You’ll have to close your eyes and use your imagination for this one. (My camera crashed just before the St. Bernardine Women’s Dinner and raffle last Thursday.) You should have seen how lovely and distinguished these women looked – Joan Solberg, Marianne O’Connor, Lisa Gill and Laverne Murphy, even after endless hours of working to make the dinner a success. Here’s a big round of applause for them.

A great and happy surprise of the evening was the news that Grace Spence had won a trip to Disneyland! Grace and about 75 other young people will be gone April 26-29. Speaking of Grace, you should have seen her (and you would have if the camera hadn’t crashed) in her lovely Mexican dress as a part of the young people’s contribution to the theme, “It’s a Wonderful World.” Maeve and Aiden Dunaway were equally charming as little Polish children; Kelly and Kate Dunaway as Indian young ladies, beautiful in their saris; Christina Huebner as a charming young Fraulein; and Emma Baldwin as a lovely young Japanese woman in her kimono. Those photos would have astounded you, believe me. You do believe me, don’t you?

Extra special thanks must go to the many businesses that contributed valuable prizes to make the event so much fun.

Happy birthday #1 to Evianna Gianakopoulos who has had an extremely happy, healthy first year. She’s learning the music business right from the cradle, literally. Her proud parents are Peter and Jodi Gianakopoulis of Old School Records on Madison Street.

Someone said there has been a “shake-up” at the Review. Actually it was not really a shake-up, more of a rearrangment. One of the Wednesday Journal writers, Bill Dwyer, who lives in Forest Park, had applied some time ago for a position elsewhere and his request finally came through. So our former editor, Josh Adams, got Bill’s old job and Helen Karakoudas, who’s one of our neighbors in Forest Park, is now not only managing editor of the Journal’s group of community newspapers, she’s editor of the Review as well.

With tulips peeking through the ground, let me tell you what I learned from Bob Zimmer, a landscape artist par excellence. Tulips originated in Turkey, not Holland. Their name comes from an Arabic word meaning “turban.” The bulbs were transported and transplanted to Holland where they became a big sensation. For more information, see your local reference librarian. They know everything, and they are very humble about it.

While you’re at the library, you might want to pick up a copy of Annie Proulx’s Accordian Crimes which will be discussed at the next book discussion session on April 13 at 7 p.m. Or bring an item you suspect might be an antique gem on Saturday, March 27 at 1 p.m. You’ll want to register for this one at www.fppl.org. Or drop in to register.

After your afternoon at the antique show, head over to Marc LeBlanc’s solo exhibit at The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor, 7347 W. Madison St. The exhibit starts at 6 p.m. and runs till 10 p.m., March 27.

You could take your pick of restaurants along the way between shows.

Belated happy birthday #40 to Sharon Beazly on March 14.

Happy birthday to Dan Haley, Jim Becker, Nicole Carlson, Julia Flukey, Victoria McKenzie, Barbara Haeger Popelka, Michael O’Malley, Tom Giers, Jim Papa, Doris Bartek, Maeve White, Lisa Bothie, Frank Pyotyr, Kathryn Greskoviak, Sherry Maughm, Nancy Becker, Jim Whalen, Dolores Peterson, Grant Harrrison Wojtas, Shirley Zapfel, Patrick White, Rosetta Hall, Ronald Moravec, Geri Grant, JoAnn Grant, Doris Knapp, Marcy Dufkis Gleason, and Horascio Munoz.

Thanks for your time. Sorry about the pictures.