Vincent Feli Boy’s Blog

“I actually like the dress. Everybody else likes my dress,” Ms. Taylor said as she showed it off to a KHOU-TV reporter on Friday afternoon. Madison High’s prom took place at the Sugar Land Marriott, but Ms. Taylor got only as far as the lobby.

When she tried to enter the ballroom, she was told her outfit violated a school dress code. “She shook her head, she was like, ‘You are not getting into this prom,’” Ms. Taylor said. “We were arguing back and forth because I wanted to know why I can’t get into my prom.

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David Nanninga grew up in the tiny town of Mineral hearing his grandparents and parents reminisce about their experiences at Mineral High School. But by the time Nanninga was a teenager, the school in Mineral - about 40 miles east of the Quad Cities - had long been closed. He was bused to the nearby town of Annawan and played for a basketball team representing several towns, never getting to wear his hometown Leopards’ jersey. So Nanninga has created a Web site to serve as a tribute to places like his alma mater and other high schools that exist only in the memories of their alumni.

On the Illinois High School Glory Days site, http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com, visitors can browse through entries for more than 900 schools. “These schools are a very important part of Illinois history, and to see them be forgotten would be a shame,” said Nanninga, of Chicago, whose full-time job is as an Illinois State Police lieutenant. Nanninga, 46, created the site more than three years ago.

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Memorial Day weekend is just two weeks away, which means lots of cookouts. But our food reporter says forget the usual burgers and dogs. Go “whole hog” this year. It doesn’t matter if you live in the city or suburbs.

Anyone can host their own pig roast this Memorial Day, thanks to an ingenious wooden box from Miami. Assembled with no tools, the Hungry Hound managed to host his own “back alley” barbeque recently and accomplished everything in just 24 hours. Step one to your Memorial Day roast: get a box. Miami-based La Caja China makes two models for pig roasting, Model #1 holds up to 70 pounds. Once you assemble it, go get a pig.

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