Sunday Breakfast

End Zone

by Bill McLean • February 2, 2023

John Holecek’s winning percentage in armwrestling bouts against NFL Hall of Fame running backs isn’t anywhere close to the success rate (185-35, .841) he enjoyed in 17 seasons as Loyola…
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Keefer Still A Keeper

by Bill McLean • January 25, 2023

Glenn Keefer’s stint as a commercial fisherman on a lobster boat some 52 years ago did not exactly go swimmingly. The vessel, skippered by a rookie captain, caught fire and…
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Hometown Hender

by Bill McLean • January 18, 2023

When Tim Hender, 49, was Timmy Hender, Deer Path Middle School 8th grader, he’d join his peers on weekends in the basement of the Gorton Center in Lake Forest to…
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Perseverance Personified

by Bill McLean • January 11, 2023

Nigeria native Tamuriat Olabode spent her first night in America shivering in a cousin’s Chicago basement that doubled as her bedroom. The Muslim immigrant was 15, owned only the clothes…
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The Two Jakes

by Bill McLean • January 4, 2023

Stephen King, Wes Craven … Jake Jarvi. I can hear a giggling Jarvi, humble and stunned, now: My name, next to those names? Please. You’re kidding! Why? Because it’s warranted….
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The Greatest Gift

by Bill McLean • December 21, 2022

Brandon Myers was 6 when his family had to cut short a vacation in Hawaii. His maternal grandfather had died of a heart attack in Tennessee some 30 years ago….
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Josh Wolff and his big brother, Ben, found themselves transfixed by Saturday Night Live sketches as youngsters growing up in the Washington, D.C. area. Especially any that starred either Dana…
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Tree-Mendous

by Bill McLean • December 7, 2022

Mike Pasquesi was a first-year track and field athlete as a senior at Lake Forest High School in 1988. Coaches slotted him in the 800-meter run, a grueling event. It’s…
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Masha’s Mandolin

by Bill McLean • November 30, 2022

It could be said that musical talent helped the late Masha Pietkowski survive the Holocaust. She played the mandolin in an all-female orchestra at the Auschwitz concentration camp for nearly…
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Woodlands Lands Wooden Disciple

by Bill McLean • November 23, 2022

Three-time UCLA men’s basketball champion Larry Farmer sits in a conference room at his new employer—Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest—and recalls the moment he turned down…
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