24 hours in muncie 3

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www.thestarpress.com Sunday, March 20, 2011 • 41E

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Like any other retail establishment with less than a week to go before Valentine’s Day, the Attic Window on Memorial Drive has its hearts

in the right place — that is, in full view near the front of the store.

Shelves just to the right of the entrance on Feb. 9 overflow with pink bears, mugs adorned with hearts, boxes of valentines featuring kiddie cartoon characters and other cheerful red items appropriate to the holiday. In the women’s clothing section, meanwhile, a display of elegant dresses offers some options for a roman-tic night out — or perhaps an upcoming prom.

Amid an array of sensible, useful items such as jackets, clothing, household appli-ances and even free non-perishable food (set out on a table with a sign that read, “If you can’t afford to buy food, please feel free to take 10 items,”), the holiday-specific offerings mark just one of many ways the Muncie Mission-run thrift shop makes clear its status as just another friendly local retail outlet, ready to serve the steady stream of customers coming through the glass-paned doors.

Housed in an open, airy space, the main portion of the store has its stock neatly organized into sections with signs designating outerwear, dishes, bric-a-brac, small electronics, etc. Amid plenti-ful racks of clothing — where the aisles between racks are comfortably wider than your average department store — a mother urges her two teenaged daughters to “find yourself a pair of pants and a shirt.” She then follows them over to the white-fronted dressing rooms to stand outside holding extra hangers and offer-ing opinions on the various springtime outfits.

This being a Wednesday, the clerk behind the glass-topped counter turns to spin a rainbow-colored Wheel of Fortune-type apparatus before ringing customers up, to determine what percentage off each customer “wins.”

The furniture department, housed in a separate wing off to the side, features tasteful groupings of couches, chairs, area rugs and tables decorated with matching cushions and knickknacks. Amazingly, until recently that area of the store served as crowded temporary housing for Muncie Mission residents displaced by the July 4 fire at the neighboring Mission

building. Attic Window manager Renee Hopper — who started the job just days before the fire — notes the space was renovated and improved after the men moved back to the Mission.

As bright and busy as the public area of the Attic Window is, behind the scenes it’s bustling, too. Mission residents work-ing elsewhere in the same building busily sort donated clothes for spring, setting aside items too worn to sell, to be cut up, bundled and sold as cleaning rags, or to be boxed up and sent out for recycling.

Other departments sort through donat-ed books to separate those to sell in the store, more valuable ones to auction on eBay and those to be recycled; check and repair appliances and machinery before setting them out on the sales floor; refin-ish furniture; and separate metal, glass and paper for recycling.

“We throw very little away here,” Hopper says, emphasizing that it all goes toward supporting the Mission.

— Robin Gibson

3-4 p.m.: Home renovation

The home has a distinct unlived-in feel when you walk through the front door on this cold February afternoon. The walls are bare. All the furniture has been removed. Voices rattle off the walls and echo.

Imprints of where beds and TV stands and tables used to be are visible in the carpet, but the only signs of activity now come from the work crew of BC Construction and Remodeling.

A DeWalt Tools radio — who knew the company sold electronics? — sits in a corner of the living room. The hit song from the 1970s Stuck in the Middle by Steelers Wheel blares throughout the fore-closed home.

“It’s real important when there’s nothing else to listen to,” Dave Bowden says about the value of the radio in helping the work crew pass the time.

The Muncie company, co-owned by Bowden and Brian Coffman, is here to finish a four-day project. All the walls and ceil-ings have been given a new coat of paint, the carpets will be cleaned, new water pipes were installed and a new stove will be brought in — improvements the real estate agent hopes will allow the house to be sold.

Bowden and his crew of Brad Pickering and Calvin Sutliff are putting the final touches on the project. Bowden finishes up paint-ing areas on the walls that the sprayer didn’t get, and Pickering and Sutliff hang doors.

Hanging doors by yourself is something of a balancing act, but Pickering and Sutliff have it down pat. They balance the bottom of the door with a foot while tighten-ing screws on the hinges into the frame.

The tools of the workers’ trade are spread on the floor throughout the living room area: hammers, screwdrivers, crowbars, paint brushes, a stepladder.

And this intriguing item: an aerosol can of “Goof Off.”The label indicates the product is the “miracle remover that

removes all the tough stuff.”Bowden says it comes in particularly handy if he smudges some

paint on the mopboards.“It’s powerful,” he says. “It will sting your hands if you get some on

you.”This work day, which started with a 7 a.m. meeting in the office, is

almost finished. Time to head home, see the family, get some sleep and do it all over again tomorrow.

— Doug Zaleski

3-4 p.m.: Thrift store

About the business❙ BC Construction and Remodeling specializes in general contract work and has been in business four years.

❙ Co-owner Brian Coffman travels 300-400 miles a day bidding on projects.

❙ Co-owner Dave Bowden leads one of the company’s two work crews.

❙ Typical work area is Bloomington to Fort Wayne, and western Indiana state line to the eastern state line.

Supporting the MissionAnnual amount of materials recycled by Attic Window, in pounds:Paper 677,490 poundsCardboard 254,960 poundsGlass 125,040 poundsScrap metal 152,390 poundsBaled rags 554,900 poundsTotal 1,764,780 pounds (35 tons)

Source: Muncie Mission

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4-5 p.m.: The ultimate play date

“Hey Daddy, watch this!” Kadin Quidir, 4, says as he jumps, feet first, into the ball pit.

Daddy, otherwise known as Yousef Quidir, smiles and offers encouragement from

behind the black netting as his son swims in a sea of pri-mary-colored plastic spheres.

On weekends this place is packed. But it’s late afternoon on a Wednesday. Kadin and his friend, Zacariah Reno, 4, have plenty of room.

“This is the best time to come,” says Zacariah’s dad, Michael, almost in a whisper, as if he doesn’t want the secret to get out.

The two dads have “finally” gotten their sons together for some play time.

Play being the operative word.The boys breeze by their parents as they make their way

through the giant playscape of slides, rope ladders and tun-nels. About a dozen other kids are scattered about, their adults sitting at nearby tables, some nursing fountain bev-erages, others reading romance novels.

A young girl presses her face against the bubble window at the top of the playscape, mouthing the words to Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, which is blasting from the speak-ers next to the giant clown mural.

And on the ground, slipping around in her socks (no shoes allowed) is Celeste Posey, 3. She’s overwhelmed. She starts to head for the yellow slide, then changes her mind. Maybe the ball pit? Nope. Perhaps she’ll do some climbing?

Then she hears the bells and whistles from the arcade area and runs that way.

“Havin’ fun, kiddo?” manager Chris Koon asks her as she whips by in a blur of long blond hair. She doesn’t respond and doesn’t stop until she finds her mom, Monique Campbell, who is winning tickets by the handful at the Dinoscore game — 154 so far, she says.

Tickets can be turned in for prizes ranging from glow-in-the-dark bugs to giant neon bouncy balls.

Tyler Simpson, 3, is having some trouble hoisting himself out of the ball pit.

“You can do it! Keep trying!” his mother, Brandy, yells. He does and manages to free himself on the third attempt. And then — with a giant grin — he jumps back in.

The smell of oozy cheese is filing the air. Escapades employee Brett Stedman is grabbing a large cheese pizza out of the oven in the snack bar’s kitchen. A young boy is bouncing around at the counter with his grandmother. He’s worked up quite an appetite on the monkey bars.

At a table a few feet away, Zacariah’s pockets are now bulging with tickets — 100 of them, to be

exact. His dad has hit the jackpot more than a few times on Dinoscore. Kadin empties his pockets onto the table. He has 270 tickets of his own.

They make a bee-line for the glass prize case, pointing at and pondering what prizes they will “buy” with their tickets.

Kadin goes for the giant yellow bouncy ball and two plastic dinosaurs.

Zacariah snags a green bouncy ball.Then the boys see their shoes, being delivered to the

counter in a plastic bin. This is the signal that it’s time to go home.

“But I don’t want to go,” Zacariah says, his head down, his socks scooting slowly across the floor.

“I know, son,” his dad says. “But we’ll come back. OK?”— Michelle Kinsey

It’s quiet inside The Artist Within. Temperatures outside hover around 0 degrees, and the streets are

relatively bare of pedestrians.Unlike many Wednesday

afternoons, no one is stopping to glance inside the inviting windows of the pottery shop. From inside the comfortably warm room, the lone painter can see a few brave souls rush by, heads down, hands shoved deep into their pockets. It’s too cold to admire the colorful array of pottery resting on the shelves inside.

In the background, soft music plays over the speakers. An employee is wrapping a painted dish in brown pack-ing paper and the sound of the crinkling paper barely breaks through the painter’s concen-tration. She’s painstakingly adding a second layer of glaze to the bright purple jewelry box she’s in the midst of painting.

The inside of the box is blue. Little green dots are strategi-cally placed around the heart-shaped lid. The colors won’t make sense to most, but to her they mean everything. The three colors — purple, blue and green — are her nieces’ favorite colors, and every time they visit they make jewelry, which she plans to store inside the box.

That’s the secret to The Artist Within. Every visitor is an artist and every piece of pottery a meaningful work of art. No matter who you are, how old you are, or your back-ground.

Other days will find the shop packed with families, college students, retirees and every-one in between. They’ll fill the tables with their pottery, chosen from the many ready-to-paint pieces that line the walls, and individual palettes of glaze chosen from hundreds of color options.

Downstairs, a pottery wheel waits for an artist to throw his or her own pottery. Owner Bob Hartley offers private lessons for those wanting to learn the trade, but the wheel is also available for the pottery-savvy.

A steady flow of new art-ists’ work graces the walls. It’s always an eclectic mix, just like the budding artists who visit the shop.

Back at her table, our lone artist looks up at the jingle of the bell. Ball State University student Megan Bohlander has come in to pick up her pottery, which has been fired to seal the glaze. Last week, Bohlander and her boyfriend, Chad Keller, had a date at The Artist Within. He painted a goblet, while she painted a square platter. She’s already got her eye on painting the pencil holder on her next visit. Like most who visit The Artist Within, she knows she’ll be back.

As will our lone artist.— Lisa Nellessen-Lara

4-5 p.m.:Getting creative

Other days you will find the

shop packed with families,

college students, retirees

and everyone in between.

They’ll fill the tables with their

pottery, chosen from the many

ready-to-paint pieces that

line the walls, and individual

palettes of glaze chosen from

hundreds of color options.

PHOTOS BY KURT HOSTETLER / THE STAR PRESS

About the business❙ Escapades Family Fun Center opened in 1996.

❙ The best day to go to the indoor playground? Any weekday, when it’s less crowded. Escapades is closed on Mondays.

❙ The one requirement — OK, technically, two requirments — for playing at Escapades? Every child must be wearing socks.



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“The boys breeze by their parents as they make their way through

the giant playscape of slides, rope ladders and tunnels. About a dozen

other kids are scattered about, their adults sitting at nearby tables,

some nursing fountain beverages, others reading romance novels.”


44E • Sunday, March 20, 2011 www.thestarpress.com

5-6 p.m.: Basketball practice A February basketball practice inside Ball

Gymnasium can leave casual observers feel-ing as though they’re witnessing a series of circus sideshows.

That’s because, for all the shoe squeak-ing and chaotic chatter taking place on the court during a Burris Laboratory boys hoops practice, even more com-motion seems to be cas-cading through from off the court.

“It is crazy,” Burris point guard Trevor Woodgett says. “We have people on the track, we have cheerleaders prac-ticing, sometimes the girls come in and watch our practice. So it’s not quiet. There’s always something going on.”

Fortunately for Owls players, they’ve become nearly immune to the distractions. It’s all in another day’s work of practicing inside the popular recreation complex on the campus of Ball State University.

Senior guard Andrew Beaty even recalls an instance when Ball State students held workout classes on the elevated indoor track above, and trance-inducing dance music percolated through the gym.

“It’s just like being in a game,” Beaty says. “There is going to be noise and distractions, so we’ve just got to stay focused.”

The goal for players on this typically noisy Wednesday at 5 p.m. is to pinpoint

their attention, as usual, on what Head Coach Brain Carr has to say about the Owls’ next opponent, even through the clamor.

“We use it to our advantage,” Carr says. “We say, ‘This is like a crowd, and you have to focus.’ Even when they’re doing their thing, we have to focus on doing our thing.”

In the hour between 5 and 6 p.m., Carr has his team cycling through another set of

drills, preparing to face a talented Guerin Catholic team the following day, Feb. 10.

The practice is divided between varsity and junior varsity players, with var-sity on the near end under Carr’s watch and JV on the far end of the court.

The Owls work through a series of drills with odd names, including “Joey Shooting“ and “Dummy Wheel.” Carr says he took

several drills from watching other teams practice and made them his own.

“I should probably go to prison because I’m stealing everybody else’s stuff,” Carr says, “but that’s what coaches do.”

The final drill of the evening consists of Burris players walking through their offen-sive sets in preparation for Guerin Catholic.

Carr then requests that each varsity play-er shoot 25 free throws. Upon finishing, each player walks slowly toward the bleachers to collect his backpack and clothes, tired but ready for the next chaotic day on the court.

— Jesse Temple

People leave some surprising things in books they’ve bor-rowed and returned to the Muncie Public Library.

“Photos, bookmarks ...” Mary Lou Gentis, building man-ager for the Kennedy branch library on McGalliard Road,

says.“I found a $1,500 check,” adds library staffer Amber Williamson.The check was returned to its owner, of course, but some items

that couldn’t be returned will be part of an upcoming library exhibit that Gentis is working on.

The back room — the work room — at Kennedy is not gen-erous in size. A handful of the library branch’s 20 staffers work to check in and return to shelves books and audio visual materi-als. They have to make their way carefully around plastic totes and carts stacked high with books.

“It’s cozy,” Gentis says with a smile.

The rest of the library, which reopened in 2008 after extensive remodeling, is sunny and invit-ing. At 5 p.m. this day, patrons are browsing the stacks and using computers.

Candace Walker and her two children are regulars.

“We usually come on Wednesdays,” Walker says. “The kids love to play on the comput-ers.”

Not far away, Mary Upchurch is working on a library-owned lap-top. But it is books that bring her back to the library time and time again.

“They’re free,” she says. “And it’s very quiet.”

The library’s customers seem content to be here, looking at newspapers and magazines, perus-ing DVDs and wandering between

shelves of books.Gentis said that while library use is high — more than 16,000

visits to Kennedy in December — the needs of customers are changing. The borrowing of audio visual materials is down but electronic usage, including e-books like the Nook electronic reader the library uses, is up.

And there’s almost always steady use of the library’s computer stations. On this particular afternoon, patrons are checking e-mail and updating Facebook.

“Some people work on their resumes or apply for jobs,” Gentis says. “We help quite a few people with it, and we’re proud of that.”

The ultimate example, via returned book, of the need for librar-ies? That’s probably the dog training book that came back ... chewed up.

“These are our work room chuckles,” Gentis says.— Keith Roysdon

5-6 p.m.:Quiet time

By the numbers How many people are using local libraries? Here are “door counts” for December 2010:❙ Kennedy Library: 16,349

❙ Maring-Hunt Library: 13,299

❙ Carnegie Library: About 2,000Source: Muncie Public Library

KELLY DAY / THE STAR PRESS

Coach Brian Carr speaks to his team during Burris basketball practice on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011.

By the numbers25: Burris postseason banners hanging from the rafters in Ball Gym.10: People jogging on the track above Ball Gym at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 9.0: Locker rooms used by Burris boys basketball players. Instead, they change in the building and put their clothes in backpacks or on the bleachers during practice.



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Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.The steady sound of footsteps

on the soft rubber reminds walk-ers why they’re on the track this

afternoon. They’re building their muscles and stamina at the Downtown Y by gath-ering with friends and strangers (for now, at least) for a weekly walking class in preparation for Walk Indiana.

It’s an eclectic mix of people from throughout the community. Black and white. Teenagers, Gen-Xers and seniors. Several of the walkers have a few pounds to lose. One is recovering from hip sur-gery and is using the walking marathon as a goal in her recovery. A few look like they could run the Endurathon, if they chose.

Despite their differences, they all have one thing in common — they’ve all set their sights on completing a walking marathon. The pace they choose tonight is up to them, as is the distance they want to walk. Tonya Locke from the Y is sim-ply there to keep them motivated. Locke walked the marathon with her sisters last year and she smiled every step, coming over the finish line with a jaunty step, her hands in the air in victory.

She’s the same way tonight. The only thing she might love more than being active herself is helping others find the potential within themselves to accomplish their fitness goals. Every one of their steps is a victory for this petite, energetic woman.

Tonight’s the first night of the three-month class. After that the group will con-tinue, but they’ll move outside along the gorgeous Cardinal Greenway. It’s too cold for that tonight. But the elevated track above the gym will do for now. Besides, it’s a good introduction to the Y for those who’ve never visited the facility before.

The track is among the more simple options at the Y. Also upstairs is a room of bikes for daily Spinning classes. Downstairs is a room filled with equip-ment, both cardio and strength-training. Other rooms have exercise balls, mats, hand weights and other tools for a variety of classes. Then there’s the pool, which is used throughout the day for individuals and group classes.

On the track, however, it’s not about fancy equipment. Nothing is needed other than a good pair of shoes. Many of the

walkers on the track tonight have already broken in their shoes.

Caroline Scruggs and Kathy Vannice trained religiously for the inaugural mara-thon last year, but previous commitments prevented them from participating in the actual marathon. They’ve got this year’s date — Sept. 10 — on the calendar, how-ever.

Paul Stout walked a half marathon last year. A marathon runner in his younger years, Stout has turned to walking as a way to stay fit. He’s fast and determined. He walks past the walk director and gives her a high-five. “I’m doing the full mara-thon this year,” he says. “My doctor gave me the OK.”

A family of three — mom and her two teenage daughters — are training for their first walking marathon. They plan to do the quarter this year. If that goes well, they’ll do the half next year. That’s the plan for many of the walkers on the track tonight, including two husband-and-wife teams walking hand-in-hand.

Building relationships, whether famil-ial or friendly, is another goal of Walk Indiana that’s in evidence tonight. It’s rare to catch a complete hour together with no smart phones or television to interrupt. While some of the walkers are on their own, headphones tucked inside their ears, there’s a friend to be had for anyone look-ing to start a conversation.

By September, these walkers will know each other well.

— Lisa Nellessen-Lara

5-6 p.m.:Marathon training

Walk Indiana❙ WHAT: Walk Indiana walking

marathon❙ WHEN: Sept. 10, 2011

❙ WHERE: Cardinal Greenway❙ REGISTRATION/INFORMATION:

walkindiana.org

It’s an eclectic mix of people from throughout

the community. Black and white. Teenagers, Gen-Xers and seniors. Several of the walkers have a few pounds to lose. One is recovering from hip surgery and is

using the walking marathon as a goal in her recovery. A few look like they could

run the Endurathon, if they chose.



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It is 6 p.m. on a country road in Yorktown. And in a building that, from the road, could be just about anything, there is a furious amount of activity unfolding.

It is the Munciana Volleyball Club facility, and this night is packed not only with practice for hun-dreds of young girls and women, but for picture day, too.

The lobby of the facility — which is also home to the Yorktown YMCA — is littered with players prep-ping themselves for team and individual photos. The floor is even more cluttered with Ugg boots and Asics duffle bags thrown in every corner, under every chair.

A few parents sit among the athletes, some on computers as they take advantage of the Wi-Fi con-nection provided here. There is a concession stand open, too, though few seem to be taking advantage.

The real reason everyone is here, however, is through a set of double doors where six full-sized volleyball courts await.

Practice is well under way. It began for many ath-letes at 5 p.m. Those same players gathered as early as 4:30 for their pictures.

On court 3, there is one man who typifies what Munciana has become: Meet 16-2 Aztecs coach Poncho Alvarez.

The coach is in his ninth year with the club. And even after that much time, Alvarez leads every moment of this practice as if the next point will make or break a national club championship for his 10 players.

Between every point, between every drill, Alvarez is yelling — sometimes constructive, sometimes com-plimentary, sometimes jokingly. The smile rarely leaves his face as the beads of sweat fall from his head and soak the back of his shirt.

It is the first day of the club season that Alvarez has his entire squad at one practice. He has swimmers and basketball players and a cheerleader on his team, too. Rarely does he get the chance to get this kind of work done.

At the end of one drill, at least a dozen volleyballs are scattered around the court. Alvarez shouts, “Shag ’em up!”

Then, he counts to 10. Quickly.The players scramble from one corner to another as they make a mad dash to return the balls to a

collection basket. Alvarez counts down, “three, two, one!” and throws a ball high into the air as practice immediately resumes, in this instance before his players have even fully returned to their positions on the court.

“It’s a great game,” he says with an enormous grin. “I love to see passion. But if you let them walk through practice, they’ll take advantage of that.”

It is, without any question, a controlled chaos.As practice for this team and those on the other five courts inside this facility winds down, a new

round of chaos awaits. The teams that practice 7-9 p.m. have gathered along the baselines, ready to swarm the courts and take advantage themselves of every second of practice time.

— Greg Fallon

6-7 p.m.:Extra practice

Count ’em upMunciana Volleyball Cub has 36 teams ranging from 11 to

18 years old.

Thirteen of those teams are regional teams, meaning they compete much more locally than the others.

The players scramble from one corner to

another as they make a mad dash to return

the balls to a collection basket. Alvarez counts

down, “three, two, one!” and throws a ball high into the air as practice immediately resumes, in this instance before his players have even fully returned to their positions on the court.

PHOTOS BY GREG FALLON / THE STAR PRESS

Munciana 16-2 coach Poncho Alvarez works with his team on Feb. 9 at the Munciana facility in Yorktown. Alvarez has been with the organization for nine years.



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There’s not a lot of room in the kitchen shared by Blue Bottle and its sister eatery, Restaurant 2(oh!)4, on Walnut Street in downtown Muncie. But chef

Alan Sternberg moves easily from six-burner gas stove to cooler to prep table as he gears up for the dinner crowd.

It is just after 6 p.m. and Sternberg, a couple of servers and owner Tom Green are expecting a slow-but-steady stream of custom-ers this evening. It’s bitterly cold outside and it’s a Wednesday, and neither circumstance encourages restaurant patronage. But by 6:30, more tables in the dining room are being filled and orders are coming into the kitchen.

By this point in early February, Sternberg has been chef at Green’s downtown res-taurants for only a couple of weeks. The Chesterfield-area resident has experience in the kitchen at both a country club and Hoosier Park casino in Madison County.

“He’s learning quick,” says Green about Sternberg’s role as the man in charge of the menu at Blue Bottle and Restaurant 2(Oh!)4.

Sternberg has settled into a routine. He comes in at 2 p.m. and begins baking bread, including the grilled flatbreads used for the restaurants’ popular pizzas. He also begins the slow-roasting of meats that will appear on the menu later in the week. Tonight he’s smoking a beef brisket in preparation for Friday’s din-ner.

“We’re trying to spice things up,” Sternberg said of the new menu he’s working on, which includes gnocchi, a potato pasta served with pesto and white wine sauce. The restaurant hasn’t had a lot of pasta on the menu and Sternberg is looking for-

ward to introducing more.Green, a pilot who got into the restaurant

business after years of what he calls “hang-ing out” with a lot of food-oriented people, is plainly proud of trying new dishes. He points to what is on the upcoming Valentine’s Day menu.

“There isn’t anybody else in town doing

Israeli couscous,” Green says. Server Dakota Smith ducks into the kitchen

to slice Cuban bread and put some in a basket. In a few minutes, a tape with a new table’s order pops out of a small printer in the kitch-en. The restaurant’s popular flatbread pizza has another taker.

Sternberg takes a piece of grilled flatbread and covers it with spinach, roasted red pep-pers, black olives and two kinds of cheese.

“We’ll put this in the oven to melt the cheese and crisp up the flatbread,” he said.

The kitchen will be busy for the next couple of hours, but the restaurant really bustles on the weekend.

“We’ll have people here until 10 or 11 on Friday and Saturday,” Green said. “We’re happy to have them here and don’t want to hurry them out.”

— Keith Roysdon

6-7 p.m.:Dinner time

It is just after 6 p.m. and Alan Sternberg, a couple

of servers and owner Tom Green are expecting a

slow-but-steady stream of customers this evening. It’s bitterly cold outside

and it’s a Wednesday, and neither circumstance

encourages restaurant patronage. But by 6:30,

more tables in the dining room are being filled and

orders are coming into the kitchen.

Big money Nationally, how big is the business of eating out?❙ Sales: $604 billion

❙ Locations: 960,000

❙ Employees: 12.8 million — one of the largest private-sector employers

❙ Restaurant-industry share of the food dollar: 49 percent

Source: National Restaurant Association

KEITH ROYSDON / THE STAR PRESS

Chef Alan Sternberg of Restaurant 2(Oh!)4 and Blue Bottle works on a pizza for a patron on Feb. 9.



7-8 p.m.: Dog Training Class

Four-year-old Miley takes up more space than she realizes. With big, round eyes, a long, floppy tongue and a tail

more suited for knocking unsuspecting passersby to the floor, the black Labrador is — to put it lightly — full of

energy. That’s the behavior that lands her at Happy, Clean and Smart’s Basic Manners dog training class with her owner, Taylor Partezana, and Taylor’s dad Tony.

It takes all kinds to make up Wednesday evening’s four-week-long class. There are plenty of canines like Miley with energy to spare, along with some more submissive pooches like a sheepish dachshund-mix called Jenny. And somewhere in between falls a therapy-dog-in-training, a 4-year-old Great Pyranees named Lollipop Sugarplum.

Lolly, as his owners Katelyn and Kayla Cooper call him, seems to weigh as much as the two girls weigh combined. The gentle giant learns to “sit” and “leave it,” all with the goal of passing his therapy dog test later in the year.

The Cooper girls’ grandmother, Linda Springer, talks proudly of her granddaughters’ plan to have Lolly visit hospitals and retirement communities to cheer up their patrons. “It was all their idea,” Springer beamed. She describes how Basic Manners class has allowed the sisters to learn to work together as much as it has helped Lolly learn the skills necessary to be promoted to therapy dog status.

Some of the manners the puppy pupils and their owners learn every week include “sit,” “stay,” “down,” and “drop it.” Dogs that love to tug learn the virtue of walking patiently; owners with bad habits learn to handle their dogs calmly and confidently.

Bonnie Krupa, who runs Happy, Clean and Smart, uses one of her own dogs as an example for the rest of the class. Each suc-cessful move is followed by a much-appreciated treat, and the whole performance is capped with a high five between master and four-legged friend.

Watching her granddaughters instruct Lolly with positive results, Springer can’t help but smile. “My personal belief is that dogs are angels,” she said. And, if they’re not angels when they arrive, Happy, Clean and Smart hopes them to help them earn those halos by the time they head out the door.

— Taylor Etchison

The band is pleasant and the air is clean. That’s enough to entice most patrons who walk

through the doors of The Silo in downtown Muncie on this Wednesday evening.

Each Wednesday is billed as jazz night between the hours of 7 and 10 p.m., with a quartet called Live Jazz Tonight providing live entertainment. But from 7 to 8 p.m., patrons are sparse at the bar at Walnut and Adams streets.

With temperatures dipping into single digits in early February, customers have stayed away. Just nine people are scattered through the place: six at the bar, two in a booth and one alone at a table.

In a few months, things will be different.

“When the weather’s nice, we have lots of people sitting outside, lots of people coming and going,” says Phil Cooley, the band’s pia-nist, between sets. “The joint gets noisy. We have to turn up the amplification a little bit. Right now, we’re not even using ampli-fication on bass.”

The few people inside The Silo say they come for different reasons.

“I like no smoking,” Tom Kundenreich says. “That’s a big plus from my standpoint. I like the beer selection and I like the people behind the bar. I enjoy the music, but that’s not what drew us here tonight.”

“It’s great service,” says Bob Weaver, who is seated next to Kundenreich on a barstool. “It really is. We live in Yorktown, but we love hanging out here.”

Brian Lough adds: “They serve hard liquor. You’ve got a lot of beer bars in Muncie downtown, but I prefer hard liquor.”

Among the specials listed on the wall for jazz night are $4 Crown Royals and $2 Coors Lights. In the corner, a wine-tast-ing is set to begin in a few min-utes.

Cooley says his group has been coming to The Silo since the place opened last March. Now they’ve developed a weekly rou-tine of sorts. They play at Vera Mae’s on Tuesday nights and The Silo on Wednesdays. Occasionally, they’ll head over to White River Landing to play on Saturdays.

Cooley adds that he and his bandmates have been playing off and on since 1956. Their first gig was at the Parker Street Fair that year in Parker City. Having a weekly time slot now makes it easier for friends of the group to swing by.

“We usually get a pretty good crowd of good supporters,” Cooley says. “Our good friends come to hear us. We get a chance to meet a lot of new folks. We’ve developed a few fans along the way.”

Eric Butler, who is bartending the handful of Silo patrons at the bar, says the band used to come out on Saturday nights before a decision was made to move them to Wednesday nights.

“It seems to do better Wednesday evening,” Butler says. “People seem to enjoy it. It’s a nice change of pace.”

At 7:50 p.m., the lights in the bar dim. Few patrons have pushed through the doors. Butler says that should change in the next two hours.

If it doesn’t, spring is just around the corner.

— Jesse Temple

7-8 p.m.:Jazz at The Silo

More about The Silo❙ Hosts theme nights twice a month, including Black and White parties. There is jazz night every Wednesday and a live DJ on weekends.

❙ Features various tastings throughout the month at its mini bar, from wine to vodka to whiskey to rum.

❙ Open 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m.-midnight on Sunday.


TOP AND BOTTOM: Ball State student Brittney McQueen high fives her Sheltie, Junie, during a dog training class at Happy Clean and Smart on Feb. 9. ABOVE: Kayla Cooper, 14, works with her dog, Lollipop Sugarplum, a four-year-old Great Pyranees.

‘Basic Manners’As the dogs arrive, owners and canines

greet each other. Once everyone is seated, the dogs are allowed 15 minutes of free play. They run around, off their leashes, and play with toys and each other. After burning off a bit of energy, each dog works specifically with his master to practice the lessons learned so far. Finally, a group game — like baseball — gets the whole class up and involved.

Happy, Clean and Smart is at 5700 Kilgore Ave. and offers grooming, boarding, daycare and a pet spa in addition to various levels of training classes.

It takes all kinds to make up Wednesday evening’s four-week-long class. There are plenty of canines like Miley with energy to spare, along with some more submissive

pooches like a sheepish dachshund-mix called Jenny. And somewhere in between falls a therapy-dog-in-training, a 4-year-old Great Pyranees named Lollipop Sugarplum.

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8-9 p.m.: Choir rehearsal

Rehearsal is officially under way as Cynthia Smith greets the seven choir members standing in front of her at 7:40 on this Wednesday night at First Baptist Church.

Behind Smith is a dry-erase board with the intervals etched in marker.

“Let’s tune our intervals ... DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO,” says Smith, a Ball State University doctoral stu-dent majoring in voice performance.

Smith, a soprano with a voice that puts Mariah Carey’s to shame, warms up the choir before turning the reins over to director Matt Headley at 7:52.

“Can everybody sing your starting pitch?” Headley says.

Sweet heavenly music fills the air as the sopranos, altos and tenors all join together and sing in unison as the pianist plays the keys to Name of Love. Late arriv-als join the group and in all, there are six men and six women, plus Matt and the pianist, his wife Heather Headley.

Matt Headley’s eyes are wide and focused on each member of the choir as they sing the verses. His hands move in sharp up-and-down and curved motions.

Suddenly, he interrupts and asks the sopranos to work on a line in the song. The group sings it over until the tones are where he wants them.

Matt then says, “From the top” and snaps as he counts to two to introduce the beat. The choir responds on cue, their voices in tune as they belt out Name of Love.

Matt joined First Baptist in July 2009. The pastor of the church, Wade Allen, hired him to take over the choir and lead the contempo-rary worship band — which plays during the second Sunday service.

Matt juggles a hectic schedule in order to lead the choir and worship band at First Baptist. The 26-year-old is taking classes at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill., near Chicago. He leaves for Lombard on Monday morning and returns Wednesday morning each week.

His life is busy, but Matt reflects on the direction God is leading him as nothing but wonderful.

“It’s an amazing experience,” he says with a wide smile on his face.

Each week, Allen tells Matt the focus of his sermon so that Matt can choose songs to match the message for both services.

On Sunday, the choir sings one song — called the anthem — before the sermon. The group then leads the congregation in hymns. An organist, Rebecca Rolland, accompanies the choir.

The First Baptist congregation hears a finely-tuned choir on Sundays, resulting from the Wednesday-night rehearsals.

On this Wednesday, the choir tries to perfect a difficult hymn, Blessed is the Man.

A man in the back row questions when the breaks should be during the song.

“This is what I get to do as a direc-tor, is show you where you can take breaths,” Matt says before singing the words back to the group to demon-strate the quick breaks for breath.

This particular hymn is tricky for Heather, too. She plays the keys over and over before giggling and saying, “I’ve got it this time.”

After singing the same line about two dozen times, the choir perfects the tones and pitches. The choir then spends the final five minutes rehearsing the last song, I Lift Up My Eyes.

Before leaving for the night, Dana Davis, comes to the front to lead a devotion at 8:40 p.m. She recites the Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13.

Davis then calls out for prayer requests. The seven men and seven women close their eyes, bow their heads and call on God to answer their prayers. They then say “Amen” in unison before dispersing for their homes on this bitterly cold Wednesday winter night.

— Kara St. Myer

At 8 p.m. on a Wednesday, Liberty Bowl is loud with the sound of balls crashing against pins and bowlers cheering

wildly - and sometimes comically - for their teammates.

Mike Schoeff grabs his bowling ball from where it sits among the other five balls on the ball return. He wipes off the oily residue with a towel, then takes his stance and lines up his starting point.

Schoeff watches his ball glide down the lane, still standing in his follow-through pose with his right hand hang-ing in the air. The ball collides with the pins. Strike. Schoeff whips his body around and smiles with triumph at his teammates.

Schoeff is a veteran of bowling who has been playing on leagues since the 1990s.

“In the ’90s, I was playing on four or five different leagues a week,” he said. “Right now, I’m on two different leagues.”

On this night, he’s playing with the Eagles mix handicapped league. It’s a night of experienced bowlers at the alley, with bowling leagues on one side and the Ball State University men’s and women’s bowling teams on the other.

The Ball State team practices at the Liberty Bowl every Wednesday night, and at Munsee Lanes on Monday nights.

Women’s Coach Monty Vaughn explains that this year’s team consists of mostly freshmen.

“We’re having a rebuilding year with only two returning players,” he notes.

— Lacy Fuller

8-9 p.m.: Bowling


Matt Headley leads choir practice at First Baptist Church on Feb. 9.

First Baptist Muncie❙ ADDRESS: 309 E. Adams St., Muncie

❙ CONTACT: fbcmuncie.org or (765) 284-7749

❙ SUNDAY SERVICES: Traditional with the choir at 9:15 a.m.; contemporary with worship band at 11:15 a.m.Find sermons, blog posts, worships and other information about the church online: fbcmuncie.org

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9-10 p.m.: Taxi service

As the clock strikes 9 p.m. on this Wednesday evening, David Williams, 38, Albany, is already two hours into his 12-hour shift.

Hunger has set in, and Williams finishes off a package of Nacho Cheese Combos and sips on a bottle of Mountain Dew.

“When we have time, we just hit a drive-thru,” Williams says. “If you’re lucky, (a patron) will ask you to pull in a drive-thru.”

On this particular night, however, there appears to be no spare time to grab restaurant fare, hence the Combos and soda.

Business is quite steady.By 9:07 p.m., Williams pulls up to the main

entrance at Texas Roadhouse.“Howdy,” Williams says to the gentleman

who enters the PDQ Taxi caravan. “Where you headed?”

The patron is Dea Hawkins, who just got off work, headed home for the night.

Hawkins says his wait was about 30 minutes, which he claims is not too bad.

A frequent user of PDQ Taxi, Hawkins understands that some time the wait can take a while. That’s why he calls a little early if he must arrive somewhere at a certain time.

“If you have to be at work at 11 o’clock, don’t call (a taxi) at 10:30,” Hawkins suggests.

After about a 10-minute ride on Muncie’s west side, the Dodge Caravan arrives at Hawkins’ front door.

“You guys have a great evening,” he says after he pays and shuts the door behind him.

Williams’ next destination isn’t too far from the recent drop-off.

“I’m about to pick someone up from Big Shots (pub),” he says. “I know who he is because I dropped him off a couple hours ago.”

The van arrives at the pub at 9:26 p.m.Standing in the vehicle-filled parking lot, a

man, holding two six-packs of beer, watches the van pull up next to him.

He slides the door open and enters.“You weren’t there too long tonight,”

Williams says to the man, who asked to stop at the Village Pantry on his way home.

It’s pretty common, according to Williams, for patrons to ask to stop off at a convenience store before going home.

“It’s a dollar extra if (the stop) is on the way. If it’s out of the way, it’s an extra fare,” Williams says.

Under one minute, the man is in and out of the store and back in the van, ready to head home.

When he arrives, he must run into the house to get cash for his fare.

The patron is honest and returns to settle his charge.

But it’s not uncommon for riders to try and get away without paying.

“In the past two months, it’s probably hap-pened to me three times,” says Williams, who admits that loss comes out of his pay.

“We definitely get all types of characters. Majority of them are usually nice,” he says.

At 9:42 p.m., Williams pulls up and honks the horn in front of a home on West Brook Street.

“I don’t get out and knock on doors at night,” says Williams, implying that wouldn’t be the safest practice.

A couple of minutes pass, and a gentleman approaches and enters the van.

Like the last rider, he too asks to stop at a convenience store on the way.

Also like the last patron, that will be an extra dollar.

A block away from the convenience store waits a female patron at an apartment building. The taxi pulls up and honks the horn.

No one responds. A couple of minutes pass and then Williams holds the two-way radio to his mouth.

“Do you have a number for this lady,” he asks the dispatcher.

“Yes, I’ll give her a call,” the dispatcher responds.

After a few seconds, the dispatcher tells Williams that the patron is on her way down.

About five more minutes pass, and still no woman.

“This is the part I hate,” Williams says. “Waiting on people to come out.”

The wait easily turns into 10 minutes, and finally, a woman emerges from the building and enters the van.

By this time, it’s a couple of minutes past 10 p.m., as Williams pulls off into the night, and awaits more calls from the dispatcher.

— Lathay Pegues

Todd Sandman is directing the cast of The Diviners, a story of death and faith set in a 1930s Hoosier town, and one actor is worried about his ear.

“It wasn’t always this big,” the man says after a third try at a scene performed at The Civic Theatre wherein his lobe is angrily tugged by an aunt who doesn’t want her niece spending time with him.

“Yes it was,” Sandman replies. “I always noticed that about you.”

As the rest of the crew laughs, the actor continues to protest.

“If it doesn’t go back,” he says, “no one will ever marry me.”

Another actor scoffs.“As if anyone was.”The director switches

scenes and instructs part of the ensemble as they set up for the play’s climax. “C.C.,” a former preacher played by Ryan Lash, is taking “Buddy,” played by Andrew Cutshaw, to the river to bathe. Buddy is terrified of the water — his mother died saving him from drowning when he was a boy — and C.C. must gently coax him just to get his feet wet.

The actors deftly work the scene, playing as if the empty hall was at capacity. Lash becomes enraged when he notices some town folk who have come to the river believing a baptism is about to take place. As he tries to shoo them away, Cutshaw, whose character is sweet but dim, much like a boy in a man’s body, is taking to the water, and the weight of imminent tragedy is palpable. The actors are on their mark, and aside from a quiet instruction from Sandman, the scene is rolling.

The town folk begin to sing a hymn as Lash shouts for them to leave, and Cutshaw slips from the imaginary river bank into deep water. He can’t swim. He thrashes about in a remarkable display of a drowning man who is standing on a dry stage. When his head slips beneath the invisible water line, the sing-ers voices cease — this boy is drowning and the audience is with him. His head emerges and the singing returns to his ears. Lash sees his friend’s struggle and rushes to save him as the others follow. The performances are so engaging that the splashing water is nearly audible as Lash jumps in and plod-dingly drags Cutshaw from the water.

But he is too late.“It was a good day for a drowning,” one actor says. And with that, the emotional tension of the scene dimin-

ishes and the cast moves on to the next act — as generations of actors have done in the 79-year-history of the Muncie Civic Theatre. While the stories might have changed, the passion of the actors remains the same.

— Sam Gibbs

9-10 p.m. : Muncie Civic Theatre rehearsal

LATHAY PEGUES / THE STAR PRESS

PDQ taxi driver David Williams drives the streets of Muncie on Feb. 9.

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10-11 p.m.: Evening spirits

By 10 p.m. on a cold Wednesday evening, much of Muncie seems to be winding down. But at the Muncie Liquors package store on

Wheeling Avenue, the near-constant noise from the buzzer on the front door makes it clear that the evening at nearby Ball State University is just revving up.

“What’s got you drinking whiskey this evening?” Frank Rice asks one young woman who’s just placed a bottle on the counter. She replies that she’s buying it for a friend. The woman hands over her debit card and — after checking her I.D. to make sure she’s 21 — Rice bags her purchase and wishes her a good evening.

Rice, tall and lanky and covered with tattoos, is wearing an Oakland Raiders cap and a friendly expression. There’s a base-ball bat standing in a corner behind the counter, but you get the feeling that Rice seldom has trouble with his customers.

He has a friendly word for each, most of whom are young adults. Rice works 5 p.m. to close most nights, so he sees a lot of the same faces regularly.

“Best liquor store on campus, right?” one customer says over his shoulder as he pulls a carton of cold beer out of a cooler.

The store — like the rest of the Muncie Liquors chain — is owned by local busi-nesswoman Linda Koger. Rice praises Koger — “the most awesome boss I ever had” — and says he loves working at the near-campus location.

“This is the busiest and the coolest,” says Rice, who is 26. “And at this job, I feel appreciated.”

Rice points out a curiosity on the coun-ter: A skull-shaped bottle of vodka called Crystal Head. It is made by a Canadian company co-founded by actor Dan Aykroyd. At nearly $57 a bottle, it is more expensive than many of the store’s other selections.

Rice doesn’t use a hard sell on custom-ers but is quick to make a recommendation for those stumped by the wide selection of beer, wine and liquor.

“They have everything here,” customer Ashley Trotter says. “A real wide variety.”

Trotter is part of a parade of customers streaming in and out of the store. By the time a customer steps to the counter to pay, the door buzzer signals another has entered the store.

Many of them are college-age women, and Rice is clearly not averse to that.

“One thing I like is the non-stop pretty girls,” Rice says, later adding, “Perks of the job.”

Then he turns and focuses on work, answering the phone, handing over empty cardboard boxes to a customer and ringing up purchases.

Before 11 p.m. rolls around, Rice makes what might be his single priciest sale of the night: One of those skull-shaped bottles of Crystal Head is bought by a customer, who carefully carries it out into the cold night.

— Keith Roysdon

How big is the liquor industry?

The business of beer, wine and liquor stores is a huge one, according to the Industry Statistics Sampler of the U.S. Census.

Number of establishments: 29,613Paid employees: 130,635Annual payroll: $1.69 billionSales: $22.6 billion

Source: U.S. Census

Even on the coldest night of the year, lights from the southside Walmart casts a glow on the horizon, a beacon luring shoppers on their way home from a late shift at work or a late meeting.

And, it’s obvious from the dozens of shopping carts scattered around the parking lot, many beached at odd angles atop iceberg-like piles of snow from the recent storm, that plenty of people have found the bright lights and beckoning Walmart sign irresistible.

Inside, many empty or partially empty shelves where Hamburger Helper, pizza, juice and yogurt have once been tell the same story.

“Attention Walmart shoppers, ...” a tinny female voice began over the store’s loudspeaker, informing shoppers that one of the store’s two entrances is being closed for the night.

The 20 or 30 shoppers wander-ing around the cavernous store are clearly outnumbered by store workers, mostly stockers stag-ing mountainous pallets of all kinds of products to refill shelves. Individual shoppers mostly wan-der the long aisles of the grocery department alone, with just fleet-ing glimpses to remind them that there are others there, too, picking up a gallon of milk or packaged meat for tomorrow’s lunch.

A muffled crash followed by shouts of “Are you OK?” signals a pallet mishap that results in cases of Capri Sun toppling into a free-standing freezer at the end of one aisle near the back of the store. A crew — like a flash mob — mys-teriously appears and disappears, cleaning up the mess in minutes with no harm done.

A male voice periodically sum-mons stockers to the back to unload a truck, where they pre-sumably gather and disperse just

as fast as they do in the front of the store.In the main passages of the store, more shoppers and employ-

ees intersect, with friends greeting friends, chatting and laughing and catching up. A few teens are spotted having a good time in housewares, climbing onto empty shelves alongside the laundry baskets, then jumping out, laughing and moving on to their next store adventure — entertainment on a night too cold to be out on the street.

Every now and again a serious shopper appears, perusing the makeup, buying pet food or picking out the perfect Valentine’s gift. But even though it’s warm inside, it’s evident temperatures headed below zero outside have put a chill on the late-night Walmart shop-pers.

— Kathleen Scott

10-11 p.m.: Last-minute shopping

Did you know?❙ Walmart has more full-time employees — 2.1 million — than seven times the population of Iceland.❙ Each week nearly one-third of the U.S. population visits Walmart’s U.S. stores.❙ Last year Walmart sold more bananas than any other item.❙ Walmart is the largest overall employer in the United States, and the biggest employer in 25 states.

Source: www.businessinsider.com

KEITH ROYSDON / THE STAR PRESS

Frank Rice arranges beer on shelves in a cooler at Muncie Liquors on Wheeling Avenue shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

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11 p.m.-midnight: Overnight stay

The Maytag Repairman, the man billed as the loneliest guy in town on his work shift because of the reliability of his product, has nothing on Aaron Wand.

The night auditor at Holiday Inn Express on Muncie’s northwest side reports to work at 11 p.m. five days a week and checks out at 7 the next morning.

On this particular evening, when most of his hotel guests are sleeping, Wand has plenty of time to talk to a visitor as he stands behind the check-in desk.

“I’ve found if you work a shift most people won’t work, you can keep a job,” he says.

Wand waits to serve guests, but there’s little activity as the clock ticks past midnight.

The hotel has 76 rooms, and 66 have been sold on this cold February night. That’s a good num-ber for a Wednesday, and Wand figures it isn’t going to change.

It’s rare when somebody walks in off the street or calls for a room at this time of night.

Though it’s quiet tonight, it isn’t always that way. Guests can get rowdy.

Wand remembers one guest, a government employee, who enjoyed a few too many scotches one night. The man walked around the hotel lobby with a bottle of scotch in one hand and his glass in the other.

The man never misplaced his bottle, but he couldn’t hang on to his room key. At 2 a.m., he walked through the lobby on his way to the front desk to get his eighth key of the night made.

The man noticed a fellow guest wearing a leather jacket he didn’t like and made a deroga-tory comment. A heated argument ensued, and Wand was forced to call the police.

The drunk guest walked outside and was even-tually met there by police. “They took him to his room and he never came back out,” Wand says.

The Rat Pack, which performed a show in Muncie a year ago, had an unpleasant meeting with several state SWAT team members. One SWAT member was drinking while sitting on the floor in front of a room a Rat Pack member wanted to get in to go to sleep.

Police were called again to settle a dispute, and the situation was peacefully resolved.

Those issues aren’t common, however.Most nights there’s never a peep from anybody.

Wand typically answers phones and checks in any late guests during the first three hours of his shift.

He performs his night auditor functions start-ing at 2 a.m., he gets room bills printed about 4, then starts preparing the express breakfast that serves people starting at 6:30 a.m.

“This shift gives you stability,” he says.— Doug Zaleski

As the night grows deeper, the bitter cold seems have a life of its own, envelop-ing everything in its path, wrapping itself around both people and things, causing the

very air to shimmer.Even on such a frigid night, the Sunshine Café lives

up to its name, inviting passersby inside with a prom-ise of hot coffee and a warm welcome.

A half dozen or so cars are in the parking lot, and another pulls up. Four or five laugh-ing and chattering col-lege-age young adults of both sexes spill out and rush the door.

Inside it’s warm and bright and the boppin’ ‘50s and ‘60s music is more appro-priate to their parents or even grandparents’ youth than theirs, but nevermind, they have more important things on their minds as they pile in around a table chattering about

their work days, coursework, what friends and acquain-tances are doing and what’s the best thing on the menu.

Five or six tables are occupied by locals of all ages from the 30-ish couple in the corner to the middle-aged man and woman in the center and another group of young adults. All seem to have settled into that comfort-

able place where good company, good conversation and good food meet, and the clatter of silverware and the din of the chatter vie with the music.

The distinctive aroma of coffee brewing permeates the place, complemented by the irresistible smell of burgers, fries and omelets as they pass by on their way from the kitchen to the table, expertly balanced by Brittany, a pretty, young, blonde server.

As the 11 o’clock hour wore on and temperatures outside continued to drop, the older diners finished their meals and left, leaving the Sunshine Café to youth and the staff, but the young people didn’t even notice.

— Kathleen Scott

11 p.m.-midnight:Late-night dining

Interesting tidbits ❙ Between midnight and 7 a.m., four or five urns of coffee amounting to about 20 gallons are brewed and served.❙ The restaurant might be the safest place in town between 1:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. as local law enforcement officers cycle in every hour one or two at a time for their shift break.❙ The most popular late-night meals, according to the shift manager and chief cook, are the Philly Steak & Cheese Omelet and Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

DOUG ZALESKI / THE STAR PRESS

Aaron Wand works an overnight shift as night auditor at Muncie’s Holiday Inn Express on Feb. 9.

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THE NEWS OF THE DAYFollowing is just some of the news of the day — Feb. 9 — from

pages of The Star Press:

NEWSFront-page headlines in The Star Press that we covered on Feb. 9 and

that appeared in print Feb. 10:• Courts — ‘Mentally ill’ attacker gets no treatment — A Muncie

man who pleaded guilty — but mentally ill — in a 2005 attack on a fel-low Central High School student has received no treatment or counsel-ing of any kind during his more-than-four years in prison.

Travis A. Marlett was 17 when he used a homemade knife to cut the throat of a 16-year-old girl he found alone in a Central classroom on Sept. 26, 2005.

• Neighborhoods — Neighborhood council attendance on the rise — Attendance is growing at meetings of the Council of Neighborhoods, which is expanding through an initiative of the Muncie Action Plan.

• New job — Muncie Action Plan hires new part-time administrator — Larry Strange, who moved to Muncie from New Albany in 2008, will work 20 hours a week for the committee.

• Entertainment — Kids: Don’t Try This at Home — Sword swal-lower Dan Meyer was featured on the front pages of The Star Press. He was to do to a benefit performance at Emens Auditorium.

Other local headlines of the day:• Muncie man beats, headbutts 70-year-old mom for half an hour.• Schools will add days to end of the year.• No decision on Selma marshal’s future.

Sports headlines of the day:• BSU falters in second half; loses at BG. • Pacers climb to 8th.• ND tops Louisville for sixth-straight win.

Business headlines of the day:• GOPers grill Bernake over inflation.• Black Gold Rush: West’s shale oil could transform oil industry in U.S.• High sugar prices help U.S. farmers pay off debt.• Dow ekes out 8th-straight day of gains.

Weather: Statistics from Feb. 9High temperature: 15 (3 p.m.); Low temperature: 4 (1 a.m.)Low wind chill: -20; Precipitation: none

Social media — all dayWe posted and tweeted, too

A look at how Muncie residents were using Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, Feb. 9:

• The Ball State athletic department announced some recruiting news.

• A Muncie woman vented about her iTunes account getting hacked, and money from the account being miss-ing.

• Perhaps dreaming of warmer days while it was 10 degrees outside, one Muncie family posted photos from a summer vacation.

• One Muncie couple was

frustrated about weather-related home problems, such as possibily frozen water pipes.

• WLBC was promoting an on-air appearance by Congressman Mike Pence.

• A Ball State student posted he was excited about going home to see mom for the weekend.

• A Muncie mom gave a shout-out to her child for suc-cess in the school spelling bee.

• A Ball State student “hopes his Spanish class won’t be the death of him.”

• A man alerts other drivers to police watching for speeders on Ind. 67.

• A woman is contemplating starting a nonprofit animal shelter for dogs.

• A mom is happy her son got his license today.• A man works out while listening to GirlTalk.

— Tasha Caldwell

By DOUGLAS [email protected]

MUNCIE — A Muncieman who pleaded guilty —but mentally ill — in a 2005attack on a fellow Central HighSchool student has receivedno treatment or counseling ofany kind during his more-than-four years in prison.

Travis A. Marlett was 17when he used a homemadeknife to cut the throat of a 16-year-old girl he found alone ina Central classroom on Sept.26, 2005.

Investigators said the attack,while unprovoked, had beenplanned by Marlett.

By JOHN [email protected]

First you watch, then you wince.

“This is called the drop,” DanMeyer explained, before lift-ing the gleaming sword directly

above his upturned face, inserting itstip past his teeth and lowering it half-a-foot down his throat.

Then, he let go.Smooth as glass, the sword’s blade

disappeared all the way up to its hilt.From a few feet away it’s hard to

watch, and almost harder to believe,but it’s for real, another feat that thiscelebrated sword swallower has per-formed countless times now.

But that’s not to say sword swal-

lowing came effortlessly to the nativeHoosier, who recently moved toMuncie because he has family here.Meyer figures it took him fully 13,000tries before he successfully swallowedhis first sword in 2001.

“I worked on it myself, in my bath-room, 10 to 12 times a day, every day,for four years,” he admitted, adding itwas a couple years after that before hecould do it consistently.

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THURSDAYFebruary 10, 2011

Muncie, Indiana

INDEXBusiness 1C

Classifieds 3C

Comics 7C

Editorial 7A

Horoscope 4D

Life 1D

Obituaries 5A

Sports 1B

TV guide 4D

USA Today 8A

Weather 4D

Volume 111, No. 356, ©2011The Star Press, A Gannett newspaper

The Star Press is printed onpartially recycled newsprint

Page designerTaylor Etchison, 213-5848

Customer Service1-800-783-2472

GET IT ONLINEFollow us on Twitter,friend us on Facebookor read our RSS feed

‘Mentally ill’attacker getsno treatment

� Weed and Seed andMuncie Action Plan teamup to expand the Councilof Neighborhoods.

By SETH [email protected]

MUNCIE — Attendance isgrowing at meetings of theCouncil of Neighborhoods,which is expanding throughan initiative of the MuncieAction Plan (MAP).

Created by the city’s feder-ally funded Weed and Seedproject, the council attracted40 or so people to its meet-the-candidates night at thesouthside Ross CommunityCenter before the Novembergeneral election.

A month later, two dozenattended a meeting at FriendsMemorial Church (in the OldWest End) on code enforce-ment.

And lastmonth, nearly threedozen people showed up for ameeting at Ross to discussexpansion of the council intoa citywide group. Up untilnow, the council has repre-sented only inner-city neigh-borhoods, which have thehighest rates of drug-related

crimes and violence.“Essentially, this council is

the heart of the Weed andSeed effort, but it’s also theheart of the (entire) city, asneighborhood people bandtogether to take ownership ofthe city, ... and do all thosethings we talk about to make

Neighborhood councilattendance on the rise

By SETH [email protected]

M U N C I E— The MuncieAction Plan(MAP) steeringcommittee hashired a localp ro fe s s i ona lplanner to

become its part-time admin-istrator.

Larry Strange, who movedto Muncie from New Albanyin 2008, will work 20 hours aweek for the committee, saidco-chairman Virginia Nilles,who is director of the MunciePublic Library.

Muncie Action Plan hiresnew part-time administrator

� See STRANGE, 2A

� See COUNCIL, 2A

Strange

‘MAKE MUNCIE A BETTER PLACE’

Want to volunteer?The Muncie Action Plan is

expanding the Council of Neighbor-hoods to include all areas of thecity.

If you are interested in volun-teering as a neighborhood orga-nizer or block captain, visit www.muncieactionplan.com or call JimWingate at 287-3123.

Next meetingThe next meeting of the Coun-

cil of Neighborhoods will be at6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the MuncieBoys & Girls Club, 1710 S. MadisonSt. Ball State University criminaljustice faculty and students willpresent the results of a surveyof more than 600 residents ontopics including graffiti, vandal-ism, safety, noise, crime, drug useand their opinions of the policedepartment.

Proceeds from Friday’s event at Ball State will benefit the HighStreet United Methodist Church’s mission trip to Tanzania

Sword swallower plays his role to the hilt

THE SHOWWHAT: Swords for

AfricaWHO: Dan Meyer,

Rupert Boneham ofSurvivor and others.WHERE: Emens

AuditoriumWHEN: 7:11 p.m.

FridayTICKETS: $5

students, $10 adults,available at Emens boxoffice, Ticketmaster andTan U Very Much.INFORMATION: www.

swordsforafrica.com

THE MANWHO: Sword

swallower Dan MeyerQUOTE: (On using a

late performer’s sword)“I kind of feel bondedwith her now, that I’ve(mixed) her DNA withmine.”FACT: A graduate of

Indiana State University,he is also a musician,songwriter and diver.INFORMATION:

swordswallower.net/cuttingedgeinnertainment.com

KIDS: DON’T TRYTHIS AT HOME

� See SWORD, 2A

CHRIS BERGIN / THE STAR PRESS

SWORD SWALLOWER Dan Meyer performs for The Star Press on Jan. 26. He will appear on Friday at Emens.

ONLINE: Check out more amazingphotos and an exclusive video on our

website at thestarpress.com

� See MARLETT, 6A

� Travis Marlett hasn’t received counseling while inprison for cutting a classmate’s throat in 2005.

New bill: You’ll pay more for a marriage license — unless you take prep classes | 5A

WWW. T H E S TA R P R E S S . C OM

TOLL OF THE SNOW DAY: The extended school year couldaffect graduation at some schools, including Southside | 3A

Volume 111, No. 356, ©2011The Star Press, A Gannett newspaper

The Star Press is printed onpartially recycled newsprint

Page designerTaylor Etchison, 213-5848

Customer Service1-800-783-2472

GET IT ONLINEFollow us on Twitter,friend us on Facebookor read our RSS feed

M U N C I E— The MuncieAction Plan(MAP) steeringcommittee hashired a localp ro fe s s i ona lplanner to

Larry Strange, who movedto Muncie from New Albanyanyanin 2008, will work 20 hours aweek for the committee, saidco-chairman Virginia Nilles,who is director of the MunciePublic Library.ary.ary

� See STRANGE, 2AStrange

Indiana State University,he is also a musician,songwriter and diver.er.erINFORMATION:

swordswallower.net/cuttingedgeinnertainment.com

MU_MN_1ST_02-10_N_B_C_1_C

BUSINESSEAST CENTRAL INDIANA

Business editorKeith Roysdon, 213-5828

E-mail: [email protected] designer

Sam Gibbs, 213-5856


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High sugarprices helpU.S. farmerspay off debt� Weather disastersabroad send sugar costssoaring at home.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWORLEANS—A seriesof disasters in Australia’s sug-arcane region and foul weath-er in Brazil, India and Chinahave driven up world sugarprices, and many U.S. farm-ers are making enough to payoff loans and buy new equip-ment.But specialty candy lov-

ers will have a less happyValentine’s Day.Jaye Cuccia, owner of Evans

Creole Candy Factory Inc. inNew Orleans’ French Quarter,said she raised prices in lateNovember for the first time inabout eight years, from $14.95 to$18.90 for a box of 10 pralines.“I probably need to increase

my prices again,” said Cuccia,who uses 200 to 400 poundsof sugar a week. A year ago,a 50-pound bag cost $15 to $17;now, she’s paying $30 to $35.Small companies are most

quickly affected by priceincreases, said Susan Smith,spokeswoman for the NationalConfectioners Association.“The small companies buysmall amounts of sugar. Andthey buy that sugar frequently.”Prices at Laurel StreetBakery

haven’t goneupyet, “but it’s get-ting close,” said owner HillaryWoodbury, who runs a break-fast-and-lunch cafe and sellswholesale to other coffee shopsand restaurants. “Especiallysince there’s all sorts of rumorsthat flour’s going to go throughthe roof also.”Price increases for one

ingredient won’t usually forceher to boost hers, but two ata time is a different matter,she said.

� See SUGAR, 2C

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OIL SPRAYED OVER 15 acres downwind of a runaway oil well owned by Denver-based SM Energy Company is shownin this 2010 file photo. The well 12 miles east of Cheyenne, Wyo., is among the first drilled in a rush to tap theNiobrara Shale underlying Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Black gold rushWest’s shale oil could transform oil industry in U.S.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A new drilling technique isopening up vast fields of pre-viously out-of-reach oil in thewestern United States, helpingreverse a two-decade decline indomestic production of crude.Companies are investing

billions of dollars to get atoil deposits scattered acrossNorth Dakota, Colorado, Texasand California. By 2015, oilexecutives and analysts say,the new fields could yield asmuch as 2 million barrels of oila day — more than the entireGulf of Mexico produces now.This new drilling is expect-

ed to raise U.S. production byat least 20 percent over thenext five years. And within10 years, it could help reduce

oil imports by more than half,advancing a goal that has longeluded policymakers.“That’s a significant contri-

bution to energy security,” saysEdMorse, head of commoditiesresearch at Credit Suisse.Oil engineers are applying

what critics say is an environ-mentally questionable meth-od developed in recent yearsto tap natural gas trapped inunderground shale. They drilldown and horizontally into therock, then pump water, sandand chemicals into the hole tocrack the shale and allow gasto flow up.Because oil molecules are

sticky and larger than gasmolecules, engineers thoughtthe process wouldn’t work tosqueeze oil out fast enough to

make it economical. But drill-ers learned how to increasethe number of cracks in therock and use different chemi-cals to free up oil at low cost.“We’ve completely trans-

formed the natural gas indus-try, and I wouldn’t be surprisedif we transform the oil businessin the next few years too,” saysAubreyMcClendon, chief exec-utive of Chesapeake Energy,which is using the technique.Petroleum engineers first

used the method in 2007 tounlockoilfroma25,000-square-mile formation under NorthDakota and Montana known asthe Bakken. Production thererose 50 percent in just the pastyear, to 458,000 barrels a day,

� See OIL, 2C

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

OIL PER BARREL

$86.71▲

INSIDE | 3C

ENERGY

GOPers grillBernankeover inflation


WASHINGTON —Members of Congress sharplyquestioned Federal ReserveChairman Ben BernankeWednesday over whether theFed’s policies are raising therisk of higher inflation in themonths ahead.House Budget Committee

Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,said he is concerned that theFed won’t be able to detectinflation until “the cow is outof the barn” and inflation isalready spreading dangerous-ly through the economy.Bernanke acknowledged

that inflation is surging inemerging economies. But hedownplayed the risks to theU.S. economy, even as law-makers expressed concernsabout rising gasoline and foodprices.Inflation in theUnitedStates

remains “quite low,” Bernankesaid. He blamed higher priceson strong demand from fast-growing countries such asChina — not the Fed’s poli-cies to stimulate the economy,including buying $600 billionworth of Treasury debt.Bernanke’s remarks sug-

gest the Fed will stick withthe bond-buying plan throughJune, as scheduled. The pro-gram is aimed at invigorat-ing the economy by loweringrates on loans and boostingprices on stocks.It was Bernanke’s first

appearance before the Housesince Republicans took con-trol last month. He facedtough questions from them,despite being a member ofthe party.Ryan worries that the Fed’s

stimulus policies, includingthe debt purchases, could trig-ger inflation or fuel specula-tive buying of stocks or otherassets.“Many of us fear monetary

policy is on a difficult track,”Ryan said.

� Fed chair downplaysrisks to U.S. economy.

� See FED, 2C

By JOHN [email protected]

First you watch, then you wince.

“This is called the drop,” DanMeyer explained, beforbeforbef e lift-lift-lifing the gleaming sword directly

above his upturned face, inserting itstip past his teeth and lowering it half-a-half-a-halffoot down his throat.

Then, he let go.Smooth as glass, the sword’s blade

disappeared all the waywaywa up to its hilt.From a few feet away it’s hard to

watch, and almost harder to believe,but it’s for real, another feat that thiscelebrated sword swallower has per-formed countless times now.

But that’s not to saysaysa sword swal-

lowing came effoeffoef rtlessly to the nativeHoosier, who recently moved toMuncie because he has family here.Meyer figures it took him fully 13,000tries beforbeforbef e he successfully swallowehis first sword in 2001.

“I worked on it myself,self,self in my bath-room, 10 to 12 times a day,day,da every dafor four years,” he admitted, addingwas a couple years afteafteaf r that beforbeforbef e hecould do it consistently.

INDEXBusiness 1C

Classifieds 3C

Comics 7C

Editorial 7A

Horoscopeoscope 4D

Life 1D

Obituaries 5A

SportsSports 1B

TV guideguide 4D

USA Today 8y 8A

Weather 4D

ProcProcPr eeds fromfromfr FridaFridaFr y’sy’sy’ event at Ball StatStatSt e will benefit the HighStreet United Methodist ChurchChurchChur ’s mission trip to Tanzanianzanianz

� See SWORD, 2A

ONLINE: Check out more amazingphotos and an exclusive video on our

website at thestarpress.com

By MIKE WELLS

[email protected]

INDIANAPOLIS — The IndianaPacers did their best to fall furtherbehind in the race for the final playoffspot in the Eastern Conference.

They had the ball stripped from them.They threw errant passes. They eventurned the ball over trying to get it inbounds for the second straight game.

All in the fourth quarter.When it was all said and done, though,

the Charlotte Bobcats were the ones cry-ing foul when the final horn sounded.

The Pacers escaped with a narrow104-103 victory over the Bobcats atConseco Fieldhouse on Wednesday.

“Man, we’ll just take this one andrun with it,” said Pacers forward DannyGranger, who had 25 points. “We definite-ly showed characteristics of a young team.We have to learn how to finish. We haveto execute better down the stretch.”

Pacers point guard Darren Collisonmissed a runner in the lane that wouldhave put the Pacers up three with 7.9seconds left in the game.

Rather than use one of their remainingtimeouts, theBobcats raced theball up thecourtwhereformerPacerStephenJacksontried to draw contact with Collison on his32-foot heave as time expired.

The officials didn’t call a foul, whichcaused many of the Bobcats, includingcoach Paul Silas to stay on the courtand question the no-call.

“The referee had the right to makea call,” Silas said. “It’s a judgment call.He said it wasn’t a foul so you have togo with it.”

And Collison?“I don’t feel like I fouled him,” he

said. “Whatever happened, happened.”Jackson led the Bobcats with 27

points.The Pacers are taking the win and

not looking back because it could endup having playoff implications.

The win gave them the tiebreakerover the Bobcats and moved them a fullgame ahead of Charlotte for the final

playoff spot in the East.The Pacers, who host the Minnesota

Timberwolves on Friday, are only a gamebehind Philadelphia for the seventh seed.

“Without a doubt this was a hugegame for us,” Collison said. “We talkedabout it before the game because weknow a game like this could come inhandy at the end of the season.”

Center Roy Hibbert continued his

re-emergence by tying his career highwith 29 points to go with 10 reboundsand two blocks.

Hibbert’s performance almostbecame an afterthought because of thePacers’ carelessness with the ball in thefinal quarter.

The scrappy Bobcats, led by Jacksonand Gerald Wallace, forced the Pacersinto six turnovers in the final quarter.

SPORTSMU_MN_1ST_02-10_N_B_B_1_C

InsideWoodsfeelingpositivegoing intoDubai4B

Sports editor: Greg Fallon, 213-5876E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: (800) 783-7737Page designer

Sam Gibbs, 213-5856


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TODAY’S POLL QUESTIONQ: Do you think the Pacers have turned

things around and will make the playoffs?

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTSQ: NASCAR season starts in a week and a half. Do you care?

No 64.2% | Yes 35.8%

@THESTARPRESS.COMCheck out Jesse Temple’s blog on JamieDrummer online.

Results as of10:45 p.m.

Total votes: 240

KURT HOSTETLER / THE STAR PRESS

WES-DEL’S Chris Shipley battles with Zack Meeks(left) and Jake Greenberg of Delta during theirgame January 21.

INDIANA 104 | CHARLOTTE 103 HOOPSFAB5Each week, The Star Press sports writer Jesse

Temple will rank the top five boys basketballteams in East Central Indiana. Send comments tohim at [email protected]. Record andlast week’s rankings are in parentheses.1. WINCHESTER (14-2) (3)

The Golden Falcons haven’t lost a game in2011, and that’s good enough to boost them intothe top spot of this week’s Fab Five, as other ECIteams have faltered. Winchester defeated Tri89-46 on Jan. 28 and then took care of MonroeCentral 65-52 on Tuesday. With the victory, theGolden Falcons now have won eight consecu-tive games dating back to the Randolph CountyTournament. Brandt Miller led Winchester with 26points against Monroe Central, while Cody Wood-bury had 13 points and Conner Detweiler nine.The Golden Falcons’ eight-game winning streak isthe longest since the 2008-09 season, when Win-chester won 17 straight on the way to semistate.Winchester plays host to Cambridge City Lincoln(2-12) at 7:30 p.m. today.2. NEW CASTLE (12-3) (1)

New Castle falls one spot after losing to Class3A No. 10 Rushville 53-51 in overtime on Jan. 29.The Trojans led the Lions by four points enteringthe fourth quarter but couldn’t close the deal.New Castle responding by defeating Marion 78-65on Monday, the Trojans’ highest point total in agame since November. Steven Bennett led theTrojans with 22 points against the Giants — oneof four New Castle players to score in doublefigures. Jordan Hahn had 15 points, Caleb Jack-son 14 and Jordan Richardson 10. New Castle willbe tested heavily this week, as it travels to faceRichmond (12-4) at 7:30 p.m. today in a NorthCentral Conference clash. The Trojans play hostto Pendleton Heights (14-2) on Tuesday.3. CENTRAL (10-6) (2)

Since beginning the season 2-3, the Bearcatshave gone 8-3 and appear to have everything inline for making a run in the Class 4A New CastleSectional come March. Central dropped a gamethat perhaps it shouldn’t have on Jan. 28, whenthe Bearcats lost 68-62 at Huntington North.But Central also defeated Logansport 53-48 lastFriday to avoid a losing streak. In that game,Bearcats forward Nick Osborne tallied 24 pointsand 14 rebounds, Mark White had 13 points andAdam Botts 12. Botts is beginning to pick up hisscoring pace. He’s reached double figures in eachof the last three games, averaging 16.3 points percontest during that span. Central plays host toAnderson (3-12) at 7:30 p.m. today and travels toPendleton Heights (14-2) on Saturday.4. BLUE RIVER (12-4) (4)

If things go as the Vikings anticipate in thenext few weeks, then Blue River should finishwith its best regular season record in four years.

� See FAB FIVE, 2B

ND tops Louisville for sixth-straight win


SOUTH BEND — BenHansbrough scored 25 pointsand Carleton Scott had nineof his 16 points in overtimeWednesday night to lead No.8 Notre Dame to an 89-79 winover No. 16 Louisville.

Tim Abromaitis added 23points for the Fighting Irish(20-4, 9-3 Big East), whoextended their overall win

streak to six games and theirhome streak to 17.

This was the fifth overtimegame in the last nine meet-ings between the two teams.Louisville beat the Irish at homelast year in double-overtime.

Kyle Kuric scored a career-high 28 points and TerrenceJennings added 14 forLouisville (18-6, 7-4) beforefouling out in overtime.

Preston Knowles, theCardinals’ leading scorer at14.9 points a game, returnedto the starting lineup aftermissing a home win overDePaul on Feb. 5. and finished

with 13 points.Notre Dame scored the first

14 points of overtime afterScott hit a 3-pointer to startthe extra period. Scott addeda three-point play to put theIrish up by eight with 3:12 left.

Scott then grabbed an offen-sive rebound and dunked theputback, and Ben Hansbroughdrove the lane for a layupwith 1:06 left to push the Irishlead to 14.

In the final minute of regu-lation, Knowles missed a 3-point attemptandHansbroughknocked the rebound out ofbounds with 25.6 seconds left.

Louisville had a chance to winit, but Knowles missed againfrom long range to send thegame to overtime.

Kuric vaulted over ScottMartin near the end of thefirst half and dunked witheight-tenths of a second toplay. Martin was whistledfor a foul, but Kuric pickedup a technical on the play.Abromaitis hit both freethrows and Kuric hit his aswell to give the Cardinals a44-40 halftime lead.

Jack Cooley provided a liftoff the bench in the first halffor the Irish with 10 points.

� No. 8 Irish down No. 16Cardinals 89-79, extendwin streak to six.

By THOMAS ST. [email protected]

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio— Ball State guard Jesse Berryinexplicably slipped and fell outof bounds as he tried to cut leftalong the baseline.

Just 90 seconds later, JarrodJones grabbed an offensiverebound and from point-blank

range missed an uncontestedputback.

Those two plays summed upthe night for the Cardinals, andyet they trailed by just threepoints with the ball in theirhands in the waning seconds.Ultimately, though, a mental mis-take cost the Cardinals any shotat a victory as Bowling Greenheld on to beat Ball State 65-64in a Mid-American Conferencecross-divisionalgameWednesdaynight in Anderson Arena.

Ball State (14-9, 6-4MACWest)cut the deficit to four with 5.7

seconds left whenJones stepped tothe free-throw line.The junior forwardsank the first topull the Cardinalswithin one. Hethen missed thesecond and Randy

Davis grabbed the tipped ball.Davis started to dribble out tothe 3-point line but then sudden-ly stopped and pulled up fromabout 16 feet out. He missed thejumper and Malik Perry grabbedanother offensive rebound and

scored a meaningless basket astime expired.

“We’ve got to have time andscore recognition,” Ball Statecoach Billy Taylor said. “… WhenRandy started to dribble it outI thought he was going for 3. Ithought we had recognition of itand knew we weren’t going to getmany opportunities. I was hop-ing he would get it out and geta 3 or at least reverse it aroundand we would’ve at least had achance to tie it.”

Instead the Cardinals fell apoint short as Bowling Green (12-

12, 7-3 MAC East) withstood theirinitial surge and led for the final25:47 of the game.

“Our defense made a differ-ence,” Bowling Green coachLouis Orr said. “We kept themoff balance and disrupted themjust enough and made enoughplays at the end to win. It was abig win for us.”

Ball State sank its first sixshots and led 15-6 five minutesinto the game. But the Cardinalsproceeded to miss their next nine

BSU falters in second half, loses at BG� Short misses doomCardinals in one-point lossto Falcons, 65-64.

Jones

� See BSU, 2B

Pacers climb to 8th


PACERS CENTER Roy Hibbert shoots in front of Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson in the secondhalf Wednesday.

MU_MN_4TH_03-20_N_B_G_20_C


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