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 This site is a retirement hobby for Phil Pash, who wrote for newspapers, big and small, for more than 50 years. The site became fully operational on Oct. 1, 2005. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, the focus is on the Up & Down the Rock column, the World of Wheels and the Great Outdoors. Your feedback is welcome; please visit our contact page, or send an e-mail to phil@philpash.com.
The caricature of Phil on this page was drawn by the late Bruce Lewis of Rockford. You may remember him as Mr. Mustache, and thousands of Rockford-area kids grew up watching him on local TV.
 Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009 (Vol. 4, No. 7) Random Thoughts--After months of closed-door negotiations and behind-the-scenes "cash for cloture" deals, Harry Reid's government takeover of health care cleared a major milestone. In the pre-dawn hours, Reid got the 60 votes he needed to ram the bill through on a strict party line-vote and the Senate is now moving toward a Christmas Eve vote. When Democrats began pushing their version of "reform," they promised lower premiums with no additional taxes and no reduction in Medicare benefits. What did they deliver? Increased premiums for many Americans, higher taxes and nearly $500 billion in cuts to the Medicare coverage many seniors rely on. ... It still isn't too late to have an impact on this debate. All it More...
 (The World of Wheels column by Phil Pash first appeared in now-defunct Chicago TODAY in the early 1970s. It was the first year-round motor sports column in a Chicago paper). Thursday, July 29, 2010 (Vol. 6, No. 18) Gateway, One of Two NASCAR National Tracks in Illinois, Not Seeking NASCAR Races in 2011--Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.--across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and one of two Illinois tracks that host NASCAR events, has notified NASCAR it will not seek 2011 sanctions for its two Nationwide Series and one Camping World Truck Series races. Dover Motorsports, Inc., made the announcement July 28; Gateway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dover Motorsports. The other Illinois track hosting NASCAR events is Chicagoland Speedway near Joliet, which has one Sprint Cup date and one Nationwide event, plus IndyCar and other races. Gateway vice president and general More...
 (Phil has been writing about outdoors since the late 1970s). Thursday, July 15, 2010 (Vol. 6, No. 15) Illinois, Wisconsin Finally Decide To Officially Work Together on CWD--(This is a no-brainer, but why didn't Illinois and Wisconsin hook up earlier since they have shared the CWD problem since 2002? Eight years to work out an agreement?--PJP) Wisconsin and Illinois have reached agreement on guidelines for cooperative management of chronic wasting disease (CWD), the fatal neurological disease of deer that has been confirmed in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois counties. "The wildlife in question--whitetail deer--obviously don't recognize state lines," said Wisconsin DNR Secretary Matt Frank (an obvious understatement--PJP). "Science is telling us we are dealing with a single More...
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