"A World of Difference"

The fourth annual "A World of Difference: an International Parade & Taste the Difference" begins at 10 a.m. Saturday (27 August) in Indy's international marketplace, the Lafayette Square Area.

The event includes a parade, informational fair, restaurant taste event and performances. More than 40 various cultural organizations will be participating in the event.

Marian University Honors Michael A. Evans

The first new medical school in Indiana in over a century will be named for Michael A. Evans, Marian University announced today. In 2010, Dr. Evans made a gift and pledge of $48 million to Marian to kick off the creation of the school.

Evans (pictured) is a former Army Ranger who overcame lift-threatening injuries suffered in Vietnam to become a noted scientist. In 1990, he founded AIT Laboratories, where he remains president and CEO. Evans has a doctorate in toxicology from the Indiana University School of Medicine, a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Toxicology Center at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and numerous fellowships and grants from the National Institute of Health and the World Health Organization.

Marian University will name the new building on campus housing the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the School of Nursing in his honor. The Michael A. Evans Center for Health Sciences, set to open in the fall of 2013, is being designed by Indianapolis architects Schmidt and Associates and BSA LifeStructures.

"Super" for Whom?

"It is simply unconscionable to be spending tens of millions of dollars to put on a party for the nation's richest people while the common people are sinking by the day under the pressure of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," notes Advance Indiana.

This Indianapolis Observer agrees. $1 million or more of Indy tax dollars to provide heated pavement and sidewalks for Georgia Street? Outdoor concerts? Sidewalk cafés? In February?

Did You Know Indy Has "Catalog Houses"?

"Some Assembly Required" is a day of lectures by experts and tour of mail-order and pattern book homes in Indy taking place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1 October in the Parish Center of Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church, 5333 East Washington Street, Indianapolis.

The lectures cover a variety of catalog and pattern book home manufacturers, including Sears Roebuck, Gustav Stickley, Lustron and the Architectural Guild of Indianapolis. Topics include Paul Diebold’s overview of catalog and pattern book houses, with clues to identification. Diebold is an architectural historian and author of Greater Irvington.

The tour goes inside three homes:

• Brian and Emily Mack, 59 North Hawthorne Lane -- a 1906 pattern book house from Gustav Stickley’s magazine The Craftsman

• Patrick Irby, 310 North Ridgeview Drive -- “The Osborn” model sold by Sears Roebuck

• William Gulde, 269 South Audubon Road -- a restored early 20th Century home featuring Craftsman details such as an inglenook and fieldstone porch.

It's sponsored by Indiana Landmarks and Sherwin-Williams; the cost of $45 per person includes lunch and the tour. To make a reservation, call 317:639-4534 or 800:450-4534, or email Suzanne Stanis, Indiana Landmarks’ Director of Heritage Education.

"The Easy Stories"

In most businesses there's the tendency to go for the low-hanging fruit instead of the hard stuff.

The Indianapolis Star is still covering the State Fair tragedy as front-page news instead of spending investigative resources on the stories that have more far-reaching consequence for many, many more central Indiana residents.

Advance Indiana, for example, spotlights this one: "At Monday night's council meeting, [Ryan] Vaughn [City-County Council President] announced that the council will no longer permit public comment on council appointees because he claimed people who voluntarily served on city boards and commissions were becoming difficult to find because of scrutiny they were receiving from some community activists."

The City-Council "will no longer permit public comment on council appointees"? Wait a minute! What?

Indy's Fav

Of course, we all know that Peyton Manning is the most popular male athlete, but it's nice that others say so, too.

The latest? The 15-28 August 20011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek says, "The Indianapolis Colts QB is the most popular athlete in the U.S. His trick, other than wining games: Making fun of his jock/doofus persona, à la his commercials for Sony."

(Photo courtesy of PeytonManning.com)

State Fair Closed Today

After last night's tragedy, investigators are combing the area of the Indiana State Fairgrounds where a wind coming before a thunderstorm knocked over a stage setup.

Five people died and at least 40 more were injured around 9 p.m. yesterday.

The fair is closed today, but is expected to reopen tomorrow.