clothes stay on, even though…

It used to be a boring white 1993 Saturn with dings and dents. Now it’s an acid trip on wheels. Nancy Knauf, 54, did a Jackson Pollock on her car. She swirled it with colorful acrylic paint. Then, armed with a glue gun, she festooned the car, inside and out, with random smatterings of costume…