Hoosier Features

Regulars at scrappy little Tin Comet Coffee leave their favorite mugs—dated vessels touting IHOP, Florida travel, The Far Side, and so on—hanging on a wall for use on return visits.

“When Eli Lilly was 23 years old, he got so bored in the infantry division of the Union Army that he convinced Indiana’s governor to let him start the 18th Indiana Battery.”

At $125, it’s not your typical comic book. But then, Roger Stern is not your typical comic-book writer. He professed to be a diehard comic fan long before he arrived at Indiana University in the early ’70s, and would eventually teach a class there called “The Comic Book in Society.”

There’s plenty of precedent for trying to extend human lives by studying dogs. Canine research helped pioneer the use of insulin for diabetics and blazed the path for anti-hormonal prostate cancer treatments.

“What people have experienced at Oranje is a mix of fine art and live music in a nontraditional venue,” says Ryan Hickey. “That’s what we’re going for with this, too—blending different art forms together in a unique space.”

But even with these stately features, perhaps the most costly details were the lavish imported fixtures and finishes, such as the dining room’s $24,000 Venini chandelier and silver-leaf ceiling.

Spectators needn’t leave Indiana to take it all in: Across the water from the bluegrass metropolis, a cluster of Hoosier burgs offers visitors a view of the aerial extravaganza against a glittering skyline backdrop. And saves you from the region’s bane: bridge congestion.

“My home is like a little old lady that I have time to take care of now,” the journalist says. Plus, she guides us on a video tour of key features in the space.

The transformation of a famous brewery into a boutique hotel makes this lakefront hotspot our new draft pick.

The players of Crispus Attucks High School wrote a new chapter in the book of Hoosier basketball lore—one in which underdogs could be kids from urban ghettos, could grow up shooting in alleys and parks, could be black and be a vital part of the glory of the game.

Paul George is a soft-spoken homebody who’s pictured more often with a fishing pole in his hand than a martini glass. The good news: George says he likes the newfound attention. “Now it’s just [about] getting out of my comfort zone and being part of big events,” he says.

By decisively winning the 1926 Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, Charlie Wiggins, a humble mechanic from Indy’s south side, earned the nickname “The Negro Speed King”—almost 65 years before Willie T. Ribbs would become the first black driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

You might have seen Inhabit’s organic-cotton sheets and duvets on TV: The 400-thread-count products bedeck Marshall and Lily’s bed on How I Met Your Mother.

Alex Indiana Jones ordered most of his 200 animals through Amazon and eagerly awaits the day when he can have new ones shipped via the company’s Prime Air.

“I think the American experience is best represented in the middle of the country,” he says, “and to talk about [that] through my work is an entry point to talking about who we are as people.”