Take a 'Ghosts of the Fox' tour in St. Charles

He says most people just call him "Dr. Chuck," and if they visit his Project Psi Institute office at 418 S. Second St. they are generally interested in the paranormal or they are seeking help in finding a missing child.

Chuck Kennedy parlays his doctorate in neuroscience with 45 years of "ghost hunting" experience to operate the "Ghosts of the Fox" tours and investigations in St. Charles. So this is a dose of Halloween with plenty of science behind it.

"I don't really remember how I got started in ghost hunting, but I have been doing the ghost stores for about 10 years now," Kennedy said. He has conducted similar activities in Naperville, Branson, Missouri, and Fort Worth, Texas, before coming back to the Chicago area, where he has spent most of his life.

The "store" invites people to learn about his experiments to prove existence of the after life, and how the human brain can connect with spirits through a medium.

When needed, a team of mediums will work together to help families with missing children obtain clues to their whereabouts, Kennedy said.

The "Ghosts of the Fox" includes walking tours of St. Charles, with information about locations in which communication can take place with ghosts.

"Ghosts don't perform on demand, so we don't expect something to happen on every tour, but I do show pictures and videos and electronic voice phenomenon that shows ghosts can answer specific questions," Kennedy said.

St. Charles is a great place for ghost hunting because the city has done a tremendous job in keeping historic structures in place, Kennedy said.

He makes reference to the "Richards Riot" - an incident in 1849 in St. Charles when medical student John Rood was killed and Dr. George Richards wounded when townspeople found Rood had robbed a grave for medical study purposes - as an example of history that leaves potential ghosts behind.

"When you have that much history, you are going to have a paranormal," Kennedy said. "These are not just tours that I provide, I am giving them the result of investigations."

Leave the cans:

Reader Chris Berry noticed my item a couple of weeks ago about the amount of litter that can be found near fast food restaurants and quick-serve coffee shops.

She said the McDonald's on the east side of Geneva used to have garbage cans outside in which people driving through could discard waste.

But for years, those cans haven't been available, resulting in all sorts of papers and other debris finding its way into nearby yards and bushes.

"I did call the city a year or so ago as I thought there must be something in the rules about keeping their garbage out of the neighborhood and off the highway, however I never heard back," Berry said in an email.

A nearby Wendy's has these garbage cans, and they are common at gas stations as well.

Regardless of the situation at this particular McDonald's, it seems it would be rather wise for all of these types of businesses to have extra places to discard waste. You'd have to think at least some of the paper bags, napkins, cups and straw papers all over the place would instead be in a can.

Part of the town:

When it became apparent a couple of years ago that actress Jenny McCarthy and her husband, singer Donnie Wahlberg, were calling St. Charles their home, I predicted they made a wise move and would find it pretty calm around here for their otherwise hectic lifestyles.

Sure, we like to be nosy about Hollywood stars, but we haven't been like paparazzi over this. Overall, it seems they have fit right in, taking advantage of the Arcada Theater or Hotel Baker as venues for shows and fundraisers, and giving St. Charles some nice play on their reality TV show.

So it should be fun for everyone that these two entertainers will be the grand marshals for the Electric Christmas Parade Nov. 26 through downtown St. Charles.

This event certainly doesn't need an extra attraction to draw a big crowd, but if people this well-known are calling St. Charles their home, we can certainly toss the spotlight on them here along our Main Street.

Mobile pay at train:

I don't take the train into the city for work enough these days to worry about my payment method for the rides. Generally, a 10-ride pass or two should come close to getting me through the year.

So it's debatable whether I need the Passport parking app on my phone to pay parking fees at the station garage or lots in Geneva, or Metra's mobile app for tickets on the train. If I were still a daily commuter, there's no doubt I would go that route.

In my full-time job I write about mobile payments often, so I can share this insight: Though it may not seem like the safest way to pay for things, it actually is.

Whether the secure element in the phone handset comes into play to store credentials, or another technology is used to bypass that and use cloud computing, the transactions are safer. They get special codes, called tokenization, that render them relatively useless to a hacker. And your process for unlocking your phone, whether through a pass code or a fingerprint, is a stronger authenticator than a signature on the back of a plastic card.

Depending on how often you have to park in garages or use public transportation, paying through your phone has quickly become the best option.

Mobile pay at game:

Batavia High School started what is likely to be a trend as well in making the GoFan app available for fans to buy tickets for the Bulldogs' playoff football game yesterday afternoon.

Fans purchase the ticket through their mobile device and display the ticket on their phones when entering the stadium. Watch for a lot more of this going on in the future.

dheun@sbcglobal.net