Circle City

Everyone’s Irish on March 17—but here’s how to really act the part.

The feds say a mural technically belongs to the artist for his or her lifetime plus 75 years. But here in the rain-soaked, sun-bleached real world, no outdoor painting survives that long.

There are more reasons than ever to linger downtown—primarily thanks to the trailblazing path.

“That was trial by ambush,” says Buck. “Sure, go ahead and bring in the assistant pro from the golf course, who was doing the wife in the sand traps. Just bring him in. It was all part of the game.”

Then there’s the house, the most visible manifestation of Steve Hilbert’s megabucks lifestyle. Built over several years by Hilbert and his ex-wife, it embodies the sort of wealth that even some nations would envy.

Call him the old-school Donald Trump: Elwood native Wendell Willkie won the GOP presidential nomination in 1940 by emphasizing his business cred as a CEO. Merrie Melodies used Willkie as a punchline a few years later, when Bugs Bunny said, “IT AIN’T VENDELL VILLKIE!”

With Donald Trump and wife Melania Trump dragged into the fray, the feud was no longer just a regional skirmish pitting a flamboyant Hoosier millionaire against a meat-and-potatoes billionaire from America’s Dairyland. It was a critical mass of heavyweight egos, with jealously guarded private lives hung out on the courthouse clothesline.

“All of my best ideas are scribbled on airplane barf bags.”

Tip No. 4: This is a good chance to sit in a fancy box seat on the second floor.

To the rest of the country, Madam C.J. Walker may have been a name on shampoo containers in African-American households. But it was here, perhaps, that the industrious and indefatigable pioneer loomed largest as an inspirational figure and community member.

In theory, pretty much anyone can do the weather. And back in Old Timey Times, pretty much anyone—including David Letterman—did.

The bingo moves quickly and the entertainment delivers at the twice-monthly goofy game night at the White Rabbit Cabaret. As they say, “Get weird and shit.”

Credit the Cultural Trail for helping turn Fletcher Place into the city’s new Restaurant Row.

Hollywood tax incentives, shmax incentives. Who needs ’em when you have a Hoosier hometown visit on the reality-show docket?

From Leslie Knope to Jimmy Chitwood, a breakdown of the state’s best-known roles.