BY JEFF SMYTH

                I wonder if officials at the outfitter Cabela’s realize the company’s name is the carrot on the stick when it comes to grandiose, albeit disillusioned, economic development plans for southern Illinois?

Back when Arch Coal was looking to unload thousands of acres of land on Illinois to expand Pyramid Park in the mid-1990s there was talk that the deal could ultimately lead to Cabela’s opening up here.  The company’s name was bandied about again when plans for the World Shoot Complex near Sparta were being hatched. That time, Marissa was supposed to land the prize. The C-word even cropped up when Toney Watkins – remember good old Tone? – had Perry County officials drinking the Kool Aid and believing a multi-billion-dollar entertainment venue was coming to Cutler.

In two of the three cases most of the promises were kept. We now have a state park on steroids but no money to properly manage it. We also have a $30 million taxpayer-funded shooting complex that appeals to about .010 percent of the population. “Toneytown”, not surprisingly, never came to pass. The other event that never occurred was Cabela’s opening in this region.

            BY JEFF SMYTH

Sitting around with the guys the other day the conversation turned to remembering the trouble we could get into as boys. Judging by the stories, we were pretty darn good at it.

            A lot of the tales involved cruelty to animals like dropping cats into the bowels of outhouses or firecrackers down the frogs’ maws. Others recalled antics in which common sense was cast to the wind like using a sister for BB gun target practice or trying rappel out of a bedroom window with the aid of a vacuum cleaner cord.

            The yarns seemed endless, but no matter how hilarious and varying these “we did that and lived to tell about” tales were, many ended the same way: “And then my grandpa whipped my ass.”

The Lady Panthers delivered to Coach Greg Hale his 19^th regional championship and 896^th career win with a 3-2 victory over Anna-Jonesboro.

With the game tied at 2-2 Kortney Crawford led off the seventh with an infield single. With one out she stole second and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly to right field by Emily Miller. Taylor Cicardi then smashed a grounder that went through A-J’s third baseman allowing Crawford to cruise home.