Understand the science behind being healthy | Education
ARTHUR — Understanding the science of chronic disease can guide individuals to a healthier life.
University of Illinois Extension, in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, will present a series of free, online health workshops.
The series will be held each Wednesday beginning March 30 and ending May 4.
The workshops begin at noon and last an hour. Register at go.illinois.edu/HealthScience. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate, contact Dee Walls at [email protected].
March 30: Preventing Chronic Disease Through Behavior Modification: Lifestyle medicine seeks to prevent risk of chronic disease and improve quality of life through patient-driven behavior modification.
April 6: Engineering the Future of Health: Regenerative medicine goes beyond disease management to discover therapies to heal tissues and organs and restore the body to a state of well-being.
April 13: Patients vs. Pathogens: When Antimicrobials No Longer Work: Antimicrobial occurs when commonly prescribed medications that could previously treat bacterial or fungal infections no longer work on infected patients, often leading to death.
April 20: How Being Too Informed is Hurting the Health of the World: Are differing information choices vital to remaining informed, or can they be considered harmful to a person’s ability to retain messages and make conscious health decisions?
April 27: The Impact of Cutting Physical Activity Opportunities in Schools: Learn how physical activity became part of the school day; the impact of physical education cuts on children’s academic success; and how teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and parents can increase children’s access to physical activity opportunities.
May 4: Influence of Hedonic Eating on Mood and Emotions: Understand the motivation behind eating and brain neural networks working behind it.
For more information on University of Illinois Extension programming in Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Moultrie and Shelby county, visit their website at web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/index.html or call them at 217-849-3931.
My Town: Clint Walker’s memories of Coles County as pulled from the archives
Cosmic Blue Comics

From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a “greenspace”.
Mattoon Arcade

Pictured, Shelbyville’s Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin’s Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an “Ocean Pacific” kind of kid.
Icenogle’s

Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle’s…but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that’s not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills

I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam’s Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I’m seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music

Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn’t buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all went down. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver’s license fresh in your wallet, you’d be right. But it’s the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw

Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year’s Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette’s

Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out at Vette’s back in it’s “heyday,” and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough in parking lot fights.” If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen

FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.