This past spring, a radio evangelist named Harold Camping proclaimed that the world would end on May 21, 2011. No one got too worked up about it except for a handful of his followers who, as the date neared, quit their jobs, sold all of their earthly belongings, and waited for God to carry them to Heaven, which God didn’t do. There were many reasons to be skeptical of Harold Camping’s prognostication, chief among them the unlikelihood that God would use a radio evangelist to send the message. It didn’t help that Harold Camping had erroneously predicted the Rapture on two previous occasions.
Back in 1981, I wrote a cover story for this magazine entitled “Indy’s Inferiority Complex.” I believe the editor stole the idea from another Midwestern city, and by that I mean Columbus, Ohio, a place that allegedly suffered from the malady. My task was to conjure up reasons why we here in the Circle City thought we sucked.
Attendees who signed up for ExactTarget’s upcoming Indianapolis conference hoping to see pop-culture icon Stan Lee are in for a big disappointment, Circle Citizen has learned. Last month, the interactive marketing company, headquartered next door to Circle Citizen’s 40 Monument Circle offices, announced in a splashy
Gusty conditions have delayed the return of “Victory” to the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument for the last three days (including today), creating what optimists might call a “wind-win” situation as passersby have scored some extra face time with the iconic statue for the first time since she was created 118 years ago.
Editor’s Note, Nov. 7, 2012: Despite outspending his opponent, Glenda Ritz, by a 10-to-1 margin, Tony Bennett was unseated as Indiana’s schools czar on Nov. 6. Here, our September 2011 feature profile on the man who catalyzed a lot of visceral responses—both for and against him
Not long ago, I was speaking with a local sage, who in the course of our conversation said, “It takes a lifetime of work and wisdom to build a good life, but only one decision, hastily made, to undo it.” While I can’t recall every activity and decision that contributed to my good life, I do remember the precise moment and event that precipitated my fall—Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999, at 1 p.m., when I purchased a devious rat terrier of dubious origin.
When I taught first grade—before the Earth cooled, in 1969—I instructed 90 6-year-olds to read and write, add and subtract. Along the way, they also learned to cut with scissors and refrain from bonking each other on the head with their science books. In return, I learned to buckle boots, make tissue-paper flowers, and achieve some sort of primordial order on the playground.
Maybe it’s just those of us who work on the Circle who noticed, but the big red crane that has been nesting downtown seemed to turn yellow a few days ago. In fact, the Indiana Department of Administration swapped them right under the Circle Citizen’s nose. The larger 500,000-pound crane returned to R.H. Marlin on the south side, and the smaller yellow machine was brought in to install some light drainage fittings atop the Monument. Water infiltration, after all, was a major cont
Have you heard about Indy’s connection to Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island? How about the reason the eye of Monument Circle was once called the “mud doughnut?” No? Then clear a couple of hours on your schedule some Friday or Saturday and join the free walking tour offered by Indiana Landmarks, the largest statewide historic-preservation group in the country.
Once a month, my wife and I visit our public library to read the magazines we are too cheap to buy. The stories are predictable—the same actors and actresses are still in rehab, Congress is still inept, and the western U.S. will run out of water in the next few years. While the problems of Hollywood and Congress are beyond my ability to solve, the solution for the water shortage can be found in my basement, which floods on a regular basis.
Nothing gets Mayor Greg Ballard’s attention like a cycling event. Toward the end of the lunch hour today, Ballard stopped by the Circle to chat with Indiana police officers promoting a 1,000-mile fundraising ride that starts on Monday. The ride, Cops Cycling for Indiana, lasts 13 days and circumnavigates the state. Proceeds benefit the Indiana chapter of Concerns for Police Survivors, a support system for survivors of officers killed in the line of duty.
