Diner's Guide: Busy Corner (Goodfield, Ill.)

Establishment: Busy Corner
On the Web: They’re not
Date: 1.22.09

What's in my belly: Cinnamon and sugar topped dinner rolls, fish and chips (fries), cottage cheese and a piece of chocolate peanut butter bliss pie. Brooksie ordered the fried chicken (two legs) with mashed potatoes and green beans, and had a slice of coconut cream pie.

The damage: Twenty-seven dollars, tip included.

The scoop: The Busy Corner, located approximately halfway between Bloomington and Peoria in Goodfield, Ill., is a place for a solid meal. Dinner at the busy corner is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s pretty standard American fair, good quality, nice atmosphere and a friendly small town vibe. Where the Busy Corner really hooks the customer is the pie case.

We’ve been several times and every time we order from an extensive menu of homemade pies. My favorite is the chocolate peanut butter bliss pie. Brooksie loves the coconut cream and the homemade whipped topping. We were actually surprised when a couple nearby didn’t order pie after their meal – in our minds that’s why people stop at the Busy Corner.

My fish and chips were pretty good, less flavor than Long John Silver’s, but not any more classic or exotic. What should I really expect from a country kitchen in the middle of America? I did get more than I needed however, always a plus. Brooksie enjoyed the fried chicken, but not so much the mushrooms in her green beans. I’ve never seen them prepared that way, but I’ve only recently begun to pay attention to the green bean world.

This was our first trip to the Busy Corner that we received their cinnamon and sugar dinner rolls. We made those disappear pretty quickly, but only got one each. I guess that’s one perk to going at night, rather than during the day. I’ve also had their country fried steak and pork tenderloin sandwich.

Most of the time we’re going to Peoria, or through it, we plan to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack, Texas Roadhouse, or make a Sonic run, but the Busy Corner presents a nice alternative. I’d like to make a pie only stop someday – perhaps that’ll be the ultimate Busy Corner experience.

Will we go again: Most definitely. Decent prices, good food, and great pie always warrant another stop. For the Central Kansas readers out there, think Carriage Crossing.

Red-B Rider: Does Tony Parker Have a French Name?

Back on the streets for another edition of Red-B Rider. Nothing earth shattering today, but I figured my three readers out there might be wondering what’s up (mad props to Jordan at Luminous Vignettes for being the first commenter ever). I’ve been thinking about inviting the Frenchies (French Foreign Legion was way too long) to do something, perhaps come to a basketball game. Audoin and I are speaking for about 30 seconds every day when we get off the bus, but not a lot of time to get under the surface of the regular hi-how-are-you type questions.

Today, he asked what I do and I tried to explain sports information/media relations to him, but that’s hard enough to a native English speaker. Anyhow, he asked me when the next “match” was and I told him about tonight’s men’s basketball game against Creighton. It sounds like the gang is in. I’m excited.

Nothing new to report with Celeste – the Cameroonite, Cameroonie, Cameroo-eese, Cameroon-o…I dunno…guy, I started talking to last week. Cold and windy today with a little freezing rain made for a not so pleasant walk to, and wait at the bus stop. I can’t wait for spring.

That’s all for now. I’ll hopefully have a non-Red-B post soon. Until then, see you in Uptown Normal at :35 and :55 after the hour.

Red-B Rider: Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (1.15.10)

A quickie today because the baseball media guide deadline is quickly approaching and I’ve got some ground to make up. That’s part of the reason I had such a strong will to get to work this morning. See, I fell on the ice on my way to the bus stop. Part of me wanted, so badly, to lay there and let my warm coffee cover my body. A passing car even slowed down to make sure I got up – either that or they were snapping a picture with their camera phone. Please don’t forward that email to me today if that’s the case.

I’m glad I decided to get up and sweep the sludge from my dress pants. I made a new friend on the bus today, and ironically (only if you read my last post) he speaks French. His name is Celeste and he comes to the Red-B from Cameroon. I can check another country off on the Red-B world tour map, and I actually know where it is because I drew an outline of the African continent on the back of a receipt and had him draw in his country. I’m still amazed, and thankful, at how diverse and (NERD ALERT!) exciting my bus experience has been. We didn’t talk about much outside of Cameroon’s soccer team in the Africa Cup and some of the usual get to know you questions, but I’m sure I’ll have more to come.



I’ve figured out my French student connection’s name, Audoin (Ahh-Dwan or Odd-one, if you prefer my wife’s phonetic spelling). We’re now shaking hands and wishing each other good days after we hop off at our stop. Nothing exciting really, but again, I’m sure there will be more to come.

I missed Dallas a bit today. He used to drive the Red-B before getting bumped for the Yellow-G in December. He’s been my favorite driver thus far and we developed some kind of friendship over the last six or seven months. It was sort of like meeting for coffee every morning and talking about sports and life, only I was the one drinking coffee and he was driving a bus. I’m sure he was blaring Teddy Pendergrass today in honor of the music legend’s passing. Perhaps I’ll get up early next week or hop on the Yellow-G at lunch today to catch up.

I find it peculiar that I spend my days writing releases with AP-style leads, yet can’t get to a point quickly – if there even is one – in a blog post. I guess this is a slightly different animal and I have yet to tame the beast. Maybe I’ll begin including an AP-style lead in every post (buried today):

“NORMAL, Ill. – A Bloomington man fell on a patch of ice this morning but survived to encounter an international assemblage aboard the city bus while lamenting a neglected relationship and the death of Teddy Pendergrass.”

That’s enough musing for now. I encourage you to pursue excellence today…I’m trying. See you in Uptown Normal at :35 or :55 after the hour.

Red-B Rider: First Contact (1.12.10)

In a few months I’ll leave Illinois State with a master’s degree in sport management, but the university should probably throw in an international studies or social studies certificate. In my time riding the bus to and from work every day, I’ve been exposed to a broad spectrum of social and economic classes and have made friends with people from all over the world.

It’s crazy to think how much I’ve learned and grown from my experiences in the 20-25 minutes I spend on the bus each way. I’ve honed my Spanish skills with Cesar, a chemistry exchange student from Colombia, spoken Swahili with Ayalbert and Catherine from the Congo, and heard more Soul and R&B than I ever thought I would while riding with Dallas, the former driver of the Red-B. Today I made first contact with a group of French exchange students, adding France to my tour of the world on the Bloomington-Normal Public Transit System.

I have a strange habit of assigning a nickname to identify people on the bus – sort of a way I can connect on a surface level. Before I knew her name was Kathy, I called a frequent rider “The Library Lady” because she always got off at the Normal Public Library and Matt was Leo Mazzone because of a rocking motion he does. Currently, there’s Turner Hall Lady, Money Bags and Hassel Me About Locking My Door Lady (though she’s turning into Works At Preschool Lady after this mornings conversation). Anyhow, I’ve dubbed the group of foreign exchange students the French Foreign Legion because of the way they just showed up and invaded the bus on Monday.

Since I’ve made this short story long, I’ll cut to the chase…I spoke with one of the students today and am looking forward to getting to know the group. They’re a funny bunch and very loud on the bus. When they hop off, there are three of them that instantly reach for their cigarettes – perhaps as a way to keep warm or flaunt their French-ness I suppose.

The guy I spoke with today was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap and didn’t seem to understand when I asked if there were a lot of French Cardinal fans. Pretty impressive if so. I think the only French athlete I can think of is soccer player Thierry Henry and the head butt guy, Zidane, I think. Of course the kid had a hard name, and a quick search of About.com French boys names unfortunately revealed it’s not one of the top-100 options. I guess that’s a good starting point for tomorrow.

Until next time, see you in Uptown Normal at 55 or 35 after the hour.

Fun Photos: Duck and Cover (1.10.10)

I almost took a Kwadzo Ahelegbe to the face yesterday during the Illinois State-Northern Iowa game on ESPN2. Thankfully, the game was broadcast live to a national audience so everyone could see my cowardice. :) I've never claimed to be a hero.

I survived the scare and was able to put together a solid post game notes package...without a Nike emblem on my forehead.

New and Exciting: GoRedbirds.com (12.18.09)

After a great performance by the Redbirds on the gridiron during the fall, freshman quarterback Matt Brown was named Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year. Brown, a redshirt freshman from Marion, Ill., stepped in for injured starter Drew Kiel in the first game of the season and helped guide the offense to new heights in 2009. To honor Brown, we decided to design a masthead to go on all the football pages at GoRedbirds.com.

I saw something similar to this in ESPN the Magazine's Next feature on Jake Locker and thought it was really neat. I like typography and using words as design elements, but I haven't really done a whole lot with it. I dug up some old quotes from Illinois State head coach Brock Spack about Brown prior to the Southern Illinois game, then created a mash-up of sorts, along with his yardage from this season - a new freshman record. I was pleased with the final product.



We're also working on a launch of the Redbird Athletics Video Vault on Vimeo. It's an effort to provide fans with the ability to fast forward or rewind through old games - something not available currently on the CBS All-Access player. We're also looking to improve the quality of the video beyond what CBS All-Access streaming allows. I created the following graphic for our Redbird Athletics Video Vault Channel on Vimeo and a channel badge. I found an old film strip graphic and a picture of an old film reel and grunged it up a little with photoshop filters and brushes.



That's what's new and exciting right now.

Winged Birds (10.09.09)

I made a to-do list this morning while waiting for the bus. I had a little extra time since I missed my first option, the Red-B at 8:20. It seems I was hesitant to buy into the department's jeans day declaration. It just didn't feel right and I had to change. Regardless, I missed the bus and had a half an hour to kill while waiting for the Yellow-G (You'll learn a lot about Bloomington-Normal Public Transit throughout this blog - but more on that later).

I rarely make to-do lists but it felt good to identify and knock out some little projects today. It seems lately I've been so swamped with big items, it's hard to see any progress. I knocked out five of the six tasks before lunch and was fired up for the last item, some graphics and a static html page for the ISU men's basketball virtual media day.

Next Thursday (Oct. 15) we'll have our second virtual media day, to which the entire world is invited via the web (GoRedbirds.com). We did our first for football this fall and had some great questions and feedback from the fans. The page is set up to host a live chat, while also broadcasting live video in an adjacent box. I start with an introduction for a player or coach to be interviewed, then ask an opening question, before the readers take control with their questions. Pretty fun idea that we picked up from the Portland Trailblazers. It puts the fans in control, and gives them access to an event that used to be for media only.

Anyhow, the exciting part part for me was creating these graphics. I was messing around, trying to emulate a Lebron poster when I accidentally used one of the wing brushes on the page instead of another ornamental brush. I think it worked out pretty well. Of course I had a great shot of Osiris Eldridge to work with from the beginning.