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Restaurant at the Depot entertainment for December

[NOV. 29, 2001]  The December entertainment schedule at The Depot, 101 N. Chicago, features these musicians performing in the lounge from 6:30 until 10 p.m. (no cover charge):

Saturday, Dec. 1 — Thomas Anthony Quinn; acoustic folk/rock guitar and vocals

Friday, Dec. 7 — Thomas Anthony Quinn; acoustic folk/rock guitar and vocals

Saturday, Dec. 8 — to be announced

Friday, Dec. 14 — Eleanor Gunderman and Dr. John Raffa; piano and violin

Saturday, Dec. 15 — Thomas Anthony Quinn; acoustic folk/rock guitar and vocals

Friday, Dec. 21 — Eleanor Gunderman; piano

Saturday, Dec. 22 — Jason Yarcho and Allison Leonard; piano and vocals

Friday, Dec. 28 — Jason Yarcho and Allison Leonard; piano and vocals

Saturday, Dec. 29 — Jason Yarcho and Allison Leonard; piano and vocals

Monday, Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve) — Jason Yarcho, Allison Leonard, Thomas Anthony Quinn and Kim Quinn; piano, acoustic guitar and vocals. Dancing in the IC Room from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

Restaurant hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (lounge stays open later); Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

[DEC. 19, 2001]  ^"The Forgetting." Alzheimer’s: Portrait of an Epidemic. By David Shenk.

"The Forgetting" by David Shenk is a definitive guide to Alzheimer’s disease. This book brings to center stage a disease that for years has been misdiagnosed. It also spotlights the sufferers of this disease, who have been greatly misunderstood as well.

This century’s great advances in hygiene, nutrition, and medicine have increased the general population’s life span, and the percentage of elderly within this population has nearly tripled. The unintended consequence of this medical progress is that the cases of senile dementia have blossomed into a major health epidemic. Senility was once thought to be an inevitable process of aging, but doctors in the ’70s began to realize that it was recognizable and perhaps treatable disorder. Over the next 50 years, an estimated 80 million to 100 million people worldwide are predicted to succumb to Alzheimer’s disease.

Shenk describes Alzheimer’s as "death by a thousand subtractions," and throughout the case studies in his book we find that this is indeed an accurate description of the Alzheimer’s process. Placed side by side, the sequences of abilities gained in child development and those lost in Alzheimer’s nearly perfectly mirror one another. Alzheimer’s unravels the brain almost exactly in the reverse order as it develops from birth.

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"The Forgetting" will give the reader better understanding of this debilitating disease. It explores the history, genetics and neurobiology of Alzheimer’s, but more importantly, it gives us a better understanding of those who suffer from it and how to care for them.

Shenk begins his book with the origins of Alzheimer’s, introduces case studies, follows an experimental group of Alzheimer’s sufferers through the various stages of the disease and charts the complicated race to find a cure. This is not another analytical book full of scientific jargon and statistics. The science makes this book informative, but the story behind the science is what makes this an informative, yet more importantly, an extremely interesting book.

David Shenk is the author of "Data Smog," which the New York Times hailed as an "indispensable guide to the big picture of technology’s cultural impact." A former fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University, he has written for Harper’s, Wired, Salon, The New Republic, the Washington Post and The New Yorker and is an occasional commentator for NPR’s "All Things Considered." He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his wife and daughter.

For more information, visit the library at 725 Pekin St. or call (217) 732-8878.

[Bobbi Reddix, Lincoln Public Library]

• Lincoln Community Theatre

• Logan County Arts Association

[DEC. 11, 2001]  The Logan County Arts Association executive board, meeting on Monday night, announced plans to show "It Happened One Night," "On the Waterfront" and "The Ten Commandments" at its Classic Film Nights in February, March and April 2002. The movie to be shown Jan. 10, however, is still unconfirmed.

Marshall Jacobs, president of the arts association, said he has requested "Gone With the Wind" for the January showing at Lincoln Cinemas but has not received confirmation that the 1939 classic is available. Backup possibilities are "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn, "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and "Singin’ in the Rain" with Fred Astaire.

Scheduled for Feb. 14, "It Happened One Night" was produced in 1934, when it won best actor and actress Oscars for stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. "On the Waterfront" (1954), to be shown March 14, stars Marlon Brando, who also won an Oscar for that performance. Cecil B. De Mille’s 1956 blockbuster "The Ten Commandments" will be shown at Lincoln Cinemas on April 11.

The association’s first Classic Film Night was a sellout. Because people had to be turned away from "Casablanca" on Oct. 11, the board is investigating whether future films can be shown at 4 p.m. as well as 7 p.m.

Corporate sponsors for future Classic Film Nights and other arts events are being sought. Those interested should contact Marshall Jacobs, (217) 899-6243, or Stuart Wyneken, (217) 732-4298.

Wyneken, coordinator for the film nights and for the arts association’s project to restore the Lincoln Cinemas building, announced that he has blueprints from when the theater was "twinned," or divided for showing two movies. When Kerasotes Theatres builds its new theater complex, the corporation has indicated that it will transfer the Lincoln Cinemas building to Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce. Jacobs said plans are for the chamber of commerce to hold the theater as part of the downtown historic district and for the Logan County Arts Association to restore the interior of the building. Work will not begin until at least the fall of 2002.

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The arts association is looking for community members with photographs of either the interior or the exterior of the theater building at any point in its history. People with such photos are asked to contact Wyneken. Any photos located will be scanned and returned to their owners.

In more immediate business the board completed plans for the Dec. 16 classical guitar performance by Christian Culleton of Chicago. The concert will take place at 2 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church at 402 Pekin St. Tickets cost $5 and are available from Lincoln Public Library Annex, Gossett’s Design Studio, Serendipity Stitches, arts association board members and at the door. Jacobs announced that the local association will register Culleton with the Illinois Arts Council, which will include him in its next biennial listing of artists.

The regular meeting time of the Logan County Arts Association board was changed to the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. The January 2002 meeting, however, will be on the second Tuesday. The meeting place is the lower level of Lincoln Public Library.

In other business the board authorized Jacobs to purchase $1 million in liability insurance from State Farm Insurance. The insurance is to be in effect before the Dec. 16 classical guitar concert.

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

[NOV. 30, 2001]  Lincoln Community Theatre is pleased to announce three productions selected for the summer of 2002.

Kicking off the 31st of entertainment will be the irresistible musical "Hello, Dolly!" the story of the beloved matchmaker Dolly Levi and her whirlwind efforts to marry Horace Vandergelder, the well-known millionaire, and send his money circulating among the people.

"And what do you do for a living, Mrs. Levi?" asks Ambrose Kemper in the first scene of this delightful musical comedy.

Dolly replies, "Some people paint, some sew … I meddle."

This family show will please audiences of all ages.

The July production, "Dearly Departed," is described as a comedy revolving around a colorful and dysfunctional group of Southern eccentrics dealing with an unexpected death in the family. The struggle to get Papa buried involves the whole clan, including the not-so-grieving widow, who wants to put "Mean and Surly" on the tombstone.

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LCT’s final production of the summer will be "The King and I," a delightful musical story of an attractive English widow employed by the king of Siam to teach English and other Western ideas and philosophies to members of the royal family, including the king’s many wives and many more children.

The unforgettable Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes "Shall We Dance?" "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Hello Young Lovers" and "Getting to Know You."

To help kick off the holiday season, Lincoln Community Theatre is offering holiday gift certificates for season memberships to the summer 2002 season. Certificates may be mailed directly to the receiver or to the gift giver.

Certificates for adult memberships are $20 each; for children through eighth grade, $12. Requests for gift certificates may be sent to LCT, Box 374, Lincoln, IL 62656. Further information is available at (217) 732-2640.

[Judy Rader, LCT publicity chairman]

Lincoln Community Theatre’s website is at www.geocities.com/lincolncommunitytheatre/index.html. Pictures from past productions are included.  The LCT mailing address is Lincoln Community Theatre, P.O. Box 374, Lincoln, IL  62656.  E-mail: lincolncommunitytheatre@yahoo.com.

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