Wheaton woman not irked by dad's ad calling her 'gorgeous, godly virgin'
Parents' forays into their kids' love lives are often viewed as unwanted, embarrassing efforts, but a Wheaton woman is taking the high road after her father took out a personal ad in a national Christian magazine advertising for a son-in-law, describing his daughter as a "godly, gorgeous, athletic, educated, careered, humorous, traveled, bilingual 26-year-old virgin."
Rachel Stewart says she was unaware of the personal ad that ran in the March issue of Christianity Today, until a reader of her blog, The Rachel Memoir, tipped her off to it.
'Fessing up
Stewart says she called her father, Stephen, "to ask if he knew anything about a personal ad in the leading evangelical magazine envisioned by Billy Graham."
Dad, she says, unapologetically read her the ad. She next received a text from her mom noting that she'd heard the cat was out of the bag.
'Never again'
While dad wasn't apologizing Christianity Today magazine did and pulled the ad, which was scheduled to run in the Carol Stream-based magazine "at least one more month," Editor Mark Galli tells me. Describing the ad as "rightly seen as demeaning and in poor taste," Galli says "without equivocation it will never happen again."
He described the placing of the ad as staff oversight. "It was one of those situations where everyone thought someone else approved it and nobody had," he says.
Stewart, however, says, "I'm not angry or embarrassed. I'm just nervous if this works out, next I'll find my face plastered on a billboard."
Why here?
Wondering just how presidential candidates pick locations for their rallies?
A senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich's Illinois campaign tells me his Palatine appearance Wednesday was due largely to the support of Cook County Republican Chairman and Palatine Committeeman Aaron Del Mar.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will headline the Northwest Suburban Republican Lincoln Day Dinner Friday in Rolling Meadows because he was the first of a slew of candidates to commit after being invited by local Republican groups last fall. "It was clairvoyant on somebody's end," Elk Grove Township Supervisor and GOP Committeeman Mike Sweeney tells me.
Donald Trump is in town on Friday, and Sweeney says the group is "leaving the door open for him" and the other candidates. No word yet if "The Donald" will take them up on the offer following his 6 p.m. Friday appearance at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Home rule opposition
A group of Woodstock residents plans to canvass the city urging residents not to participate in a special census scheduled for this summer. If the city's population has reached at least 25,000, Woodstock will be granted home-rule authority by the state, giving the city expanded powers in addition to freeing it from many of the mandates and restrictions established for municipalities by lawmakers in Springfield. Members of the Voters in Action group say being designated a home rule community would lead to higher taxes, though village officials have not indicated that they plan to raise them.
City officials estimate Woodstock's population has grown to 25,429 since the last regular census in 2010, when 24,770 residents were counted.
Today's snap
Don't we all feel this way with the warm weather this week? Reader Erin Kalaway of Arlington Heights shared this frameworthy photo she snapped of 4-year-old daughter Lia, airborne as she was playing hopscotch outside.
Six star medal
After finishing the Tokyo Marathon last week with a time of 3:45, Lake Forest resident and Abbott Laboratories Vice President David Mark became the first runner to be awarded the Abbott World Marathon Major Six Star Medal for successfully completing the Tokyo, Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin and London marathons.
A marathoner myself, I was interested in his pre-race rituals. Mark says he won't eat anything on race mornings, but always, always, downs a large cup of strong coffee before a race. Sometimes, he hits up Starbucks the night before and leaves it by his bedside to drink cold come dawn.
Good reads
While I'm striving daily for this column to be the first thing you pick up in the morning, I'm always interested to see suburban natives and the splashes they make in national publications. A recent one includes Benet Academy and Wisconsin alum Frank Kaminsky talking about life as a rookie in the NBA and his "linoleum smooth dance moves" in a recent Rolling Stone Magazine piece.