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Flick: Eye-yi-yi! Do Sarah Palin's glasses frame campaign?
By Bill Flick
bflick@pantagraph.com
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It’s Sarah’s ‘librarian’ look!: So America got a first peek at Sarah Palin when she addressed the burgeoning throng from the GOP convention floor a couple Wednesday nights ago. It launched a new starlet, catapulted a fresh face, set off a political phenomenon. | Read more Flick | Flick Video: Why does B-N like to eat out so much?

Plus, the phones at Specs Around Town haven’t stopped ringing, either.

“We’ve always gotten people who come in to say they want glasses like Buddy Holly’s or customers who ask if we have frames like Diane Keaton’s,” says Specs owner Julie Kubsch, at the downtown Bloomington eyeglasses boutique. “But we’ve (insert cymbal crash here) NEVER seen anything like this!”

Yes, this is the Sarah Palin eyeglasses rage.

“We had a woman up from Springfield, another from Champaign … today we had a local (Bloomington) woman ...”

Those “Sarah frames” are made by Japanese-maker Kazuo Kawasaki; they are, for the record “Model 704” and coincidentally are available downstate only at Kubsch’s store; the frames alone will nick you for $375 and they now also are being called by fashion critics “the naughty-librarian look.”

Yes, we sure are glad John McCain didn’t pick Joe Lieberman.

As one other fashion pundit puts it, “Sarah’s glasses clearly have become the new Hillary Clinton pantsuit.”

What next? The Barack Obama short haircrop? The Joe Biden white-teeth set?

Only 46 more days ‘til the election!

Hurri-raise-the-price?: Not to add to the chorus of those shrieking that gas prices are higher in Illinois than nearly everywhere else, but there is this:

Last weekend, out of fears Hurricane Ike might damage several refineries near Houston, gas prices shot up here nearly 50 cents, from $3.69 to $4.18.

That’s a natural.

But in Houston itself, where Ike actually did hit?

The price stayed down, ranging from a low of $3.35 per gallon to a high of $3.70. In Austin (our thanks to Tony Bonacorsi of Bloomington, who keeps track of such numbers), it was an average of $3.60/gallon, and in Dallas, $3.61/gallon.

Apparently, it was Hurricane Spike here.

Great shot! Golf courses spend millions of dollars to build water hazards, and look what happened at Kaufman Park Golf Course in Eureka on Sunday after they got seven inches of rain.

They closed the course!

(Our thanks to reader Diane Bechtel of Sibley who instead of a one-wood, got out her camera.)

The clogged heart and soul of Jesse Smart: Some of those city council meetings used to give then-Bloomington Mayor Jesse Smart a near heart attack.

Other morning, he finally got that out of the way, too. Or, he prevented one.

Resting comfortably at home is Smart, now 69, who as of late last week also became the latest successful recipient of a triple bypass, in his case to overcome arteries that were, in at least one artery’s case, clogged up to 90 percent.

How long did it take the ever-rascally, ever-political Jesse Smart to become Jesse Smart again?

“I’d say it was about 3:30 a.m. the next morning,” says his ex-honor.

What happened? You feel better? Your chest pain go away? The ache in your arm recede?

“No, that’s when a nurse came in, I cracked open an eye and she asked, ‘What do you think about the election?’ In my four days at OSF, I think I got McCain-Palin a few more votes.”

Always Jesse.

Even the fake news travels fast: So a former Twin City Catholic priest being arrested in Urbana last week on charges he sold cocaine was, by the weekend, a news item in most major papers around the nation.

By Saturday night, it even made “Weekend Update” on the longtime NBC comedic show, “Saturday Night Live.”

Their “story”?

A bit funnier than real life. Read SNL co-anchor Amy Poehler: “A Catholic priest at the University of Illinois has been charged with selling cocaine from his church office and rectory. Police became suspicious when he said Mass in nine minutes flat.”

Contact Bill Flick at flick@pantagraph.com. The Flick Blog: www.pantagraph.com/blogs.

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So America got a first peek at Sarah Palin when she addressed the burgeoning throng from the GOP convention floor a couple Wednesday nights ago. It launched a new starlet, catapulted a fresh face, set off a political phenomenon: Her glasses. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)
Great shot! Golf courses spend millions of dollars to build water hazards, and look what happened at Kaufman Park Golf Course in Eureka on Sunday after they got seven inches of rain. They closed the course! (Our thanks to reader Diane Bechtel of Sibley who instead of a one-wood, got out her camera.)
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Reader comments on this story - 8 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

alaskarocks! wrote on Sep 19, 2008 4:13 PM:

" Did you wonder why her glasses are from a Japanese maker? Alaska is a diverse state with influences from around the world. Anchorage school district alone has 90+ different languages spoken in students' homes. It has several partial immersion (subjects taught 1/2 day in other language) schools including Japanese. It is sad that people are focusing so much on Palin's looks, but that is such a part of our society... "

Generation Bleach wrote on Sep 19, 2008 1:27 PM:

" lindini ... yes sadly we are. How shallow of a society do we have to be to run out and be trendy like the Republican VP candidate. "

Scapegoat wrote on Sep 19, 2008 12:50 PM:

" The fact that the press frequently refers to Obama as a rock star and eludes to the m.i.l.f status of Palin adds yet another blemish to its already diminishing reputation for integrity. It's one thing for comedians and private citizens to make jokes about the candidates (it's often funny and to be expected), or even for the news media to do so on occasion, but these stories permeate our current political culture to such an incredible extent that it dilutes any attempts people may make at studying these candidates based upon their actual platforms.

To the media: grow a pair, and stop pandering to the base parts of human nature. "

lindini wrote on Sep 19, 2008 11:39 AM:

" Sigh... we really are this stupid arn't we...? "

noone wrote on Sep 19, 2008 10:17 AM:

" oh my god, it's Ms Davis. 10 "

4mama wrote on Sep 19, 2008 8:12 AM:

" Hey Bill, you should check out the garbage men on the days just after major basement flooding occurred in the area. I wonder if they will list Hurricane Monday as one of their busiest of the year! "

Not so Political wrote on Sep 19, 2008 7:48 AM:

" I was thinking the same thing. "

imho wrote on Sep 19, 2008 7:39 AM:

" Speaking of the "naughty librarian" look, is it just me or does Sarah Palin kind of look like the health teacher/stripper off the movie "Varsity Blues?" "
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